a large white neo destroyah 

I mean, I don't necessarily think either monster should represent nations, but definitely personality and ideals should affect HOW characters fight, so while I don't agree with the specific themes Ebaker has selected for embodiment......having combatants embody themes of any kind definitely elevates an action scene. 

It definitely would help Godzilla 2014 if the monster battles aren't just mindless popcorn brawls in the vein of Pacific Rim (as fun as those are to watch). 

But if you think about Luke vs. Vader or Batman vs the Joker....or the shootouts in 'No Country for Old Men'.....in their actual physical confrontations you can see the journey of the characters, and the battles between ideals such as chaos, anger, justice, nihilism, righteous discipline, and peace play out through their fighting style and choice of moves when in combat. Exposition isn't necessary to convey a message in those kinds of fight scenes and it's AWESOME. 

If they can figure out some way to get any levels of idealistic transcedance in the Godzilla combat scenes this May, I'll be marvelously impressed and happy :-)

A fellow fan from another forum, and one of my favorite posters at Monster Zero forums, EBaker, had the most fantastic analyzation of this scene. One I very much agree with. His words:

"I tend to come from the school of thought that, whether intended or not, all art and storytelling reflects something of the creator's worldview. In the case of Oomori's Godzilla screenplays, though, I think there's a lot of thematic material that he's very intentionally weaving in, albeit in sometimes a pretty jumbled form.

Here's how I ended up summarizing my point of view [of the Shindo death scene]:

I see both characters as being presented as honorable in the WWII sequences, and subsequently both becoming extremely powerful (with the literal ability to transform landscapes) - specifically powerful in ways informed by American influence; both being directly associated with nuclear power; and both being things that the Futurians come back in time to stop. Basically, the two faces of Japan's post-war economic growth.

I've always leaned towards a reading of the movie as about the dangers of unchecked nationalism and capitalism, with Japan itself presented as a kind of tragic monster, wielding (economic) power which it cannot itself keep in check. Thus, while neither Shindo nor Godzilla is evil, they both represent aspects of post-war Japanese culture that the movie is critiquing."

Beautifully put and train of thought I'm very much attracted to.

I really like his design and I don't really have that many complaints to be quite honest. The only minor complaints I have about his design are:

1. He is a little bit hunched over and I would of preferred him to be more upright.

2. His spikes look all messy and chipped.

3. His feet look like brontosaurus feet but I guess it is something different.

I don't really care, those are just the only minor complaints that I could think of. I am quite happy with his design and I am glad that he actually looks like TOHO Godzilla and not like GINO again.

This is a topic that has been discussed to exhaustion. Nobody knows for sure. A few sites have claimed the 14th, but as of late that info may have been misinterpreted, and in fact the trailer might have been set to be "completed" by the 14th and released at a later time. But nobody knows. There reallyis little point to discuss it also, since regardless of dates a new trailer is on the way and soon, the film itself will be released. So, I say just be patient and wait. Gonna lock this now though, as it's a repeat of many existing topics.

Patience is a virtue.

@JAZMYNE, LOL You win

I really have no complaints about the design. I LOVE the new spikes and the bulk of the monster. The snout/jaw are also pretty cool. 

I'm not like EXCITED for the feet, but I don't specifically dislike the feet either. They are just there I guess. 

I'm more concerned about Godzilla's speed and range of motion. There was another thread more dedicated to the topic of speed where I addressed my concerns more thoroughly, but so far Godzilla LOOKS great. 

This might be a silly thing to say but I wish I could Katsumi Tezuka the guy who played the stunt double in the Godzilla suit who is now 101 at age.

Nobody knows the correct date. That's why there are multiple dates flying around. 

The MOST likely date is March 7th imo, attached to the 300 movie, or a few days before.

Design hasnt been 100% fully revealed yet but from all the leaked Photos we can already guess what He could look like.

I personaly am happy with the design, I had some difficulties accepting the feet but a few weeks later Ive grown over it.

Buttom line the desing looks great from everything we've seen so far.

Looks like Big G is having fun.

My opinion the worst Godzilla films are.

Vs Seamonster

Vs King Ghidorah

vs Megaguirus

Maybe they wouldn't have made the god awful sequel that was Godzilla vs King Ghidorah if biollante had been successful.

