American Godzilla

[CommodoreKong]

The Nostalgia Critic did an excellent video review of the American Godzilla movie, showing why it was horrible without once comparing it to the Japanese films.

And I can demonstrate how great it is by comparing it to the Japanese films all day long. What does that prove?

Well if that's your opinion it's fine, I may not agree with it but you're entitled to it.
Since we had a topic about this movie I decided to post his video review since he does a great and funny job of pointing out the many flaws the film has.

 

[RAMA]

They should have done what they did with ID4 - take the original basic story and rename it, to reflect the sometimes-vast changes. As a giant monster movie, it isn't bad at all. Its the expectations game caused by the brand name that hurt it. Also, they should never have promised to keep the classic G look, then gone with their own very different design.

If they promised to keep G's original appearence, and then went back on that, then that was wrong..

I have no trouble with G's change in of appearence in the various Godzilla series from Japan. I liked how he looked in the 90s and the more 'grouchy' look he had in the 2000s...But the American Godzilla movie was just badly made with bad actors and was just, IMO, dumb....Cloverfield was far better but not as good as a properly made Godzilla movie could have been....

Just last night my son 'made' me watch Godzilla vs Gigan (the one where Godzilla and Anguilas talk to each other)...It is mindless, and relies to much on stock footage (how many times must we see them shooting at the green gargantua's butt in the trees?)..but still, as bad as it was, it was still fun in its own way...

Rob
scorpio

I had no trouble with Godzilla's appearance at ALL. I also had no problem with the FX...film goers are so jaded these days. The movie looked great and both were far superior to the Japanese efforts without any question. I hated the acting and most of the story. Broderick was totally miscast.

FYI, the main culprit for Godzilla was French nuclear testing, which was controversial back in the mid 90s. The US and Russia had stopped testing by 1992.

RAMA

 

[Hartzilla2007]

As a giant monster movie, it isn't bad at all. Its the expectations game caused by the brand name that hurt it.

I agree completely. It isn't "true" Godzilla, but it's a decent monster movie in its own right. And Patrick Tatopolous's creature design was actually very effective. (Although I thought it looked even better in cel-animated form in the cartoon sequel series to the film, which ran for a couple of seasons on Fox Kids. That was actually a pretty well-written show, although unfortunately it achieved that by stealing the good writers from Men in Black: The Series from the same studio, which degenerated greatly as a result.)

I have to agree to. And think this would have probably made for a better Godzilla movie

http://www.kaijuhq.org/unmade17.html

 

[DWF]

The movie's own internal logic doesn't quite work and it was rushed out and it looks like it.

 

[Gojirob]

They should have done what they did with ID4 - take the original basic story and rename it, to reflect the sometimes-vast changes. As a giant monster movie, it isn't bad at all. Its the expectations game caused by the brand name that hurt it. Also, they should never have promised to keep the classic G look, then gone with their own very different design.

If they promised to keep G's original appearence, and then went back on that, then that was wrong..

I have no trouble with G's change in of appearence in the various Godzilla series from Japan. I liked how he looked in the 90s and the more 'grouchy' look he had in the 2000s...But the American Godzilla movie was just badly made with bad actors and was just, IMO, dumb....Cloverfield was far better but not as good as a properly made Godzilla movie could have been....

Just last night my son 'made' me watch Godzilla vs Gigan (the one where Godzilla and Anguilas talk to each other)...It is mindless, and relies to much on stock footage (how many times must we see them shooting at the green gargantua's butt in the trees?)..but still, as bad as it was, it was still fun in its own way...

Rob
scorpio

I had no trouble with Godzilla's appearance at ALL. I also had no problem with the FX...film goers are so jaded these days. The movie looked great and both were far superior to the Japanese efforts without any question. I hated the acting and most of the story. Broderick was totally miscast.

FYI, the main culprit for Godzilla was French nuclear testing, which was controversial back in the mid 90s. The US and Russia had stopped testing by 1992.

RAMA

I had no problem per se with Zilla's appearance, except that the producers had made statements leading fans to believe the design would hue much closer than it did to Classic G. They could have just said they wanted a lithe, not a lumbering monster, and like any G-Fan wouldn't have gone to see it anyway.

As to the CGI, its funny. Toho execs hated the redesign so much, that they re-started the G series early after its 1995 hiatus. Yet they were impressed by the CGI itself, and G2K was the first film for years wherein most weapons actually struck the monsters, rather than the area around them, since CGI permitted this without destroying those very expensive suits. It also permitted wiping away of seams and zippers and any other grossly visible flaws. It also sadly lead to a constant re-upping of G's power levels, until Final Wars infamous near-Kamehameha scene wherein G is blasting a meteor not yet in Earth's atmosphere! I think CGI's success is also defined by knowing when to stop.

