Unpopular Godzilla Opinions

[edgaguirus]

Destroyah's connection to the oxygen destroyer is the main reason it was a good kaiju for the Heisei's finale. The circle is complete, you might say.

However, Destroyah will have the same legacy as Ghidorah or MG. MG really earns the ultimate foe award for all the trouble it's caused Godzilla, not to mention what MG2 accomplished.

[Cryptid_Liker]

Speaking of Destoroyah,

Spoiler:

I'm glad that he's not the villain of GvK. The lore needed for Destoroyah does not exist and definitely could not be established in less than an hour like it would be if he appeared. Not to mention how hamfisted the OD was in KotM.

[szmigiel]

Destoroyah is such a mess, it was done completely for nostalgic reason, to tie the film back to the original. But It ends up spitting in the face of the themes of the 1st movie. In the end the Micro-Oxygen/Oxygen Destroyer is useful and easy to clean up after, making Dr Serizawa sacrifice pointless.

It could have been handled in a better way with a scientist who had studied everything Dr Serizawa had wrote and not destroyed, desperately trying to recreate the Oxygen Destroyer to stop Burning Godzilla. He meets with Emiko Yamane to try and find more notes and Journals, and she pleads with him not to pursue the Oxygen Destroyer, no matter the good you think it will do it will only bring destruction. Then the grandkids of Dr Yamane get involved, one with G force to find another solution, and the other trying to persuade the scientist to stop, but starts having feeling towards him. At the end of the 2nd Act the experiment with the Oxygen Destroyer goes wrong and Destoroyah is created.

Instead you had Destoroyah in Tokyo Bay, since 1954, he is only brought out because of construction. You don't even really need the Oxygen Destroyer for his origin, it could of just been a creature from the Precambrian Era awakened by the digging and the movie would have played out the same way.

They could have made it a creature mutated by the ANEB from Biollante, it awakens and goes after Burning Godzilla as the ultimate food source. G Force sees this as a good thing since it will stop Burning Godzilla from exploding or melting down, but they are worried if this new Kaiju is successful how will they stop it. While this would have been a nice full circle for the Heisei VS series it has no real nostalgic value to play on.

[Jeff-Goldblum2]

Lets be reasonable about the amount of Destroyah hate here. Whilst some reasonable points are being made we all love the monster.

[SoggyNoodles2016]

Lets be reasonable about the amount of Destroyah hate here. Whilst some reasonable points are being made we all love the monster.

No one's hating on Destroyah, Jeff. We're criticizing how they were executed, big difference.

Eh, I like Destroyah. They don't really have a character but they're a good antagonist.

[Gigantis]

Frankenstein is better than both the Gargantuas. The characters, not the films... although Frankenstein vs. Baragon is better than WOTG.

[eabaker]

Frankenstein is better than both the Gargantuas. The characters, not the films... although Frankenstein vs. Baragon is better than WOTG.

Agreed on both counts.

[Voyager]

Frankenstein is better than both the Gargantuas. The characters, not the films... although Frankenstein vs. Baragon is better than WOTG.

Yes.

[MaxRebo320]

I obviously enjoy FCTW and WOTG, but to be honest, I've never really understood the acclaim among fans they both tend to get. I find both to be kind of clunky (For different reasons). But again, they're both entertaining, and I suppose there's a lot of nostalgia at play here (FCTW is kind of the epitome of a midnight movie on 90s TNT), and I guess its admirable a movie with such a ludicrous premise like FCTW manages to be played straight and not come off as a complete farce. And yeah, of the two, FCTW is stronger.

[UltramanGoji]

WOTG, for all it's narrative stumbles, has some great effects work and one of Nakajima's greatest performances in Gaira.

I think the reverence is due to the fact that it's difficult to come across them so when people finally see them, they build it up more than it was because of that mystique.

[Terasawa]

I think the reverence is due to the fact that it's difficult to come across them so when people finally see them, they build it up more than it was because of that mystique.

They've only become difficult to see in the last decade. I wouldn't say their relative inaccessibility is the reason for the reverence because they were never remotely rare until the Media Blasters and Classic Media discs went OOP. Even then, WOTG is on like every few months on Comet TV, which you can stream for free on your phone or computer if you live in the U.S. I think that makes it one of the very easiest movies to come by in the entire genre.

