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Thursday, March 10, 2011

10 of the Worst & Most Disappointing of Toho's Godzilla Series

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The following ten movies are Godzilla selections I think are the worst, or lesser entries of the entire series. While some others are far from being stinkers, those few select titles were disappointments to me upon finally seeing them and not the heavily hyped pictures critics made them out to be for whatever reason. On this list, you may find some surprising titles, but I specify why I put them here and whether I consider them to be truly bad movies, or just major letdowns.

GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN 1955 aka GOJIRA NO GYAKUSHU (REVENGE OF GODZILLA) aka GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER aka GODZILLA'S COUNTERATTACK

Directed by Motoyoshi Oda

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One of the least discussed Godzilla films is also one the least stimulating. Five months after the first GODZILLA debuted, this quick cash-in was in Japanese theaters. Honda was too busy to take part, so a director by the name of Motoyoshi Oda was given this formula assignment. The plot is virtually identical to Honda's original, only the starkly gloomy atmosphere is gone and replaced by the addition of another monster, Angilas. In other films, Angilas would be the butt of monster jokes, being brutalized and generally kicked around by the bad Kaiju of the movies in which he appeared. Here, though, Angilas is a tough customer in what is surmised as an eternal hatred between the two monsters. There's some nice connections to the previous picture, but it's a noticeably lesser affair with characters lacking in pathos and overall interest.

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There's a lot of monster action, though, and Tsuburaya does return to guide the effects work even if director Honda and composer Ifukube do not. Masaru Sato enters the Godzilla game wih his first score for the series. Unremarkable as it may be, his later scores for films like GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER (1966), SON OF GODZILLA (1967) and GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1974) are accomplished works, if vastly different from Ifukube's more familiar, downbeat style. REVENGE OF GODZILLA was strangely re-christened GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER in North American markets which resulted in Godzilla's roar being drowned out and replaced with Angilas' familiar bellow. At the end, Godzilla is buried in a massive ice-quake and wouldn't return till his title defense against US born Killa' Gorilla, King Kong. It's a good thing, though, that this sequel failed to catch fire in Japan. If it had, we likely wouldn't have gotten such notable Japanese science fiction classics as THE MYSTERIANS (1957), BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE (1958) and THE LAST WAR (1961) to name a few.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS 1968 aka KAIJU SOSHENGEKI (MONSTER INVASION)

Directed by Ishiro Honda

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Low ticket sales and television stealing away their audience resulted in this wide ranging monster rally to have initially been the last Godzilla production. Even in America, the last two preceding G pictures (SON OF and SEA MONSTER) went straight to television. For the then proposed Kaiju Finale, the services of all of Toho's monsters were required. A total of ten creatures make an appearance in one form, or another here. For such an ambitiously sprawling effort, the production values don't appear as grand as they should be for what was intended as the series capper. A couple new costumes were created, a few were modified and a few were in noticeably worn shape. It's another alien invasion plot, recycled from the better MONSTER ZERO. This time it's a race of beings called the Kilaaks, an all girl civilization bent on human enslavement, or annihilation, whichever comes first.

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It's 1999 and all of Earth's monsters are herded onto Ogasawara Island aka Monster Island for scientific study. The Kilaaks use mind control devices to get brainwashed scientists to turn over control of the beasts to them. In the main highlight, the Kaiju attack various major Earth cities till Captain Yamabe takes his crew in the SY-3, a futuristic attack plane, to free the monsters of Kilaak control. The aliens use King Ghidorah to battle all the beasts in what was, and is heralded as this major Kaiju encounter. The truth is, it's a barely two minute monster mash that, while a fun fight, isn't the titanic tussle of monstrous magnitude fans would have you believe. A fan favorite to many, I couldn't help but be seriously disappointed in this movie as a kid and then later on the DVD. Two different English dubs exist for the movie. It definitely is worth seeing, but it's a terribly over-hyped entry in Toho's brand of monster epics.

