WHO HATES... Showa...!? Whaaaat? (Ignoring '54)

[Vakanai]

Meh. I can understand having preferences, but outright hating the first 20+ years of an entire genre, when some of the most important films were made, is insane. Especially if you consider yourself a fan.

People consider themselves fans these days just because they've seen the latest rebooted film and loved it while dismissing everything that came before. Fans of the Bayformer films who never watched the 80s cartoon or collected the toys, fans of Marvel because of the MCU but would never touch the comics. Who are we to gatekeep?

[Gailah 1966]

Meh. I can understand having preferences, but outright hating the first 20+ years of an entire genre, when some of the most important films were made, is insane. Especially if you consider yourself a fan.

Thank you! Thank you for understanding me!

All movies a real kaiju fan loves have thier roots in the showa era. Even hits like Pacific Rim or Godzilla minus one. So hating the origins makes no sence it´s like hating your own grand parents.

[Vakanai]

All movies a real kaiju fan loves have thier roots in the showa era.

Real kaiju fan - kind of what people mean by gatekeeping. One day if some people decide "real" fans should all love Godzilla vs Kong or Godzilla x Kong does that mean suddenly I won't become a "real" fan? Times change and evolve and we're looking at this from a modern lens and on all this as "eras." But what if we went back in time to the 60s or 70s and imagine that someone back then loved Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan, maybe even Godzilla Raids Again, but felt most of the "new" movies after that were just too campy for them? Would we call that person not a "true" fan despite loving a significant amount of the most fundamental of kaiju content at that time, but in hindsight is just a small minority of the whole era?

Every fan has their own personal standards and tastes. Not every film or even every era of a franchise this old with this many films of such different tones is going to fit everyone.

[edgaguirus]

This is one of the things that make Godzilla successful as a franchise. Godzilla is a versatile character that can fit any story or theme. Godzilla can be campy or dead serious, hero or villain, nuclear metaphor or force of nature, and so on. There's a film or portrayal of Godzilla for every fan, which is always changing to meet with the times and taste of the audience. It's very possible that in the year 2154, the MV will be criticized while the latest Godzilla movie will be the greatest thing ever.

[Gailah 1966]

All movies a real kaiju fan loves have thier roots in the showa era.

Real kaiju fan - kind of what people mean by gatekeeping. One day if some people decide "real" fans should all love Godzilla vs Kong or Godzilla x Kong does that mean suddenly I won't become a "real" fan? Times change and evolve and we're looking at this from a modern lens and on all this as "eras." But what if we went back in time to the 60s or 70s and imagine that someone back then loved Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan, maybe even Godzilla Raids Again, but felt most of the "new" movies after that were just too campy for them? Would we call that person not a "true" fan despite loving a significant amount of the most fundamental of kaiju content at that time, but in hindsight is just a small minority of the whole era?

Every fan has their own personal standards and tastes. Not every film or even every era of a franchise this old with this many films of such different tones is going to fit everyone.

You are right. The word "real" was written in a hustle without thinking.

Well, I´m a dinosaur, a dying kind of fan. It´s just hard for me to accept that old-school movies are dead and CGI is the thing now.
I still think stuntmen in heavy and hot suits doing dangerous stuff, risking thier lifes infront of the camera are manly.
Actors in green suits doing strange acting in green rooms are wierd and rediculous.

But hey, my kind will be gone some day and new methods of acting and special effects will come. And maybe some of the younger open-minded fans will have the same doubts like me nowadays about this.

For example when actors and stuntmen won´t be needed anymore. Some will celebrate this as the AI revolution others will feel some kind of loss and will miss the hybrid-movies with CGI AND real actors.

[king_ghidorah]

I don't HATE Showa but I've been sort of combative lately about Mothra vs Godzilla in particular....it's FINE. Dear lord though, the old guard of fans would have you believe that it's a work of perfection and I just don't agree. I just find it a little heavy handed, awkwardly paced and the human characters aren't as engaging as they were in the previous film, or as they would be sporadically in subsequent films.

The depiction of Godzilla in the film is good, and I understand that people appreciate the return of an "Evil" Godzilla....but to me, he comes across like he's asleep and the wobbly lip looks cheap and rubbery to me.

So, while I don't HATE the entire Showa era, there are a few films...namely Mothra vs Godzilla and Hedorah, that I am sick to death of hearing about.

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

I don't HATE Showa but I've been sort of combative lately about Mothra vs Godzilla in particular....it's FINE. Dear lord though, the old guard of fans would have you believe that it's a work of perfection and I just don't agree. I just find it a little heavy handed, awkwardly paced and the human characters aren't as engaging as they were in the previous film, or as they would be sporadically in subsequent films.

The depiction of Godzilla in the film is good, and I understand that people appreciate the return of an "Evil" Godzilla....but to me, he comes across like he's asleep and the wobbly lip looks cheap and rubbery to me.

I can understand the pacing criticism a bit. But could you elaborate a bit on the "heavy handed" part? Do you mean thematically? I personally really like Mothra vs Godzilla. But among the 60s movies I'm actually partial to GTTHM for unabashedly letting its monsters go nuts and Ebirah for having a sense of adventure that I think is oddly lacking in the series as a whole.

[king_ghidorah]

I agree that I’d probably prefer even Ebirah to MvG.

Definitely prefer GTTHM.

As far as heavy handed goes….its just very blatantly preachy and while the message of humanity being its best version of itself etc., are important, I think it’s done kind of ham fistedly personally.

[Legion1979]

I'll take anyrhing Mothra vs Godzilla deals out over the "Mankind is so evil! Nature is going to destroy us for our horrible ways!" nonsense that Godzilla VS Mothra craps out.

Thing is, I'm confident that Honda and Sekizawa believed in their messaging and truly felt that way. The Heisei films only did that because G54 and this movie did it.

[king_ghidorah]

Yeah, I agree, but my critiques still stand.

I just think a certain group of academic types in the fandom hold up this film because of their own political biases over the quality of the film itself.

The Ed G’s and Steven Ryfles in particular….

[edgaguirus]

I agree that I’d probably prefer even Ebirah to MvG.

G vs TSM is a good movie. Godzilla's two island movies gave us a nice change of scenery and a different style of story.