Least Favorite Showa Godzilla film

[Thomas Latimer]

I tried re-watching GODZILLA VS HEDORAH some days ago and i couldn't finish it because of how weird it is, the same happened to me with PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS.

I REALLY wanted to enjoy those films though

[godjacob]

Attack All Monsters is an easy answer here, doesn't mean it isn't the correct one though. It's just a worse version of Son of Godzilla only told through the eyes of an unlikeable kid with Gabara being the one bit of positive legacy it has going for it.

[Follinollante]

Gabara being the one bit of positive legacy it has going for it

Really? I always thought that his design looked really stupid (especially from the back...), which is pity since his power is actually pretty cool and unique.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I just re-watched Godzilla Raids Again and I can easily confirm it’s easily my least favorite Showa film and one of my least favorite Godzilla films overall. I might elaborate later in it’s own thread, but just to explain why, in regards to why it’s my least favorite in the Showa era:

Say what you want about Godzilla’s Revenge and Godzilla Vs Megalon but they both have their fun and exciting moments, even the stock footage. It’s entertaining to see Godzilla steam roll the Kamacuras, barbecue the Giant Condor, and play volleyball with Ebirah once again. It’s exciting when Ken gets chased by the Kamacuras, and when Minya finally gets the upper hand on Gabara. It’s fun when Godzilla appears and judo throws Gabara.

Godzilla Vs Megalon has tons of fun and outlandish moments, like the infamous drop kick. It’s impressive when Megalon destroys the dam, and there’s a sense of danger when Gigan and Megalon team up on JJ. There’s mystery and intrigue when the lake opens up, and the movie goes full fun camp when JJ transforms back to human size and the music kicks in at the very end.

Godzilla Raids Again doesn’t feature the monsters that much, and they barely do anything. It’s just really boring to me. There’s some things it does well, like nail it’s eerie tone early on, but it’s just a slog to get through, with little payoff or energy. There’s only a few very small moments of excitement, like when Godzilla pushes Angurius through Osaka castle and kills him, and the very end of the final bombing sequence, but there just isn’t anything super memorable or interesting to keep me (and I’m sure others) very entertained.

GRA is a very different film than the films that I’m comparing them to. But even amongst its predecessors and successors, all of them do a much better job at having a serious Godzilla attack, and having monster action that also is more emotionally impactful.

To be clear, GRA does have some redeeming qualities and haunting moments, but I don’t think it’s a particularly fun watch, and I also don’t think it represents Godzilla, or Toho for that matter, that well.

[Voyager]

Raids Again, easily.

[SpiderZilla]

Godzilla’s Revenge is the last Showa film I would reach for if I was in the mood for one. Godzilla is hardly a presence in the film, taking a back seat to Minilla. The monster battles are of no real consequence except to Ichiro. And Godzilla isn't a combatant in the climactic battle. Any other Showa film would be a more satisfying choice.

[Legion1979]

Godzilla Raids Again. Only cause something has to be.

[JAGzilla]

GRA is definitely not a great movie. It's not at all representative of the Godzilla franchise as a whole. That much we agree on.

I like that, though. The monster action is more like an American dinosaur movie than what we're used to. It feels raw and prototypical, which is exactly what it is. It's Godzilla's first uncertain, unplanned step toward becoming a series, and no one knew what that would look like yet. Judging it by the entire genre that followed is unfair because none of that material existed yet. All the crew behind GRA had to base this on was G54 and foreign monster movies. Judging it against G54 is more fair, but still not really: that movie caught lightning in a bottle and has never been matched.

None of that makes it fine art, and that's what I like about it. The crude roughness. It's a junky cashgrab unapologetically rushed out by a major studio*, and sometimes there's charm to that.

* "Oh, but when HEISEI grabs for the cash-" No. Night and day difference because Heisei had thirty years of experience to work with and just didn't give a crap.