GODZILLA VS. GIGAN 1972 aka CHIKYU KOKEGI MEIREI: GOJIRA TAI GAIGAN (EARTH ATTACK MISSION: GODZILLA VS. GIGAN) aka GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND

Directed by Jun Fukuda

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Aliens of various shapes and sizes enjoyed picking on planet Earth and by the 1970's they began toying with new avenues with which to take over civilization. Under the guise of a children's theme park, these alien cockroaches (underneath a human exoskeleton) from "Star M in the Hunter Nebula" hide out inside a giant construct built to look like Godzilla. There, they plan to use human bodies to supplant themselves as the dominant race on Earth before man pollutes the planet to death. They attract the attention of a comic book artist and a couple of his hippy friends left over from GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER (1971). Things are mostly uninteresting and even the monster fights are ponderously slow. The Kaiju costumes are conspicuously tattered and in rough shape.

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An unusually high amount of recycled footage is trotted out here as is a heavy dose of Ifukube scores from past successes. The one true new addition is the metallic space chicken, Gigan, a galaxy traveling creation that teams up with King Ghidorah to tackle the tag team champions, Godzilla and Angilas. It's difficult to crown a victor considering all the cheap tactics of stock monster footage employed throughout. Apparently, the inclusion of hippies reflected the "Get High" approach Toho executives were seemingly indulging themselves in as they even have the monsters "talk" with thought balloons(!) in the Japanese version and actual dialog(!!) in the US cut. From here, things could only get better, but it was a slow climb from the bottom of the barrel.

GODZILLA VS. MEGALON 1973 aka GOJIRA TAI MOGARO

Directed by Jun Fukuda

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Considered the absolute nadir of the Godzilla cycle, MEGALON is close, but no cigar. Possessing an infantile and perpetual cheapness about it, there's thankfully little stock footage this time. Monster fights are the order of the day and at least 3/4 of the films running time is the tag team battle royale between Godzilla and the ZONE FIGHTER-ish Jet Jaguar vs. Gigan and Megalon, a cyborgian giant cockroach/beetle creature from Seatopia, an ancient Lemurian society beneath the sea. In what appears to be a marginal copy of Honda's ATRAGON (1963), but with multiple monsters, the script also manages to squeeze in a generous helping of Tokusatsu trappings. These live action superhero shows number in the hundreds and were booming at the time.


In order to kickstart this quickly dying franchise, Toho attempted to lure kids from TV screens watching Kamen Rider and Super Sentai of Toei back into theaters to check out Jet Jaguar and Godzilla, now a secondary buffoon in his own movie. The soundtrack is horrible and Jun Fukuda seems confused as to what to do with what amounts to virtually a 'nothing' script. The Seatopians are a laughable band of undersea vengeance seekers led by frequent Japanese Anglo actor, Robert Dunham. Decked out in bed sheets scissored up by the Toho costume department, the Seatopian high commander even sports a little Megalon head on his head band. Richiro Manabe turned in what has to be one of the worst film scores of all time. It sounds like somebody left the master recordings next to a hot surface and used them anyways. Finally, the Godzilla series was on par with the even more puerile GAMERA sequels of the late 60s and early 70s. Good for a few laughs and barely 80 minutes of mindless mayhem, this sequel has the shameful distinction as being one of the most widely seen G films of the entire run after it got a truncated showing on NBC in the late 1970s.

GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH 1991 aka GOJIRA TAI KINGU GIDORA

Directed by Kazuki Omori

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The Heisei Godzilla series was, for its time, viewed as quite the spectacle. Koichi Kawakita took over the job previously vacated by Eiji Tsuburaya, Sadamasa Arikawa and Teruyoshi Nakano to assume the mantle of Toho special effects ace. He startled and opened the eyes of many with his groundbreaking work on GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE in 1989. His SPX on KING GHIDORAH won an award at the Japanese Award ceremony in 1992. While some of the effects are quite good, there's a fair amount of rudimentary shots that questions just what is so special about them, especially in light of the advances made in JURASSIC PARK the following year. Not to compare Japanese budgets vs. US budgets, but it almost mirrors cinema history in the late 70s when Dino's bloated KING KONG won an Achievement Award for its Special Visual Effects and then STAR WARS came along and made KONG look obsolete. Kazuki Omori, who made no secret about his dislike of Kaiju movies attempted to inject some fascinating story arcs here, even if they do collapse under the weight of Godzilla's footfalls.

