How would you improve the Showa Era?

[shippersdreamer]

This is pretty much a sister/brother to this thread http://tohokingdom.com/forum/viewtopic. ... &start=260

But anyways! What's everyone's thoughts on how to make the Showa Series better? One of my ideas would be to have Anguirus put up a better fight against Fake Godzilla, possibly teaming up with Godzilla to fight Mecha-Godzilla

[Gamera vs Rodan]

I just wish more of the battles were in a city and they threw each other into buildings more.

[three]

alittle tough to say. personally of the three eras showa did the most right consistently -- heisei had moments and millenium is millenium. but anyways, i'd try to knock out that whole "Godzilla, the champion of humankind" thing that reared its ugly head sometime after the astro monster. i think everyone knows what i mean -- Godzilla being anti pollution and fighting Hedorah, Godzilla's revenge, etc. i wouldn't just remove the films though -- rather i'd just alter Godzilla's personality enough to make him an antihero.

i'd improve some of the scores as well. this era had some of the more...bland music. things like the theme for Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla really get my blood going, but others that i can't even friggin remember? well, there's a reason i can't remember them. and that's what i'd change.

honestly, after that i dunno what i'd do. most of what makes showa so great is that it is how it is. it's better later [so it's better now than it was earlier in my life] when i can look at the films through a different lens than in my childhood where the best part of the showa movies were the monster fights. there's more to it now, but what makes these films good is (i'm getting redundant) how they are what they are. i feel like changing it would kill the magic.

[shippersdreamer]

alittle tough to say. personally of the three eras showa did the most right consistently -- heisei had moments and millenium is millenium. but anyways, i'd try to knock out that whole "Godzilla, the champion of humankind" thing that reared its ugly head sometime after the astro monster. i think everyone knows what i mean -- Godzilla being anti pollution and fighting Hedorah, Godzilla's revenge, etc. i wouldn't just remove the films though -- rather i'd just alter Godzilla's personality enough to make him an antihero.

i'd improve some of the scores as well. this era had some of the more...bland music. things like the theme for Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla really get my blood going, but others that i can't even friggin remember? well, there's a reason i can't remember them. and that's what i'd change.

honestly, after that i dunno what i'd do. most of what makes showa so great is that it is how it is. it's better later [so it's better now than it was earlier in my life] when i can look at the films through a different lens than in my childhood where the best part of the showa movies were the monster fights. there's more to it now, but what makes these films good is (i'm getting redundant) how they are what they are. i feel like changing it would kill the magic.

Hmm, I definitely see where you're coming from here. Although I would make a change for Godzilla vs Hedorah into a much darker and realistic film, but I'd keep that 'Something You Don't See Everyday Thing' in and actually explain it in detail.

[three]

yea Godzilla vs Hedorah didn't even know what it was supposed to or wanted to do itself so...when it comes to the showa era you can probably guess which films people would wanna remake or fix. Gigan, Revenge, Hedorah, and probably Megalon all come immediately to mind. the rest? they're alright.

[Gamera vs Rodan]

yea Godzilla vs Hedorah didn't even know what it was supposed to or wanted to do itself so...when it comes to the showa era you can probably guess which films people would wanna remake or fix. Gigan, Revenge, Hedorah, and probably Megalon all come immediately to mind. the rest? they're alright.

Ack! Gigan's one of my favs

[three]

yea Godzilla vs Hedorah didn't even know what it was supposed to or wanted to do itself so...when it comes to the showa era you can probably guess which films people would wanna remake or fix. Gigan, Revenge, Hedorah, and probably Megalon all come immediately to mind. the rest? they're alright.

Ack! Gigan's one of my favs

two words: stock footage.

four more words: get rid of it.

[shippersdreamer]

yea Godzilla vs Hedorah didn't even know what it was supposed to or wanted to do itself so...when it comes to the showa era you can probably guess which films people would wanna remake or fix. Gigan, Revenge, Hedorah, and probably Megalon all come immediately to mind. the rest? they're alright.

Ack! Gigan's one of my favs

Gigan is one of my favs too, but I do think there are some things that could've been done to the movie to GREATLY improve it.

[Captain Aktion]

How about a character or two who could continue through a couple of films. Why couldn't Hirata's scientist from Gvs.MG be a scientist from an earlier film? There were plenty to go around. I know that continuity wasn't a thing they were concerned with, but just a couple of characters of that sort could've at least evened out the timeline a bit. As much as we know these are more or less isolated films, even Daiei wasn't forgetting what happened in the last Gamera film, if you follow me.

Also, more Goro Mutsumi!

[Gamera vs Rodan]

How about a character or two who could continue through a couple of films. Why couldn't Hirata's scientist from Gvs.MG be a scientist from an earlier film? There were plenty to go around. I know that continuity wasn't a thing they were concerned with, but just a couple of characters of that sort could've at least evened out the timeline a bit. As much as we know these are more or less isolated films, even Daiei wasn't forgetting what happened in the last Gamera film, if you follow me.

Also, more Goro Mutsumi!

Yeah, well they remembered what happened in the last Gamera film to make showing stock footage an actual part of the plot, lol.

[Captain Aktion]

Yeah, well they remembered what happened in the last Gamera film to make showing stock footage an actual part of the plot, lol.

Good call. I see the truth of it.

I agree with more city footage of the monsters, but what about more interaction altogether between human characters and kaiju? Love it or hate it, the Heisei era were the one's to really try and pioneer that idea while the Millennium often made it a major set-piece.

