Thursday, March 9, 2017

Godzilla Movies: Worst to Best 10-6

We have entered the top 10 of the Godzilla films! These are indeed the best of the best and despite the quality/enjoyability of the other movies in the upper half of the list, these are the GFilms that you appreciate more every time you see them.

#10) Godzilla x Mothra x Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.: Another Godzilla movie that I did a 180 on. In my opinion, this one is better than its prequel, Godzilla x Mechagodzilla. Kiryu was proven as an effective weapon against Godzilla and had been assigned to fend off any future Godzilla attacks. There’s a twist, Mothra doesn’t like it that the first Godzilla’s bones had not been laid to rest and requested that Kiryu retire and that he would take his place in defending Japan. A three way, and later four way, monster battle breaks out in Tokyo, show-casing Toho’s new special effects, and a wonderfully choreographed battle. It is as good as its prequel with a few improvements.

#9) Godzilla v Biollante: An often overlooked installment in the Heisei Series but with one of the most popular villains, Biollante. Of course, villain might be overstating it, because Godzilla is the villain of this movie. After wrecking Tokyo, the world scrambles to obtain samples of Godzilla’s cells. A grieved scientist, in hopes of preserving the life of his deceased daughter (or something like that), fuses a sample of Godzilla cells with a rose and his daughter’s cells. The result is an abominable plant monster named Biollante. What fans love about Biollante is that he or she dwarfs Godzilla and even attempts to eat him in one scene.

There are only a few drawbacks to this movie. I was not a fan of the JSDF theme in this movie (I’m not referring to the classic one by Ifukube, but the new one that sounded totally out of place when Super X2 first confronts Godzilla). The only other real complaint is that the story is somewhat slow moving and there is not a bunch of Godzilla action.

On the other hand, concerning a G movie with a rival monster, the only film that surpasses this one’s special effects is G2014. I enjoyed the plot and the inclusion of the G cells became somewhat of a foundational point for the rest of the series. Godzilla’s escape from Mt. Mihara is one of the most well-accomplished film sequences in the series. All of the characters were inspired and this was the first film to include Miss Sagusa, the psychic (who becomes the main character of the Heisei Series).
Supposedly, Biollante was designed by a dentist. If you’ve seen the 80’s version of Little Shop of Horrors, you would find this fact quite ironic.
#8) Mothra v Godzilla: Not to be confused with the 90’s Godzilla vs Mothra. MothravG took full advantage of G’s early villain status and played it to the bone. This movie was a sequel to King Kong vs Godzilla and G’s entrance answers the question concerning his whereabouts at the conclusion of the said movie. Godzilla mercilessly rampages across Japan destroying everything in sight while the military desperately tries to put him down. The grim reality for Japan is that nothing can stop Godzilla and Godzilla will stop at nothing from wiping Japan off of the map. The only hope for Japan, and perhaps mankind, is the giant insect Mothra (a giant moth if you haven’t caught on).
Mothra is a beast in this movie. He/she (I can never figure this out with Mothra) dwarfs Godzilla, but is nearing the end of its life span. However, Mothra has an egg that has landed on the shore of Japan that could provide hope for mankind if it is allowed to hatch. A greedy corporate entity swoops in and claims ownership of the egg which results in a lesson about greed.
Downers about this movie? It’s one of the more preachy of the Godzilla movies, for sure. Also, I don’t like watching Godzilla be defeated by a couple of rollie pollies, no matter how awesome of a battle it was leading up to the conclusion.

#7) Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack: To really appreciate this movie you have to watch the original Gojira in Japanese. Elements of Godzilla’s existence in this movie do not make sense otherwise. Once you have that background, it is easy to admit that GMK is one of the most well-done G movies, and probably the best of the 2000 series (even though this film is a stand-alone and not really part of the actual 2000 series in the strictest sense).

As the name suggests, Mothra and King Ghidorah appear in this movie, but we are given the added bonus of Baragon, as well. One must wonder how Baragon did not make the final cut in the title, seeing how fans loved his battle with Big G.

The downside to this movie is it seemed like the creators really struggled with understanding who their audience was. Certain elements suggested they were marketing to kids. Other elements suggested they were marketing to adults. Given that they provided one of the fiercest looking Godzilla designs in the series had him kill the other three featured monsters, they probably should have focused on adults for this movie. Also, King Ghidorah’s appearance was admittedly lacking and the ending was somewhat lame, but touching nonetheless.

Regardless, the music was pretty good. The special effects were great. The only portrayal of Mothra that was better in the series was that in Tokyo S.O.S. Overall, they nailed Godzilla’s screen presence in this movie. One of the unexpected advantages GMK had over other Godzilla movies was a mystical/fantasy element that was probably inspired by the 90’s Gamera Trilogy. At the end of the movie, even though the humans prevail, it is learned that Godzilla is more or less immortal.

#6) King Kong v Godzilla: Fans will probably be outraged over this selection for #6 on my chart. First, I opted to not call Godzilla 98 the worst GFilm ever and now I am saying that KKvG is just one movie outside of the top five? Why do fans have a tendency to underrate this installment?
I actually wrote a hub page article about this phenomenon where I boldly stated that King Kong defeated Godzilla. This fact infuriates Godzilla fans, but requires them also to wonder, why did G lose? It was not a matter of Kong being the stronger monster. It was because Kong was the underdog and G (this being his third film) was still considered a villain. King Kong had always been more of an anti-hero who was intruded upon by mankind and lashed out in order to defend his territory. This is the same story for KKvG. Humans travel to Kong’s island, sedate him, and bring him back to Japan to do battle with Godzilla.
Mind you, I have not seen even a 100th of the Japanese version and I know for a fact that the Americanized version is horribly butchered (My guess is that Godzilla is a cross between a Tyrannosaurs Rex and the Stegosaurus; also known as the plated lizard - actual line from one of the American actors, as though Godzilla had no history in their universe). Regardless, the action is incredible. Its monster battle is as intense as G Raids Again but pits two known movie monsters against one another. KKvG is one of my go-to movies. Whenever I don’t know what to turn on, it’s on my list of Why not this one? options.

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