Godzilla: King of the Threadsters

Realized we somehow don’t have an all-purpose Godzilla thread. And I think one is going to be announced in the near future (wikipedia says an untitled Godzilla is due for this year) so it seems like a good time to start it!

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Random opinion to get things started: Shin Godzilla is the best Godzilla movie.

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It’s clear Hideko Anno’s new goal is to make movies that exclusively his childhood.

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I love Shin Godzilla because that’s the first one where I really felt the difference in scope of the kaiju world vs the human world. Kaiju show up and it completely upsets the human world; everything gets dropped to focus on them. The kaiju, however, don’t seem to notice humans even exist. That’s just beautiful.

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On the surface level, Shin Godzilla doesn’t do anything different than most other Godzilla movies, but Anno tweaks everything just enough to make it unique even while sticking to the formula. One of my personal favorite shots is when they wheel the copiers into the task force office in formation the same way you’d see the little model tanks do in one of the 60s movies.

Plus the sequence where they used controlled detonations to drop buildings onto Godzilla. For the first time, Tokyo steps on him!

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Currently on a complete Godzilla watchthrough, as I bought myself the special edition bluray set of the Showa Era. I’d forgotten just how intense the first couple of movies (Japanese cuts) were.

I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get to the 1998 movie. I am so reluctant to call that a Godzilla movie.

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IMO, Tokyo SOS was better than Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.

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I’ll admit that I am very limited in my Godzilla experience. I’ve only seen the two riffed by MST3K and then the one with Matthew Broderick that everyone says was terrible. :slight_smile:

What interests me about most of these kaiju movies is that it seems like the main monster starts out as destructive, if not evil, but then, somehow, becomes a hero for the humans. I found Godzilla’s role in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster to be interesting because, while they talked about him as if he’d take their side, they were also terrified of what he’d do.

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The 1998 movie works much better if you pretend it’s actually a remake of “Beast From 20,000 Fathoms” and just ignore every time they call the monster “Godzilla.”

Or you could do what I did: import the Toho blu-ray so you can watch it dubbed in Japanese. IT’S A SWITCH-ER-ROO!

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It’s especially weird when you consider in the first movie Godzilla’s attack pretty much represents the horrors of being a society that was hit with bombs. The original cut of the original movie really drives it home, though the Perry Mason cut really dampens the psychic damage for American audiences. God forbid they face the horror they inflicted on a country.

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Think of it as a bit of realism because if a real kaiju showed up in our world people would call it “Godzilla” even though it can’t possibly be the actual Godzilla.

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The recent movies (Godzilla, Godzilla King of the Monsters, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla vs. Kong) have all been good watches, some better than others…except Godzilla vs. Kong. I hated that one, really. It was a Kong movie trying to pass itself off as dual billing.

My favorite Godzilla is “Force of Nature Godzilla,” who isn’t necessarily good or evil, but just trying to live and survive with all these pesky humans trying to kill him.

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LOL, that’s actually a really good point, you’re totally right.

If you know where to find a copy of

  • Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
  • Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
  • Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)

hook us up. They’re in rights hell and I’ve never seen a copy of any of them for less than $200. I keep dreaming of Criterion following up their Showa set with a Heisei set.

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There’s a YouTube video “Evolution of Godzilla Roars (1954-2019)”. Depending on how my dishwasher is opened, it sounds like the Godzillas of 1965-1974.
There are worse sounds a kitchen appliance could make.

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Hi, I’m here for the “Shin Godzilla is the freaking best” discussion.

Proceed.

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Godzilla: Final Wars has the most amazing answer to the 1998 movie. That’s all I’m going to say on the issue. You’ll know it when you see it.

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OG 1954 Gojira all the way for me, subtitled, no Burr.

There’s a scence with a terrified mother holding her kids and saying they’d be with their father soon. BRRRRR!

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Y’all!

Y’ALL!

Pluto TV is launching a 24/7 Godzilla channel on July 1st, and OH ALL THE HELL TO ALL THE YES :smiley:

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That’s pretty cool, but they need to show Zone Fighter as well.

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