Monster Discussion #5: Rodan (Showa)

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Rodan also feels like a movie far ahead of its time, the scenery effects and the Meganulons look incredible.

I respectfully disagree with that. Personally, Rodan is a mess of a film. It can't decide what it wants to be, the acting and characters are all over the place, the effects are incredibly bad at times (especially the Meganulons) and it takes forever for it to get going. Once it does get going, even then its not very interesting. The final scene with the dying Rodan's would be a powerful scene, if the light from the exploding volcano didn't make the Rodan props look incredibly fake and make me laugh at how bad the effects are at that point.

I use to love Rodan, but after a few recent viewings of it, its flaws became obvious to me, and now I think its pretty bad.

[Biollante]

Rodan also feels like a movie far ahead of its time, the scenery effects and the Meganulons look incredible.

The final scene with the dying Rodan's would be a powerful scene, if the light from the exploding volcano didn't make the Rodan props look incredibly fake and make me laugh at how bad the effects are at that point.

I agree with this. The scene had potential but it looks so silly, it's hard for me to take it seriously. Had they polished it more it may have been a stronger scene than Godzilla's death in 54.

[therealmccoy]

I like the original; and I'm talking about the monster, NOT the movie. He is my second favorite monster. The Heisei version was pretty dumb to me. The Final Wars version, while still not great, was a vast improvement over the Heisei version. And before people start bombing me, not because he was more powerful, or any of that crap. He wasn't given anything to do in Final Wars, he just looked closer to the original design.

[Gojira-Fan]

Rodan also feels like a movie far ahead of its time, the scenery effects and the Meganulons look incredible.

I respectfully disagree with that. Personally, Rodan is a mess of a film. It can't decide what it wants to be, the acting and characters are all over the place, the effects are incredibly bad at times (especially the Meganulons) and it takes forever for it to get going. Once it does get going, even then its not very interesting. The final scene with the dying Rodan's would be a powerful scene, if the light from the exploding volcano didn't make the Rodan props look incredibly fake and make me laugh at how bad the effects are at that point.

I use to love Rodan, but after a few recent viewings of it, its flaws became obvious to me, and now I think its pretty bad.

Agreed. I think the film really gets over-hyped by the fandom. I feel that most of the monsters scenes were either too short or unsatisfying. I really like the set up in the first act, and then it just goes downhill from there.

As for the monster itself, I could never really call myself a "fan" of Rodan. If the 50's version's film would have been better I would have been a fan of him. A giant ptereadon is a pretty awesome idea for a kaiju. And then in the 60's, he just became a comic character. He was like the class clown of kaiju. Not that I hated that, but it doesn't really make me like him. The 90's version was alright, and the sequences with Rodan in Final Wars was one of the few things that film did right.

[shinmattiathekaiju]

While i prefer the heisei design because it looks more realistic(minus the beam) and i don't like when secondary monsters are as big as the main one(Godzilla),i think the showa Rodan is really cool monster who is storng enough to give Godzilla a run for his money and is one of the few showa monsters which impression to the audience doens't have a puppetish feel to the suit.

[gojimantis]

at this point in the game. I'd rather see Rodan get another film, than any other Kaiju. maybe even set in '56.

[Irys X]

All the suits were a little too humanoid in GFW. Rodan actually looked pretty good. I do wish he was brown though. Red just doesnt seem right for him.

[Kubo]

^ He looked more like Fire Rodan in GFW. His CGI and suit combination in te New York Attack was brilliant though. That was probably my favorite city destruction scene in the Millennium series.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

When I was a kid I really liked the idea of Heisei Rodan sacrificing himself to empower Godzilla. I always preferred the showa design, but I love them both.

Along with most of the FW monsters, I don't care for Heisei Rodan. He got too litle screentime, diluted by a dozen other monsters, for me to truly like him/ His attack sequence was well done though.

[Rody]

Rodan is my most favorite monster. I don't know why; something about him just clicks with me.

I think the original suit is still the best. I am not as fond of the 60's suits; they look sloppier in design. However, they have started growing on me recently.

While I agree that Rodan is lacking in the ability to inflict critical damage to opponents, he balances it out with durability. He took multiple shots of the atomic heat ray at point blank range in the face. How many monsters can boast of that??

[Carthormerr]

Am I reading too much into GTTHM in wondering if volcanic gas has some sort of regenerative effect on Rodan? The word resurrect was specifically used... Or was this statement just that the gas would wake him, and in a roundabout way, it resurrected him???

[Terasawa]

It's just a convenient excuse to get Rodan in the movie.

[Beef Bigshot]

no its the rodan baby from the original two

[Carthormerr]

no its the rodan baby from the original two

That's speculation. If he was a baby, how he grew up managing to eat the Meganulon, get water, oxygen, etc... while being buried on his back under rocks where a volcano had recently erupted, is beyond me.......

[Rody]

Just dropping in to say Rodan is awesome.


...Well he is!

[Beef Bigshot]

I'm pretty sure he flies and then he gets buried. You hear a wind like noise and him screeching and it getting quieter. I could be wrong, might grab it of the ol shelf and watch it again

[Beef Bigshot]

Ya really^^^

[Carthormerr]

Because the alternative explanation is so much more believable?

Yeah to me it is, and seems to be the simple explanation put forth. The male Rodan survived the eruption. I mean, he's Godzilla's equal with wings right?

[eabaker]

Because the alternative explanation is so much more believable?

Yeah to me it is, and seems to be the simple explanation put forth. The male Rodan survived the eruption. I mean, he's Godzilla's equal with wings right?

Both Rodans fell into the lava stream. Unless you're Heisei Godzilla, there's no surviving.

Showa continuity is tenuous at best, folks. GTTHM talks about Rodan as if there were only ever one creature. Nobody ever says, "One of the Rodans survived!" It's just Rodan, because in the public's consciousness, that's what the character was: one creature called Rodan.

[Carthormerr]

Both Rodans fell into the lava stream. Unless you're Heisei Godzilla, there's no surviving.

... or Battra. In Gojira the characters assume G dies. This thought is supported by the fact that you as the viewer get to see his body disintegrate. So in Raids Again, they don't say "Godzilla resurrected". Dr Yamane says basically this is what we were afraid of, there was another G.

In Rodan one of them falls in the stream and stops moving, the other lands on top of the first one and writhes around on fire, and is even still moving when the movie ends. Now we didn't get to stay and monitor the scene afterwards, but we assume they both die. In GTTHM the prophetess doesn't say "another Rodan has surfaced" or "there was a baby". She says the "volcanic gas accumulated in the crust will resurrect Rodan". That statement seems straightforward to me.