Least Favorite Aspect of Every Godzilla Film

[Irish Gfan]

I'll do the more positive version of the thread later, but I thought it'd be fun to be nitpicky and state the aspect of each Godzilla film I dislike the most.

Godzilla (1954)

Hard for me to say as to me, this is a perfect film for the time period it was made in. It is brilliant. What can I say is wrong with it? Well I am going to REEEEEALLY stretch with this and say some of Emiko's reactions were a bit excessive. Yes, that is all I have.

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Basically, my biggest gripe with this movie is its overall presentation and tone. It has none of the factors (dark tone, sense of terror, horrifying situations) that made the first movie so great while offering nothing new or entertaining in its own right. Yeah, they introduced an opponent for Godzilla, but the fights themselves are unimpressive and Anguiras dies half way through anyway.

King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962)

The Kong suit looks horrible, even for by the standards of back then. I mean this is KING KONG, one of the most iconic movie monsters of all time and THAT is the best they could muster up for his big showdown with Godzilla? Wow.

Mothra Vs. Godzilla (1964)

This is another hard one to pick as this one is also a major highlight of the series. If I had to nit pick something, I thought the fight between Godzilla and the adult Mothra was a bit one sided. It felt like Mothra just kicked his butt and then got hit once with the fire breath and died. I would have liked for the fight between Toho's most famous monsters to be a bit more competitive.

Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster (1964)

Why does Godzilla's fire breath look so clear and barely visible in the day time scenes? It almost feels like they forgot to edit in the effects in post.

Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965)

Godzilla's victory dance. Just.....what was that?!?!? lol. The series is weird enough as it is!

Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (1966)

After fighting Mothra, Rodan, & a three headed golden dragon that shoots lightning (once in space), stepping down to fight a giant lobster feels like a step down and almost too easy for Godzilla.

Son of Godzilla (1967)

So what was up with the radio? Was it working? Was it not working? Were they lying about it not working? I was confused by that little plot point. Maybe it is a bit more clear in the Japanese version (which I have never seen).

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Simply put, I would have liked for Baragon & Varan to be given big moments. Every other monster got at least one standout scene, but they were basically reduced to cameos. It would have been nice to see them do., you know, anything.

Godzilla's Revenge (1969)

I think a better question would be what is there to like about this movie? What did I dislike most? The ludicrous premise, the over usage of stock footage, the annoying kid, the fact that Minilla talks.....yeah I think I'll go with that last one.

Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster (1971)

The cartoon segments. I appreciate this movie for being as weird as it is, but those segments are a little distracting and don't really add anything.

Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972)

Low production values, plain and simple. Took much stock footage and a Godzilla suit that is literally falling to pieces.

Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973)

In some ways, this movie commits the same sins as its predecessor (Gigan is in this movie basically for the sole purpose of using stock footage). And there are tons of other problems with it as well (Jet Jaguar sucks, Megalon is dumb as hell, story & characters are boring yada yada yada). But what bugged me the most? The music. This might be the worst OST to any Godzilla film (Revenge comes close). It is just earsplittingly awful. (though I do like the Jet Jaguar song, lol).

Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

Yeah.....King Ceasar sucks. All that build up for a giant poodle that ultimately does very little?

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1875)

As interesting as the villains are (A mad scientist and his cyborg daughter working with aliens?!?! That's awesome!) the heroic interpol agents are about as bland as any character be. I guess when Godzilla is the hero of the picture, you don't have to try as hard with the others. But heck, as silly as they were, I at least remember the Scooby Doo gang from Godzilla Vs. Gigan. I can barely tells these servings of dull apart.

The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Aside from numerous problems with the US Version, what I really didn't understand was the scene where the helicopter came to pick up the main characters. I guess chivalry is dead. Anybody ever hear of ladies first?

Godzilla Vs. Biollante (1989)

While I enjoy this movie tremendously, it could do with a little simplifying. So we have Godzilla fighting a mutated haunted rosebush with his DNA that was made by a Doctor who also devises ANB to stop Godzilla while also under threats of terrorism from a secret agent/assassin and a ground known as Bio Major while the military helps out with Super XII, an artificial thunder maker, & even a psychic.! That is ALOT of stuff to follow.

Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Emi Kano has got to be the dumbest character in any Godzilla movie (and that includes the dumb drunk from Godzilla 85!). She helps her fellow futurians to create King Ghidorah (even having a direct hand in the process) and is then pissed off when they use him to destroy Japan? Well what on Earth did you think was going to happen sweetheart???

Godzilla & Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)

What was up with the bad dad Indiana Jones stuff? Yeah could have done without that.

Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (1993)

How did a geeky pterodactyl enthusiast get selected to be a part of G-Force anyway? I mean yeah, he designed Garuda, but what good does it do to train him as a pilot/fighter? Shouldn't he be sitting at the base with the other scientists?

Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla (1994)

There are a handful of problems with this one, but the biggest can be summed up in two words: MALE NUDITY. There have been some cute actresses in Godzilla movies, offering not so much as a tiny hint of cleavage or a short skirt. That is fine. I respect that, but why do you turn around and give me a man's bare ass instead???

Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah (1995)

I wish Godzilla would have killed Destoroyah. I guess it is cool that the JSDF was able to FINALLY get a kill on these things after all these years, but come on! Its Godzilla's death movie, let him get the last kaiju kill!

Godzilla 2000 (1999)

I know they didn't want Godzilla to be the bad guy in this movie, but the way they skirted around him not killing anybody was pretty absurd. Instead of attacking the military, he just stands there and takes it and then at the start of the movie, the way the people escape death is just laughable.

Godzilla X Megaguiras (2000)

The movie literally fades to black on a joke, and a really bad one at that. Come on! This is Godzilla! We should be seeing something grand to end on like a monster death, a city on fire, or Godzilla exiting. SOMETHING!!!!

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (2001)

Going to be blunt here, Tachibana needed to die. He needed to give his life saving Japan from Godzilla in a selfless act of heroism, sort of like Dr. Serasawa did. And the fact that he somehow survived the ordeal is actually pretty silly. I mean he steered the sub into Godzilla's mouth and blew a hole in his chest, which then had the radioactive fire shoot out of the cavity. How did that not destroy Tachibana's sub? I don't know, I felt it would have been a stronger, yet albeit more bittersweet for the other characters, if Tachibana had died.

Godzilla X Mechagodzilla (2002)

The human characters were boring this time around. Like intensely boring.

Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003)

Basically, it didn't cover any new ground beyond putting Mechagodzilla & Mothra in the same movie for the first time. It looks great and is a very underrated entry, but at the same time, after it was over, I didn't feel like I had seen anything that isn't in other Godzilla films.

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

They tried to cram too much unto this. I could have done without all the kung fu fighting, and all the references to X-Men, The Matrix, & Star Wars, and that Minya siubplot was the most pointless thing ever. At the end of the day, we are here for the monsters and I would have liked to see them do more rather than focus so much on so many other things. Instead of having all the crap with Minilla, why not have Mothra be the one to mediate and bring peace between Godzilla & the humans because as is, Mothra felt pretty pointless. They worked her into the final battle, so why not have her survive and take that role? And what was up with the whole mutant ancestry thing? What the hell did Gigan breed with to eventually lead to the humanoid mutants? You know what, I don't want to know. All the time they spent on extraneous stuff I would have rather seen go to the monsters. Like Hedorah. How does one of Godzilla's most powerful enemies get reduced to a 10 second cameo? I could go on and on, but like I said, they did too much in a movie where they were already trying to utilize over 10 monsters.

So yeah, those are my picks. What are yours?

[Gwangi]

I do not want to lament on all of the movies just a few (and I’m leaving out Heisei all together, because picking faults there would be like trying to write a novel!)

Godzilla (1954)

Shinkichi. His character was a rather odd one. And was he related to the Yamane’s? Plus, I didn’t think much of the actor who played him anyway. I could easily understand why the makers of GKOTM cut several of his scenes.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Yes, the Kong suit

Son of Godzilla (1967)

The Godzilla suit

Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

A movie in which the people scenes were much more interesting that monster ones. Plus the fact, I was never big on Gigan.

And I strongly disagree with that “Godzilla’s Revengeâ€

[MekaGojira3k]

Neat, I plan on doing a run-through of all of the Godzilla film shortly, so I'll add to this as I go along.

Though it'll be difficult for some films (Godzilla (1954), Mothra vs. Godzilla, and Monster Zero in particular)

[eabaker]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

[king_ghidorah]

Final Wars

The bit where there's things happening on screen

[metal_bryan]

[jellydonut25]

[king_ghidorah]

[Benjamin Haines]

Stock footage is my least favorite aspect of every entry in the series where it's integrated like new footage and not a flashback. Most of the time I find it annoying but tolerable because it's usually coupled with a good amount of new footage, but the use of wholesale stock footage for most of the monster action scenes in Godzilla's Revenge really ruin that film for me. It would probably be one of my favorites in the series if it weren't for that.

For years I've read the claim that Revenge is set in the 'real' world and Ichiro knows the monsters from having watched the movies and I don't buy it. It sounds like a fan theory out of G-Fan magazine that's snowballed through the internet. I think if Honda, Sekizawa, Tanaka et al. intended that, there would have been some explicit reference to Godzilla movies in the film itself. A movie poster, an ad for the Champion Matsuri Festival, a line by Ichiro about his favorite movie, anything. It just seems to me like Ichiro is no different than Ken Yano in Godzilla vs. Hedorah; he's a child who is fascinated by the monsters that inhabit the world he lives in. I think the overuse of stock footage was simply an example of the film's low budget, not some meta indication of the story's setting.

[metal_bryan]

[Rodanex]

[jellydonut25]

[Rodanex]

[jellydonut25]

[metal_bryan]

Yeah, I can go back and pick another one of the multitude of things I dislike about the movie if the one I chose is a problem for you.

[Rodanex]

[eabaker]

[jellydonut25]

[eabaker]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Psycho Soldier]