[Legendary Minya]

1 - GRA
2 - Mothra vs Godzilla
3 - Gojira

Sue me LOL.

[Legion1979]

1 - GRA
2 - Mothra vs Godzilla
3 - Gojira

Sue me LOL.

GRA I get. Why the other two?

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

1 - GRA
2 - Mothra vs Godzilla
3 - Gojira

Sue me LOL.

I'm guessing you don't like darker Godzilla movies?

[GoKelley86]

Godzilla's Revenge / All Monsters Attack was the punching bag for years and years, but people seem to have softened up on it.

I'd still say it is my least favorite. I'm okay with the premise, but the extensive use of stock footage makes it feel like a Godzilla clip show rather than a movie. Honestly, its probably the one Godzilla movie where the human drama is significantly more compelling than any of the monster stuff.

I like Ichiro as a character. Hit'sis down-on-his-luck life mixed with his vivid imagination makes him a likable underdog to root for. If they put some money behind the film and embraced the "Godzilla in Wonderland" style concept and gone all out weird with it, I probably would have liked it a lot more. As is, it is just a Godzilla highlight reel with a couple of fun and weird moments to make it memorable.

Anyways, here are my bottom five:

1) All Monsters Attack - Already said why.

2) Godzilla vs. Megalon - Totally worth it for the fight at the end, but the first two thirds are frightfully dull. It feels like a bad pilot for a less-than-stellar tokusatsu show and is woefully inferior to other TV offerings from the time period (honestly, the Godzilla episodes of Zone Fighter were better). Again, stick with it to get to the big fight at the end which is delightfully zany.

3) Godzilla Raids Again / Gigantis the Fire Monster - Kind of the new punching bag. I gave the film credit in my upcoming book for being kind of a trendsetter for the series. It introduced the concept of Godzilla fighting other monsters and one of my favorites, Anguirus. However, they didn't have that formula down yet and the pacing in this film is all wrong. How does the climactic monster battle happen at the midway point in the film? It really sucked the life out of the second half. It also doesn't help that the film is inferior to the original in every conceivable way and fails to be as fun as the many sequels that followed. Still, would those other movies exist if this one hadn't been made? Okay, maybe because it was really KK vs. G that kickstarted the franchise, but hey. GRA got the ball rolling, and I give it some props for that.

The US version though...Its so bad, I kind of love it. It fully embodies all the negative aspects of an Americanization to one of these films, but its so over the top in its badness, that it makes for a fun watch.

4) Ebirah, Horror of Deep / Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster - This is another one that used to get beat up a lot, but more and more fans have warmed up to it. That includes me. I hated it as a kid, but I've come to appreciate the different approach and setting that were offered. Honestly, my biggest issue with it is that I think it would have worked better as the originally intended King Kong film. Ebirah and the Red Bamboo are hardly a threat to Godzilla, so once he shows up, the drama almost completely goes away until the very end when it looked like Godzilla might die on the exploding island. Its weird to say that a Godzilla movie would be better if Godzilla wasn't in it, but hey.

5) Godzilla vs. Gigan / Godzilla on Monster Island - This is one that raises above its limitations to become a really fun movie. I love the insane plot, Gigan was an instant star, Anguirus had his day in the sun, and the tag team fight created some of the best moments in the series. Heck, even the score is one of Ifukube's best, and its all recycled recordings already used. Its a shame that the budgetary restrictions and overreliance on stock footage drag down the quality somewhat. However, the purse strings were tight and they had to make due with what they had. Is fifth weakest a little harsh? Well, it is in that spot more because of how much I like the other Showa entries and not so much because its bad.

[Legendary Minya]

1 - GRA
2 - Mothra vs Godzilla
3 - Gojira

Sue me LOL.

GRA I get. Why the other two?

