TALKBACK #19: Godzilla and Mothra, The Battle for Earth

[MekaGojira3k]

*crotch punches all of you while crying*

[metal_bryan]

[Thomas]

Your reactions to being crotch punched is very different from what mine would be. :puke:

[MekaGojira3k]

Your reactions to being crotch punched is very different from what mine would be. :puke:

It doesn't hurt over the internet. As much.

[jellydonut25]

certainly can't hurt as much as suffering through this film.

[MekaGojira3k]

certainly can't hurt as much as suffering through this film.

lolz.

[mbozzo]

Godzilla Versus Mothra is a good movie with a message about how we should take care of the Earth. Battra look badass in this movie. I can't post enough about this movie.

[MekaGojira3k]

The message and how poorly it is handled is precisely why it ISN'T a good movie.

[The Real McCoy]

Yeah, I'm going to have to say the same. The environmentalist message is really crammed down our throats to the point that some of the lines just sound incredibly cheesy and completely out of place.

[jellydonut25]

Yeah, I'm going to have to say the same. The environmentalist message is really crammed down our throats to the point that some of the lines just sound incredibly cheesy and completely out of place.

and not to mention...well, you kind of mentioned it...they are entirely out of place BECAUSE almost every single thing that is pointed out as "manking ruining the planet" can be traced back to the meteor...so apparently, it's humanity's fault that a meteor strikes the ocean...

[The Real McCoy]

Ha! I completely forgot about the meteor striking the Earth. It's almost like a quarter of the way into the movie they thought "Well, the meteor thing was dumb, so we'll blame everything on humans to make the movie work better.).

What a dumb movie.

[jellydonut25]

What a dumb movie.

<sigh> i'm gonna be watching it soon, too...

[The Real McCoy]

I popped it in a couple of weeks ago just for shitsandgiggles. I watched the Japanese language version and I dare say that it is as bad as the English version. At least the dub can (for some) make you chuckle every once in a while, but hearing the characters speak the lines in their native language is EVEN STUPIDER.

[MekaGojira3k]

Maybe mankind is being punished for not preventing meteor impacts.

[The Real McCoy]

It's kind of funny; after the whole thing is over and Mothra is leaving, they find out she's going to space to stop a meteor that Battra was supposed to be doing (if he weren't dead). Where the hell was he when the first one hit???

Yeah, I know he was sleeping, but why would he wake up for the other one and not that one???

[MekaGojira3k]

It's kind of funny; after the whole thing is over and Mothra is leaving, they find out she's going to space to stop a meteor that Battra was supposed to be doing (if he weren't dead). Where the hell was he when the first one hit???

Yeah, I know he was sleeping, but why would he wake up for the other one and not that one???

He just overslept and was only angry because he wanted somebody to blame.

[metal_bryan]

It's kind of funny; after the whole thing is over and Mothra is leaving, they find out she's going to space to stop a meteor that Battra was supposed to be doing (if he weren't dead). Where the hell was he when the first one hit???

Yeah, I know he was sleeping, but why would he wake up for the other one and not that one???

He just overslept and was only angry because he wanted somebody to blame.

NEWMAN!

[jellydonut25]

I could spend pages espousing my hatred for this film...but instead, I'll just paraphrase This is Spinal Tap.

Godzilla vs. Mothra?
More like sh*t sandwich.

[rogerhartfell]

If I were to say anything at all positive about this film, I'd say that it possibly has the single most effective SFX sequence in the entirety of the post-Biollante Heisei era.

Before you call me crazy, the scene I'm referring to is the underwater fight between Godzilla and the larval Battra, which is one of the few underwater Toho special effects sequences to my memory which, astonishingly, doesn't look as though it were filmed on an obviously dry soundstage (or done entirely in CG). It's dark enough to not look like a set, the screen is constantly awash with hundreds of bubbles, and the copious amounts of smoke and fog for once look absolutely right, just like the explosions of millions of tiny bubbles, as intended. When Godzilla swings Battra around by his tail, the bubbles even shift and swirl tremendously in the opposite direction, and then back again when he slams into the ground, as though the water really were being stirred up by an enormous force passing through or near to it. It's a lovely little detail which is so often overlooked in other films, and it sells the entire thing. It's gorgeous.

And yet, this is the same film which features FX like the shot of smoke and dirt shooting out of the ground as Battra tunnels his way into Nagoya like Bugs Bunny, where the matted-on buildings are semi-transparent and you can see the nozzle of the smoke machine through them. Go figure.

[MekaGojira3k]

Yeah, I guess that scene does look pretty decent. Though, like most of Godzilla vs. Mothra, I tend to forget what little good I see.

[jellydonut25]

And yet, this is the same film which features FX like the shot of smoke and dirt shooting out of the ground as Battra tunnels his way into Nagoya like Bugs Bunny, where the matted-on buildings are semi-transparent and you can see the nozzle of the smoke machine through them. Go figure.

Typical 90s-era laziness.
Leads me to my belief that whatever they got right was basically done by accident.

[H-Man]

Count me in as another admirer of the Godzilla and Battra battle. My favorite scene, however, is Godzilla's exit from Mt. Fuji. Great set, great lighting, terrific effects, great score... it really puts the similar scene from BIOLLANTE to shame. Both the volcano and the Battra fight use the 1991 Godzilla costume, which is a big plus.

[MekaGojira3k]

Leads me to my belief that whatever they got right was basically done by accident.

That belief is probably fact.

[H-Man]

So after watching this movie a couple of times in the past year or two, I've grown to like it. I think it's fun (an opinion for which I'll be slammed) and more entertaining than nearly every Godzilla film that followed.

[jellydonut25]

(an opinion for which I'll be slammed)

eh, i revile the 90s films so much, that if a person finds one or another more or less entertaining, i just roll with it...the films from vs.Mothra through vs.Destoroyah occupy equivalent levels of contempt for me.