The Kaiju thread (Godzilla and friends)

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Atragon (1963)


This is not a Godzilla movie, but it's monster—Manda—was later included in the Godzilla films Destroy All Monsters and Final Wars , joining the crowd of Mothra, Rodan, Varan, and Baragon [plus sort-of Moguera] as monsters making the leap from one movie into the G series.

At any rate the Showa Godzilla trifecta is here: Honda (dir.), Tsuburaya (spfx), and Ifukube (music). The plot is that an Atlantis-like empire threatens the world and a long sequestered commander has to be convinced to use his advanced sub not to restore Japan but to defeat the evil Mu empire and its sea-monster god Manda.

[Frank Castle Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Castle]

Yes Gamera the Brave is the movie I was thinking of, that supposedly was a flop and the end for poor Gamera.

Well I have some things to say about a bunch of G films I watched last weekend and its very negative!!

1971 - Godzilla vs. Hedorah

This is probably one of the worst G movies I have watched in my latest run, it seems like the arrival of Gamera and the turn of decade into the 70s peace movement is actually having a negative effect on the big G.

I dont even know where to start with this one, half the time it felt like I was watching one of those VHS educational shows you would have to watch in school about the pollution and how to keep the world clean, it even had cartoons.

Then theirs what I'm going to call the smog monster, yeah I'm calling him that, LOL I found myself laughing at it throwing sludge at people, almost blob like in its attacks (if only this movie was as good as the blob).
TBF despite its origin the monsters design and powers were quite cool I thought, which I'll get to later.

The human element in this movie was piss poor, I couldn't even remember their names while watching never mind now, the characters were completely uninteresting, every one of them, hey lets throw fire at the giant smog monster that will work, when that guy died I didn't care one bit.

The last half n hour of this movie saves it from being complete shit, and thats because the G man himself has to takeover this movie and is on screen for most of the last 30mins.

Now the fight between G and Smog was actually one of the best fights Ive seen in my re-run, I LOL'ed when Godzilla found a way to fly, and I like how he made SURE that smog monster was not coming back, a really good fight to end what was truly a shit movie, damn shame.

Then we have Godzilla vs. Gigan or maybe they should have called it Godzilla vs Stockfootage, you see this is where watching older films before gives you a different perspective, because if I was watching these movies on random I'd be getting confused at what and what I'm seeing again, but now I'm fully aware of Toho's tricks at cutting corners.

Being an art person I liked Gengo, the others not so much, but atleast they had some purpose unlike the movie before this.

Again the last fight really helps this movie out Gigan was a real tough opponent for G and the four way battle was again one of the best I've seen featuring that many monsters at once.

This movie was not great but I can enjoy it, although alien invasion is starting to wear thin on me, especially when its not done anywhere near as good as previous movies.

Next up I have the pleasure of watching Godzilla vs Megalon, which Spacecop already warned me, is one the worst G films out there, lord help me, if its as bad or worse than smog monster.

Its no surprise they're only a couple more movies left in this era, its been a bad decade for G, I hope the last few really pickup before I hit the 80s reboot.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Gigan is probably my least favorite. I hate the talking bit.

At least the last movie of the Showa-era (Terror of Mechagodzilla) was directed by Ishiro Honda again is generally considered the best of the 70s offerings.

[Frank Castle Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Castle]

I just finished watching it, I guess because I was expecting the worst, it did not feel so bad, no way near as bad as when I watched smog monster. Jet Jaguar aka budget Ultraman I'm guessing was a failed attempt at making a new character for marketing merchandise, he even got his own theme song, I'm guessing he never took off since I've never heard of him in any other movies, or Toho got sued and left him to rot.

This was the first time I've noticed a design change in Godzilla, I was thinking theirs something different about him, and was confirmed with more stock footage was throw in of his previous self.

Yes I've heard good things about the last two movies especially Terror of Mechagodzilla, I've been looking forward to watching that because before my rerun one of the other only Godzilla movies I had seen was Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla which I really enjoyed, so the mechagodzilla movies may well turn out to be my fav mini trilogy inside the Godzilla universe.

