Canon-Strike XIII: Godzilla

[Dogg Thang]

I enjoy Tokyo SOS. Both that and the previous Mechagodzilla film are around the same level for me. Not amazing movies by any means but very watchable and entertaining.

[QualityChimp]

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 29 - Godzilla: Final Wars
The Millennium Era comes to an epic conclusion with this entry that doesn't climax anything that built to this being considered Final. Yet again the prior films are jettisoned to give us a seventh timeline as Final Wars delivers yet another sequel to the 1954 film. The film pays tribute to multiple points of Godzilla's history including even the 1998 Godzila's monster, despite this with multiple monsters carrying out global attacks before mankind joins forces with aliens to prevent Earth's collision with another planet. The film received reasonable reviews but underperformed heavily at the box office bringing a grey conclusion to the Millennium Era and another point where the franchise would cease production for many years.




Should this have been the Final war?

[Dogg Thang]

Final Wars is like Doom3 for me. It's not what I expected and I really didn't like it the first time I watched it. It was a bit silly, spent a lot of time on superhuman characters and aliens rather than monsters and was desperately trying to make those human characters cool. So I was disappointed when I first saw it.

And yet kind of how I got so much more from Doom3 when I went back to it without my earlier expectations, on a rewatch I fell in love with Final Wars. Once I accepted it for what it was, I saw that it did what it was trying to do really well. I got sucked into the human mutant stuff and the monster action is over the top and superb. It is full of stunning sequences. And so many fantastic guest appearances from all kinds of monsters, including the American Zilla, who is invading Australia for some reason. This movie has a lot of highlights.

[CMcK]

Movie 12 - Godzilla vs Gigan
Haruo Nakajima's final performance as Godzilla, the next film released in 1972 and wouldn't receive an americanised release for another five years. Still involving alien creatures, cockroach like creatures escape their dying world and plan to colonise Earth. Their plan bizarrely involves taking the form of dead humans in a theme park where a Manga artist discovers their plan. Despite the films title, the intention was to create a film that would bring King Ghidorah back into the fray in an effort to revive the popularity of the franchise.





A return to form?

A definite return to form over the prior two films. More daft SF stylings and plot but the protagonists are worth rooting for. The No.2 alien , Kubota, is so well cast absolutely looks the part. The film feels relatively small in scale to me but once the kaiju and space monsters are going for it things ramp up. You actually feel Godzilla is in danger this time with the devastating combo of Ghidohra and Gigan. But it’s lightened somewhat with the big G never having been so expressive before. Great fun.

[QualityChimp]

Final Wars is mint, but it's due a rewatch.
I have the DVD!

The ending feels a bit like those Marvel "What If... Deadpool Killed the Marvel Universe" stories, where Godzilla just gets ultra pissed off and mashes everyone up!

Agree with Dogg that they spend too much time with the boyband dudes, though.

[briareos_kerensky]

Final Wars is a mix of hgih and lows. Once again the tory is more focused on the humans than on the monsters (low), but it's about mutants that can kung-fu fight with motorbykes (high), and Don Frye is a decent Gotengo captain despite not having much acting ability.
It's nice to see mutants getting rid of Hebira on their own and then Godzilla making short work of pretty much every other monster from the past. The final battle against Kaiser Ghidora is OK, but I truly wished for it to be better lit, either it being brighter or more dramatic, like in Space Godzilla or Destroyah.
I feel Ryuuhei Kitamura was a bit constrained in directing this, and probably not the best choice for the (not-so) final Godzilla movie; Toho should have let him go overboard like in his other films, or get back to one of the previous directors.

[QualityChimp]

Guest appearance by Mike Haggar from Final Fight, too!

[Dogg Thang]

He was great in it!

[QualityChimp]

Movie 18 - Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
1991 and this entry continued the second timeline of Godzilla movies with time travelers from the future who come back to present day to prevent Godzilla from mutating. Chaos is unleashed however when they reveal their true plan is to unleash King Ghidorah who is defeated but by now Godzilla is enraged and destroys all of Tokyo leading Mech-King Ghodirah to be brough back from the future to fend off the threat.




Where does this King stand in the Godzilla legacy?

Watched this again last night and it's still pretty decent!
It's a bit campy at times with the sped up M-11 robot running or the cute pre-Ghidorah pets, but a pretty interesting concept of what the world would be like without Godzilla.

Obviously, they spend absolutely no time considering the butterfly effect of removing Godzilla, it's just he was there, now he's not.

Some great sequences and the two monsters mashing up Japan is always great.

Mecha King Ghidorah is a cool idea, but a little morbid if you think they're piloting a reanimated corpse...

A great moment at the end where a main character refuses to run from Godzilla and they exchange a nod of dual respect, just before Godzilla blasts the building he's in to rubble, followed by someone saying "Is he dead?"

Thought Biollante was better, both in the destruction sequences and story, but this was still fun to revisit a film I've not watched since the VHS days!

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 30 - Godzilla
Legendary acquired the license to make a second attempt at an American made entry and the birth of the Monsterverse arrived with this slow paced original story that acts as a fresh origin for Godzilla who ends up battling two MUTO's that attack several US cities. The film was a critical hit and whilst successful was only modestly so lending to something slightly different coming along from Legendary next.




How does the reboot stand up compared to the Toho entries?

[briareos_kerensky]

I din't like the first American Godzilla. Once again for a Godzilla movie, the focus is more on humans than monsters, and the main human character is as interesteing as an empty cardboard box. The interesting human characters don't received the attention they deserve, and for the whole movie you are left wanting more monsters. You get them, they get ready to fight, and the movie cuts to soemthing else.
Ugh.
I still remember the bunker scene and how excited I was to "see" part of the battle from inside a bunker full of refugees, but then...I don't remember, it's probably a scene with Private McAmericanface.
The final battle is kind of cool but nowhere near what the Japanese movies had done before.

[QualityChimp]

I like the first Legendary film, and it could have been much worse, but I don't love it.

Personally, I really enjoyed the sequence where they sneak into an irradiated Tokyo, I thought Malcolm's Dad is a brilliant actor and the scene with his wife is intense, I loved the misdirection where you think they've unearthed Godzilla, but it's something else, I liked the bit where the train is heading to disaster.

I think I'd agree with BK about jumping between places, rather than resolving the one currently exciting the viewer.

I also think it's a pretty dark film, with most of the events taking place at night.
This is especially frustrating when watching the 3D version, which has some great moments, but also some frustratingly dimly lit ones.

Pacific Rim was guilty of this, and a fair few of the TOHO ones (having looked again for this thread) too, but this seemed to use darkness as a way to avoid seeing what was going on.

I do like it, though and will probably watch it again soon.

[CMcK]

It's cheaper to create CGI sequences portraying events at night time hence why it seems to happen in so many films. Easier to render with less light sources and quieter streets etc.

[CMcK]

Movie 30 - Godzilla
Legendary acquired the license to make a second attempt at an American made entry and the birth of the Monsterverse arrived with this slow paced original story that acts as a fresh origin for Godzilla who ends up battling two MUTO's that attack several US cities. The film was a critical hit and whilst successful was only modestly so lending to something slightly different coming along from Legendary next.

How does the reboot stand up compared to the Toho entries?

I haven't seen this since it was at the cinema and remember it being pretty flat with anonymous squishy bipeds getting too much screen time. Maybe not as bad as the interchangeable white dudes in Pacific Rim though.
Also Fat Godzilla.