Post by Argonaut on Jul 4, 2008 17:23:08 GMT -8
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0279112/
I've been a fan of Godzilla for as long as I can remember. I watched several of them when I was younger. Mostly the older ones. Eventually I learned that the Japanese still made them, even using the suits. Occasionally I would catch some of them on tv, and I wasn't very impressed. They seemed pretty lame to me compared to the old ones. The characters were cheesy. The fights and special effects looked bad.
I wasn't too happy with the American Godzilla either. It was a lame excuse for a Godzilla movie, and I'm glad Toho was pissed about it.
There are basically three eras in which Godzilla movies were made. The Showa era, which started with the original 1954 movie, Gojira. The Heisei era, which started with the 1984 movie, Return of Godzilla, or Godzilla 1985 as us Americans knew it. The Millennium era began with Godzilla 2000.
I had assumed that all the Godzilla movies from the Millennium era were crap, but then I started to read a lot of good fan buzz for GMK. I found the original Japanese version on the internet and watched it late at night.
The next day I watched it again with a couple of my brothers, and they loved it. It's such a great Godzilla movie. The special effects are amazing. I find myself liking the movie more as time goes by.
Basically the movie is meant as a direct sequel to the original 1954 film. No longer is Godzilla a benevolant protector of Japan. This time he's out to punish Japan for the suffering they inflicted on the Japanese people during WWII. This Godzilla movie is a bit more mystical than some, but it works well. King Ghidorah, Baragon, and Mothra all show up as Monster Guardians to save Japan.
Also of note is Chiharu Nîyama as Yuri Tachibana, the lead character. I don't always find Asians hot. It's sort of a sometimes yeah, sometimes no thing for me. But this girl is beautiful.
And that's another reason this movie is so much better than most of the other recent Godzilla movies. The characters are likable. The movie goes back and forth between drama and humor. A lot of the characters are pretty hilarious. But there are still some very serious parts to the movie. In one particularly inspired scene, Godzilla notices some fleeing people, so you see him getting read to blast them with his atomic breath.
Miles away, a teacher and her class feel the earth shake violently. The kids scream. The teacher turns and looks out the window to see a veritable mushroom cloud. The result of Godzilla's awesome power.
"An atom bomb?" She wonders.
I still have a lot of Godzilla movies that I need to see, but this is undoubtedly one of the best Godzilla movies ever. It's a lot of fun. You care about the characters. There's some emotional moments. The special effects are incredible. There is stuff in here that blew me away. If you're a fan of Godzilla, then this is a dream come true.
The guy that directed this, Shusuke Kaneko, also directed the three Gamera films in the 90s. I haven't seen them yet, but they're supposed to be really good. I'm definitely more of a Godzilla fan, but if they're directed with the same skill that GMK was, then they ought to be good.
The only thing I didn't really like about GMK was the music. At first, that is. I was hoping for something more in the style of Akira Ifukube. He did the music for the original Godzilla movie, created Godzilla's iconic roar, and also scored countless other Godzilla films. You hear some of his stuff at the very end of the movie, which was cool. Like I said, at first I sort of didn't like the more new-age electronic feel of Kô Ôtani's score for GMK. But when I watched the movie again the score really started to grow on me. It's got a beautiful main theme for Yuri and her father and a cool theme for Mothra. Once I got past the change in style, it seemed like a good score for the movie.
So if you're at all interested in this kind of thing, I highly recommend GMK. Ignore the cheesy title. It sounds better in Japanese I think.
Anyways, I think I'd give it a 10/10. I love movies like this. It has real heart to it. It has Godzilla, Mothra, Baragon, and King Ghidorah. The director is a big fan of the Godzilla franchise, so he really knew what he was doing. I don't think I've enjoyed a movie this much in a long time. I really wish Shusuke Kaneko would direct more Godzilla movies.
Trailer for GMK.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0279112/
I've been a fan of Godzilla for as long as I can remember. I watched several of them when I was younger. Mostly the older ones. Eventually I learned that the Japanese still made them, even using the suits. Occasionally I would catch some of them on tv, and I wasn't very impressed. They seemed pretty lame to me compared to the old ones. The characters were cheesy. The fights and special effects looked bad.
I wasn't too happy with the American Godzilla either. It was a lame excuse for a Godzilla movie, and I'm glad Toho was pissed about it.
There are basically three eras in which Godzilla movies were made. The Showa era, which started with the original 1954 movie, Gojira. The Heisei era, which started with the 1984 movie, Return of Godzilla, or Godzilla 1985 as us Americans knew it. The Millennium era began with Godzilla 2000.
I had assumed that all the Godzilla movies from the Millennium era were crap, but then I started to read a lot of good fan buzz for GMK. I found the original Japanese version on the internet and watched it late at night.
The next day I watched it again with a couple of my brothers, and they loved it. It's such a great Godzilla movie. The special effects are amazing. I find myself liking the movie more as time goes by.
Basically the movie is meant as a direct sequel to the original 1954 film. No longer is Godzilla a benevolant protector of Japan. This time he's out to punish Japan for the suffering they inflicted on the Japanese people during WWII. This Godzilla movie is a bit more mystical than some, but it works well. King Ghidorah, Baragon, and Mothra all show up as Monster Guardians to save Japan.
Also of note is Chiharu Nîyama as Yuri Tachibana, the lead character. I don't always find Asians hot. It's sort of a sometimes yeah, sometimes no thing for me. But this girl is beautiful.
And that's another reason this movie is so much better than most of the other recent Godzilla movies. The characters are likable. The movie goes back and forth between drama and humor. A lot of the characters are pretty hilarious. But there are still some very serious parts to the movie. In one particularly inspired scene, Godzilla notices some fleeing people, so you see him getting read to blast them with his atomic breath.
Miles away, a teacher and her class feel the earth shake violently. The kids scream. The teacher turns and looks out the window to see a veritable mushroom cloud. The result of Godzilla's awesome power.
"An atom bomb?" She wonders.
I still have a lot of Godzilla movies that I need to see, but this is undoubtedly one of the best Godzilla movies ever. It's a lot of fun. You care about the characters. There's some emotional moments. The special effects are incredible. There is stuff in here that blew me away. If you're a fan of Godzilla, then this is a dream come true.
The guy that directed this, Shusuke Kaneko, also directed the three Gamera films in the 90s. I haven't seen them yet, but they're supposed to be really good. I'm definitely more of a Godzilla fan, but if they're directed with the same skill that GMK was, then they ought to be good.
The only thing I didn't really like about GMK was the music. At first, that is. I was hoping for something more in the style of Akira Ifukube. He did the music for the original Godzilla movie, created Godzilla's iconic roar, and also scored countless other Godzilla films. You hear some of his stuff at the very end of the movie, which was cool. Like I said, at first I sort of didn't like the more new-age electronic feel of Kô Ôtani's score for GMK. But when I watched the movie again the score really started to grow on me. It's got a beautiful main theme for Yuri and her father and a cool theme for Mothra. Once I got past the change in style, it seemed like a good score for the movie.
So if you're at all interested in this kind of thing, I highly recommend GMK. Ignore the cheesy title. It sounds better in Japanese I think.
Anyways, I think I'd give it a 10/10. I love movies like this. It has real heart to it. It has Godzilla, Mothra, Baragon, and King Ghidorah. The director is a big fan of the Godzilla franchise, so he really knew what he was doing. I don't think I've enjoyed a movie this much in a long time. I really wish Shusuke Kaneko would direct more Godzilla movies.
Trailer for GMK.