Resurrection of the rubber suit monster

Let's hope the suit is dead for good!

Simply put, rubber suits, animatronics and other practical effects can be much, much more convincing than any CGI with a relatively high budget and talented SFX artists (if you need proof of that, just check out this Youtube channel). However, since I'm not very optimistic, I suspect we'll be stuck with every major movie using all CGI, all the time, forever.

@RF

I hope not. It was a wonderful style and tool and I'd love to see it progressed in the age of "realistic" effects. It's nice that Godzilla is going that route for a change of pace, but I'm not of the opinion that "real" equates "better". Which brings me to...

@Kyorah16

Your original question suggests that suitmation in the context of Godzilla, Gamera and other toku were supposed to look real to begin with. This may have been the case in the 1950s, but it developed into something more in the 1960s. Realism wasn't the key. Style was. The extreme color pallet, the wild designs, the extravegant sets...etc... were all staples of 1960s sci-fi the world over, but with Godzilla wasn't aiming to be realistic.

As I've mentioned before, "realism" is an extremely post-modern, western (North American) way of looking at filmmaking. The point of Godzilla, and the many franchises it inspired, wasn't to be realistic, but to be sufficient unto themselves. The idea was to create miniatures that looked like really GOOD miniatures and monster suits that looked like really GOOD monsters suits. From there, the particular style of good miniatures and monster suits told the story. Sort of like theatre and broadway shows use props and costumes to represent animals and surroundings, even though said animals and surroundings don't really look like that in reality.

Realism is overrated. That said, I do hope people like Higuchi find a way to keep the toku style of suitmation and miniatures alive.

hmm... i wouldnt mine seening some new rubber suit efffects, there  are ways to make the  rubber suit look realistic, 

It has been tradition for rubber suit acting in Godzilla movies. It always made it seem more real to me. Plus with all the technology, it may be good to step back and appreciate the old school art of rubber suit acting. I think there is plenty of potential for future Godzilla movies to have actors in rubber suits.

My mistake. When I use the word "real" or "realism" in this context, I mean to say that the monsters do not appear silly or comedic, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the film.

really i'm fine with suitmation unless they make the skin too bagy like the heisei godzilla suits after 91, gmk had really good suits and made a good mixture of cgi and suitmation. in other words, heisei suitmation=bad, millenium/gmk suitmation=good

Actually I think the Heisei suits were largely better than the Millennium suits. The Millennium costumes looked a little to stiff and plastic-esque. All the Heisei suits looked fairly organic and the animatronics only got better with each movie. With the exception of GMK I'm not a big fan of the Millennium suits or designs.

@Kyorah16

That's understandable. I think some suits were done well like that. I still look at Gamera 3 as the best example of "dark" suitmation/miniature filmmaking from Japan.

in my opinion the suitmation of the showa, specifically the early showa movies had the best suitmation, the designs looked real, the suit actor was one, if not the best/legendary suit actors and they seemed more organic. also if you look at the heisei suit (specifically the 94 suit) the legs have too much skin and they overlap, it just makes godzilla look too fat and the heisei godzilla and the monsters were all walk and shoot, the showa suits were heavy (lighter than the 54 and future series suits) but the actors could be able to do a lot of movement, that one criticism of the godzilla heisei special effects.

i have yet to watch the gamera heisei trilogy