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In addition to the flagrant nods to Cameron's THE TERMINATOR (1984), there's also an eye opening anti American sentiment floating about. It's this aspect that is most fascinating about this ultimately disappointing movie. The time traveling portions of the script offer the most glaring moments of confusion and are so sloppy in their detectability, it's amazing no one was paying attention, or possibly didn't care. Still, there's some good things about the film such as the fresh approach depicting the "Evil Americans", the WW2 subplot, a powerfully poignant moment between Godzilla and a Japanese man from his past and Mecha-King Ghidorah who transports from the future to the present day via the sympathetic Futurians. Omori's script is rife with good ideas, but I sure wish he could go back in time and make it a seamless screen adaptation as opposed to the flawed, occasionally hokey movie it is today.

GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA 1992 aka GOJIRA TAI MOSURA

Directed by Takao Okawara

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The Heisei series was aiming for the small fry set with this unoriginal mishmash. The makers took both the original MOTHRA (1962) and MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA (1964), tossed it into a blender, added a bit of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and a heavy helping of heavy handed environmentalist jargon to concoct this bland Kaiju stew. At this stage, Kawakita's special effects were already becoming stagnant. Just as the plots of the 90s G movies were apparently quick written affairs, Kawakita was quite adamant about having his monsters stand at opposite ends of an ornately designed miniature set and fire off brightly colored laser beams at one another. Whether he was just incapable of creating elaborate action shots like his predecessors, or simply didn't care, what we have here is a tedious laser light show between the monsters. Mothra now has a few laser attacks in her decidedly limited arsenal.

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Not content with enough flash on screen, a new monster named Battra is added to the roster. Oddly enough, Kazuki Omori wrote the script here and directing duties was handled by Takao Okawara, who would assume his place as Ishiro Honda-lite for the remainder of the decade. There's nothing here even remotely similar to either of Omori's prior G scripts which likely showcases his disinterest with this type of movie. The less mature tone paid off for Toho as this anemic, yet child friendly entry was a huge success for the company and mandated the continuation of the series despite how lethargically lifeless each succeeding film was becoming. A bright spot is Akira Ifukube's revamped MOTHRA score bearing some beautiful compositions amidst all the nonsense. Things did pick up momentarily in the next Heisei film, GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1993), a retread of past glories with a handful of bright spots and the one major highlight of the Heisei Godzilla series that resembled Honda's work.

GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA 1994 aka GOJIRA TAI SPACEGOJIRA

Directed by Kensho Yamashita

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This totally vapid entry contains a script that is about as barren as the Gobi Desert. A number of ideas are introduced and either never fleshed out, or simply discarded. Characters are ported over from previous movies, but nothing is really done with them. It's another excuse for Kawakita to trot out more laser light shows and ill conceived monster designs. Replacing the man made Mechagodzilla is a less distinguished giant robot, M.O.G.E.R.A. (Mobile Operations Godzilla Expert Robot Aerotype), a transforming robot creation that was originally introduced in Toho's far more involving THE MYSTERIANS from 1957. Miki Saegusa, the recurring psychic character gets so much more screen time, but she's saddled with this bizarre hair style that detracts from anything she has to say.

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Space Godzilla is one of the laziest Kaiju creations and the same can be said for Kawakita's not so special effects. The asteroid field sequence is hilarious in the extreme and Space Godzilla is a portly purplish hue with these gigantic crystals protruding from his shoulders. His existence hearkens back to BIOLLANTE in that he was born from the spores of the plant monster that made their way into space, cue more scientific gobbledy gook. Baby Godzilla looks like an anime character down to the outlandishly enormous and bulbous eyes. Okawara was busy prepping Toho's epic YAMATO TAKERU (1994) so another newcomer was enlisted, Kensho Yamashita. Everything about his interpretation of a Godzilla film is an embarrassment on the level of how Tomoyuki Tanaka felt upon seeing the finished product of GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER back in 1971. The MEGALON of the 90s, the Heisei series had finally hit rock bottom and thankfully, there was only one more laser light show to go.

