Who Hates Heisei?

[edgaguirus]

I can't see how G vs KG is hated, and I'm unaware of any here that do. I've seen the criticism of various aspects, but it's still a good entry.

[Spuro]

I've never seen vs KG regarded as hated or a bad film. The worst I've seen is people finding the time travel wonky/stupid or disliking the Godzillasaurus vs American forces scene. But I've never seen KG regarded as lesser than vs SpaceGodzilla.

I don’t think KG is worse than Spacegodzilla, and I would never go so far as to say I hate the movie… but I do absolutely, one-hundred-and-ten percent, regard it as a bad film. An awful film, even. One of the bottom five films of the franchise if we ignore the anime trilogy.

And that one isn’t a joke.

I want to like it more. I wish I could see what everyone else sees in it. I’ve read all of the essays and defenses about the film from eabaker and Teresawa. I’ve revisited the film maybe half a dozen times throughout my life and tried to explore it with new eyes. I’ve tried, guys. But KG always leaves me disappointed, and each time I rewatch it my opinion on the film only sours more.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

Not only have I never met anyone who hates GvKG, I would contend that it's the most overrated film in the series. Over the years, I've seen it on more best/favorite lists than I can count. I've certainly never met anyone who thinks it's worse than GvSG. If anything, I get annoyed by how often GvKG film gets lumped in with RoG and GvB as one of the "superior" Heisei films. I rank it third from the bottom for Heisei. There are certain aspects of the film that I do like but they don't outweigh its many flaws. Like Spuro said above, I've tried to rewatch it several times in the hopes that I'll finally discover why it's so loved, but it's just never happened.

[Executive Hamster]

This is all fascinating to me because I have genuinely never heard a positive word about that film until now.

[Legion1979]

This is all fascinating to me because I have genuinely never heard a positive word about that film until now.

Well you.said it yourself that you mainly hear this on Reddit and YouTube. There's your answer. The movie is definitely a lot more loved in other pockets of social media, especially with older folks who might have seen it when it was brand new and was more likely to impress.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

Off the top of my head, Barry's Temple of Godzilla - one of the first Godzilla websites I ever stumbled upon as a young kid if you're unfamiliar - named it as his single favorite Godzilla movie and James Rolfe named it as one of his top 5 Godzilla films at the end of his GodzillaThon review marathon on YouTube. Since then, I've encountered many users on TK and other forums who hold GvKG in very high regards, especially relative to the other 90s films. A lot of the long time regulars on TK have a particular fondness for that movie.

[Legion1979]

In the early 90s Biollabte didn't get the love it gets today. A lot of people felt it was mediocre. But King Ghidorah? Everyone seemed to love that one.

[Executive Hamster]

Thats weird. Like I said, prior to today every time Ive heard it mentioned here on TK it was in a negative light.

[JAGzilla]

For me, it was one of the first ten or so Godzilla movies I saw, within the first year or two of becoming a fan. One of only 3.5 I owned as a kid, too, and I watched it over and over again. So I just have a ton of nostalgia for it. And it actually did hold up critically on my last rewatch in 2013, telling a relatively interesting and engaging story with some memorable characters. Everyone hates the nonsensical time travel, but I just love the uniqueness of it all whether it makes sense or not. Seeing Godzilla's origin demystifies him a little, but it's still really cool. The movie has some goofy, schlocky stuff with M-11 and the American soldiers, but they're at least bad in an entertaining way. Godzilla is spectacular here, the last hurrah of the real Heisei incarnation before the next four films degraded his design and roar. Mecha-King Ghidorah is one of the best looking suits in the franchise. Ifukube delivers a score that mostly isn't original but does an excellent job of rehashing old material, resulting in several of my all-time favorite musical moments. The rendition of the March that plays when Godzilla comes ashore in Hokkaido is a masterpiece. There's just a lot going for this movie.

I really hope someone rereleases it on Blu-ray (or 4K, unlikely as that is) soon. I haven't seen it in almost a decade, and I can't wait to revisit it.

[GodzillaXGomoraFight]

I would say that from my time in this forum over the past decade and reading fan sites since I was a kid, I am surprised to hear that GvKG is disliked amongst groups of fans. I wonder if they dislike it because want to jump on the banwagon to rip it for the widely known controversy about the time travel plot holes. My experience on Reddit has been that the fans are a bit younger, so I am always interested to see how they react to the films after seeing them for the first time. Very interesting for me to see as an older fan in comparison.

[MechaGoji Bro7503]

I've never seen vs KG regarded as hated or a bad film. The worst I've seen is people finding the time travel wonky/stupid or disliking the Godzillasaurus vs American forces scene. But I've never seen KG regarded as lesser than vs SpaceGodzilla.

I don’t think KG is worse than Spacegodzilla, and I would never go so far as to say I hate the movie… but I do absolutely, one-hundred-and-ten percent, regard it as a bad film. An awful film, even. One of the bottom five films of the franchise if we ignore the anime trilogy.

And that one isn’t a joke.

I want to like it more. I wish I could see what everyone else sees in it. I’ve read all of the essays and defenses about the film from eabaker and Teresawa. I’ve revisited the film maybe half a dozen times throughout my life and tried to explore it with new eyes. I’ve tried, guys. But KG always leaves me disappointed, and each time I rewatch it my opinion on the film only sours more.

