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Post by Grievous on Jul 14, 2018 4:52:55 GMT -5
^I liked the first anime movie more than many, and am looking forward to the next. I'm gonna watch this next one English dub first, as the first one's dub was great. Since the story featured a lot of visually similar army people saying technobabble it's easier to follow and be invested in it when they're speaking a language you know. Oddly, it seems lots of folks who aren't typical hardcore Godzilla fans really liked the anime. Folks who are more anime and video game fans, you know? Personally, no matter what you think of the anime I think it's great for Toho to try new things and experiment and I hope they continue to do so. They spent most of the '90s and '80s just trying to make (for lack of a better term) 'generic Godzilla movies' and that just won't cut it. So much great Godzilla stuff coming up: anime movie #2 on the 18th, the first real promotion for Godzilla: King of the Monsters a few days later at San Diego Comic Con, then of course we have the two American Godzilla films in '19 and '20 and confirmation that Toho wants to start making their own Japanese-produced shared universe Godzilla movies after that... never in history have we had so many Godzilla projects actively in the pipeline. Then we have Tsuburaya Productions finally winning their copyright case over the Ultraman rights and planning to expand internationally in a big way with their Ultraman Netflix anime next year... The only classic kaiju franchise still dormant is Gamera. I hope the big turtle makes his return sooner rather than later.I second these opinions.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Jul 21, 2018 16:03:01 GMT -5
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Post by Torgo on Jul 23, 2018 2:07:04 GMT -5
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Post by angilasman on Jul 25, 2018 8:16:12 GMT -5
The trailer is terrific. Look at all my sweet, sweet boys! (not to assune the monsters' genders, it's just an expression)
- and I liked the '14 design, but it's improved drastically by giving him the more traditional Godzilla dorsal fins.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Aug 10, 2018 13:35:48 GMT -5
It took me a while but I finally watched City on the Edge of Battle. It wasn't some intentional shunning of the film, as I always intended to watch it, but I had to shut off my Netflix for about a month due to some personal matters. Incidentally my Netflix's final day before the billing cycle ended was the day before this movie dropped. Being the Zilla nerd I was, that stung a little, but my lackluster response to Planet of the Monsters kept me patient for it. My Netflix is back up now, mostly so I can check out Disenchantment next week, but I first checked out City on the Edge of Battle to see what I missed.
I didn't rewatch Planet as I didn't want to become bored with this anime before I even started City. That said, as I mulled it over these last few months I began to realize that Planet just might be the Godzilla movie I've liked the least in a looooooooooooong time. Like before the Heisei series started. I'd need to watch it again to be sure, but I was in no hurry to do so. But I wanted to go into City not wanting the stigma of having to follow that stink first so I can be as unbiased as possible. I think that was a wise move, because I enjoyed City for the most part.
What really struck me about this one was that since we started in the meat of the story there is a greater opportunity to explore this reinvented environment around Godzilla. Identifiable pieces of Godzilla lore started to take shape in new and intriguing forms. The tribe of humanoids that we discover seem to be a reinvention of the tribe of Infant Island, complete with a pair of twin girls at the center (though normal human sized). I liked this take on the natives, as it reminded me of old sci-fi I used to like growing up, such as Planet of the Apes and The Time Machine.
When it comes to the reimagined Mechagodzilla, I'm a little disappointed there wasn't a traditional Mecha form for him. Instead he's pretty much a city throughout the movie, and it just sits there and shoots Godzilla from a distance. It's an interesting take, but I don't quite understand why "Mechagodzilla City" needed the Mechagodzilla connection at all. It could have been just something different to underline how unique it was. However I do wonder if a lot of what happened in the climax of City was setting up a reformed Mechagodzilla in The Planet Eater for a big monster rumble with Godzilla, Ghidorah, and Mothra. That's just speculation though.
I do find the film to be sluggish though. It drags in the second act, and now that they've set up their world there is very much a missed opportunity to properly immerse ourselves in it as the film instead tries to intrigue with philosophical and spiritual discussions and questions. It mostly fails. While certain revelations of nature siding with humanity vs. monsters vs. machine and the linking the three together are interesting in concept, the film feels like it's repeating itself many times over. In the end it just feels like it's prolonging the inevitable, since like the first film the big Godzilla action scene is pushed to the end, and while it's entertaining I do feel there should be more.
But it was fun...ish. There are still things I feel could be done better, the characterization is still godawful, and the while animation is beautiful in places it can be fairly dull in others. I'm intrigued about how The Planet Eater will end this saga, though I don't think this Godzilla anime will ever be a must see in Godzilla's film legacy.
Except for the Vultures. Those things are badass.
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Post by Grievous on Aug 12, 2018 4:21:25 GMT -5
When it comes to the reimagined Mechagodzilla, I'm a little disappointed there wasn't a traditional Mecha form for him. Instead he's pretty much a city throughout the movie, and it just sits there and shoots Godzilla from a distance. It's an interesting take, but I don't quite understand why "Mechagodzilla City" needed the Mechagodzilla connection at all. It could have been just something different to underline how unique it was. However I do wonder if a lot of what happened in the climax of City was setting up a reformed Mechagodzilla in The Planet Eater for a big monster rumble with Godzilla, Ghidorah, and Mothra. That's just speculation though. And there was a perfect opportunity for it to happen.
I honestly thought once they had lured Godzilla down the trench towards the city itself & had him in position that MechaGodzilla would "half" reform in front of Godzilla & hold him
in place.