 

[DWF]

As to the CGI, its funny. Toho execs hated the redesign so much, that they re-started the G series early after its 1995 hiatus. Yet they were impressed by the CGI itself, and G2K was the first film for years wherein most weapons actually struck the monsters, rather than the area around them, since CGI permitted this without destroying those very expensive suits.

But Godzilla was struck repeatedly by missiles and energy blasts thoughout the Heisei are, so no I can't agree with you on that score. CGI also increases the post production time which Toho didn't really much of after G2K. However G2K is the first Godzilla movie to have a fully rendered CGI Godzilla in it.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

As to the CGI, its funny. Toho execs hated the redesign so much, that they re-started the G series early after its 1995 hiatus. Yet they were impressed by the CGI itself, and G2K was the first film for years wherein most weapons actually struck the monsters, rather than the area around them, since CGI permitted this without destroying those very expensive suits.

But Godzilla was struck repeatedly by missiles and energy blasts thoughout the Heisei are, so no I can't agree with you on that score. CGI also increases the post production time which Toho didn't really much of after G2K. However G2K is the first Godzilla movie to have a fully rendered CGI Godzilla in it.

And wasn't Godzilla melting in Godzilla vs Destroyah done with CGI

 

[DWF]

^^^I believe so, even though the early trailers had a more mechanical head being melted, it looked ALOT better in the final version.

 

[Admiral2]

Since we had a topic about this movie I decided to post his video review since he does a great and funny job of pointing out the many flaws the film has.

And this is my biggest problem with people who bash the American Godzilla movie. They all want to come out and list all of the movie's "flaws" without acknowledging the fact that, looked at objectively, the flaws of AG are nothing compared to all of the flaws of the original movies, including the first one! The main reason I looked forward to seeing AG was that for once (at that time), after having grown up with what came before, I wanted to see a Godzilla that didn't look like a guy in a rubber suit trashing buildings that weren't cardboard models and fighting military vehicles that weren't GiJoe toys firing bottle rockets at him! (BTW: somebody up the thread compared AG to Barney! Please! AG wasn't a guy in a suit, pal!)

And - excuse me - the acting and writing were bad? This is one of your complaints? When there have been people in previous Godzilla movies dressed up like f-ing anime characters hamboning lines like "We will use King Ghidorah and Monstah X to destroy Earth's monsters and take over! hahaha!"? And six inch tall island hula girl twins that sing to giant caterpillars?? And a movie where G and the giant porcupine talk to each other??? That stuff is brilliant, but the acting and writing in AG sucked? Stop it! Just stop!

I don't know what all of you detractors were looking for when you saw AG, but I got what I wanted and I enjoyed what I got. I wasn't looking for Oscar worthy dramatisations or deep philosophy, things I haven't expected from a Godzilla movie since the first one! I expected a typical Devlin/Emmerich popcorn movie with lots of action and explosions involving a giant lizard running loose in Manhattan! (And I know the next ten responses to this paragraph will be "Well then they shouldn't have called it 'Godzilla'. The guys who own the name said they could! Get over it!)

And on the subject of AG's appearance: I don't know who got the idea that the producers said that it would look like the original, cause all the advance press I read had the creators saying it wasn't going to look like the original precisely because the original looks like a guy in rubber suit! I wasn't shocked that it didn't look like old Godzilla because I knew it wouldn't! It was Hollywood! How long do you have see things coming out of Hollywood before you stop being surprised at the changes they pull?

All this just grates on me, really, how so many people wasted an opportunity to turn their minds off and have fun for a couple of hours because a movie made in the US didn't exactly match almost forty years of kids movies that were made in Japan. It's insane.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

You know I like the movie, and after rewatchinging it I can ecept a killable Godzilla, but did they have to remove the nuclear firebreath. I mean that was cool and should have been in this movie, and don't give me that it wasn't realistic stuff. This is a movie franchiase revolving around a giant lizard monster created from nuclear testing, so I think they could have used nuclear breath. having said that I still like the movie, though Tristar could always make-up for it by say buying the rights to Godzilla 1985 (both American and International Dubbs)/Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs Biollante and release them on DVD so that I don't have to track down the Region 3 Subtitled ones.

 

[Psion]

Since we had a topic about this movie I decided to post his video review since he does a great and funny job of pointing out the many flaws the film has.

