Godzilla Movies

Some talk about it in the 'What Movie' thread, but hands down my favorite is Final Wars. Not sure how well received it was, as it is kind of gonzo, but it's just about everything I want in a Godzilla film.

Well...to be honest I first saw it about 2 years ago with my son. It's now his favorite movie, and sitting through it while watching the eyes of a (then) 5 1/2 year old, probably made it stick more than had I just watched it on my own.

Anyway, below's a pretty favorable video review of it. If you're looking for a good Godzilla fix and this summer's movie didn't do it, or you simply want a midnight creature feature to watch, you could do a lot worse.

cinemassacre.com/2008/10/31/godzilla-final-wars/

What's your favorite(s)?

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS was mine. It is a crazy mashup of all the Toho kaiju. Godzilla is the leader, but you had Rodan, Mothra, some Spider guy, Godzilla's goofy kid--all battling Ghidorah, who's a crazy badass. Monsters tear up NYC, Paris, and London; aliens land in Japan--it's nuts.

I was able to watch all these crazy monster movies and more because they were shown on Creature Double Feature every Saturday on Channel 56. It was insanely great.

Truth is, Godzilla movies are much more fun on paper and in the memory than they actually are. They're mostly really boring, slowly paced films. Yes, the monster stuff is great. GREAT. But getting to the 20 minutes of GREAT means 80 minutes of tedious drama.

River wanted to watch some so I got all excited about showing him the old Godzilla vs. Mothra, because Mothra is the best. He was bored. I was bored. There are some great bits, but a highlight reel would do it for me.

Final Wars and Destroy All monsters fare a little better because they're monster mash/battle royale films. Final Wars is probably the best of the Japanese films, barring the '54 original (which is rightly a classic, and probably the only G film that is actually a great movie.)

Some of the later, 1990s era ones are more watchable...the '92 Mothra (and Battra!) one is good, the '93 Mechagodzilla is decent despite a terrible plot, and I actually like Space Godzilla. Destroyer is OK.

Godzilla is awesome. The movies just aren't very good.

Also- the Godzilla: Half Century War comic by James Stokoe is the greatest Godzilla story ever told.

I don't altogether disagree with Barnes, though I do really like the setup for Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero. They work best the more absurd they are. I even think the original one is a little dragged down by how earnest it is. It's also a little bit boring.

My first favorite as a kid was Son of Godzilla, but that was almost totally a function of seeing it first.

When I was that age, I lived for those moments when Godzilla would appear on TV. Once a friend of mine called me to tell me that Godzilla 1985 was on TV. I was so excited that a hung up on him before he even got a chance to invite me over to watch it with him.

I just lined up all of the Millenium series on Netflix. I haven't seen any of those ones.

Saw the new flick yesterday with the boy.

That movie is fantastic! Way better than I expected it to be.

I understand the criticism that the namesake creature isn't in it much, but I thought he was used at just the right dose. Two points to elaborate:

1) Yes, this was quite different than the recent Toho offerings, and that's cool. Those films skew closer to a Saban enterprise, and this film was more like the original Godzilla. Plus, to be honest, the MUTOs were used plenty throughout the film causing all types of mayhem. And really, it's not like Godzilla has this awesome personality, I watch these films to watch giant monsters ripping up shit, and the MUTOs did plenty of that.

2) JAWS is still an incredible movie, even though the main fish isn't in it much until the end.

The human drama was fine, but I did get tired of Watanbe's incredulous stare throughout the whole movie. Pretty shallow character. Yeah, the main character survived more than his share of dangers, but that's to be expected.

All in all I thought it was a fantastic Godzilla film...in the traditional sense. Still not as fun as Final Wars, but those films are a different beast.