Then you could have had a scene where Godzilla hits MechaGodzilla at point blank range with his atomic breath causing huge amounts of damage & shaking the very planet to its core...only for MechaGodzilla to quickly reform again...only this time the Nano Droid has increased his size & "stands" eye to eye with Godzilla.
Godzilla roars in defiance as his body is quickly gripped by many extended nano metal arms before MechaGodzilla "roars" in response...a strange metallic scream as the harpoon is launched, hitting its mark...only for Godzilla to go into "Meltdown" mode with the film finishing the exact same way.
Now that would have at least given us a glimpse of "NanoGodzilla" & made the city itself something to be feared...even by the humans & aliens.
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Torgo
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Post by Torgo on Aug 12, 2018 9:06:57 GMT -5
I was thinking when what'shisface linked himself perminantly into Mechagodzilla the city would take the Mecha shape and do battle with Godzilla. Instead...it pretty much does exactly what it was doing before, despite how "superior" he was supposedly by becoming one with the city. Some job that did.
Dunno. Like I said this might all be setup for the next one. I'm a little curious about how a monster battle might play out because Godzilla's animation is so cumbersome.
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Post by Grievous on Aug 14, 2018 22:44:16 GMT -5
I was thinking when what'shisface linked himself perminantly into Mechagodzilla the city would take the Mecha shape and do battle with Godzilla. Instead...it pretty much does exactly what it was doing before, despite how "superior" he was supposedly by becoming one with the city. Some job that did. Dunno. Like I said this might all be setup for the next one. I'm a little curious about how a monster battle might play out because Godzilla's animation is so cumbersome.It may end up like a Heisei era "Beam War" fight?
I've honestly enjoyed these Godzilla Animated films for what they are...but I was never really that into the idea in the first place...as much as I love Kaiju films & like the occasional Anime series.
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Post by Torgo on Sept 2, 2018 10:22:37 GMT -5
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Post by Torgo on Dec 10, 2018 12:39:09 GMT -5
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Post by Torgo on Jan 13, 2019 1:10:08 GMT -5
I'm so done with this anime trilogy. I tried watching Godzilla: The Planet Eater several days ago, but after about twenty minutes of philosophical/spiritual double talk I took a deep breath and shut it off. I simply did not have the patience for another one of these at the time. And I've sat through a lot of bullpoopie philosophy from the franchise that gave us "But WHY? Why does he keep protecting us?" "Maybe because Godzilla is inside each one of us!" But just being assaulted by the film's own analysis of it's own theme for twenty minutes like a skipping record was just overbearing and pushed my buttons.
Today I sat through the rest of it. I was less pissy at it, but while it wasn't as bad as I was fearing I'd hesitate to say it ever really got better. Hell, the film's biggest selling point is it climaxes the story it's telling by introducing King Ghidorah and having a climactic bout with Godzilla over the fate of the evolved Earth. This climactic fight consists of Ghidorah now portrayed as three sky serpents coming out of black holes and strangling Godzilla for a half an hour while the film's main character goes in a dreamlike trance while the alien companion who summoned Ghidorah prattles on about how the only way for life to be meaningful is to embrace destruction.
Movie. SHUT. UP.
Seriously. Are you even listening to yourself? Every single word uttered in this scene is DOGSHIT. And it's repeated on loop. We have to hear this nonsense rephrased many times over until the film decides it has padded itself out enough and decides to just let Godzilla win, even though he's just been standing in one spot the entire movie and wins by continuing to do so.
It becomes increasingly clear that this anime trilogy was made by people who felt like what was holding the Matrix trilogy back was all those action scenes and felt they should have concentrated more on jibbering philosophy, and when you run out you must repeat yourself. That's the path to true film greatness.
It might have been more helpful had I watched the first two anime films in much closer proximity to this one. But I really didn't want to prolong the experience so I just left it to my sketchy memory. The storyline of this film has the alien priest of the series or whatever the hell he's supposed to be using mankind's hate for Godzilla to call Ghidorah to Earth to destroy it and destroy mankind. Whether this makes sense or not I'm not sure, but I can safely say his motivation is utter garbage. He is a surviving member of a planet Ghidorah once destroyed and he claims to have survived because the only way to find comfort in a finite universe is to help bring destruction to it, which is utter nonsense. Now, the thing is that alien races in Godzilla movies can never really be trusted, but the cackling invaders who invade for the hell of it are much better motivated than this asshole.
And that's really the fatal flaw of this anime, it's so busy analyzing itself and not letting the audience think about its themes that it never bothers to characterize anyone. The main hero is just angry. The movie even admits that's his only character trait really, as the final scene in this movie just embraces that's all that he is. Alien priest exists to merely count off that spiritual dialogue, and do so nonstop. Everyone else just exists, not as a character but as something there to talk to. And what's painful about this is that this trilogy has a great concept at its core, and its themes are interesting. They're executed poorly as they bloat this thing to three films when they could have made something much tighter and maybe superior in telling this story in two hours. This is just excess without ideas for content other than your basic premise.
In the last twelve months I've gotten three brand new Godzilla movies. I should be on cloud nine right now. Instead I'm just shrugging.
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Post by Torgo on Mar 3, 2019 20:12:04 GMT -5
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Post by Torgo on Apr 5, 2019 13:37:44 GMT -5
Seeing how Joe Bob Briggs has made a wildly successful comeback on Shudder, it might be fun to share his old MonsterVision bumpers for Godzilla movies.
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Post by angilasman on Apr 15, 2019 19:25:50 GMT -5
Rewatching the entire series (just finished Return of Godzilla) and trying to avoid the copious amount of footage in all the adds!
Very excited!
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Post by Torgo on Apr 23, 2019 11:25:38 GMT -5
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