And this is my biggest problem with people who bash the American Godzilla movie. They all want to come out and list all of the movie's "flaws" without acknowledging the fact that, looked at objectively, the flaws of AG are nothing compared to all of the flaws of the original movies, including the first one! The main reason I looked forward to seeing AG was that for once (at that time), after having grown up with what came before, I wanted to see a Godzilla that didn't look like a guy in a rubber suit trashing buildings that weren't cardboard models and fighting military vehicles that weren't GiJoe toys firing bottle rockets at him! (BTW: somebody up the thread compared AG to Barney! Please! AG wasn't a guy in a suit, pal!)

And - excuse me - the acting and writing were bad? This is one of your complaints? When there have been people in previous Godzilla movies dressed up like f-ing anime characters hamboning lines like "We will use King Ghidorah and Monstah X to destroy Earth's monsters and take over! hahaha!"? And six inch tall island hula girl twins that sing to giant caterpillars?? And a movie where G and the giant porcupine talk to each other??? That stuff is brilliant, but the acting and writing in AG sucked? Stop it! Just stop!

I don't know what all of you detractors were looking for when you saw AG, but I got what I wanted and I enjoyed what I got. I wasn't looking for Oscar worthy dramatisations or deep philosophy, things I haven't expected from a Godzilla movie since the first one! I expected a typical Devlin/Emmerich popcorn movie with lots of action and explosions involving a giant lizard running loose in Manhattan! (And I know the next ten responses to this paragraph will be "Well then they shouldn't have called it 'Godzilla'. The guys who own the name said they could! Get over it!)

And on the subject of AG's appearance: I don't know who got the idea that the producers said that it would look like the original, cause all the advance press I read had the creators saying it wasn't going to look like the original precisely because the original looks like a guy in rubber suit! I wasn't shocked that it didn't look like old Godzilla because I knew it wouldn't! It was Hollywood! How long do you have see things coming out of Hollywood before you stop being surprised at the changes they pull?

All this just grates on me, really, how so many people wasted an opportunity to turn their minds off and have fun for a couple of hours because a movie made in the US didn't exactly match almost forty years of kids movies that were made in Japan. It's insane.

 

[DWF]

(BTW: somebody up the thread compared AG to Barney! Please! AG wasn't a guy in a suit, pal!)

At times he was a man in a suit.

the flaws of AG are nothing compared to all of the flaws of the original movies, including the first one!

Which version? The edited American version or the longer unedited Japanese version? And yeah for a movie with a budget of a $130 million dollars I think people did expect more out of it. And the same could said about the Star Wars prequels, I guess people expected more out those movies without looking as objectively as possible at the original trilogy for the flaws in those movies.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

As a giant monster movie, it isn't bad at all. Its the expectations game caused by the brand name that hurt it.

I agree completely. It isn't "true" Godzilla, but it's a decent monster movie in its own right. And Patrick Tatopolous's creature design was actually very effective. (Although I thought it looked even better in cel-animated form in the cartoon sequel series to the film, which ran for a couple of seasons on Fox Kids. That was actually a pretty well-written show, although unfortunately it achieved that by stealing the good writers from Men in Black: The Series from the same studio, which degenerated greatly as a result.)

I liked both of those series though it s a shame to hear that Men in Black's writting went down the tube since I couldn't keep up with it as much as I wanted to, not to mention I think it sucks that Fox pulled the plug on Godzilla the Series.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I don't know what all of you detractors were looking for when you saw AG, but I got what I wanted and I enjoyed what I got. I wasn't looking for Oscar worthy dramatisations or deep philosophy, things I haven't expected from a Godzilla movie since the first one! I expected a typical Devlin/Emmerich popcorn movie with lots of action and explosions involving a giant lizard running loose in Manhattan! (And I know the next ten responses to this paragraph will be "Well then they shouldn't have called it 'Godzilla'. The guys who own the name said they could! Get over it!)

well to be fair it would have been nice if Tristar had used Godzilla's known atributes which are:

1) indestructable meaning the military can't kill him without a. Another monster, b. some superweapon, or c. some way to drive Godzilla off for now.

2) Breaths Nuclear Fire capable of melting metal and vaporizing people

And on the note of Toho letting them use the name

1) The fact that they released Godzilla 2000 in Japan the year after Godzilla kind of comes off asa Retaliation for the 1998 film.

2) The renamed the American Godzilla Zilla, saying (I don't where I heard this but) Tristar took the God out of Godzilla.

3) They took time out of two later godzilla movies to bash the American Godzilla.

Other than those factors though it was a good movie. It just dosen't feel like a Godzilla movie.

