So during the whole quarantine/isolating thing I've been watching a number of kaiju movies. Some classics (Mothra, Destroy All Monsters, Astro Monster, etc. Mostly with my dad- he quite liked Mothra and the Ghidorah flicks!) but also some less-watched ones.
So I thought I'd share some thoughts!
I'll open up with Godzilla Raids Again, probably one of the least watched Godzilla films. I'd heard it was boring going in, but watching it, I found it pretty enjoyable, like not at the top of the Showa era but well made enough, and one of the few movies that explicitly talks about how there's two Godzillas. Anguirus was cool as a second aggressive kaiju (actually the driver of the plot) and the humans were alright. Aaand then the last act hit and I went, 'oh, yea, I see what everyone is talking about now, this is boring.' You see the monster conflict is mostly driven by Anguirus, and then after the final Anguirus vs Godzilla fight... well you know how a lot of Godzilla movies throw him into the ocean or an island at the end and call it a day? The last half hour is 'well the monster has left of its own accord to an uninhabited island, let's spend a lot of time going after it to trap it.' There's no tension because there's no more rampaging! No one is under threat except the force sent after him. If you're watching, stop five minutes after the big climatic battle.
Oh I also briefly tried the dub and it suuuucks. Skip it! The lead gets completely rewrittten as basically 'Japanese yokel who grew up just knowing the simple life rice farming' (he's a pilot and his backstory has nothing to do with that). The Japanese stereotyping is obvious and painful.
Next up is Varan the Unbelievable, which I'm actually finishing up watching as I write. Also sometimes called a boring flim, I'd say it's not bad, at least in the Japanese version- I hear the US version is worse and it's not on the disk I have so I can't even check. It's mostly rampaging and dealing with Varan surviving various attempts to stop it, but the fights have enough variety and in different terrain to not be just a slog if you want to watch some monster rampaging. Also knowing Varan can fly I thought he'd be an agile monster but he's actually quite plodding when not in the air.
One kinda hilarious bit is the Japanese characters from Tokyo go to the village that talks about their giant god, Baradagi, and when he shows up and report it in they basically just go, "... it's Varan." So Varan *should* be named Baradagi, they just don't care the villagers already had a name! Varan is a shortening of the supposed scientific name but even so, this specific Varan should be Baradagi. There's also no reason for Baradagi to attack except they thought for sure they could kill it where they found it ('just to be on the safe side'), in the process forcing it out and to rampage. Oops? Monster wise, fairly animalistic, not too much personality, but a solid design.
Fairly low in the Toho monster movie rankings, Raids Again is better *if* you skip the ending half hour, otherwise Varan, both are watchable if you're into old kaiju movie history, though on the whole are eclipsed by the later 60s movies which tend to have more creative plots and richer characters.
Next post: Two of Ray Harryhausen's monster movies! Which I actually watched first but I never promised to do things in any order.
So I thought I'd share some thoughts!
I'll open up with Godzilla Raids Again, probably one of the least watched Godzilla films. I'd heard it was boring going in, but watching it, I found it pretty enjoyable, like not at the top of the Showa era but well made enough, and one of the few movies that explicitly talks about how there's two Godzillas. Anguirus was cool as a second aggressive kaiju (actually the driver of the plot) and the humans were alright. Aaand then the last act hit and I went, 'oh, yea, I see what everyone is talking about now, this is boring.' You see the monster conflict is mostly driven by Anguirus, and then after the final Anguirus vs Godzilla fight... well you know how a lot of Godzilla movies throw him into the ocean or an island at the end and call it a day? The last half hour is 'well the monster has left of its own accord to an uninhabited island, let's spend a lot of time going after it to trap it.' There's no tension because there's no more rampaging! No one is under threat except the force sent after him. If you're watching, stop five minutes after the big climatic battle.
Oh I also briefly tried the dub and it suuuucks. Skip it! The lead gets completely rewrittten as basically 'Japanese yokel who grew up just knowing the simple life rice farming' (he's a pilot and his backstory has nothing to do with that). The Japanese stereotyping is obvious and painful.
Next up is Varan the Unbelievable, which I'm actually finishing up watching as I write. Also sometimes called a boring flim, I'd say it's not bad, at least in the Japanese version- I hear the US version is worse and it's not on the disk I have so I can't even check. It's mostly rampaging and dealing with Varan surviving various attempts to stop it, but the fights have enough variety and in different terrain to not be just a slog if you want to watch some monster rampaging. Also knowing Varan can fly I thought he'd be an agile monster but he's actually quite plodding when not in the air.
One kinda hilarious bit is the Japanese characters from Tokyo go to the village that talks about their giant god, Baradagi, and when he shows up and report it in they basically just go, "... it's Varan." So Varan *should* be named Baradagi, they just don't care the villagers already had a name! Varan is a shortening of the supposed scientific name but even so, this specific Varan should be Baradagi. There's also no reason for Baradagi to attack except they thought for sure they could kill it where they found it ('just to be on the safe side'), in the process forcing it out and to rampage. Oops? Monster wise, fairly animalistic, not too much personality, but a solid design.
Fairly low in the Toho monster movie rankings, Raids Again is better *if* you skip the ending half hour, otherwise Varan, both are watchable if you're into old kaiju movie history, though on the whole are eclipsed by the later 60s movies which tend to have more creative plots and richer characters.
Next post: Two of Ray Harryhausen's monster movies! Which I actually watched first but I never promised to do things in any order.
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