New Replies (Page 726)
And by the way, if you want a REALLY unpopular opinion, my favorite G-Film of all time is Gigan. Actually had a Japanese fan laugh in my face when I answered that one at G-Fest one year, we were standing in line for Haruo Nakajima and he asked, I answered, followed by a laugh and "Gigan?!" To be sure, G-Fans aren't so dissimilar on either side of the Pacific as we might assume ;)
@Dragon King
Thanks, it means a lot to not feel like a lone voice :) Part of why my family has enjoyed going to G-Fest without fail for the last 10 years straight is the simple fact we get to be surrounded by families, more to the point young kids, who just adore kaiju without all the weight of adult intellectualism in their fandom, or prejudice against this and that. It's refreshing to say the least, especially when you get to play Santa Claus for them and go in costume. I'm looking forward to doing so again as Godzilla 2000 this year. The kids rarely fail to make me love my fandom all over again when the adults kind of ruin the party.
YukisSpecial- I understand, I've been having a similar problem with the fanbase for a while.
....No tails flapping, heads tossing or legs moving? I don't think you're entirely accurate there. You're not going to win me over with any arguments against Kawakita, I think the man is too harshly dumped on by the more snobbish side of the fanbase. But yes, your criticisms are fueled by your personal feelings, as well as objective observations. You're entitled to them, I just don't agree with them.
Seriously, it's nothing personal, it's just after being a die hard fan for nearly 30 years and having been active in the online community for over 10 my deepest frustrating being a Godzilla fan is just seeing how few of the fans seem to actually enjoy their fandom anymore. They get so angry and harp on things in a political debate fashion (Legendary G is amazing/terrible, CGI is a disgrace to the fandom, Showa/Heisei/Millennium are terrible and should be swept under the rug etc etc etc) that we seem to just forget these are silly wonderful little films. Maybe I just don't belong in the forum format of discourse with fans, it just seems too hard to find enough like-minded fans who understand where I'm coming from, that even though I may say I find the Kiryu films absolutely lame compared to the films I love more, I still adore them, because it's Godzilla. Online fandom just seems to work too much in the Youtube voter system, either love it or hate it, thumbs up or down. It's regrettable.
@Yukispecial,
Entertainment value eh? Then by this standard, Showa is still more entertaining. People not only go to watch movies for entertainment value, but they want to understand what's going on in the film. If we're just going to the movies to watch monsters duke it out then it's a waste of money due to people wanting to ignore the story and plot points. Without either, people are going to get bored very quickly.
As far as feelings, I don't think I was offering my feelings on the subject but, criticism. There's a difference between the two.
If Koichi Kawakita had such a higher budget for doing special effects, how come he didn't capitalized on it? Mothra, Battra, King Ghidorah, and Mecha king ghidorah all have wings to fly with. But with no wing movement, no tails flapping, heads tossing about, or legs moving around while airborne, they look like cardboard floating and gliding in the air. These are monsters for God's sake. At least make them look like they're alive while flying. Now, is this an opinion or my feelings? Absolutely not. It's criticism.
Forgot to include:
Godzilla vs Hedorah is the absolute worst Godzilla movie. Left it out on the first post because the film tends to divide fans so not liking it isn't exactly unpopular, but I guess with films like G98, Godzilla's Revenge, and Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla most people probably wouldn't agree it is the "worst"
His spines would slowly glow, then out of pure rage, his breath changes from blue to the brightest red possible, with his eyes glowing the same color, then the breath would be similar to his hyper spiral beam, but with a LOT more kick to it.
Final Wars is my 4th favorite Godzilla movie because of it's entertainment value alone
Huge Ben,
You're entitled to those opinions because yeah, like I said, it's silly when fanboys of ANY franchise take their feelings way, way too seriously, and entertainment largely revolves around tastes. The only point I would say you're quite arguably wrong on is Miki Saegusa, the reason she's the best Godzilla character since practically the whole cast of Godzilla 1954 is because she actually had an arc, going from being a bystander to a kaiju hater of sorts to a sympathizer of the monsters. There's actual growth there over many movies, something you almost never get in this genre, save for tv shows and the Gamera trilogy to some extent. But, at the end of the day, it's just entertainment. I didn't say they were better than the '54 film because that's up to your own tastes, but as a whole series with a continuity I think they're the best, certainly better written and more satisfying than the disjointed nonsense I found most of the Millennium series to be.
