TALKBACK: Godzilla (2014) - (OBVIOUS SPOILER DISCUSSION)

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Benjamin Haines]

Personally, I think it does the Godzilla franchise a disservice to judge each series of films as its own whole. There are good/entertaining/earnest efforts in each series and there are bad/boring/lazy entries in each one too, and of course everyone's personal tastes for individual films will vary, so why lump them together?

Yes, when taken as a whole, the Showa Series is obviously superior to the two that followed it but it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. The Showa Series lasted 21 years and spanned three different decades with a total of 15 Godzilla movies, even more if you count all of the non-Godzilla films that played into the same mythos, whereas the Heisei Series was seven movies across 11 years and the Millennium Series was six movies in six years. It's really not an accurate comparison.

[Jorzilla]

That's why I like to break pre and post Destroy All Monsters Showa films into separate chunks.

Gojira - Destroy All Monsters contains arguably the best Godzilla films ever made. They are the height of Ishiro Honda, Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira Ifukube and Sinichi Sekizawa's collaborative efforts.

Godzilla's Revenge - Terror of Mechagodzilla is basically the series on life support, trying to compete against made for TV monsters, reduced budgets and trying to turn a quick profit by pandering to younger kids. Sure there are cult favorites like Godzilla vs. Gigan, but personally I don't think the series produced anything noteworthy (from an both an entertainment and film making perspective) until Terror of Mechagodzilla...which surprise surprise, was the return of Honda and Ifukube, with Tanaka never leaving. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla was also pretty good, and definitely an improvement over the previous entries given the increased budget for Godzilla's 20th Anniversary, but I think Terror of MG took the ideas in that movie and made them a lot better.

Godzilla's Revenge - Terror of Mechagodzilla is generally people who don't like the Showa films will go to when you say that Showa is the superior franchise. For any major Heisei lover, if you point out how TERRIBLE Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla are, I've usually seen the retort that they aren't nearly as bad as a film like Revenge or Megalon, the suits weren't falling apart like they were in Gigan, the effects are better, and there isn't as much stock footage.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Legion]

[Benjamin Haines]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[ebirahsmeg1]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

I think the defense of Kawakita's work comes mostly from his work on films like Zero Pilot, Zero, Bye Bye Jupiter, Gunhead, and Godzilla vs Biollante, than they are of his work in the later Heisei era movies.

And I'll have to agree there. He and his staff displayed a lot of talent in those movies, especially the World War II movies. I think he had the best fighter plane sequences for sure. But I don't know what the hell happened afterwards.

[angilas]

[walshiam]

1. Showa gripe #1: stock footage= bad idea for obvious reasons. 2. Heisei gripe #1: borrowed story lines from American movies= bad idea, lack of originality after Biollante. 3. Millenium gripe #3: altered histories instead of new monsters= bad idea, again lack of originality for different reasons. In spite of the shortcomings, there's still something to enjoy.

[mr.negativity]

[lhb412]

That's really super cool. I know the haters rise to the surface in the internet world, but I hope most Japanese fans were happy with their hero's return to the big screen (I know I was).

[HannibalBarca]

Here's some info for the Korean home video release of the film: http://www.kimchidvd.com/en/good/goods. ... _seq=20333

Ten minutes of deleted scenes. So at least we know they exist. The question that presents itself is, why are these only being advertised on the Korean release, of all things? The movie practically bombed there...

[Benjamin Haines]

The WarnerBrosOnline YouTube channel just added 16 clips from the new film, totaling over 20 minutes, from the opening credits to the very last scene of the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... yrXo6f5HUl

Obviously, spoilers abound there.

[lhb412]

Ugh, that really makes me want to see the movie again!

[MouthForWar]

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Someone posted that supposed Korean release info to one of the Facebook Godzilla groups and then subsequently said it was false.

[walshiam]

I'm stoked to the max to get that movie in my living room!

[MouthForWar]

Semi related. Thomas Tull did the ice bucket challenge with Bryan Cranston.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc3K2UoDU5w

He's challenged GDT next.

[Gohi]

[MouthForWar]

[lhb412]

Good clean fun that helps a good, and makes fun of GINO?

That's the best.

[Gojira-2000]

Saw this unlisted video from Warner's youtube channel:



Appears to be a part of something from the DVD special features, since looking up "Operation Lucky Dragon" revealed this:

Also, there's a new Godzilla movie based site up here:

[Gojira-2000]