My Godzilla Marathon

Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla: Oh boy, this movie. So far the bad films in the Heisei series have just been boring, but at times this one can be infuriating. The only positives I can say about this movie is Godzilla design looks good and LittleGodzilla looks cute. Absolutely none of the characters are interesting or have depth. Yuki is almost an exact copy of Haruo and the two main guys are extremely bland. Mrs Gondo takes Miki’s role of being an exposition piece rather than a character. The obviously evil guy who kidnaps Miki has so little and such a cliche motivation it’s laughable. When Miki asks why he’s doing it, he literally says what almost every poorly written villain would say: power. I said this movie infuriated me, but the only real reason was what the writers did to Miki. Where do I start with her?! She suddenly has some kind of bond to Mothra through some earrings, but they never showed this at the end of Godzilla vs Mothra or through the entirety of Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla 1993. Her ESP is suddenly so powerful now that she can move stuff like a Jedi. It has never been indicated that any psychics were able to do this. Their powers only extended to mind control, being able to feel the presence of things far away, and prophecy. This sudden new ability feels like total plot armor. But the worst thing they did to her is how she reacted to people who disagreed with her about Godzilla’s right to live. Now I agree with her that humanity should find a way to make peace with Godzilla rather than try to kill or control him. But instead of trying to make them see her point of view, she just insults, belittles, or goes on a tirade on somebody who disagrees with her. It feels so self-righteous and holier than thou. Let’s also not forgot she had the opinion of killing Godzilla only a year prior. She completely forgets why people still justifiably want Godzilla dead. Even though after MechaGodzilla 1993 he hasn’t caused destruction and just hanged out with his son, the scars of the destruction and death he caused in the past are still their. She should have been able to see both sides which would allow her to better get people on her side because she understands . But instead she just whines and puts down anyone who disagrees with her. Also, the fact that the fairies say that she saved earth is a complete lie. She did absolutely nothing. The most confusing thing she says in the film is that SpaceGodzilla had the same “feelings” as Godzilla. No he didn’t! Godzilla only ever killed or destroyed out of anger or instinct, but SpaceGodzilla seemed to be a truely malevolent and malicious entity. Speaking of SpaceGodzilla, like a lot of monsters in the Heisei series at this point, he suffers from the same extreme stiffness disorder as his predecessors. Because of that, the beam spamming is at its worse. Good luck keeping your eyes open during the monster battles. Moguera is completely pathetic and shouldn’t have ever been called “the ultimate Godzilla killing machine”. The models have seem to got a lot worse. The most egregious instance is the Space battle. You can see the strings on SpaceGodzilla and Moguera and the meteors don’t even move. This movie is only for the the really hardcore fans who don’t mind going through pain, I give this garbage fire a 1/5.

I enjoyed that.

Gman: Thanks. I just can’t repeat enough how badly the writers ruined Miki. It was the thing I hated most in the film.

While it's not the thing I hated most, as I've never been much of a fan of her, the film is one I deem the worst of the series--For much of the same reasons you went through... Among many others.

Godzilla vs Destoroyah: It’s not perfect, but I think it’s a satisfying conclusion to the Heisei series. I know I said Miki became interesting in this one, but rewatching I didn’t feel the same way. None of the characters are really standouts, but they are all at least decently written, so you won’t be bored out of your gourd. I’d like to say that even though no characters stood out to me I thought the acting was phenomenal, especially from the actress who played Miki. It would be hard to try to pull off sobbing for a dinosaur but the actress did exactly that. The actress who played the news reporter did a really good job conveying fear when she was attacked by an aggregate Destoroyah. The movie is the second darkest movie to me, besides the original 54 film of course. It’s filled with creepy scenes. The fish slowly disintegrating, the aggregates prowling through the dark hallway, and the one aggregate shrieking as it burns alive come to mind. The aggregate form for Destoroyah itself is really creepy and gross, and it make his scenes all the more terrifying. While the flying and perfect form LOOK nice, they are unfortunately very stiff like the other monsters from the Heisei series. The fight with junior is your typical Heisei series battle, lots of beam spamming and little physical interaction. However, the fight with Burning Godzilla is actually really good. It uses a lot more physical attacks and beams are used more sparingly. It’s actually quite an intense and somewhat brutal fight, there is actually a decent amount of blood shed (albeit yellow and white blood). I know a lot of people complain that the end of the fight sucks because Godzilla didn’t finish Destoroyah off, but I actually agree with decision cause it allows for a more poignant and dramatic death for Godzilla. The Burning Godzilla suit actually looks very well done and I consider it a accomplishment on Kawikita’s part. The steam coming out was a nice touch and I’m surprised they were able to pull it off. I heard that the poor suit actor fainted from the steam more than once. Points to him not only for that, but I think he did really good portraying Godzilla’s sorrow after the death of his son. Godzilla’s death feels very tragic. His son was everything to him, and he lost him, and then he himself died a slow and a incredibly painful death himself. Ifukube’s soundtrack is even more spot on than usual, especially the opening. Overall a pretty good film but it still has some problems. While decent the characters don’t really stand out so it can kinda drag on in some places. Also, the quality for the effects have seemed to go way down. Besides Destoroyah’s stiffness the models look a lot worse than they did at the beginning of the Heisei series. However, I still think it’s a good film, I give it a 4/5

Update coming tonight!

Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy: It was cool to see Mothra have her own individual films again, but having said that there was a lot of wasted potential in this trilogy. None of the human characters in any of these movies are interesting, they are either extremely bland, generic, irritating, or a combination. I actually liked Belvera cause she was super hammy like the wicked witch of the west or Rita repulsa. Both of the Elias actors are good, but their acting can be a little over the top at times, especially when Mothra/Mothra Leo gets hurt. Sadly, Mothra’s stiffness hasn’t improved at all and as a result the beam spamming is in full force. The only fight that I enjoyed throughout this entire trilogy was between Cretaceous Ghidorah and Mothra Leo cause they actually had a lot of physical attacks. The scripts are full of problems. Every movie feels like a rehash of the previous, the pacing can be nonexistent at times, and also lots of plot holes, not to mention a really immature and childish tone. I think people should only watch these films if their big Mothra fans and have the virtue of patience. My rankings for the films are:

Rebirth of Mothra: 2/5

Rebirth of Mothra II: 1/5

Rebirth of Mothra III: 3/5

Unfortunately, I don’t have Godzilla 1998. I hoped to watch it on Netflix but it got taken down. So the next review is for Godzilla 2000: Millennium.

Godzilla 2000 Millennium: It’s okay, but it’s nothing really spectacular. The main character actually interested me a little bit. He has a past at a college that practiced unethical science, he has a friend who works on the opposing side, and he had an interesting sub-plot about using Godzilla’s cells for medical purposes (sadly it went nowhere.) Besides that however, he mostly felt like a a underdeveloped character to me. The female reporter was kind of annoying, she spent 90% of the movie complaining and moaning. The daughter is by the far the most bland character. She has very little screen time and her acting is almost as emotionless as Hayden Christiansen when he was in the SW prequels. I laughed when she was supposed to have an emotional moment with her dad after the blowing up tower scene, cause I could not believe they expected me to get teary-eyed over this girl. I love Katigiri, he’s just so over the top. He is just so over the top evil and he always had these big bulging eyes. Can you say ham? However, I though he would have worked better as a grey anti-villain rather than pure evil since considering his role as the protector of Japan. I will say Godzilla looks really good in this movie. It’s different but not too different. The green skin and purple dorsal plates go really well to together and the suit seems to be able to express a decent range of emotion (not as good as the Heisei suit though). I really didn’t care for Orga. He just seems like a combination of tropes of foes from previous Godzilla films. He does have a decent design, but I didn’t really see it as spectacular. The fight between Godzilla and Orga itself good, but it drags on way to long and I just wanted it to end after awhile. Overall, this movie is just kinda meh, 2/5.

Godzilla vs Megaguirus: I find this one meh as well, but maybe a little bit worse than 2000. The main character is a Haruo type, only thinking about Godzilla and always saying how much she hates him and wants to kill him. The self-employed scientist guy was just your average comic relief, nothing really special about him. Look I know he was just a kid, but that little boy was an idiot. Did he really think taking the egg with him was a good idea? And worse, the main character says that the Meganula invasion wasn’t his fault! Uh, yea it was! Also, everyone seems so calm and sure that the black hole plan will work. It’s a BLACK HOLE! Don’t they realize how easily wrong it could’ve gone. I don’t care if it’s miniaturized, it still could’ve made untold death and destruction if it went wrong. If you want to know a scene that I actually though was really good, it was the back ally scene. It was kinda disturbing and reminded me of the aggregate Destoroyah Scenes. Megaguirus herself looks really creepy looking, but that effect is sort of lost because for the millionth time the wings are stiff. The fight between her and Godzilla itself is good, but like Millennium it drags on too long. Honestly this movie bored me to tears in some places, and I remember almost falling asleep during one scene. Watch this film only if you have the endurance. 2/5.

I was really hoping for an agreeing opinion on the mediocrity that is Destroyah. I will continue to wait for that day.

Destoroyah as in the character or the movie?

Final Update this Saturday.

Titan of Water,
The movie.

EmptyH,
I got you. I enjoy the flick, but it's not particularly as great as the fandom at large tends to see it.

Whenever you can't figure out who the main character is, you have serious problems.

It definitely still has problems. It’s not even close to Biollante in terms of quality. What I was trying to say with a 4/5 rating was that it was good but not great.

Okay, this is the final update. Because I have a lot of movies to cover and I really want to do an in-depth review of KOTM, the reviews for GMK-The Planet Eater will be very short. Expect lengthy reviews for these movies through the coming months.

GMK: It has a great cast of characters, a new and refreshing plot, well done fight and destruction scenes, and the use of a message, while not very subtle, is still handled very well in my opinion. 5/5.

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla: Great practical effects and a great main character. The fight scenes are way better than MechaGodzilla 1994 cause MechaGodzilla can move and use more than just projectiles. 4/5.

Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S.: It has a main character not very interesting compared to the previous movie but he is tolerable for me. The fight scenes are even better than the previous movie and are a blast to watch. Mothra is very well made, a blend of classic and realistic. Kiryu is hands down the best MechaGodzilla cause he actually has a personality. 4/5.

Godzilla Final Wars: It certainly isn’t deep like the 1954 original, and quite nonsensical, but honestly, that’s what makes this movie so fun. There is tons of monster action and the human scenes are just as entertaining by how dumb and campy they are. Honestly I had a blast with this movie. 3/5.

Got a kick out of those quick truncated reviews!

Shin Godzilla: While I didn’t find any of the characters particularly interesting, I felt like each at least had somewhat of a developed personality. I didn’t really care for Godzilla’s first or second form, but I really like his third form, it’s just so disturbing and nasty looking. One particular destruction scene is on a whole other scale than any other previous Godzilla movie. The movie really shines in it’s use of political commentary. Though you do get a lot of complaining from characters that outright state the message of the movie, it’s can actually be quite subtle by just showing you what a really goes on in the Japanese government. A Godzilla movie that makes you think is a good movie in my book. 4/5.

Planet of the Monsters: Extremely one note characters that is not at all helped by the lack of Godzilla. If there is movie that should make people complain about a lack of Godzilla, it’s this one. He had way less screen time than the 2014 movie. But I must admit that I thought the climax was satisfying and I was able to stay awake whenever Metphies was on screen. 3/5.

City on the Edge of Battle: A horrifically boring movie with characters from the previous movie having absolutely no development from their experience in the previous movie. It’s not really the lack of monster fights that bothers me, it’s the complete lack of interesting characters who almost only speak in technobabble. Not even Metphies can save this movie. The worst disservice this movie gave was when it pulled a Rian Johnson and “subverted my expectations” by giving me no actual MechaGodzilla, just a big city. I’m not against twists, I’m against terribly written twists! 1/5

Same problems with the first two plus a terrible Ghidorah design and a monster battle I can’t even call a monster battle. A better word is an “interaction”. The only thing that raises this movie above City on the Edge of Battle is the scenes between Haruo and Metphies. 2/5

Godzilla 2014: Only real complaint is Ford Brody. Good Godzilla gravy was he boring. He only had ONE scene were I thought his acting was believable. Besides that he is an emotionless cliche action hero who has an annoying surfer accent. Besides that everything is great. Joe Brody and Serizawa were wonderful characters (too bad they were tragically robbed and we were stuck with the bland as bread son). The tension is kept perfectly throughout the film. The special effects still hold up five years later. The scale is perfectly shone and the monster battles, while short, are excellent. The themes are more shown that said aloud with the only exception being the “let them fight scene”. 4/5.

Alright guys, here it is, KOTM:

Warning, possible spoilers:

The critics were WAY to hard on this movie. That’s definitely not to say it doesn’t have problems, but the complete lack of awareness of the positive qualities of this movie on the critics part astounds me. So let’s just get the negatives out of the way. There is a noticeable lack of interesting characters. But I do have three that I enjoyed watching: Mark Russell, Emma Russell, and Serizawa. The others characters were a little too simplistic or underdeveloped, especially in the case of Alan Jonah. If this movie wasn’t being made before Infinity War I’d call him a Thanos knockoff. Another complaint is that the dialogue can be kinda cringy in some places. Not a lot of the many jokes landed for me. But I think those are my only two real complaints. Mark Russell is a great everyman who dosnt have grand motivations like his ex-wife or Alan Jonah, he just wants he family back. Kyle Chandlers acting was really believable to me and their never was really a dull moment with him. Emma Russell is a good grey anti-hero, torn between, as would Dumbledore, what is right (not commiting genocide even though environmental progress will be much slower or become nonexistent) and what is easy (committing genocide to save the planet). She had a great redemption arc at the end of the film and her fate at the end of the film made me want to salute in the middle of the theatre. Without getting too heavy into spoiler territory, Serizawa goes through a great arc that culminates to an end so emotional I was left feeling like a screwdriver was in my stomach. And I must say even the non interesting human character still did a fantastic job acting. The monster action was vicious, tense, well choreographed, and well shot. Michael Dougherty not only continues Gareth Edward’s great use of scale, he improves on it. All the mocap actors did a fantastic job. You could really tell what the monsters were thinking and feeling. The cinematography was brilliantly lighted and shaded and the different color contrasts were a nice touch. The soundtrack builds up the emotion and tension in each scene, and all fit perfectly in the context of each scene. I was left with an experience of both terror and wonder, with a feeling in my stomach that wouldn’t leave me. It’s certainly not a perfect Godzilla movie, it’s not as “deep” as it would like you to believe, and while it handles it’s themes decently it definitely doesn’t compare to how many other Godzilla movies handled their message. That said though, you’ll still be left with plenty to chew on from it’s various messages, and you’ll be in for quite that ride when the monsters are on screen. 4/5.

My main complaint with the movie is that the humans kept talking when the Kaijus were fighting. Damn Kaiju-teases..... Other than that, movie was bloody amazing! Especially loved the callbacks in the music and Godzilla's roars to the OG 1954 Godzilla. 9.5-9.999999/10 for me!