 

[Goji]

A couple points:

Godzilla 2000 was less a "retaliation" and more of a "quick cash-grab", and it shows big time in the film. Toho knew that lots of Godzilla fans would pay to see pretty much anything that featured the classic character after the disappointment of the American film. If they really wanted to "retaliate", they should have considered making an actually good film.

The American Godzilla was never referred to by name in the one film it appeared in (Godzilla Final Wars), but I have heard it referred to as "Zilla" on the internet. I don't believe for a second that has anything to do with the word "God" though, since the Japanese "Gojira" has nothing at all to do with deities of any sort, excepting the fictional religion of Oto Island in the original '54 film.

The American Godzilla really died no quicker or with any more humiliation than any other non-"Monster X" opponent in "Final Wars". Hell, Hedorah gets to be on screen for about three seconds, if that! That film is the ultimate ADD experience, no fight lasts longer than 30 seconds and no shot lasts longer than two. I have my own problems with the American "Godzilla", but it's at least better than the downright painful "Final Wars".

The American Godzilla to me feels like one long repeat of Jurassic Park and The Lost World, except with lamer jokes and bigger plot-holes. It's not terrible, but it doesn't have anything going for it that would make me want to watch it again.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Well at least for those who don't like the Tristar Godzilla, or those of us that like it but like the Toho Godzilla more we still have these movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s296yCSzxho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R78Fam-r-5A&feature=related

Yes I know its only the intro theme from the Heisei Series Movies.

 

[RobertScorpio]

A couple points:

Godzilla 2000 was less a "retaliation" and more of a "quick cash-grab", and it shows big time in the film. Toho knew that lots of Godzilla fans would pay to see pretty much anything that featured the classic character after the disappointment of the American film. If they really wanted to "retaliate", they should have considered making an actually good film.

The American Godzilla was never referred to by name in the one film it appeared in (Godzilla Final Wars), but I have heard it referred to as "Zilla" on the internet. I don't believe for a second that has anything to do with the word "God" though, since the Japanese "Gojira" has nothing at all to do with deities of any sort, excepting the fictional religion of Oto Island in the original '54 film.

The American Godzilla really died no quicker or with any more humiliation than any other non-"Monster X" opponent in "Final Wars". Hell, Hedorah gets to be on screen for about three seconds, if that! That film is the ultimate ADD experience, no fight lasts longer than 30 seconds and no shot lasts longer than two. I have my own problems with the American "Godzilla", but it's at least better than the downright painful "Final Wars".

The American Godzilla to me feels like one long repeat of Jurassic Park and The Lost World, except with lamer jokes and bigger plot-holes. It's not terrible, but it doesn't have anything going for it that would make me want to watch it again.

All I know is that GODZILLA deserved better...And 1998 just wasn't that good of a movie. They took a great concept and crapped all over it...had it not been called GODZILLA 1998 I wouldn't even mind...but they did. And that movie was a kick in Godzilla's nuts...

Rob

 

[RobertScorpio]

A couple points:

Godzilla 2000 was less a "retaliation" and more of a "quick cash-grab", and it shows big time in the film. Toho knew that lots of Godzilla fans would pay to see pretty much anything that featured the classic character after the disappointment of the American film. If they really wanted to "retaliate", they should have considered making an actually good film.

The American Godzilla was never referred to by name in the one film it appeared in (Godzilla Final Wars), but I have heard it referred to as "Zilla" on the internet. I don't believe for a second that has anything to do with the word "God" though, since the Japanese "Gojira" has nothing at all to do with deities of any sort, excepting the fictional religion of Oto Island in the original '54 film.

The American Godzilla really died no quicker or with any more humiliation than any other non-"Monster X" opponent in "Final Wars". Hell, Hedorah gets to be on screen for about three seconds, if that! That film is the ultimate ADD experience, no fight lasts longer than 30 seconds and no shot lasts longer than two. I have my own problems with the American "Godzilla", but it's at least better than the downright painful "Final Wars".

The American Godzilla to me feels like one long repeat of Jurassic Park and The Lost World, except with lamer jokes and bigger plot-holes. It's not terrible, but it doesn't have anything going for it that would make me want to watch it again.

All I know is that GODZILLA deserved better...And 1998 just wasn't that good of a movie. They took a great concept and crapped all over it...had it not been called GODZILLA 1998 I wouldn't even mind...but they did. And that movie was a kick in Godzilla's nuts...

OH..and Godzilla 2000, as bad as it is, is better than 1998

Rob

 

[zakkrusz]

It was fairly good, but I felt no need to own it or watch it again.