Official Godzilla Thread: Asskicking Edition

[Torgo]

Well, in the Godzilla Criterion thread there seened to be a demanding of an official Godzilla thread. Well, here it is! Go nuts! This one has a poll, which instantly makes it better than any thread you made recently.

Anyway, to start out, I'll simply say Godzilla > your face.

[Justin T]

Thanks Torgo. I've been a Godzilla fan since I was a kid. I discovered him thanks to a local station that showed Godzilla and other monster movies on Saturday afternoon's. Then when I got older I watched others I hadn't seen yet by renting them.

My parents took me to see Godzilla 1985 when it came out in theaters, that was so much fun. I was such a fanboy I got all upset when he falls into the volcano at the end. I actually shed tears . One of my older cousin's got me a nice giant sized Godzilla as a birthday gift. I had him attack my other dinosaur toys and my GI Joe's.

I have a question to ask other fans. I have seen all the Showa era movies and Godzilla 1985, but I have not seen any of the movies after G-1985 yet. I'm looking for recomendations as to which ones from the modern era are the best. That way I don't waste my money getting the DVD of a weak one.

[Torgo]

I was too young to see 85 in theaters. But I whined my way into seeing Godzilla 2000 as a teenager pre-drivers license. Father fell asleep, but it was the greatest day of my life.

My introduction to Godzilla was actually the 70 cartoon series, Godzookie and all. Saw a video on the shelf of the local drug store, and since I dug dinosaurs, I got my parents to buy it. I must have watched that episode 500 times.

As for post Showa reccomendations, that's kind of difficult. The Heisei series hasn't aged well. When they came out they were awesome, today they're pretty meh. Stiff suitimation and an over-reliance on beams coming from the monsters (even Rodan had a beam). My favorites were the silly and confuaing, but wild King Ghidorah, the brain dead but action packed Mechagodzilla, and the grand finale Destoroyah.

Be warned that the series has reccuring characters and continuing plot lines though. But even watched back to back it still makes little sense.

The Millennium series was a group of stand alones that didn't share continuity. There was something about each I liked, but I suppose I'm easily amused sincw very few others did. Godzilla 2000 was a fun throwback to the alien invasion flicks in the traditon of Godzilla vs. Monster Zero. Godzilla vs. Megaguirus has quite possibly the worst special effects pf the series, but has an ambitiously silly plot that almost sells the movie itself. GMK is one I find myself liking less and less everytime I try to watch it, but I'm not a Kaneko fanboy (only thing he's made that I adored were the Death Note films). The monster action was terrificly filmed, though. G Against Mechagodzilla is one of my favorites for its anime-ish action and smokin' hot female lead and has an interesting origin for Mechagodzilla. Tokyo SOS steals a bit too much from Godzilla vs. Mothra to really be considered a brand new movie, but it features 40 minutes of solid, beautifully directed action. Final Wars is a coin flip. You either get it or you don't. It seems to ward people off with its lacking screentime for Godzilla, though.

[angilasman]

When I was a little kid, very little, probably around 3, I walked into my cousins' house and they were watching King Kong vs. Godzilla. I knew Kong, as I had the original on VHS (tapped off HBO) at home and was one of those movies I watched over and over. I wondered who this new monster was - and once Godzilla appeared (in the famous train scene) I was in love. When I got back home I asked my Dad why we didn't have any Godzilla movies. He came home from work the next day with tapes of both King Kong vs. Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Megalon.

That was the beginning of my life-long obsession with Godzilla. It helped that around that time (the early '90s) Godzilla movies were on heavy rotation on the TNT network. Two decades and many TV airings, toys, video rentals, bought VHS tapes, fanzines, books, DVDs, and now Blu Ray releases later I'm still here.


Looking back now with a more adult and critical eye I see that the original series of Godzilla movies (helmed mostly by Ishiro Honda) aren't just sentimental childhood favorites, but legitimately fun and creative movie spectacles. The oft-lambasted special effects may be low-tech by today's standards, but they were always carried out with a neat visual aesthetic that was very cohesive. Things often didn't look real, but they always looked cool (as opposed to, say, the Gamera films, where each effect is a crapshoot). The great thing now is that most of Ishiro Honda's other science fiction films are now readily available, doubling the amount of fun! Do yourself a favor and pick up Sony's Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection and check out the awesome H-Man and (much more famous) Mothra.