[Gamera vs Rodan]

Yeah, well they remembered what happened in the last Gamera film to make showing stock footage an actual part of the plot, lol.

Good call. I see the truth of it.

I agree with more city footage of the monsters, but what about more interaction altogether between human characters and kaiju? Love it or hate it, the Heisei era were the one's to really try and pioneer that idea while the Millennium often made it a major set-piece.

Yeah, I'll agree that I like the military having a more active role.

[Tohosaurus]

Pardon my cliched opinion, but there isn't a whole lot that I would change overall for the Godzilla films. Of the things that I would change, some of it can't really be helped due to budgetary limitations (stock footage). Nonetheless here's a list of the films to which I'd make more significant changes, adhering to the forum's definition of the Showa series (ending with the 1979 Toho films, not about a decade later with the actual real Japanese Showa era).

Godzilla Raids Again
Although I think it's kinda under-rated around here, GRA's main downfalls were the decline of the overall effects work and the odd sped up action sequences. From the basic story, I can't think of a whole lot to ultimately change.

Varan
Not bad, just a little dry. I'd have to watch this again too in order to gather better thoughts, but it's probably of a lack of compelling characters as the main issue. The other is that despite being a 1958 film, Toho's decided to not go with color (obviously suggests some cost-minimizing with this film).

Battle In Outer Space
I find this boring, to be honest. It probably needs to be completed re-edited. I don't remember any characters that much either, even if that's probably because it's been a long time since I've watched it.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
Not a bad movie at all. It's one I've grown to appreciate more with time. Ebirah might've been cooler if it was more mutated looking, and the King Kong moments (since this was originally to be a Toho King Kong film) would've been best dropped. A little more Godzilla could maybe have been sprinkled in. Pretty minor changes overall, nothing major.

King Kong Escapes
I like the original aspirations of doing a series of King Kong co-productions, but I wish they'd have gone a new route rather than this one largely mirroring the 1933 original film.

Destroy All Monsters
Leading up to the final battle, more monster sequences would've improved the pacing of this film. I'd also have possibly left out some monsters whose suits kept them from participating much in the movie anyway. Lastly, the Fire Dragon ending would've been best left out as well.

All Monsters Attack
I dunno. On one hand it's like it needs all new monster scenes. On the other, it just didn't have the budget for it so that's asking for an impossible thing anyway, and its existence might've helped the Godzilla series last as long as it did.

Godzilla vs Gigan
No monster talking, more engaged monsters (budget limitations, I know), and the alien plot could've been more thoroughly laced in the film somehow. It feels a little tacked into the story as I remember it.

The War in Space
There's a lot of potential in something like this, and ultimately I have to say its budget could've been the downfall. Seven years is a long time in the film world, and I don't know what Sayonara Jupiter's budget was, but Jupiter looked great whereas this looked.....not as great. The space-Roman theme came off as a bit cheesy. The story itself is forgettable too, in spite of said potential. But I'd LOVE for Toho to make a movie like this again, only awesome . The visuals were surprisingly good in Iron Sky (2012) with a decidedly un-Hollywood-like €7.5M (at the moment that converts to ~$10.2M, so says Google) which is very much in reach of Toho, especially if they did a co-production. But I don't want them to remake Battle in Outer Space or The War in Space. Do something new, just alone those lines.

Minor: better suit for King Kong in KKvG and better suit for Godzilla in SoG.

[KaijuAlertSystem]

I think Aktion raised some good potential changes for the films. Some character continuity would have been fun.

[Legion1979]

I'm fine with them the way they are. I'd maybe find a way to make GRA a little more interesting, but that's it.

[20th Century Boy]

Make GRA feel less half-assed.

Change the face of the Godzilla suit in SoG.

Improve the puppets a bit to make them look like their suit counterparts.

Make a better suit for King Kong (I know Toho can do it; look at Half-Human!)

Make Invasion of Astro-Monster more interesting.

[Dust_pan]

I really don't have much of an issue with these films. They're far from great or perfect, I know, but I honestly enjoy them as they are. The most I would want are more city fights and a better version of GRA. And perhaps a few shots edited so that they don't look too wonky in execution.

I agree with Cap about the recurring human characters being an interesting element of the Heisei films, but I feel as though I could do without them in the Showa films. What I love about the Showa films is that each film is its own self-contained story, with only a bare minimum of references to previous films (And even those references are hardly notable). It's like starting fresh each time.

Not that I dislike the idea, mind you. It definitely would be interesting to see certain characters throughout multiple films, and it would probably make the human element of the Godzilla series much more prominent than it is now.

[Rody]

The biggest change I can think of making would be to give Fukuda and Nakano a bigger budget for GIGAN - a MUCH bigger budget. Renovate the three older monster suits and film fully original destruction & battle footage.

[Space Hunter M]

Much more graphic human death scenes.

[he-ba]

1. Get rid of the puppets (except the one in Rodan)
2. Have more monster scenes in DAM (a LOT more)
3. Better score in EHOD
4. Get Varan a little more help.... it has the potential
5. Get rid of the kid in GvM. He actually scares me.
6. Have more people appreciate the Showa Era.

That's really it. I love these movies. Perfect for a sad day, a stormy night, or just letting you inner-child out (come on, we all do it every so often!). Showa aside, Heisei is better for a blizzard or if you have seen a really bad movie a few minutes before. Millenium if you're in the mood for some fast action and new-age stuff. Showa is just perfect.