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The Kaiju Thread (Giant monsters attack!) - Page 3

post #101 of 352
2/26/08 at 8:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhead View Post
Gamera, Guardian of the Universe (1995) is really the only movie that gets things 100% right.

The original Gojira is essential for context.

Infra-Man is, well... Infra-Man.
Agreed on all these, maybe the Gamera sequels because honestly they are all around better (three's kinda slow but has the best destruction scenes). Oh, can't forget GMK, thats, to me, is the best Godzilla sequel produced. Never hurts to go for Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Mothra is just classic, for variety you could always throw in some Ultraseven episodes.
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post #102 of 352
2/27/08 at 2:51am
Yes, I would definitely start with the original Gojira. And not the American cut monstrosity with Raymond Burr, either. The actual Japanese one. It's unlike what most people think of when you mention the genre, in that it's an ultra-serious film that evokes the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the firebombing of Tokyo.

Next, I'd go with Godzilla vs Mothra, sometimes known as Godzilla vs The Thing. This is the beginning of the fun era of Godzilla. It's extremely out there, but hadn't yet fully degenerated into cartoonish kid stuff.

For full-on giant monster lunacy, finish up with Destroy All Monsters. Toho just threw everything and the kitchen sink into this one. It's a blast.

These are all from the original series. The 80's-90's revamp series has some really good entries, but the three I mentioned make a good baseline.
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post #103 of 352
2/27/08 at 3:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by James May View Post
Oh, can't forget GMK, thats, to me, is the best Godzilla sequel produced. Never hurts to go for Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Mothra is just classic, for variety you could always throw in some Ultraseven episodes.
GMK does some interesting things with the franchise. It posits itself as a direct sequel to the original film (do any previous Godzilla movies attempt to explain the impermanent effects of the Oxygen Destroyer?), and gets in a good joke early on about how a monster that reportedly attacked New York in 1998 wasn't the real Godzilla.

But now that you mention TV series, I think that may be where the real stuff is. They may not have the production value of (most of) the films but the fight-to-talk ratio is much higher and the monsters-of-the-week tend to be more unusual in design.
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post #104 of 352
2/27/08 at 12:12pm
Thanks Greg, James, Hammer.. added all suggestions to my queue, hopefully fortune will smile and ship me Gojira first
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post #105 of 352
2/28/08 at 4:11pm
Not all Kaiju (and really low-key for Angry Nintendo Nerd) but...

Top 10 Giant Movie Monsters

Nick's recent CHUD-list was much better.
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post #106 of 352
3/6/08 at 12:51am
Stupid reboot destroyed all of my thread subscriptions, and I've missed all this great kaiju discussion. Nice video link Darkmite. Stay-Puft never gets love when kaiju are brought up.
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post #107 of 352
3/6/08 at 5:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Not all Kaiju (and really low-key for Angry Nintendo Nerd) but...

Top 10 Giant Movie Monsters

Nick's recent CHUD-list was much better.
Maybe, but this lead to me putting The Giant Claw in my Netflix queue, so it has that going for it.
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post #108 of 352
3/6/08 at 7:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
Not all Kaiju (and really low-key for Angry Nintendo Nerd) but...

Top 10 Giant Movie Monsters
What movie is this from? I take it that's poster art, but I don't recognize the monster.

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post #109 of 352
3/6/08 at 3:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amphibatron View Post
What movie is this from? I take it that's poster art, but I don't recognize the monster.
Thats from the Thai film Garuda. Though I haven't seen it, I understand it to be quite shitty.
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post #110 of 352
3/6/08 at 3:46pm
Thanks, James. Shitty or not, that's a fine looking monster.
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post #111 of 352
5/26/08 at 4:58pm
For people trying to get into the kaiju, I'd advise staying away from the 90s Godzilla and Mothra films, they're unimaginative and rip-off films like Terminator and Indiana Jones. The fights aren't special either, seeing as all they do is shoot rays at each other until someone finally drops.
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post #112 of 352
5/26/08 at 5:04pm
The Toho films from the 90's are definitely not going to convert anyone. From the 90's we did get the near perfect Gamera films, though. As per usual Gojira is where anyone should start, it is a serious monster film with surprisingly good effects for 54'.
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post #113 of 352
5/26/08 at 5:24pm
Apparently these things are still hot, I added a handful to my queue back in March and the only one I've had shipped out so far was Godzilla: Final Wars, which I completely forgot to come comment about.

