Ranking the Heisei Films

[klen7]

[jellydonut25]

I'm going to propose a new rule that anybody who ranks Biollante after GvM gets automatically banned.


Seriously.

(Ok not seriously, but c'mon)

[klen7]

hehe.. like i said... i want to like Biollante but it just doesn't work for me. I see a lot of fans that i normally agree with marking it among the best of the franchise, but i find Megaguirus more enjoyable to watch. I like a lot of the concepts, and parts of it feel very Showa, but theres something about it that just makes the second half of the film send me to snoozeville.

[MekaGojira3k]

[Jorzilla]

Just for bullshit's sake and my own gratification I'm making an updated Godzilla timeline that could be fun to explore for a comic or movie that would never ever get made. I've combined the elements of G2K and Biollante since they fit so well.

[Mac]

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
Godzilla 1984
Godzilla vs Destroyer
Godzilla vs Mothra
Godzilla vs Biollante
Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla 2
Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla

There's some nice effects work in Biollante, but it's arguably the most poorly produced Godzilla movie from a technical aspect. My last viewing of Godzilla vs Mothra has me wondering if it might actually be the most casually dismissed, and therefore underrated, Godzilla film. The movie works with incredibly overt feminist themes, and I like Godzilla's weird cipher-like role.

Also, it never ceases to amaze me how much hate the Heisei movies get around here (two pages of this thread is straight-up whining), while Godzilla vs Gigan gets a free pass. I'm guessing its because of the age group.

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

What age group does one expect to dismiss the Heisei films I wonder?

[Gojilove]

[Dr Kain]

It is interesting to see how we all can pretty much agree on the best of the Showa era, but it is the Heisei era that has the biggest amount of differences.

[Goji 84]

The opinions of the Showa films are just as varied, if not more so. At least in my experience.

[H-Man]

[Legion]

[Jorzilla]

Space Godzilla was better than I remembered, but Godzilla vs. Mothra is flat out, terrible. It's one of the few films that I will get emotionally angry over how terrible the damn movie is (I think GINO and Final Wars are the only other movies).

That gives me a new rating of:

Godzilla vs. Biollante [1989]
The Return of Godzilla (Godzilla 1985) [1984]
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah [1995]
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2 [1993]
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah [1991]
Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla [1994]
Godzilla vs. Mothra (Godzilla & Mothra: The Battle for Earth) [1992]

[Jorzilla]

[XvGojira]

[DannyBeane]

[Jorzilla]

These three images capture everything wrong in terms of special effects in the Heisei series. Beam weapons. Terrible designs. Bad matte shots. Totally messed up prop scaling. Missing: People non-nonchalantly walking in Hong Kong while the entire city explodes around them.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

My biggest problem with the Heisei films was that the cinematography was poor for the most part.

Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs Biollante looked like movies. vs King Ghidorah all the way to vs Destoroyah looked like TV movies with the way the cameras and lighting were positioned. I have a lesser opinion of the Heisei films the older I get, but a better opinion of the Millenium series though. I do like the new creatures (or newish creatures) introduced in both series. And I liked how IDW breathed new life into a lot of these creatures.

Favorite films; Hard to choose but I rank the 80s films together.

Favorite of the 90s: vsMGII

OKAY/Meh/Indifference Tier: the rest of the 90s movies.

Do Not Want Tier: vs Spacegodzilla.

Oh and I like Heisei MOGERA over Showa MOGERA. Cause I love Super Robots. And that's something Showa purists (something I am kinda close to anyway) will have to deal with.

I actually liked the cinematography in the Millenium movies. They actually looked like movies. The mix of melee and beam combat was pretty good too. But the lack of ideas... meh.

[Jorzilla]

[Mac]

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

Godzilla vs. Mothra is about as good as SpaceGodzilla, which is to say it's utter crap and I rarely ever watch it. The props are lifeless and the story is too busy stealing from the superior 60's version to do anything worthwhile (minus Battra, whom I actually like). The Indiana Jones rip offs are horrendously executed. I hate this movie...it's probably worse than SpaceGodzilla for me.

[Psycho Soldier]

I have to admit, though, I'm surprisingly eager to re-watch G vs. Mothra once I have the Blu-Ray. Even if the film sucks anyway (which I don't doubt), the old flipper disc from Sony doesn't do it any favours. I haven't gone out of my way to see a subtitled version before. I'm told it's just as bad in Japanese as in English, but I guess I'll get to experience that for myself. The last time I touched the flipper disc was a couple years ago - I quit the movie about a third of the way in, as soon as the rope bridge gave way beneath the characters. (I think that's how that scene went, anyway...)

[klen7]

I've been putting off rewatching some of the Heisei films waiting for the Blurays as well... i might even rewatch Spacegodzilla.