Like MZ, I think the fact there's a semi-recognizable face added to the appeal for a lot of Western fans. WOTG is also one of the most straightforward kaiju movies, and also one of the most heavily centered on the monsters. There's also the tragic element to it, which I think endeared it to a lot of casual or non-fans. In my experience, FCTW has always been seen as a much more schlocky film than it is.

[gottatalktothefake]

I don’t understand the praise that the Showa series gets on here, I mean, a good portion of this place is of the opinion that EHOTD is some sort of underrated gem. Aside from the very beginning of the era and he very end, the movies are some of the worst the series has to offer.

[Gomi: Ninja Monster]

I don’t understand the praise that the Showa series gets on here, I mean, a good portion of this place is of the opinion that EHOTD is some sort of underrated gem. Aside from the very beginning of the era and he very end, the movies are some of the worst the series has to offer.

I wouldn't call it a gem, and it shows a lot of it's true colors as a Kong movie which really detracts from the monster segments, but for whatever reason I rather enjoy the human half quite a lot. Perhaps it's just that it has a nonsensical, old Saturday morning cartoon feel to it. Monster stuff in general is pretty awful in comparison to other entries though.

[eabaker]

I don’t understand the praise that the Showa series gets on here, I mean, a good portion of this place is of the opinion that EHOTD is some sort of underrated gem. Aside from the very beginning of the era and he very end, the movies are some of the worst the series has to offer.

What are you defining at the "very beginning" and "very end;" which of the movies are you counting among the "very worst the series has to offer;" and based on what criteria do you make that assessment?

As for EHOTD specifically, it's not like anybody is calling it one of the all-time greatest kaiju movies; there is simply a widespread opinion that its historical near-complete dismissal by much of the fandom is unfortunate, as it is a better movie than it is often given credit for.

[Terasawa]

"The Showa Series" is only useful branding if you want to talk about chronologies and that stuff. Artistically speaking it represents three distinct "eras": 54-55, 62-68, and 69-75. It encompasses more than twice as many films than any other Godzilla series, so of course one could make a case there are more better and/or worse films. It's not useful for critical comparisons because the films don't represent one consistent, unified whole.

I do think the '62-'68 run represents the franchises' high water mark. KKvG and MvG are only behind the original film, IMO, and none of the films through DAM rate any less than average. I've already talked about Ebirah in this thread, but I'll reiterate: once you get past the relative lack of monster content and the quality of it (which is just OK, IMO), you're left with a pretty typical adventure/action/chase film. What's so bad about that? The music and photography are both excellent and really prop it up for me.

[edgaguirus]

The Showa era, because of length, will inevitably have the "most of". It also possesses the most creativity of the franchise, which would cause the films to have various styles, themes, and feel. However, I think it all comes down to if it was what you grew up watching.

[JAGzilla]

However, I think it all comes down to if it was what you grew up watching.

Maybe in some cases. I watched almost as much Heisei as Showa when I was a kid; 1985, Biollante, and King Ghidorah were all among the first ten or so G-movies I saw, and the last two I had on VHS and watched them all the time. I was even a fairly big fan of GINO and GTS. And then the majority of the films I watched as a teenager were probably Heisei and Millennium, due to those being what was most accessible on TV at the time. Heck, I even had a relative dislike for many of the Showa films I saw in my teens, including MvG, GvMZ, and GvMG, finding them boring or cheesy, while others like SoG and GvSM just didn't leave much impression on me at all.

I still ended up as a Showa fan first and foremost, and I've come to love every film in the series. They have heart and authenticity to them that the more cynically churned out Heisei and Millennium films mostly do not. Which isn't to say I don't love those, too, I do, but they're clearly the inferior products, to me.

[Gigantis]

I personally grew up on the Heisei and eventually the Millennium era's and i do agree some Showa entries are better. I think as i grew up i put my bias aside.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

The Showa films are the only ones I could watch multiple times and still enjoy them. They're so much more colorful and inventive. The Heisei and Millennium films just end up feeling so repetitive. I've also mentioned many times of just how dated many of them feel. You can tell how rushed and "corporate" many of them are. GMK is one of the few that rises above it (and G2K to a lesser extent).

[Gigantis]

I think every Godzilla film has a rather dated moment, but that's because they're following the time periods they were made in. The worse contender for me has to be Final Wars. The black jump-suits, bullet time and human action scenes are so obviously copying X-Men and The Matrix.