It was decent. I liked that it had lots of different monsters in it and some of the battle effects were pretty great. I did get the impression I was missing out on lots of nostalgic glee at seeing all these monsters show up in one movie, but that's my fault and not the film. On the other hand, you could tell Ryuhei Kitamura directed it when it kept cutting to supers and mutants or whatever having really drawn out martial arts fights while more important things like Godzilla fucking up Gigan was going down.

I actually got a huge kick out of the fact that Don Frye was one of the main characters and Gary Goodridge has a cameo (since I'm a big MMA fan), but over-all when the focus wasn't on giant monsters wrecking shit, I would lose interest pretty fast. I still wish I got shipped Gojira or something first, but this was a decent enough way to dive into the J-Godzilla franchise and hopefully I'll get some of the classics shipped out soon.
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post #114 of 352
5/27/08 at 1:50am
FINAL WARS made me hate Ryuhei Kitamura. Ugh.

The Japanese version of the original GODZILLA is superior, but the US edit is no slouch either. It's an ingenious approach to disguising a foreign film as an American one, and it allows for a number of scenes to retain their original Japanese audio, which is then "translated" for us by Raymond Burr. It might be a simplification of the original that glosses over certain uncomfortable plot points as a concession to post-war American audiences, but it's no bastardization. The film's Japanese are allowed their dignity - something all too rare in Hollywood films, even in the decades after GODZILLA hit US theaters.

For sheer GODZILLA madness, it's all about GODZILLA VS HEDORAH. It is psychedelic, experimental, and contains enough death and violence to get a early-70s PG rating, at at time when G could contain bloody head shots (BATTLE OF BRITAIN). Godzilla flies in this one but that's not even the most memorable sight in the film - that'd probably be the sight of Hedora taking bong hits from a smokestack.
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post #115 of 352
5/27/08 at 5:11pm
I have to completely and utterly disagree with your assessment of the American cut of Gojira. It's donkey piss. I'm sorry, but there's nothing ingenious about having Raymond Burr talk to the backs of people's heads. It also completely guts the main storyline because there's no way to shoehorn Burr into the important scenes. In the end, what we wind up with is a shallow, uninvolving story shorn of any real meaning, on which the main character has no bearing and no effect. They destroyed the film just so Americans wouldn't have to watch a bunch of foreigners. Fuck that thing.
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post #116 of 352
5/27/08 at 5:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by James May View Post
The Toho films from the 90's are definitely not going to convert anyone. From the 90's we did get the near perfect Gamera films, though. As per usual Gojira is where anyone should start, it is a serious monster film with surprisingly good effects for 54'.
I'm gonna stand up and defend the 90s version of Godzilla vs. Mothra. That's got some pretty spectacular kaiju battles, especially the first dust-up between Godzilla, Mothra, and Battra (the one at sea).
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post #117 of 352
5/27/08 at 5:36pm
I'd actually defend any film in that run except for Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla. That one was just sad.
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post #118 of 352
5/27/08 at 5:40pm
Well, to be fair I have nothing against the films, I just don't think thats where a newbie should start in the series. At best I'd throw Biolante to someone, but stick to the Showa era.
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post #119 of 352
5/27/08 at 10:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I have to completely and utterly disagree with your assessment of the American cut of Gojira. It's donkey piss. I'm sorry, but there's nothing ingenious about having Raymond Burr talk to the backs of people's heads. It also completely guts the main storyline because there's no way to shoehorn Burr into the important scenes. In the end, what we wind up with is a shallow, uninvolving story shorn of any real meaning, on which the main character has no bearing and no effect. They destroyed the film just so Americans wouldn't have to watch a bunch of foreigners. Fuck that thing.
It's certainly a bastardized version but not nearly as big of one as it is made out to be. I'll stand by it. When push comes to shove, without it, there would have been no Godzilla series and a large void in my childhood.
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post #120 of 352
5/28/08 at 4:29am
Say what? Of course there would have been a Godzilla series. The series was based on its popularity in Japan, not America. I doubt that Toho gave a shit whether America liked it or not, considering the point of view of the first film.
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post #121 of 352
5/28/08 at 11:11am
Sorry if this derails the current conversation, but I just had to say that thanks to the recent resurgence of this thread, I have been inspired to put Kaiju Big Battel: Shocking Truth to my Netflix queue. I'm going to try to arrange it so I get that along with The Calamari Wrestler, so I can have a goofy awesome double feature.
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post #122 of 352
5/28/08 at 12:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Olson View Post
The Calamari Wrestler
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Yes!
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post #123 of 352
5/28/08 at 2:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
Say what? Of course there would have been a Godzilla series. The series was based on its popularity in Japan, not America. I doubt that Toho gave a shit whether America liked it or not, considering the point of view of the first film.
They didn't give a shit if America liked it? Let's not kid ourselves here. Yes, I'm sure their original intention when making the film was not to directly appeal to a Western audience but the fact was once it took off in the States, Toho very much saw there was money to be made there as did American distributors like AIP.