But again, I love them all, so it doesn't really matter. I'll love them all until I die, but I'll rewatch the Heisei films infinitely more than I'll watch the worst points of the Showa era, or the Kiryu films. Cheers.
"The Heisei Godzilla is the best of what Godzilla is overall,"
No. No I can't agree with this. At all. If anything it's a slap in the face to what the original is. I'd even go on to say it's a bastardization of the original creature.
If it wasn't for Ghidorah the three headed monster, Godzilla may have never became the anti-hero that many people love. Although, Godzilla is something for everyone to admire. Wether it be a villian, Hero, anti-hero, or a monster on the lose. We have to remember Godzilla started off his career as the embodiment of H-Bomb. Heisei Godzilla, a completely different creature from the original, may contain radioactivity but it was the first era to change the origins. The original was never a dinosaur species like the godzillasaurus. Keith Aiken explains this thoroughly in his sci fi Japan article with the help of a few Toho representatives. Anyway, the heisei series introduced new abilities never been done before with the Showa. Spiral ray, nuclear pulse, regeneration. Showa series never ever had these abilities. Its ok for people to say they like it, no problem. Shin Godzilla? Not so much. The fan base is always going to have their personal favorites and that is a human right.
I can actually agree with Gman. From a critic point of view, the 90's films effects, and quality drop horribly each film. Biollante and 84 stand out by themselves because of how good they can be. Godzilla vs King Ghidorah 1991 has the worst plot I've ever came across from Toho studios. Kazuki Omori's script writing still leaves many confused with what's really going on. Miki Segusa's role dropped as well. I mean, all she did for the biggest part of the 90's films was look in the camera and said Godzilla. Boring.
I use to be the guy that thought the heisei films were the greatest until I studied more into them. They don't have the charm and magic, along with the quality of filmmaking that Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira Ifukube, and Ishiro Honda brought to the table. The only talents that have came close to that quality filmmaking are the team's responsible for the heisei Gamera films.
Now, I'm sorry if I came off too strong and violent, but the 90's films are just poor compared to others. I don't want anyone to think I hate these films, because I don't. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I wasn't trying to downgrade anyone for their love of this franchise.
The Heisei series tries to hard to make this era a dark tone style of filmmaking. But with poor scripts, decent to non-decent acting, and poor effects on a bigger budget, the 90's films kinda doom themselves to extreme criticism.
Yes, the same can be applied to a few Showa films, (Looking at you Megalon.) But the charm and the quality of the Showa films all make up for it. Some say it's "cheesy." That may be or may not be true, but The team of Eiji Tsuburaya, Ishiro Honda, Jun Fukuda, Teruyoshi Nakano all used this "cheesy" approach and took advantage of it.
Fanboys will always romanticize their favorites, but I don't live under an illusion that any Godzilla film is a "masterpiece" in the general sense of movie making. I find that most of the fans I have issues with are exactly the ones who have forgotten to simply have fun with what they watch, thus putting too much importance on any particular era or element. There's no Godzilla movie I hate, and each era has its strengths and its weaknesses beyond any doubt, but I'm old enough now I think to caution some fans that elitism in a fandom kills enjoyment, and not appreciating what came before shows a lack of maturity.
It's largely why this site is my sort of "return" to an online fan community, too hard to find enough people in most online clubs who strike a good balance...at least as long as one stays away from many of the Disqus converstaions.
Godzilla VS Space Godzilla is good in my opinion.
Godzilla 1998 is actually a pretty good movie. Maybe not as a Godzilla film, but as a Kaiju flick it's pretty awesome.
Kiryu is the worst of the Mecha-Godzillas.
Millennium is the worst era. GMK is good but I'm not a huge fan of the others.
The best Godzilla designs are Shin, Legendary, 1954 and GMK.
Terror Of Mecha-Godzilla is probably my favorite Showa film besides the original.
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I'd add more if I can think of them.
YukisSpecial,
It goes both ways. I usually find Heisei fans to be belligerently spiteful toward the Showa films & fans, and too young to really understand the flaws. Usually their best defense against legitimate criticism of the Heisei era is to point fingers at the Millennium movies and pretend the 1990s are some sort of dark, serious masterwork. So for me, a mass bulk of them have represented some of the least likable of the fandom and incited more trouble than its worth.