The newer films, the Heisei (1984-1995) and Millenium (1999-2004) films, don't age as well. It was super fun at the time to have new Godzilla films coming out and scrambling to find out when fan dealers would be able to get your bootleg copies, but after the initial honeymoon period they're a pale shadow of the original film. The big problem is that Toho is still a very rigid studio system now without the same uber-creative behind-the-scenes talent (like Honda and special effects man Tsuburaya) to make movies like the old Godzillas with the paltry production time and budgets that Toho allows. In a movie like Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) the effects rival the best of what Hollywood was doing at the time. In a movie like Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) the effects can look SyFy original movie quality and pale in comparison to the effects being pulled off in the '60s!

That's not to say that the newer films can't be fun, an enjoyable way to spend a weekend afternoon...

I have seen all the Showa era movies and Godzilla 1985, but I have not seen any of the movies after G-1985 yet. I'm looking for recomendations as to which ones from the modern era are the best. That way I don't waste my money getting the DVD of a weak one.

As far as the newer (post-'80s) films go, there are four that I think the most enjoyable:

Godzilla vs. Biollante Attempt to make a more serious, hard sci-fi Godzilla movie. Story's a bit muddled at times, but it works overall, and it has the most consistantly excellent special effects of any modern G flick.
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II Comic book-y plot. Both Mechagodzilla and Rodan aren't as cool as they were in the old movies (Rodan is sadly realized as a verty stuff marrionette) but it's a good, straightforward monster mash without the odd tangents and muddled subplots that it seems all the '90s films had.
Godzilla 2000 Fun popcorn flick. Some bad effects, some good ones, a likable human cast, and despite the lightweigh story it feels original and not a retread like many other modern Godzilla flicks. A fun ride.
Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters's All Out Attack Director Shusuke Kaneko, who directed the awesome '90s Gamera movies (which are the best Japanese monster flicks since the '60s - seriously, the Blu Ray boxed set comes out in September and it's crazy cheap - buy it!), was given the chance to fulfill his lifelong dream of making a Godzilla flick. Remember when I talked about Toho's rigid studio structure? The studio oversight and strict production schedule made for a movie nowhere near as satisfying as his Gamera flicks, but it's still the most ambitious and grand of modern Godzilla movies. The effects are frequently brilliant, but there's a few really bad one's two. Overall, it's the modern Godzilla flick that legitimately approaches being a good movie by any standards, and while it doesn't fully reach there it's still commendable.

[Justin T]

Thanks for the recomendations and the warning about the Heisei and Millenium series you guys, much appreciated.

I loved King Kong when I was a kid too, I wore out my copy of it taped off TV. I got the the new DVD release of it that came out when Peter Jackson's remake hit theaters. It was fun watching it again as an adult.

I'll never forget the first time I watched King Kong vs Godzilla, I thought it was one of the most awesome things ever. Seeing my two favorite monsters duke it out was glorious. I wish the Japanese version of the movie would come stateside, would love to see that.

I thought I read something about a new Region 1 release of Godzilla 85 and vs Biollante, I know the only way you can get those on DVD is through either bootlegs or foreign releases. It would be nice to have them in a proper DVD release here.

[Torgo]

Biollante's getting a DVD/Blu-Ray release winthin the next year or two, I can guarantee that. Disney is no longer exclusively distributing Miramax and Dimension's titles on home video and the properties were split between two companies. I believe one of them is Lionsgate, which is releasing the major titles, but the cult titles including Biollante went to a company called Echo Bridge who specialize in quick cheap releases.

I talked to Keith Aiken recently, who has inside friends at Toho and provided a commentary for Terror of Mechagodzilla, and he told me that he was in contact with Echo Bridge recently and they confirmed they are indeed working on a release. It's only a matter of time.

1985 is trickier. Last I heard it was owned by Lakeshore Entertainment, and Anchor Bay was trying to release it years ago. Nothing happened. It's looking likely that Media Blasters might get ahold of it in the future, though.

[angilasman]

Aug 28, 2011 14:44:15 GMT -5 Torgo said:

I talked to Keith Aiken recently, who has inside friends at Toho and provided a commentary for Terror of Mechagodzilla, and he told me that he was in contact with Echo Bridge recently and they confirmed they are indeed working on a release. It's only a matter of time.

Sweet. Hopefully the Godzilla 1985 rights issues can be straightened out (much in the way Godzilla vs. Megalon's have been cleared up after being in limbo for many years).