GODZILLA VS. DESTROYER 1995 aka GOJIRA TAI DESTOROYAH

Directed by Takao Okawara

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Having run out of both gas and ideas, Toho decided to end the Heisei series and Godzilla in general with this highly touted and literal end to the gigantic, rampaging behemoth. The tag line was "Godzilla Dies!" The movie does deliver on that promise and the death of the Big G is the best sequence in the entire movie although it's acerbity is undermined by a final shot that cripples the somber moment promising that where one life ends, another begins. The script is a huge improvement over the totally bland previous picture, but DESTROYER is, like all the 90s Godzilla's, hopelessly derivative. This time ALIENS (1986) and JURASSIC PARK (1993) are mined for ideas where the Japanese scriptwriter (Kazuki Omori again) apparently had none. The idea that Godzilla's new nemesis (a prickly crustacean creation), is born from the Oxygen Destroyer, the very device that obliterated the original Godzilla, is a novel one. Typical of Koichi Kawakita's style, Destroyer is a transforming monster--we see at least three stages of the beast--a device Kawakita frequented in all his G productions, which hearkens back to the maligned and celebrated GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER (1971).

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For this outing, Godzilla is glowing red, pulsing veins being visible outside his scaly skin. Threatening to explode into a devastating nuclear explosion, the military develops Super X3, a new aircraft possessing a number of freezing weapons that will hopefully lessen the destruction caused by Godzilla's imminent meltdown. Destroyer is a so-so monstrosity, looking much better on the drawing board than in execution. Kawakita's repetitive nature finally implodes on itself as the final form of Destroyer looks like a refurbished and repainted version of Space Godzilla. Kawakita was even "brave" enough to use toys for some effects shots if you can even call them that. Still, Ifukube's score booms in all the right places and Okawara manages some memorable scenes, just not enough to keep this from being a missed opportunity for greatness and only an average ending to the 90s series.

GODZILLA 2000 1999 aka GOJIRA NISEN: MIRENIAMU (GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM)

Directed by Takao Okawara

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After the American abomination that was GODZILLA (1998) and the arrogant blind eye the US filmmakers took to Toho's requests, the Japanese decided it was time to get back into the Kaiju arena with a good intentioned, but underwhelming start to the bright future the new millennium had to offer. Thankfully eschewing Koichi Kawakita as effects creator, everything was a fresh start with Takao Okawara as the only holdover from the previous series. Now, Godzilla is treated as the radioactive fire breathing equivalent to a tornado. A trio of "storm chasers" track Godzilla's appearances in an effort to study the monolithic monster.

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Meanwhile, an ancient UFO is discovered that quickly proclaims its purpose of world domination as well as obtaining Godzilla's DNA to allow these energy beasts to take a new form. There's a more profound science fiction slant for this go round and some interesting ways to shoot the monster footage, but overall, it's not the new series starter one would have hoped for. The new effects team are an impressive bunch and Orga, an alien that absorbs the organic make up of whatever it latches onto is an elaborate and visually impressive creature. Released to American theaters minus 8 minutes of footage and saddled with ridiculous English dubbed dialog, the US producers further crippled an already average movie by tacking on an ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES style 'The End?' font during the last scene. Thankfully, the Millennium, or 'X' series would improve till the last film of this run of Godzilla pictures.

GODZILLA FINAL WARS 2004 aka GOJIRA FAINARU UOZU

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New Toho head, Shogo Tomiyama, wished to end the Millennium Godzilla run with an all out, bombastic thrill ride much the way both DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) and GODZILLA VS. DESTROYER (1995) were initially intended. A new director was chosen--Ruyhei Kitamura, a "New Wave" Japanese filmmaker. Toho couldn't have been more wrong with their choice. In what was essentially a repeat of events from 1971's SMOG MONSTER debacle, Kitamura was left alone to make the movie he wanted. When he cited the 70s G pictures as his favorites, that should have been the red flag to end all red flags. What he delivered was an utterly soulless, irritatingly infantile experience that looks just like what he wanted--a glossy version of a 70s Godzilla film, but substituting mediocre monster scenes for a plethora of stock footage. At over two hours long, Godzilla is barely in the movie and the monster fights scarcely take up 20 minutes of the films 125 minute running time.