I am not saying that there would not have been other Gojira films without the U.S. market but the series wouldn't have had the kind of popularity it did. The decision to make King Kong the first major-billed opponent for Godzilla was no accident nor was the appearance of Nick Adams in Monster Zero. I can certainly see other people's arguments with "King of the Monsters" but the fact remains that I never would have discovered these films at such a young age if they had been subtitled nor would there have been such a heavy demand for them had the original U.S. release of Gojira been a subtitled version of the Japanese original.
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post #124 of 352
5/28/08 at 3:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I have to completely and utterly disagree with your assessment of the American cut of Gojira. It's donkey piss. I'm sorry, but there's nothing ingenious about having Raymond Burr talk to the backs of people's heads. It also completely guts the main storyline because there's no way to shoehorn Burr into the important scenes. In the end, what we wind up with is a shallow, uninvolving story shorn of any real meaning, on which the main character has no bearing and no effect. They destroyed the film just so Americans wouldn't have to watch a bunch of foreigners. Fuck that thing.
It's a different movie to me, telling a similar story with a lot of shared elements. It is unavoidably less meaningful, and has its share of flaws. I appreciate where you're coming from, and I'd never deny the original version of the film is immeasurably superior, but when I bought that two-disc set (having never seen either cut of the film), and finally got around to watching the US version, what I was expecting was far worse than what I got. For the time, it's not at all as bad as it could have been. Your criticism is something I'd actually apply more to New World Pictures' GODZILLA 1985. By that time I would have expected more fidelity to the original.
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post #125 of 352
5/28/08 at 3:18pm
King Kong was actually more popular in Japan than Godzilla at the time KK vs. G was made. In fact, Toho had been trying to make a King Kong film of their own when the script for the aborted King Kong vs. Frankenstein fell into their lap when it couldn't get off the ground in the States. If anything, it was a King Kong movie featuring Godzilla as the villain -- he gets top billing and wins the fight.

Besides, if it was all about Godzilla's popularity, why did seven years go by between the previous Godzilla film and this one?
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post #126 of 352
5/28/08 at 3:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Besides, if it was all about Godzilla's popularity, why did seven years go by between the previous Godzilla film and this one?
I am not saying that it was all about Godzilla's popularity. I am saying Godzilla would not be the iconic figure it is today if not for its popularity in the United States, which began with the original "King of the Monsters".
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post #127 of 352
5/29/08 at 1:51pm
Love this tread.For all you guys curious about how Godzilla would be full cgi ya gotta check out the clip from the recent film Always.One of the characters has a dream that Godzilla destroys his village.Its awesome I'd love to see a whole Godzilla film like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6fqe6qL_No

Oh btw Jet Jaguar rules
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post #128 of 352
5/29/08 at 1:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by buddhabliss View Post
Love this tread.For all you guys curious about how Godzilla would be full cgi ya gotta check out the clip from the recent film Always.One of the characters has a dream that Godzilla destroys his village.Its awesome I'd love to see a whole Godzilla film like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6fqe6qL_No

Oh btw Jet Jaguar rules
I could actually handle an entire movie like that myself. Pretty good stuff.
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post #129 of 352
5/29/08 at 2:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by buddhabliss View Post
Love this tread.For all you guys curious about how Godzilla would be full cgi ya gotta check out the clip from the recent film Always.One of the characters has a dream that Godzilla destroys his village.Its awesome I'd love to see a whole Godzilla film like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6fqe6qL_No

Oh btw Jet Jaguar rules
As soon as the Godzilla theme kicks in, I'm hooked.

