TALKBACK #14: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 8:51 pm
Here we are, the 20th Anniversary film: a bigger budget than the previous few films which accomidates spiffier FX and nicer location footage, the return of veteran series actors Akihiko Hirata Hiroshi Koizumi, and Jun Fukuda displaying the flare that hasn't shown through since Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla.
...and we have a special villian, that sci-fi standard: the evil extrapolation of the hero! Superman has Bizarro, Doctor Who has The Master, Darkwing Duck has Negaduck (yeah, I went there) and Godzilla has Mechagodzilla.
Watching Sony's DVD, great picture quality. We really felt like we were getting great treatment when these were first released, having made do with dubs only for so long. The subs on this DVD are dubtitles, merely the script from the dub used, which usually isn't that bad because the international dubs of these films are straightforward translations of the original dialog, but occasionally they make a mistake and thus the subs make a mistake (the GMK DVD). There is one horrible little mistake that the subtitler made on this DVD: when Hirata mentions the substance that his tech-y pipe is made out of the subtitle reads (of this word begining with "a"): "A???" Obviously he meant to go back and figure out what this word was, but it passed through.
I love this movie. I think Son may be Fukuda's best G film overall, but this one is the most entertaining. It's a fast paced collection of monster scenes, human fights, monster fights, human chases, more monster fights. The plot is outlandish but fairly tight and it zips along wonderfully.
Despite the standard alien invasion plot and Godzilla status as Earth's defender the more straightforward and serious (if outlandish) nature of this one really harkens back to the earlier films. A great one for the anniversary IMO.
...and we have a special villian, that sci-fi standard: the evil extrapolation of the hero! Superman has Bizarro, Doctor Who has The Master, Darkwing Duck has Negaduck (yeah, I went there) and Godzilla has Mechagodzilla.
Watching Sony's DVD, great picture quality. We really felt like we were getting great treatment when these were first released, having made do with dubs only for so long. The subs on this DVD are dubtitles, merely the script from the dub used, which usually isn't that bad because the international dubs of these films are straightforward translations of the original dialog, but occasionally they make a mistake and thus the subs make a mistake (the GMK DVD). There is one horrible little mistake that the subtitler made on this DVD: when Hirata mentions the substance that his tech-y pipe is made out of the subtitle reads (of this word begining with "a"): "A???" Obviously he meant to go back and figure out what this word was, but it passed through.
I love this movie. I think Son may be Fukuda's best G film overall, but this one is the most entertaining. It's a fast paced collection of monster scenes, human fights, monster fights, human chases, more monster fights. The plot is outlandish but fairly tight and it zips along wonderfully.
Despite the standard alien invasion plot and Godzilla status as Earth's defender the more straightforward and serious (if outlandish) nature of this one really harkens back to the earlier films. A great one for the anniversary IMO.