Unpopular opinion for me is that the Kiryu movies are boring and not what the younger fans would have me believe they are. I just find them lacking and uninspired.
Never will agree with you about the Heisei era though, G.Man, to me the Heisei is the best of what Godzilla is overall, even if most of my favorites tend to be in the Showa era. No personal offense, but every fan I've talked to who tells me the Heisei era is the worst tend to hang in an extremely elitist fan mindset which I find unappealing in any fandom.
Gojira isn't the best Godzilla movie
Godzilla vs. Hedorah is a masterpiece
Heisei series is extremely overrated
Godzilla vs. Destroyah is "meh"
Godzilla vs. Megalon is one of the best entries
Terror of MG is better than Gvs.MG
I don't want a Godzilla/Gamera crossover film
The story's going to be kind of long, so I'm going to divide it into three topics.
I have another one. I like all four forms of Shin Godzilla.
Around here, at least, an unpopular opinion I hold is that all of the supplementary material for the current Monsterverse is canonical and within continuity, and thus ripe to use in discussing the characters and events of this cinematic universe, be it VS. debates or otherwise.
For the longest time, I thought that there was never gonna be anything to support my side. Until Kong: Skull Island came out, that is. That film established some key aspects fleshed out in the supplementary material, such as MONARCH being funded in 1946 or Operation: Castle Bravo being the public name for Operation: Lucky Dragon.
Here I go I guess.
Shin Godzilla IS the best film since the 54 original.
Godzilla 2014 is way overrated when it's a middle of the road film at best.
Showa era is the greatest era to date.
90's heisei films are the poorest films in history.
Final wars is bat shit crazy.
Godzilla's revenge is better than spacegodzilla.
Tokyo SOS is like a mixture of Mothra vs Godzilla 64 And Godzilla vs Mothra 92.
Gmk IS one of the greatest.
Kong vs. Godzilla 62 is better than the 90's heisei films.
Eiji Tsuburaya makes the heisei series and millennium series effects look like syfy originals.
Monster Zero 65 has the greatest cast in the entire series.
That's all for now. :P
Hard...probably that Godzilla '14 is in my top 5 Godzilla films
I think the quality for the earlier movies more than make up for it. I don't think I've ever considered judging the different eras based on the number of good or bad movies, but rather how excellent the overall quality got.
If it wasn't for 69-73 I'd say showa was the best but the ball was dropped too hard for 4 movies in a row for me to give it the #1 era spot.
Yeah, unfortunately I don't think Durp's last one is particularly unpopular--Much to my annoyance.
^I agree with your first, second, and last opinion.
I liked Godzilla dancing in Invasion of Astro Monster
Final Wars is an entertaining movie.
I didn't really like The Return of Godzilla.
Gojira isn't the best Godzilla movie
Mothra vs Godzilla isn't even top 5
Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla is a fun watch
Godzilla 98 isn't the worst G-movie
GMK is one of the weakest entries
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2 is the worst heisei movie
Heisei is the best era.
I'm gonna give this a shot. I like the monsters Gabera, Ebirah, Kamacuras and Kumonga. I don't like the Godzilla Awakening graphic novel.
^^^
Very likely, that's how Kong was, and it worked.
Nice, great pick. Movie certainly is turning into quite the ensemble piece. Funny enough I'm re-reading through the old Marc Cerasini Godzilla books and it occurred to me just how every book was just jam-packed full of incidental characters, but managed to remain very enjoyable and good on the kaiju action. I'd like to hope they strike a similarly good balance here.
I think she may be the person behind the most knowledge of Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah.
With maybe the inclusion of her knowing that where they can be found.
Commissioned artwork. TITANOSAURUS - showa head detail.
I really love the Shin version. Still not sure how I felt about the mouth splitting open, though.
There is hope that him being a true fan.. just means he will want to deliver a good product... that will be cherished for years to come.. just like the original.
This movie is going to have a heck of a cast
Tbh I'm fine with a design change, it's something that I look forward to. I feel they should keep Legendary G's basic design, but alter some features such as the spines, scales, etc.