It cuts right at the reveal???
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post #130 of 352
5/29/08 at 3:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
It cuts right at the reveal???
Yeah I believe so.I havent seen the film yet but read a review.The character wakes up right when we see Godzilla in full.
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post #131 of 352
5/29/08 at 3:49pm
Here it is, in full scope and without the reveal cut off. Great stuff. The bar for any eventual Godzilla films just got raised, and I wonder if that was at least partially the point...
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post #132 of 352
5/29/08 at 11:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reggie-wanker View Post
It's a different movie to me, telling a similar story with a lot of shared elements. It is unavoidably less meaningful, and has its share of flaws. I appreciate where you're coming from, and I'd never deny the original version of the film is immeasurably superior, but when I bought that two-disc set (having never seen either cut of the film), and finally got around to watching the US version, what I was expecting was far worse than what I got. For the time, it's not at all as bad as it could have been. Your criticism is something I'd actually apply more to New World Pictures' GODZILLA 1985. By that time I would have expected more fidelity to the original.
Granted, 1985 accomplished the seemingly impossible task of making Raymond Burr even less integral to the story than in the original. Sticking him in a control booth saying things like "You don't know what you're dealing with" over and over didn't do him any favors. Although without that, we wouldn't have the closeup of the soldier drinking Dr. Pepper, which is the single most hilariously blatant product placement shot I've ever seen.
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post #133 of 352
5/29/08 at 11:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by reggie-wanker View Post
Here it is, in full scope and without the reveal cut off. Great stuff. The bar for any eventual Godzilla films just got raised, and I wonder if that was at least partially the point...
That two minutes was better than all two hours of the Devlin/Emmerich version.
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post #134 of 352
5/29/08 at 11:44pm
I really hope that Toho has the guts to throw tradition to the wind and ditch the rubber suits next time they relaunch the series. That clip was a glorious example of what could be. Imagine: Godzilla with an actual full range of motion. The mind boggles.
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post #135 of 352
5/29/08 at 11:48pm
It's not even the CGI so much as just the sheer verve with which they build up to his appearance. Putting us at ground level while Godzilla runs amok is just awesome. It's like a mini Godzilla version of Cloverfield.
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post #136 of 352
5/29/08 at 11:50pm
It definitely does bring the awe back to the monster.
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post #137 of 352
5/30/08 at 12:32am
That clip was cool, but imagine the full length movie that could be gotten from THIS trailer
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post #138 of 352
6/1/08 at 7:00pm
- TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA and ALL MONSTERS ATTACK Now on Sale
A quick reminder that Classic Media’s last two Godzilla DVDs— ALL MONSTERS ATTACK (aka GODZILLA’S REVENGE) and TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA— went on sale today (April 29th, 2008). The discs were originally released last November as part of THE GODZILLA COLLECTION DVD box set but are now available separately for the first time from stores and online retailers.


- Hey, a new collectible miniature game: MONSTERPOCALYPSE
Play as an Ultra-Man-ish hero, giant robot (GUARD), dinosaur (Terrasaurs), or Cthulhu faction.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
It's not even the CGI so much as just the sheer verve with which they build up to his appearance. Putting us at ground level while Godzilla runs amok is just awesome. It's like a mini Godzilla version of Cloverfield.
Word.

Details.


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post #139 of 352
6/2/08 at 2:48pm
Thanks for that link darkmites.They gotta let this guy direct the next Godzilla film.I love how he knows when to use cgi or when to use other methods.Also having a film set in the Showa period would be awesome.
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post #140 of 352
6/8/08 at 9:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
- Hey, a new collectible miniature game: MONSTERPOCALYPSE
Play as an Ultra-Man-ish hero, giant robot (GUARD), dinosaur (Terrasaurs), or Cthulhu faction.




