godzilla3580
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-13-2014 9:29 PMHey everybody, Godzilla3580 here, and I am back with the discussion for Godzilla Raids Again, the second installment in the godzilla series! It took me a long while to post this after the 1954 discussion, but I'll get these discussions out as fast as possible now as we count down the days until May 16!
Godzilla Raids Again is about a fisherman who encounters two giant monsters while saving his friend on a Japanese island. When the monsters bring their fight to the mainland, it leave Osaka in ruins. Finally, the Japanese men are able to trap Godzilla in an iceburg.
Honestly, this is probably one of my least favorite Godzilla movies. After the box office success of Gojira, Toho started production of this movie and had it released in six months, which you can almost tell in the final product. The movie was very character driven, but in my opinon, too much. It just seemed to me like this was a movie about two fishermen that just so happened to have Godzilla in it.
Now the best thing about this movie for me was the fights. I liked how they made these two monsters duel. It wasn't just two monsters shooting rays at each other or two guys in suits doing karate moves. It was actually two monsters literally wrestling to the death.
Also, I thought the ending was anticlimactic. Kobayashi's death wasn't very dramatic, and Godzilla was defeated way too easy.
Overall, I give this one a 4/10
So what do you guys think? What did you like about Godzilla Raids Again? What didn't you like? Make sure to tell me what we should cover in the next review? See you in the next discussion!
petedj06
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-13-2014 9:34 PMThis is one that I haven't seen in a LONG time, and I have never seen the original one without the dubbing. I honestly want to see it again. All I remember is the meeting where they talk about the origins of Angy and Godzilla.
godzilla3580
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-13-2014 9:40 PMYea the dubbed version is even worse (I would give that one a 2/10). The narration just ruined it for me. If you want to watch it, watch the original Japanese version.
G. H. (Gman)
AdminGodzillaFeb-13-2014 10:00 PM@Petedj06
I highly recommend you watch the original Japanese version. While it still has issues, it's a much more cohesive film that echoes much of the haunting pieces of the first film.
It's the last third or so where the film falls apart, but it's a much more enjoyable experience than the Gigantis version.
npinkham19
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-13-2014 10:24 PMThere's things that I adore about that movie but largely it's a miss. The first voyeuristic fight between the rocks was awesome and I loved how the monsters fought. The way they dispatched Godzilla was original but handled poorly. The tension of the fire truck explosion and Godzilla noticing was great too. Best scene is a chilling moment where a woman looks out her window and can see the devastation far away.
For the absolutely awful stuff, nearly every explosion is super imposed onto Godzilla and it looks God awful. The stock footage of the 54 attack goes on forever. If you watch the dub the narration and b movie opening are useless , not too mention the dub borderline offense with over the top stereotype Japanese accents, and for some reason they swapped Anguirus and Godzilla's roars.
For me though, the absolute biggest offense is the pacing. There's barely any build up to Godzilla's arrival and afterwards the film comes to a complete halt for a solid 14 minutes I think I counted. We follow the characters normal, every day lives with no tension at all for nearly 15 minutes, it is by far the most boring segment in the entire Godzilla series and killed what up to that point was a fairly decent film. I think it's the shortest Godzilla movie which is sad when I can say they should have severely trimmed it even more.
Ray Burrberry
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-13-2014 10:46 PM@Godzilla3580
You're right when you mentioned that the movie was very character driven. In fact it was so much so that it took away from it. Still, there several things that I enjoy about Godzilla Raids Again including the first monster vs. monster action in the series, the serious tone of the film which was enhanced by the soundtrack and also the fact that it was in black and white. The film also had a documentary style to it including those scenes where a discussion is being held on the possible origin of the two monsters. Overall, it is a good entry in the series. It just could've benefitted from a better balance between the monster action and storytelling.
Deadite Kaiju
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-13-2014 11:05 PMI agree, Godzilla raids again is one of my least favourite. I didn't like it much.
Durp004
MemberBaragonFeb-14-2014 4:37 AMI really believe this is the most underrated Godzilla movies of all time. Since it was the sequel to the original it's often left in it's shadow, but I like it much better than most of the other entries.
The monster fight in the best monster fight in the whole series. There's no beams, no karate, no comical shots, its a serious deathmatch that every director should have had to watch before directing any fight scene in the sequels. The characters are decent, the Godzilla suit doesn't look as good as the first one but it still looks ok, not the worst suit by far. The build up for the attacks was really good. Seeing the city getting evacuated and them succceeding to lure Godzilla away just so he would come back due to a decent car chase worked very well for me.
Unfortunately the dub is the worst Godzilla movie dubbing of all time, and the reason I think this movie is so underrated. When I just saw the dub I disliked this movie quite a lot, due to him never being referenced as Godzilla, messing up the roar, making the voice of yogi bear completely take away any seriousness a character had. I really think if more people saw the sub, rather than the dub the movie would be looked at differently, but unfortunately a lot of people would rather see an inferior movie rather than read though a better 1.
Herro Prease
MemberMothra LarvaeFeb-14-2014 7:08 AMIt introduced Anguirus so I will always love it for that. The swapping of the roars still confuses and bothers me but I like it more than Godzilla's Revenge and Son of Godzilla, so not the worse in the series.
Huge-Ben
MemberBaragonFeb-14-2014 3:11 PMyes the original japanese version is by far better than the english dubbed version and i really enjoyed this movie it was the first film i seen that had two gigantic monsters dukeing it out
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