The Kaiju Thread of Building-Smashing, Flame-Breathing, and Slam-Dunking

[Caldwin]

Hmm, maybe I should watch it after I'm done with Monsterverse. At the very least, get the curiosity out of my system. But for tonight, It's time for Godzilla King of Monsters. Notably, this will be my first time seeing Ghidorah. Can't wait!

More after the movie.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

...Is the original King Kong a "art house" movie? A classic, definitely. A technical achievement, sure. A genre-creating movie, yes agreed. But, "art house"? I'm not sure if I consider the story itself deep enough to call it that. I guess in my mind, a "art house" movie has to tackle more serious themes, or have a bigger focus on metaphor, for it to qualify for that.

I do not care for King Kong at all. Never did. It's just The Lost World with an ape.

If you want something a little deeper, you could always check out the original Mothra or Rodan movies. Before they started crossing over with Godzilla. Those both have a focus on a broader issue, similar to the original Godzilla. They're not on the same level, but they try.

I recommend Rodan particularly, for the history of it. It is a sloooooooooooooow movie, ironically. But once all hell finally breaks loose, well there is a reason that movie was mined for stock footage for many years. There's a few shots that incredibly obviously got a disproportionate share of the budget. Where the model work gets so detailed that it doesn't scream "toy buildings" at all. The buildings aren't hollow. They're layered and break apart believably. Audiences at the time must have lost their minds.

Well, I'm not a huge Matthew Broderick fan anyway.

Not having seen it recently, let me hazard a guess theory: maybe it's a decent Kaiju film, just not a good Godzilla film?

I will argue until I'm blue in the mouth that it is better than decent. It is an absolute love letter to the genre, full of little touches that it never gets recognition for.

Yeah it's not Godzilla, and people get really hung up on that, but it just doesn't bother me. If that creature showed up in New York in real life the press would immediately nickname it Godzilla and there is nothing we could do about it. We can all pinch our noses and go "Um, ackchyually, it's not called Godzilla anymore. Toho said-" but it wouldn't matter. The press would continue to call the creature Godzilla. Given that's the world we live in, I have no problem with that movie depicting a world where that creature shows up in New York and the press nicknames it Godzilla. It's just what would happen.

 

[Caldwin]

Okay, I'm just going to say that Godzilla Minus 1 and the original Gojira aren't going to be dethroned any time soon. There's something I can't quite give a name to, something that Japanese cinema gives to Godzilla (in their good films) that America just seems culturally unable to give. America, no matter how human they make the story, will always be about the spectacle. I don't know about other Japanese films, but Minus One and Gojira just have a story telling that can't be matched.

That being said, this was freaking good! I knew I was going to get Ghidorah. But holy cow! I also got Mothra and Rodan too! And while the movie did go heavy on spectacle, it also had to have a good bit of humanity in it too. This movie left me supremely entertained.

As far as King Kong goes, I already admitted I overreached by calling it arthouse. It's definitely a classic, but no, I agree, it's not arthouse. I'll agree with Fnu insofar as the original King Kong not being that great; classic, but not that great. The stop motion is just so choppy. It took me out of the movie. I adore Clash of the Titans, but really must say Harryhausen perfected the art so much better than what was done with King Kong. The story itself pretty much put me to sleep.

That said, okay, full disclosure, I haven't seen the Peter Jackson remake since it first came to DVD. But I do remember it being really good. It took the original story, added some bits that were planned but never filmed in the original, added modern FX, and made it pretty good. But I would have to see it again...sometime when I have 3 hours to kill. But the whole King Kong thing is a digression.

Godzilla King of the Monsters is 5/5. Which means I'm going to have to give Minus One and the original Gojira another scale. But I can't keep this movie down because the other two are better. This is still an easy 5/5. Maybe I should just re-rate everything with an out of 10 scale. I'll have to think about It. But yeah, this one was good.

 

[Fullstrength Motleypuss]

KotM is easily my favorite of the Legendary Godzilla movies.

 

[Caldwin]

So I just ordered the Broderick Godzilla on DVD for $7.62 including tax. That's actually less than the digital version. I should have it by Sunday.

 

[Caldwin]

Well, tonight's Godzilla Vs. Kong. This should be fun.

Also, today was payday, sooooo...

No articulation. Basically a statue. But it does look good!

 

[Haywire]

"There are two things you don't know about the earth: one is me, and the other is...Godzilla!"

 

[Caldwin]

Okay, when I saw the title "Godzilla Vs. Kong," I was not expecting Mecha Godzilla to make an appearence. But hey, here we are.

Another decent popcorn flick, but honestly, it dove a bit too much into sci-fi. Like in the original Godzilla and in Godzilla Minus One, the only fantastical element was the monster itself...maybe the oxygen destroyer depending on how ridged you are. But for the most part, they were grounded. Here, we had...well...I guess I can't really call them space ships since they never left Earth's atmosphere, but you see what I'm getting at.

Like I said, these are decent popcorn flicks. And I don't want to take anything away from them being decent popcorn flicks. They're fun and I might even watch one or two of them again some time. But they just aren't what I'm looking for in a Godzilla movie.

That said, I still have one more. So we'll see how that one goes.