I watch kaiju movies almost exclusively to have fun, usually with my son. Solo monster movies to me are incredibly boring. They almost all seem to follow the same formula:

Monster exists. People are skeptical. Monster appears and causes mass destruction. OMG HOW DO WE STOP THE MONSTER, NOTHING WORKS! Oh, wait. We found the one thing that does. THE END.
And yeah I'm sure you could boil most "vs" movies down to a similar formula, but, I like what I like lol. The best "solo" monster movies, to me, are the original King Kong and 1956's Rodan. Gojira was a great film, no doubt, but it's not one that I put on when I wanna watch a kaiju flick. And I vastly prefer Godzilla as a hero, which I suppose is why I'd rank Mothra Vs Godzilla lower in the Showa series. I deliberated whether MvG or Terror Of MechaGodzilla would get that spot, honestly. I'd still rank everything mentioned above higher than every Millennium film (other than the Kiryu saga which I do enjoy) and most of the Heisei films.

And to answer "HedorahIsBestGirl", I don't mind dark movies, but I guess I don't particularly like dark Godzilla movies. I started watching Godzilla when I was 5 back in the eighties when all we had were the Showa films, so he's always been a superhero to me and always will be. Of course, no one has to agree with me; y'all like what you like! I just put the "Sue me LOL" comment in my original post because I knew listing Gojira and Mothra Vs on here would be controversial.

[Legion1979]

That's a really great explanation. Thank you.

[Legendary Minya]

That's a really great explanation. Thank you.

Thanks! Glad it made sense.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

It introduced the concept of Godzilla fighting other monsters and one of my favorites, Anguirus. However, they didn't have that formula down yet and the pacing in this film is all wrong. How does the climactic monster battle happen at the midway point in the film? It really sucked the life out of the second half.

Highlighted the answer to the question you ask in the next sentence. I've said it on a couple threads now but I really don't see Godzilla Raids Again as a "Godzilla vs. Monster X" movie. It's really a solo Godzilla film that happens to feature another kaiju for him to fight, much in the way that King Kong '33 is a solo Kong film that features various dinosaurs for him to fight. Godzilla vs. Anguirus isn't really intended as the climax of the film, Godzilla's battle with Tsukioka and the JASDF pilots is. The battle in Osaka is the mid-point climax/end of the second act. It seems weird in retrospect because almost every other Godzilla movie ends with a kaiju battle but, as you said, that formula hadn't been established yet so it wasn't weird at the time. I agree with most of your other criticisms of GRA, but Anguirus's early death doesn't bother me.

[king_ghidorah]

For me it’s Hedorah, followed closely by Revenge and Megalon.

I’m sure the later two make sense to people. I get why Hedorah is so beloved by others but for me, it’s so dark and morose. When you factor in the how nonsensical as well it becomes a grotesque and unenjoyable film to me.

[edgaguirus]

1 - GRA
2 - Mothra vs Godzilla
3 - Gojira

Sue me LOL.

I might sue you for choosing a movie with Anguirus, but it's low on my list as well.

[Creature22]

This is a tough one because it all comes down to preference. I suppose my controversial answer is Destroy All Monsters. I want to love it but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it has a lot of pacing issues, and that really makes it hard to sit through for me. It more so just makes me want to watch Ghidrah instead, which I think is a better example of a good large-scale battle film.

All Monsters Attack is easy to make fun of but for everything wrong with it, it’s pacing always felt ironically strong compared to DaM.

GRA is actually one of my favorites- in part solely because of its crude and experimental attempt at working a sequel out of the 1954 film. It’s the only other Godzilla film to capture the same visual aesthetic as the original, even if the development itself is thin. It’s sort of the necessary and experimental bridge to the 60s, but a lot of the criticisms are fair.

[Legendary Minya]

1 - GRA
2 - Mothra vs Godzilla
3 - Gojira

Sue me LOL.

I might sue you for choosing a movie with Anguirus, but it's low on my list as well.

Hey don't get me wrong, the 1968 Anguirus may be my favorite kaiju period besides Godzilla himself, but, man, GRA is just hard to enjoy.