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For a film that spends more than half its length with human characters and MATRIX style kung fu fights, you'd expect some form of exposition, but the script was apparently tossed out the window ripping off STAR WARS (1977), V (1983) and numerous other Japanese sci fi pictures in the process. Some of the acting is absolutely atrocious, the score by Keith Emerson a travesty and a lot of scenes consist of close ups of cast members shaking and twitching their faces as if they have a migraine of the highest order. Even the Japanese saw this for what it was--mentally handicapped cinematic waste that resulted in GODZILLA FINAL WARS seriously losing the box office battle, despite Toho hyping this rotten egg to high heaven. It ended up being the least profitable Millennium entry and the least attended Godzilla movie since TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA, which had an excuse while the heavily touted FINAL WARS was plain and simply lousy. Kitamura and Krew took a big, steaming radioactive dump on the entire 28 film run. Here's hoping the next Japanese Godzilla movie gets off to a gigantically grand start.


16 comments:

Samuel Wilson said...

venom, I'm old enough to have experienced the legendary American TV debut of Godzilla vs. Megalon on NBC, cut down to an hour, if I remember right, and hosted by John Candy in a Godzilla suit. You don't forget something like that, and in retrospect the format was worthy of the film.

I'll accept your objections to the dubbing of "Godzilla 2000" but I still found the film wildly entertaining compared to the Emmerich atrocity. When Orga dared try to swallow the Big G from the head down, and those spines lit up, I definitely marked out for what was going to happen.

Fazeo said...

Godzilla vs Megalon is actually one of my favorite Godzilla films, c'mon Jet Jaguar is fun!

J.L. Carrozza said...

I agree with most of the decisions though my opinion has softened on GIGAN and MEGALON. They were not made on the same level as the 60s Honda/Tsuburaya entries and are not supposed to be judged as such which is a mistake often made by Western fans. Not saying they're good of course, they're pretty bad and mostly appreciable as comedies, but they were made for the kiddie market, the yearly Champion Matsuri Film Festival and indeed, like the old Gamera they work fine as kids' movies. Making movies for children poses a dilemma. Should you, like the greatest creators of kiddie fare from Disney to Miyazaki to Tex Avery to Tsuburaya with his TV work, try to make something that people all ages can appreciate? Or should you make something tailored exclusively to your audience and take advantage of kids' less demanding nature?

Disagree on DAM and KING GHIDORAH. DAM was largely made better and more focused as MONSTER ZERO, but it still delights to me. It feels like a nice mixture between Honda and Tsuburaya's Godzilla films and his space movies like MYSTERIANS and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE. Catching it for the first time on the Sci-Fi Channel as a kid when it was unavailable on video was like going to the prom and getting some afterward. We're all different I guess, I personally can't stand KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, though the Japanese version is a pretty decent comedy.

KING GHIDORAH I love too. Yes, the time travel stuff leaves plot holes so gigantic Godzilla could walk through them without bumping his head, I still appreciate it for it's ambitiousness. I love the WWII and evil Westerners from the future stuff as well even if its message is virulently pro-Japanese. Really, who watches Toho films for rational, logical plots? Godzilla probably couldn't even exist according to the laws of physics, his body would implode in on itself.

Agree about most everything else however. MOTHRA BOF is just corny, SPACEGODZILLA is probably the worst film in the series and DESTOROYAH was a huge missed opportunity and leaves me cold. FINAL WARS in many ways is even more disappointing than the American Godzilla because at least with that one we expected it to be different somewhat. GFW was supposed to be the flipping 50th anniversary film.

A.D. said...

I actually like KING GHIDORAH a lot! But I agree that both SPACE GODZILLA and DETROYAH are complete and utter shit.