84 and biollante were in their own league of awesome eighties science fiction films, can't really be touched in my opinion. The eighties were awesome when it came to originality in creature design.

Well I liked the 98' film, and it's still in my top 1/3 of Godzilla movies....for wall of text reasons I explained in another thread. 

And yeah, like several of the other posters, I don't hate any of the Godzilla movies, but there are definitely some I like less, and even a couple I've ever watched once. 

The bottom of my Godzilla movie list would probably have to be occupied by Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla's Revenge, and Godzilla vs the Sea Monster, and Godzilla vs Hedorah. The main thing that unites those films onto a list was that their plots and characters were kinda shallow, and none them even had that much Godzilla screentime or GOOD monster battles to make up for it. Some Godzilla movies have better plots, and some have better battles....those four films in particular are sub-par in both departments. 

Godzilla's revenge, godzilla vs the sea monster and GINO

Yeah, Biollante would be a very interesting monster to revisit. Compared to other Toho monsters Biollante has a lot of flexibility and unexplored potential; unlike many Toho monsters which have been basically exhausted or never had that much depth to begin with.

To be fair though, it wasn't JUST the performance of Biollante's movie which caused Toho to put the character in the closet and collect dust. Godzilla 85 has to share a large part of the blame as well. Neither film was that financially successful or very well reviewed at the time of release. It's estimated that even Godzilla 85 only made about 10% profit margins, and Biollante most likely lost money.

The reason why 85's performance is key, is because in the past, if a single Toho character premier didn't go over well (Anguirus, Gigan) but the SURROUNDING Toho films were successful, then Toho would usually give that character a second chance down the road, even if it was a move to save costs. But characters that had weak premiers and were surrounded by weak neighbors were harder to revive. 

So after two financially disappointing films in a row to kick off Godzilla's return, Toho had few options left but to retread the tried and true formulas and characters. And it worked for them, much the same way as these constant super hero sequels keep working. Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla (and even Spacegodzilla) all saw their films make 25%-50% or more profit margins, even if those movies may have been more generic than Biollante's film. 

That all being said, if Godzilla 2014 inspires Toho to get back in the game, I would love to see them revisit Biollante :-)

I so agree with this, Biollante is my absolute favorite monster it would have been great if it had been made into a trilogy, maybe with the return Biollante.

This was actually said about a month ago in a video interview with E.T. Canada. There was even a whole news thread made for this topic on this site.

Godzilla Cast Interview

Yeah Biollante is awesome. I would like to see her back and maybe taking over monster island. The story with Biollante make more sense than another monsters against Godzilla. The director of Godzilla 2014 says he'll like do a sequel about Destory All Monsters, maybe we will see the return of Biollante.

haha thanks Godzilla1990rules XD

I realize I'm late to the party here, so I really won't be able to respond to the nuance of all the points provided here w/out writing a book. 

What I will say, is that a lot of the 'problems' listed with the Heisei series here, are not exclusive to the Heisei films. In my opinion, several Showa films had similar inconsistencies, plot problems, and weak characters depending on the film. 

I also think it's fair to say that if you made a list of the top 5 WORST Godzilla movies of all time, the Showa series would be home to at least 2-3 of those no matter who was writing the list. The Heisei series would probably only contribute 1 film to that list depending on the author. 

I for one, really enjoyed how the Heisei series really returned Godzilla's status to that of a villian/anti-hero. I got tired of 'Godzilla the Good Guy' after awhile.

That all being said, I really do not enjoy the monster battles of the Heisei series. I understand they had technically better special effects and more 'realistic' combat.....but I felt the atomic breath was very subjective and over used when compared to the Showa era. It made the battles very repititive and hard to build up suspense, as Godzilla would just do the same attack over and over, but would arbitrarily be victorious once he fired a shot that hit the right spot or a shot that he 'really meant'. 

I understand that that the Heisei suit design made it hard to do the tooth n' claw battles and I know other movies have similar problems of not clearly defining the atomic breath ability, but at least there was more variance in Godzilla's fighting style.

That's actually why the Milennium Series is still my personal favorite to this day. They did the best job of combining Godzilla's anti-hero plot status with a combat style that I really enjoyed watching. 

Anyways, that's my 2 cents. 

