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Post by The Curmudgeon on Dec 12, 2013 17:00:20 GMT 2
So Big G is fashionable once again, so people are revisiting the older movies that made him such an icon. Only makes sense that a top ten Godzilla film list would get compiled. So you probably have an idea of what to expect, but this one is a bit of an eye-opener. You may want to step away from the computer before you find out what's number one... www.scifinow.co.uk/top-tens/29950/ |
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Post by trashcanman on Dec 12, 2013 19:41:29 GMT 2
This will be the subject of my next unreality article so I'll save my picks for that. Let me just point out that Destroy All Monsters is a typical pick, but the movie is kind of crap. The concept was The Avengers before The Avengers was The Avengers, but cast aside the awesome collection of dudes in suits and you don't have much of a movie. What the fuck is a "theme-noise"? I'm guessing he means Ghidorah's awesomely original vocalizations. Not exactly a roar is it, but theme-noise?
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Post by Benjamin Haines on Dec 15, 2013 12:35:38 GMT 2
I can rank my top five favorite Godzilla movies in order, no problem:
01. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
02. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
03. Godzilla (1954)
04. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
05. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
I can also rattle off seven more that I've always thought of as favorites, but I really can't order them by preference because I love them all about the same, so I'll list them chronologically:
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Monster Zero, a.k.a. Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965)
Godzilla vs the Sea Monster (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Godzilla 2000 (1999)
As for what I'd call the ten best Godzilla films? Hard to say. I personally think of 'best' and 'favorite' in different terms. For instance, I wouldn't call Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I very much enjoy watching it because it's irresistible goofy fun. Likewise, I'd say Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) is definitely one of the most well-made movies in the entire series from a technical standpoint, but while I like watching it a lot, I don't list it as one of my favorites simply because there are a lot of other Godzilla movies that I like more.
For this thread I'm really giving this some thought. There are three major factors that I'd use to determine how good or well-made a particular film is.
Story - The cohesive execution of the concept. How well the various sub-plots coexist and play into each other. The flow of the pacing as the plot unfolds.
Characters - How well the actors embody their parts. How their roles play into the overall narrative. How much personality they show. How much of a memorable impression they make. This applies to both the people and the monsters.
Competence - The overall level of effort on display. The quality of the cinematography. The creativity and imagination of the special effects (whether or not they look real is not the point).
With that in mind, I'd say these are the ten BEST Godzilla movies from a technical standpoint (in chronological order):
Godzilla (1954)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Monster Zero (1965)
Godzilla vs the Sea Monster (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
The Return of Godzilla (1984)
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
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Post by trashcanman on Dec 15, 2013 20:21:22 GMT 2
Goddammit, are you telling me that there still isn't a proper DVD release for Godzilla 1984 (aka Return of Godzilla)? How is that even possible? It was one of the few Godzilla movies to get full theatrical release in America, Raymond Burr was in it; how is that the one fucking movie in the series that can't get an American release on DVD?
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Post by Benjamin Haines on Dec 15, 2013 20:57:46 GMT 2
The North American distribution rights for The Return of Godzilla have been in a weird sort of legal limbo for about a decade now. New World Entertainment originally held the rights when they released the film in U.S. theaters and then on home video as Godzilla 1985. They sublicensed the home video rights to StarMaker Entertainment in 1992 and then Anchor Bay in 1997 before the company disbanded and sold its assets to News Corporation. Since then, Toho has been unsure about who holds the rights to the film in North America.
Normally when a company's assets are bought out by another company, Toho recognizes the successor as the new owner of the rights under the original contractual agreements. This was what happened when United Productions of America licensed the Godzilla titles they owned (Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Monster Zero, Godzilla's Revenge, and Terror of Mechagodzilla) to Paramount in the 1980s and later Simitar in the 1990s. Classic Media bought the UPA library in 2002 and renewed the rights to those titles with Toho once the terms of the original contracts were set to expire, which is how they were able to release their high-quality DVDs of those movies a few years back.
For some reason that isn't clear, Toho doesn't know who currently holds the rights to The Return of Godzilla. They won't offer the movie to any U.S. distributor until the terms of the original New World contracts are absolutely expired and there's no longer any possibility of some individual or company crawling out of the woodwork and threatening them with a lawsuit. It's unfortunate but that's the state of it.
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Post by trashcanman on Dec 16, 2013 20:14:50 GMT 2
It was so much easier when the only way to see any of them was a bootleg. My copy of Godzilla v. MechGodzilla II is just a silver DVD with the title written on it in marker. Like, half of my Godzilla collection is ghetto like that.
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