I Like Horror Movies said...

I am the exact opposite of Aaron, and I loved loved loved Detroyer and thought 1992's Ghidorah was a bore. The costume and fighting was limited, but I thought the film had an epic feel to it that was lacking in the Heisei series. All of the other reviews are spot on V, and you know all too well how much I hate Final Wars.

Movies on my Mind said...

What do you think about Warners' plans to reboot a U.S. adaptation of GODZILLA? Also, what do you think about del Toro's PACIFIC RIM?

venoms5 said...

@ Sam: Yeah, it was 60 minutes long with Belushi decked out in the Godzilla suit from HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD (1976). Some VHS PD versions of MEGALON were only 72 minutes if I remember right. I used to own one of them and some of the strong violence was cut from it, dialog and the entire ending with Jet Jaguar carrying the boy on his back and that song playing on the soundtrack. I liked G 2000, it was just a bit disappointing to me as I was expecting a bigger, more bombastic movie from Toho at that point considering how universally panned the '98 version was received. I had written a three page outline for a Godzilla film a couple years before '2000', and the ending had Godzilla being completely swallowed by this THINGish type creature with similar results.

@ Fazeo: I like MEGALON, there's actually no films on the list I totally dislike, but compared with the better 60s movies, these are lesser ones, or just disappointed me for some reason. As a kid, I was pretty high on Jet Jaguar. A buddy of mine has every Toho Kaiju figure from Bandai, the big ones.

@ J: Post MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA the series became increasingly aimed at the kiddie market. GHIDORAH, 3 HEADED MONSTER was clear evidence of this, but production values were high. Ticket sales being low led to the budgets being slashed as I'm sure you're aware. I don't mind the kiddie oriented ones, but compared to other films before and after, movies like GIGAN and MEGALON are notably inferior to me. I like them, but even equally kid friendly movies like SON OF GODZILLA are far superior in my book.

I first saw DAM when I was a kid. This Godzilla book from our library had a few crazy photos from the film (some of them are those promo pics of composited shots that aren't in the movie, one of them was on the surface of another planet). When I finally saw it, the film just didn't live up to my expectations. Upon buying the DVD, my opinion didn't change much mostly due to the final battle. It was scarcely two minutes and Ghidorah got pummeled the entire time.

KING GHIDORAH is good, but its overt silliness kept me from totally embracing it especially after the amazingly original BIOLLANTE. I enjoy KG in parts as opposed to a whole. The scene between G and the war vet in the building was the best damn scene in the whole movie for me.

I could go on all day about how FW is a total misfire. Hopefully none of the Toho had to commit Seppuka over that cinematic insult.

@ A.D.: I like GHIDORAH, too, it's just one of those that kind of disappointed me after reading all the hype. A lot of people slagged on BIOLLANTE and praised KG, but I feel the opposite.

@ Carl: I feel the same regarding DESTROYER and KG even though you don't like the latter. They're wonderful in pieces and not so much in others. And FW, I think fans who like it are in denial at just how horrendous that movie really is.

@ Movies: Well, I am anxious to see, and they say it will be faithful to the source, but then, so did the Emmerich/Devlin team despite putting down the Toho films and ultimately disregarding the "rules" laid down by Toho for doing the picture. I had not heard of PACIFIC RIM till you mentioned it. I read up on it and it sounds really interesting and I will definitely keep up with its progress!

Alec Pridgen said...

What a shock- 'Godzilla: Final Wars' gets called terrible. At least the internet is a place of consistency.

Of course, I like 'Final Wars' a lot. I can accept that I'm in the minority here.

For the most part though, I agree with the list. I have to wonder about the absence of 'Son of Godzilla,' 'All Monsters Attack' or even 'Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster.'

I mean, one of them gets goofier than some of the other one, one slaps the whole series in the face and one is a retro-fitted 'King Kong' film which contradicts 80% of the series own mythos.

Instead, you have to get mad at the generic ones? Odd.

venoms5 said...