Plus I'm a mecha fan so that helps, I sure hope mechagodzilla returns if theirs a reboot, but I guess it depends on what direction they go with it, as its less sci-fi and more real, however I did hear something about a 2nd monster.......

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

The MechaG from the 90s is a different take on it since it's a human-controlled mech. The first one is an alien weapon.

Yeah, Jet Jaguar was definitely an attempt to cash in on Ultraman and others. I don't think they were sued. He just wasn't as popular at the time as they hoped. They might've tried him again if the series wasn't cancelled mid 70s.

His blatant pandering appearance can be chalked up to his origin. From the Godzilla wiki:

Jet Jaguar was the result of a contest Toho had in mid-to-late 1972 for fans to come up with a new hero for them to use (to capitalize on the many tokusatsu and anime superhero and super robot shows that were all the rage at the time). The winner of the contest submitted the drawing of a robot called Red Arone. The robot resembled both Ultraman and Mazinger Z (both of which were very popular). The robot was renamed "Jet Jaguar" and was set to star in a film vehicle for him, titled Jet Jaguar Vs. Megalon, which pitted him against Megalon (a previously unused Godzilla monster design). However, Toho figured Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry the film on his own, in screen appearance or marketing value (which was a big thing with Toho), so during pre-production, even after doing some tests and storyboards, the project was shut down for several weeks, until screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa was called in to rewrite the script to add Godzilla and Gigan to have more marquee value. The resulting film, Godzilla vs. Megalon, paired Godzilla with Jet Jaguar against both Megalon and Gigan.

[Lex Luthor Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Lex Luthor]

So here's a quick fan-made recreation of the teaser shown at the SDCC.

+ YouTube Video

[Frank Castle Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Castle]

Not sure what to say about that video.....

The MechaG from the 90s is a different take on it since it's a human-controlled mech. The first one is an alien weapon.

I know but its still mecha I dont care if its a sentient being or not, giant robots rule!

Well I watched the last two and Terror of Mechagodzilla was a great end to this era, the story was quite bleak, it also funny enough reminded me of FOUR!!!!!!! Gundam fans will get that.

I was wondering how long before in Godzilla we would see a human/alien have direct control over a monster.

I also watched the 80s reboot last night and wow...wow this was fn great I'd say my fav so far, it was done how a Godzilla movie should be imo, a disaster movie with Godzilla being the natural disaster, it was done in a believable way, no stupid aliens in funny looking suits or space monkey men, no this was as real as it could be, certainly during this era in the world the cold war was still going on and its interesting to see how this played into the movie.

I'm watching the Japanese versions for all these movies, but I heard the American version has Perry Mason in it, I loved that show, I might just have to see that version although I hear those parts are not very good and people are phoning it in, and they make the russians look bad, because theirs no good russians in the 80s, not until Rocky went over there and started world peace

The SFX have really stepped up here too, this wasn't a surprise because I've seen Sayonara Jupiter which came out in the same year and has the most wonderful effects I've seen, even now I think it looks great, shame that movie was abit of a mess.

Still the way Godzilla comes to Japan and just mashes everything up was fantastic, the models of buildings/roads/ ships (SuperX!) were all very detailed, I guess with what was going on in Hollywood with Star Wars, meant Toho and Japan had to step their games up, and they sure did.

I loved the soundtrack as well, I know its not the classical G themes but I still enjoyed it, being a son of the 80s helps.

Cant really say a bad thing about this movie, its one hell of a reboot, for all the reboots I've seen, they got this one right, and its almost a shame that I know they will be throwing more monsters in as that's when it starts to get a bit silly (a good kind of silly though).

After getting through some of those quite bad 70s movies, this movie certainly put the king of monsters back on top.

I've read many people dont like the 80s era of Godzilla because its not like 50-70s era, I guess its a generation gap thing, much like are own GL comics, I have a feeling I might just like this 80s era more, if this reboot is anything to go by, but I still fully respect the era before it, and that has some great movies too.