@Jazmyne - I completely agree. It's the stupidest thing. We're not selling opposing products in the same market, half the sites share memberships and readerships anyways. It's ridiculous and yes, extremely childish. 

And yes, I wish I could code mandatory grammar fixes, hahaha. Spelling too.

@DragonlordTevin - Sure I can understand having a bad day, but I mean it looked kind of ironic when comparing your statements here. But I'll take your word for it and forget about the remarks in light of the hopeful reconciliation people are pursuing in this thread. So, it's all good.

But one thing I will add, is please stop the senseless bickering with Kyero, that's just as childish as any cross-site feuds. Be respectful and constructive (this goes to everyone) - that's how this community will thrive and stay alive and attract new members. Simple rules we all learned when we were very young - don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Great rule to live by.

I think had they followed the direction Godzilla vs Biollante went in the series would have essentially stayed the same. As toho has made it clear they will bring back their most popular monsters in every series, so while Ghidorah's movie might have been different, there'sno question in my mind he and Mothra would still have gotten 1.

@BigBadBen

You kind of have it right. But the Godzillasaurus was not the original Godzilla. It was only the Heisei Godzilla. The Godzillasaurus was mutated into Godzilla when a nuclear sub sank in the mid 1970s and irradiated it. It then became Godzilla and attacked Japan in 1984...etc...etc...

I think the closest 1 is Godzilla's Revenge. It's essentially a highlight reel of past godzilla movies, but takes out some of the best entries before it(Mothra vs Godzilla, Ghidorah the 3headed monster, Monster Zero, and Destroy All Monsters) and strings them with a somewhat lighthearted plot. While the plot alone wasn't bad in terms of a child using Godzilla, or I guess Minilla as a role model to stand up for himself the fact the movie is literally about 90% stock footage when it comes to scenes with Godzilla, and this becomes more and more obvious as Godzilla looks different in almost every scene.. The movie just really didn't need to be made. Sure they had a low budget after how much Destroy All Monsters cost, but they should have just waited and not produced this at all.

Also I really don't like GMK. The movie itself isn't bad I suppose, but the fact it's put on a pedestal by most fans and hailed as 1 of the greatest caused me to truly scrutinize it when watching it and makes all the things I don't like about it more obvious.

There's a lot of "what-ifs" with the Heisei series. What if Kawikata had been given the opportunity to do darker films had vs. Biollante been a success? Would the effects have improved instead of declined? What if Ishiro Honda had stayed alive long enough to direct Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II? Would it have been the best movie of the series? What if Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II stuck with its original ending: Godzilla's death and Baby absorbing his radiation to become the new Godzilla. Would audiences have accepted it? Would it had segwayed into an American film as originally planned? Would vs. King Ghidorah through vs. Destroyah even exist had vs. Biollante been a box office hit? No telling, but there's a lot of alternate paths that start immediately with vs. Biollante.

Good topic. Wish I had more on my mind to contribute outside of questions leading to more questions.

I sure did. it was hi-lary-ous

@ JAZMYNE

I actually had a belly-laugh when I read your post. Well-said.

DID YOU READ THE MEME

"What this site needs is mandatory use of proper punctuation."

Wait... What is this Always 2 Goji?.... is that the one from the dream sequence in a non-Godzilla movie? OH, and nice pic!

Hate? I don't think I hate any Godzilla movie... although vs. SpaceGodzilla comes real close...

Several are simply not good movies. Some I prefer more than others. But hate? I think I enjoy them all on some level.

WHY IS ALWAYS 2 GOJI FAT 

What this site needs is mandatory use of proper punctuation.

In all seriousness though, the whole turf war between fan sites is the most childish neckbeard bullshit I've ever heard. The people at Tohokingdom fighting with the people from Scifijapan is still about one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. They all need to shave their neckbeards, get the hell out of the house and grow up.

I agree, they are two of my favorite movies, and Biollante is one of my favorite kaiju. What you sited above is why I think the 90's and Mellenium series' don't really do it for me. (Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla Vs. Destroyah aside). Every series starts off strong then tapers off in my opinion. It's because the budgets fall, and the development time goes right down with it. 

Ok... CHILL. Respect one another and move on. Seriously! Thanks

Thank you, made my night. :)