By the way, I have to ask, was this originally in 3D? Like, they didn't do anything blatently just for the sake of 3D like I've seen some movies do...but there were a couple moments that were like...wow! I bet that would kick ass in 3D!

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Yeah, this movie was originally available in 3D. I think most of the Monsterverse movies have been.

The twist with Mecha Godzilla was something I appreciated. It's a interesting variation. Not my favorite design, but it's still pretty solid.

 

[Caldwin]

Okay, well, that was Godzilla X Kong The New Empire and...well...I didn't care for it. I just didn't care for it. I mean, it wasn't the worst movie ever. But kinda like the others, it was just spectacle. And unfortunately, having marathoned all 5 movies, by the time I got to the last one, spectacle just wasn't enough.

Like...let me put it this way. Well, let me make some shorthand, or else this will get messy.

G = Godzilla
SG = Shin Godzilla
MO = Minus One
MV = Monsterverse

G, SG, MO: Was about humans surviving a monster attack and trying to figure out how to survive and kill the monster that was attacking them. Particularly in MO, it was about trying to carry on after tragedy.

MV: Was about spectacle

G, SG, MO: Had a leitmotif. This leitmotif is classic. For how briefly I've been a budding fan of the genre, I think I can safely say that this leitmotif is integral to kaiju culture. When you heard this, you know jive is about to hit the fan.

MV: Had the leitmotif in one single movie. The rest was whatever rock music they could license. It could have easily been replaced by any flavor of the month.

G,SG,MO: The special effects ranged from extremely dated (G) to cutting edge (MO and to an extent SG). But in all cases, the special effects were there to serve the story.

MV: The special effects were the story. Don't get me wrong, they were very pretty. But they were hollow. All flash, no depth.

Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the spectacle. Adrenaline levels were raised. I absolutely enjoyed the spectacle. I may even go back and watch one or two of these movies, particularlly King of Monsters. That one truly kicked ass.

But you know what? I'm going to remember G, MO...to a lesser extent SG...long after the Monsterverse movies are a flashy, faded memory.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I like the serious side too, but I like that Godzilla can do both. It keeps us wondering what the next incarnation is going to be. And it keeps directors wanting to get involved, because they aren't boxed into one franchise formula.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Yeah, there's a reason why I suggested Shin. It's the only other one that's really trying to be "deep". Other movies in the Godzilla franchise have deep moments, but I wouldn't necessarily call them deep movies. Those 3 are really about as deep and meaningful as they get.

I still suggest checking out a few other Godzilla movies from different eras. Just to see what you like. Guys in rubber suits fighting each other has a charm all it's own. But, I wouldn't suggest continuing to compare them to those 3. The other movies in the franchise are playing a completely different game.

But, if you stop here for a while, that's okay, too. Pace yourself. There's only so many Godzilla movies out there.

 

[Haywire]

Yeah. "Mothra" and "Godzilla vs Mothra" '64 explore some themes of commercial exploitation, "Godzilla vs Hedorah" has a heavy anti-pollution message, and "Godzilla's Revenge" is a treatise on the plight of latchkey children in an increasingly modernizing Japan, but none of these handle the issues as heavily as Gojira '54 or Minus One, and all of them include a much higher dose of giant monster movie cheesiness.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Warning: do not watch Godzilla's Revenge unless you've been bad and deserve it. Or if you're in the right kind of mood to enjoy the bewildering badness of it. It is an experience.

I specifically mean the dub. The Japanese version goes by the name All Monsters Attack, and is surprisingly better. It's still an experience you have to be in the mood for, but it has more heart than the dub would lead you to believe.

 

[Haywire]

Yeah, "Godzilla's Revenge" is not for the weak. It's like Home Alone, but with kaiju mascots giving the "Kevin" character ideas. And, yeah, the Japanese version is better, but the dub gives us "Don Knotts Minilla" and lines like "Godzilla's the one with the bad breath!"...

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Also Home Alone, but you're supposed to be sad that the kid has survival skills that good. Something had to go very wrong for those skills to have a reason to develop so early.

It's much more obvious in the Japanese version, despite having only a snippet more footage. The dub is just atrocious.

 

[Caldwin]

Well, Mathew Broderick Godzilla arrived tonight from Amazon. So I'll probably be watching that tomorrow. Wish me luck!

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Just judge it on how well it does what it wants to do, not how well it does what fans think it should have done instead. This creature isn't a walking atom bomb, but it is a walking victim of the atom bomb. It's a scared, tormented, innocent animal whose existence we can't tolerate for reasons that are our fault to begin with. It's not Toho's Godzilla, but it's a valid kaiju story.

 

[Caldwin]

Okay, I’m just 3 minutes in and I have to say this. I saw people all over the internet making iguana jokes about Godzilla’s design. And you know, I just thought they were poking fun at the design “hah hah, Godzilla looks like an iguana…so ugly. 90’s CGI sucks…hah hah.” But…um…no! There are actual iguana’s in the opening credits!

Guys...I'll try to finish this movie an make an actual review instead of a play-by-play. But I just wanted to put this right here and ask...WHAT THE HELL HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO???

 

[Haywire]

Yeah, 98 Godzilla is canonically a mutated iguana. Like CoffeeHorse said, it's a valid kaiju story, but it definitely did not go the typical Godzilla routes.