[Lex Luthor Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Lex Luthor]

Not sure what to say about that video.....

Yeah, it's extremely low tech, though I guess I appreciate someone taking the time to put it together in order to give some people an idea of what the teaser was described as being. Execution may not be great, but the idea is sound (I think ... maybe I'm too kind?).

I also watched the 80s reboot last night and wow...wow this was fn great I'd say my fav so far, it was done how a Godzilla movie should be imo, a disaster movie with Godzilla being the natural disaster, it was done in a believable way, no stupid aliens in funny looking suits or space monkey men, no this was as real as it could be, certainly during this era in the world the cold war was still going on and its interesting to see how this played into the movie.

I'm watching the Japanese versions for all these movies, but I heard the American version has Perry Mason in it, I loved that show, I might just have to see that version although I hear those parts are not very good and people are phoning it in, and they make the russians look bad, because theirs no good russians in the 80s, not until Rocky went over there and started world peace

I'm another who absolutely loved Godzilla 1985 ever since I first watched it as a kid. It's very well done in making Godzilla a threat again, and one that's very much a force of nature. The americanized version is definately worth checking out as well, if even just for Raymond Burr and his eloquent speach given during Godzilla's seemingly demise at the climax of the film. Though it's unfortunately true that there's alot of wrong going on as well. From Dr. Pepper advertisements, to cold war propaganda, to extremely uneven lines of dialogue. As it's evident New World attempted injecting comedy into the film, which really doesn't work as the tone is consistently serious.

[Frank Castle Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Castle]

Yeah, it's extremely low tech, though I guess I appreciate someone taking the time to put it together in order to give some people an idea of what the teaser was described as being. Execution may not be great, but the idea is sound (I think ... maybe I'm too kind?).

As it's evident New World attempted injecting comedy into the film, which really doesn't work as the tone is consistently serious.

Ha no its because I'm too harsh, I wasn't sure if the vid was a real effort or someone's idea of a joke gone bad, but it seems to be serious, I'm not going to knock it for lack of skills in art, it was put together well, the last bit kind of pops up out of nowhere though, but its a decent effort.

Godzilla reboot is a serious film so yeah apart from a little comedy relief (which you get in that random bum character) I dont think you need anything heavy.

I dont know how they got that movie so right and the 98 movie so wrong, by a director that specialises in disaster movies to boot.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

When is the public actually going to see the real teaser?

[Lex Luthor Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Lex Luthor]

When is the public actually going to see the real teaser?

Probably not for a good long while, if ever.

I think the SDCC teaser was more of a promotional thing than anything else. Would love to see it of course, but would be surprised if we do see the exact same teaser shown.

[Frank Castle Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Castle]

I have to agree that we wont ever see that teaser, at this point Godzilla is still in the pipes, while 2014 is the target that doesn't mean the project wont fall apart, I'm still waiting for a Robotech and Akira movie afterall, for that reason showing a teaser for a film that might not be out till 2015 or even later would be dumb.

More likely it was test footage to show investors rather than fans.

Have any of you guys seen this before ?;

+ YouTube Video

Too bad its not real.

[Lex Luthor Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Lex Luthor]

Yeah, ALWAYS SUNSET ON THIRD STREET 2.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2...-third-street/

[Frank Castle Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Frank Castle]

Yeah I knew what film it was from, but I never read the directors notes on it before, so thanks that was quite an interesting read.

I wonder if they as in Toho made another Godzilla film that infact it wouldn't be set in modern times at all, but like this movie here set in the past, I wonder how fans would react, Godzilla has never done a period piece, might be the way to to bring him back....

I watched Godzilla vs Biollante last night, it was alright they went into crazy story land here, giant rose really? I guess I was too blown away with 84, so this was abit crazy being the next movie, but its the silly fun you get in these movies.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

A period piece like a remake/reboot of Gojira set in '54? Could be cool. I'm good either way.