For me, the biggest, most impossible, bestest thing I could hope for as far as US home video releases are concerned (besides a Criterion release of Gojira) is the original Japanese version of King Kong vs. Godzilla. Universal has the US rights into perpetuity and released a cracking DVD of the American version, but it would be a dream come true if they got a copy of the Japanese cut from Toho for a new release. They only released aforementioned cracking DVD because of the release of Jackson's Kong remake, perhaps Legendary Pictures' Godzilla film will provide similar impetus.

[Torgo]

I don't think Universal has any interest in releasing KKvG in Japanese. From what I'm told, they have a deal that says they have the rights to the US version and while they're locked with them (which is pretty much until Universal goes belly up) nobody else can release any version of the film, however they can't release a Japanese edit of the film without paying Toho money for it. Basically, they have the US cut for free from a deal made near 50 years ago, and aren't interested in paying anything more for it than they already have.

The best we can hope for for King Kong vs. Godzilla around the time Legendary's film gets released is a Blu-Ray, but I wouldn't expect it to be any better than the one we got.

However, and this is nothing official just speculation, I expect a Godzilla media explosion from Sony (maybe Classic Media too if they're interested) when the Legendary film is released. I anticipate all the films in their library will be released and the ones lacking Japanese audio will finally have editions with it (the big if would be Godzilla 2000 since it is a different cut than the Japanese). Pending whether or not Echo Bridge releases Biollante with Japanese audio (which, sadly, they might very well ignore in favor of English only. They're not known for quality releases) and 85 gets a release in Japanese, King Kong vs. Godzilla could very well be the only Godzilla movie that you would have to go bootleg for just to get Japanese audio.

[angilasman]

^I definitely expect re-releases from Sony and Classic Media (and hopefully Media Blasters on their other Ishiro Honda titles). The dub-only releases Sony did are practically guaranteed to be dual language next time around.

As for the Universal thing: I know it's unlikely, but if smaller niche companies like Media Blasters and Classic Media can negotiate with Toho for a Godzilla film than there's no reason why Universal can't. It only requires the will to do so. Stranger things have happened!

[Torgo]

It's not impossible, just improbable. Universal has shown very little interest in the Kong titles under it's belt with the exception of Peter Jackson's. The only reason King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes got released in the first place was to tie in with that film and make as much money off of it as possible.

The only way I anticipate Universal going into negotiations with Toho for Japanese prints is if sales for the two films were much higher than anticipated. That's how we got Classic Media to rerelease their titles. Unfortunately, I don't have sales figures for the films so I can't be sure how pleased Universal was with them.

[angilasman]

^I know it's improbable, but with Criterion doing Gojira who's to say the improbable can't happen!

Who is it that has the rights to Gorath and The Human Vapor? They're two of Honda's best and my bootlegs are really poor. Is it MGM that has them? It would be awesome if someone like Shout! was able to negotiate for a nice release.

[Torgo]

It's MGM alright, and they've been sitting on them for a long time.

The good news on that front is that MGM has an on demand service now. If fans asked for it, they might prep a disc for release of each. Most likely it would be dub only, though.

[zombiewhacker]

Aren't Japanese DVDs the same region format as the US? Wouldn't it be simpler for Toho to release the Japanese cut of, say, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and just add English subtitle/captions as on option? Which is all anyone's really asking for anyway, since as pointed out the American cut DVD already exists.

[Torgo]

Japan is a different region code on DVD, but it's the same region code on Blu-Ray. However, they rarely (if ever) put English subtitles on they're releases. They feel it is poor business sense and will effect their dealings with American distributers for the worse.

To be more litteral, if a North American consumer bought Toho's disc instead of one from their own nations distributers, sales in North America would fall and the distributers who have dealings with Toho wouldn't be very happy. In some cases, where rights can expire, Toho would rather have them renew their contract than let it die due to people passing their releases by in favor of foreign discs. Even though Toho would be selling their own discs, they'd be losing money on deals in the US.

[Justin T]

My copy of The Godzilla Collection box set arrived today in the mail from Amazon.com. I'm unwrapping it now, the packaging is very nice. I love how they have the original Japanese posters on the covers. Adds a nice element to them. I'm looking foward to watching these in the coming weeks. I'm going to start with the original version of Godzilla since I've only seen the Raymond Burr American version.

That's too bad about trickiness of releasing the Japanese version of KKvG. Maybe one day we'll get lucky and it will be released in the US.