The three you named are all good in my book. ALL MONSTERS ATTACK aka GODZILLA'S REVENGE is a favorite of mine, one reason being I was a latchkey kid and had/still have a healthy imagination.

It's possibly the single most personable movie in the entire series since it revolves around a lonely little boy whose spare time is taken up with his vivid imagination and his love of Godzilla movies. If any one G film was a slap in the face to the series, it's the last one. In the future, if there are more G films from Japan, hopefully Toho will keep Kitamura far, far away from the series. If anything, bring Tezuka, or Kaneko back as they both have a good feel for the material.

SON OF and SEA MONSTER I enjoy a lot, but don't feel they're great, nor do I think they're bad films, either. They both have interesting locales, cool scores, high fun factor and Kumi Mizuno.

Anonymous said...

WHO GIVES A SHIT WETHER THERE INSPIRED/RIP'ED OFF OF AMAERICAN FILMS VS KING GHIDORAH AND VS DESTROHAH
ARE FREAKING INCREDIBLE MAN
I MEAN NO DISREPECT TO YOU PERSONALY I LOVE YOUR BLOG
BUT MAN YOU ARE WRONG JUST WRONG ABOUT THOSE 2
i also really liked vs gigan but i can see your problems in it sure
and while the astroid scene in vs spacegodzilla was HORRIBLE and the film as a whole was nothing special the suits for G and SG looked great
and omg godzilla vs kong and godzillas revenge are in my opinion the definitve worst of the series
and G vs biolanta and GMK all out attack are my absolute favs
all the vs mechaG are cool godzilla 84 was aways one very close to my heart
and the original is a masterpeice but not my fav
cept the 2 i named my fav i like the 3 90s gamera films more than any of the godzilla films
gamera 3 might be a little better than my 2 fav godzillas tho

Franco Macabro said...

Damn dude, you put some of my favorite ones on this list! King Gihdorah, I loved that one! It's the one that got me hooked on Godzilla films, lots of destruction on that one, and the miniature work is amazing. I've noticed that you have a real distaste for the 90's Godzilla films.

Godzilla vs. Mothra, I loved that one as well, some of the images are so outlandish, especially when it comes to Mothra destroying the city during its larva stage. I agree, this isnt the best Godzilla film ever, but its not bad either, well in my opinion anyways.

Thanks for this list, I will be staying away from some of these choices you have listed, I'll probably save them for last.

venoms5 said...

I like KING GHIDORAH, just that the plot holes are more noticeable than usual and some of them appear due to last minute script additions that were totally unnecessary. It's not one of the worst, just a bit of a disappointment to me. The original Japanese language version is much better than the dub. I loved all the 90s G films when I first saw them. Well, except for SPACE GODZILLA. I liked it, but it seems every decade has its 'SMOG MONSTER' or 'MEGALON'. Those two are enormously entertaining, but far from what you'd call good movies.

As for the 90s GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA, I'll take Honda's 1964 version over the later one any day. They're all worth seeing to put the series in context per their time periods, though. Well, FINAL WARS is probably best left unseen.

Kaijinu said...

I agreee to some of these, save the Heisei entries. For me, G vs King Ghidorah is the best Toho had to offer for the G-Man, despite some rather touchy matters.

Final Wars is horrible but I'm a man born to absorb cheese like a sponge does to some drunk guy's vomit: I can love it, so long as I don't have to take the whole thing with me until the day I die!

Gialloman and DontIgnoreMe said...

do you know if there's a DVD of the Japanese version of Godzilla Vs Gigan with the comic speech bubbles? Like maybe a official released of Fan subbed DVD?

venoms5 said...

@ Kaijinu: I was seriously disappointed in KING GHIDORAH -- especially over time. On the whole, the Heisei series -- minus BIOLLANTE -- was a waste, imo.

@ Gialloman: The Sony DVD didn't have them? Message Far East Flix. They had professional translations done for the Japanese releases.

Gialloman and DontIgnoreMe said...

the Sony DVD didn't ave them sadly, and ok I'll shoot them a email. I got a awesome DVD of Just Heroes by John Woo from them, so i'll have to start shopping from them more often

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