Word.
Wow, this thing looks like fun. I only hope it's a decent game and not just a series of cool little figures with an elaborate coin flip or rock/paper/ scissors game attached.
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post #141 of 352
6/9/08 at 1:08am
Had I not sworn a solemn oath to forsake all things collectible, I would be checking this out. But nothing is making me violate that oath short of collectible underage Asian prostitutes.
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post #142 of 352
6/9/08 at 8:20pm
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of collectible games either (I thought that aspect was dumb when I was a teen playing Magic: The Gathering), but this is a Kaiju-thulhu game. I'll probably never play it, since I won't have anybody else to play with, but I still might buy some just to check them out, and have miniature Kaiju figures strewn about my house.
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post #143 of 352
7/12/08 at 4:30pm
http://www.nipponcinema.com/releases...classic_media/

AWESOME. Love the snazzy packaging, too, though I wish they'd favored Rodan being on the cover.

I wish these guys had access to the entire catalog,
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post #144 of 352
7/12/08 at 5:16pm
I remember reading about a Rodan Nintendo game back in like 1989-90 that was gonna come out for the original NES in the "coming soon" section of Nintendo Power. I know we never got it in the States but did they ever do one for the Japanese Famicon? Anyone else remember reading this?
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post #145 of 352
7/12/08 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTSMGL View Post
I wish these guys had access to the entire catalog,
I was so excited when the run started with the first three, as I thought we were getting the entire series in order. I wish every company that put out foreign releases put this kind of care into their product, Harvey Weinstein.
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post #146 of 352
7/12/08 at 6:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I was so excited when the run started with the first three, as I thought we were getting the entire series in order. I wish every company that put out foreign releases put this kind of care into their product, Harvey Weinstein.
Hell, just tell me they got the rights for Godzilla vs. King Kong and Destroy All Monsters and I'd be happy it to leave it there.

Actually, put in Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster and I'm set (I have a soft spot for that one).
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post #147 of 352
7/12/08 at 6:23pm
So do I, interestingly. It was my favorite as a kid.
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post #148 of 352
7/12/08 at 6:31pm
The original King Kong vs Godzilla is never going to get an R1 release, so you might as well go pick up an R2 if you want it so badly.

BTSMGL, Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas was released a few years back by Sony, it features the original Japanese version with English subtitles. I'm suprised you don't have it seeing as you have so many DVDs. :P
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post #149 of 352
7/12/08 at 7:10pm
I came late to the Classic Media Rodan/Garguatan release news party but I echo the sentiments of Greg David in wishing more studios took the interest that Classic Media did with their Godzilla property. I remember actually being dissapointed with them enitially with their bare-bones fullscreen DVD's that didn't even feature "Monster Zero". They seemed like a company that just bought the rights over from the movies that Paramount and Simitar had previously distributed and really had no interest whatsoever. Then along comes news of the Gojira release and subsequent boxed set featuring even more than the original 5 or six titles from before. Columbia was alright but nothing special. The inclusion of the original American dubs with the uncut Japanese versions would have been a good way to please everyone but they slept for the most part in that department.

The studio that has Destroy All Monsters did even worse. No chapter stops. Neither the original AIP dub or the Japanese version with subtitles? Weak. They even re-released it with the same problems.

I'm still waiting on an official Godzilla 1985 DVD with both the U.S. and Japanese versions. Could be awhile. I understand they're having trouble in figuring out who has the rights to it.
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post #150 of 352
7/12/08 at 7:31pm
I believe ADV, the company who released Destroy All Monsters is going out of business. So, once the rights go back to Toho, maybe Classic Media can pick it up. Too bad MGM is still sitting on the rights to Gorath, The Last War, and The Secrets of Telegian.

Also no one seems to have said anything about this so...

H-Man, Mothra, Battle in Outer Space and Mothra 3 (Bleh) are being released in a box set for early 2009. It's by the same people who put out The Sam Katzman Collection for Sony.
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