by Giganfan » Sun Apr 02, 2006 6:56 pm
I find the effects in Godzilla vs. The Thing to be spectacular. Especially for the time in which they were done. The thing that I really admire about the work of Tsuburaya is that it was never just one method that he was dealing with, when creating effects. For instance, when Godzilla and Mothra are grappling up-close, Tsuburaya used puppets instead of the suit and the Mothra prop. Why? Because, as is the case in similar scenes staged by Koichi Kawakita and Eichi Asada, it just looks dull when you look at a guy in a monster suit grappling with a prop hanging from wires. Sure, the puppets aren't true to life, but they keep up the tempo of the battle. The ferocity with which these two beasts are battling is really eccentuated in this way. The same can be said of Godzilla and Rodan's fight in Ghidrah The Three Headed Monster. Puppetry adds extra drama, mattes create a sense of scale, miniatures enable the artist to actually destroy an entire city and 'suitmation' gives the audience the opportunity to see what a real monster looks like. Throw some stellar camera work in there, and you have something that can really affect an audience, to one degree or another, depending on personal preferences. This is just how I see it though. I don't expect to convert anyone that doesn't agree with me, but I, for one, have an enormous amount of respect for Tsuburaya and his crew. They put there hearts into what they did, they experimented with what they had and the result is a genre of films that was stylish, unique and completely unlike anything else that was being done at the time. I can live with unconvincing puppetry, uneven matte shots or props that aren't up to snuff with reality. To my liking, of all the things that have been done over the years in the science fiction and fantasy genre, PRACTICALLY NOTHING possesses even HALF of the imagination that Tanaka, Honda, Tsuburaya etc.'s films do.
But then again, that's just my opinion. However late in coming it may be. So based on all of that, I say that the effects work in Godzilla vs. The Thing is FLAWLESS. Deal with it.
"EVERYONE FORGET YOUR TROUBLES! ENJOY YOURSELVES!THERE'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!" - Gigantis The Fire Monster
"It was HUGE...It was...IT WAS LIKE A MONSTER!!! Suddenly the rocks rose...ALIVE!" - Godzilla 1985