There's nothing wrong with that, sometimes a film just doesn't sit well with a person and that's okay. I myself have films that are widely praised that I personally can't find much enjoyment in, but it's always interesting to see how people can view a film differently. Your experience with vs KG sounds similar to my experiences with KOTM.

[Dv-218]

Admittedly it’s not among my favorites but for many of it’s unusual plot elements and utterly insane details that come with the inherently convulated story GvKG always came across as more sincere and entertaining to me than the subsequent rest of the 90s Heisei films. While not all of the stuff it tries to get across comes through well it at least feels like there was an attempt to say something here, for better and worse. It still feels like a nosedive after the 80s duology both in writing and direction quality but when it comes to being fun it does its job. Plus all of the American actors were utterly hilarious in this, even if for the entire wrong reasons lol.

Will never be a fan of how Ghidorah was handled and treated character AND narrative wise within this movie but the rendition of his theme here is one of the best imo. Feels appropriately chaotic and intense and contrasts nicely with the slow and spaced out rendition of the Godzilla march. Hell probably the best Heisei OST in general come to think about it.

[JVM]

I like GvKG personally, it was my first non-Showa Godzilla film, but I've never felt like it was *popular* at Toho Kingdom - indeed, most instances I can think of seeing positive feedback for it were on *other* websites, not here. Most of my memory of GvKG discourse is focused on the alterations to King Ghidorah's backstory, criticism of the time travel plotline, the pro-Japan angle, and a few jokes about M11 and not much else than those issues. Times are different though; I also distinctly recall Toho Kingdom not liking The Return of Godzilla which I can in multiple threads has clearly see has turned around since before my hiatus, possibly since the film is so much easier to obtain than it once was.

I think the Heisei films are okay. I don't feel strongly one way or another about the series. I have a soft spot for some of the individual films, that is for certain, and I'm glad they all form a continuity but the connections don't feel much deeper than those in the Showa and Millennium films -- GvKG does not feel like a direct sequel to Biollante so much as another Godzilla film with some shared characters, you know? In addition, some of the Millennium films sharing cast/crew with the Heisei era also reduces some of the stylistic/tonal 'uniqueness' of the series itself. I've never felt like Heisei is especially unpopular or popular.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

Times are different though; I also distinctly recall Toho Kingdom not liking The Return of Godzilla which I can in multiple threads has clearly see has turned around since before my hiatus, possibly since the film is so much easier to obtain than it once was.

I think this is it exactly. I had a lukewarm reaction to RoG based on memories of my VHS tape of the US version and one viewing of a bootleg copy of the original film at a friend's house. After snagging the Kraken Blu-Ray, I've watched twice and come to form a very high opinion of RoG. I'd presently rank it as the 5th best Godzilla movie.

I think the Heisei films are okay. I don't feel strongly one way or another about the series. I have a soft spot for some of the individual films, that is for certain, and I'm glad they all form a continuity but the connections don't feel much deeper than those in the Showa and Millennium films -- GvKG does not feel like a direct sequel to Biollante so much as another Godzilla film with some shared characters, you know? In addition, some of the Millennium films sharing cast/crew with the Heisei era also reduces some of the stylistic/tonal 'uniqueness' of the series itself. I've never felt like Heisei is especially unpopular or popular.

This pretty much perfectly summarizes how I feel about Heisei. I enjoy them for what they are but the continuity never felt all that strong and didn't do much for me, and the lack of stylistic uniqueness is one of my main gripes, especially when contrasted against the Showa or even the Millennium films.

[Dv-218]

The stylistic uniqueness angle is something I frankly find quite infuriating in regards to Heisei in particular because it felt like they had something specific going on with both Return and Biollante, only to just throw it out of the window for basic banality. The later 90s portion really does feel like Godzilla’s basic essence as viewed through the most stale lense imaginable.

[Legion1979]

The stale lense of "Wow, these Bandai toys are really selling! We dont even have to try anymore!"

[Dv-218]

“Don’t worry guys, TriStar will release their movie at any moment now, so we can finally stop dragging this out beyond the projected merch sales! Any moment now….any moment now…..any moment now”

[MechaGoji Bro7503]

"Let's have our character with psychic powers tell us Godzilla is coming instead of just cutting to it!"

[Legion1979]

"Let's have our character with psychic powers tell us Godzilla is coming instead of just cutting to it!"

"And let's make a cliche out of it! Have Odaka touch her forehead, whisper 'Gojira' and throw in some Ifukube music. No one is going to see how corny that is when we toss in some animated ray effects, bombastic music and big, powerful monsters! Good cinematography and writing? Ha, who needs that? It's a Godzilla movie, dammit! Come on, we have no competition! What's going to happen? Are they going to start making Gamera movies again? Now leave us alone, we have more Bandai toys to approve."

[Dv-218]

“Alright, against all odds they ARE making Gamera movies again…right after we finished this damn thing for good, and apparently people like it despite the fact there was clearly Kaiju fatigue going on? Anyway it won’t matter, the new American trilogy is soon going to generate the mother of all profits and make all of the time we spent refurbishing the same building sets for the last 5 years worthwhile and give us a some time off until…idk, 2005 or something. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”