My Observations of G Fans

There seems to be two types of Godzilla followers: experts and fans

I'm not sure if "types" of fans is the right word. We all love Godzilla and that brings us all together. I think of it as there are three qualities every Godzilla fan possesses to some degree. Note: very loosely defined.

Monster side: Likes the monsters and battles.

Expert side: Likes the serious side; the human side.

Antagonist side: Likes to complain. But not always a bad thing; we all have this side (is there anyone among you who has not beaten the vs King Ghidorah time travel paradox to death?)

Here's the types as I see it (the first letter is the characteristic they exhibit most):

MEA: This type enjoys Godzilla movies for the monster battles and put the plot second. They would be fans of vs King Ghidorah or vs MechaGodzilla. However, they are sometimes brutal toward the lesser Godzilla movies, like vs Megalon and vs SpaceGodzilla.

EMA: They love Godzilla 1954 and vs Mothra (1964) and consider those the best of the bunch. They prefer the older series over the Heisei series, and wax allegorical over the movies, turning up symbolism where you'd least expect it. They understand the limitations of some movies and disagree with people who say they're "just" monster movies.

AEM: You meet a lot of these on usenet and message boards. They rarely have anything nice to say about others' opinions, yet don't do the most logical thing and leave us alone. Their opinion of a good movie is the one they can find the least problems with. Pseudo-Fans, if you will, they've already decided that no Godzilla movie will ever be as good as Gamera III. They also believe all fans care as much as they do about "fandom controversies", like magazines, conventions, etc.

AAA: They see Godzilla as a rubber suit stomping on plastic models surrounded by cheesy effects. They laugh at the dubbing (confusing bad acting with bad dubbing) and then turn and complain about the subtitles. Considers vs Megalon representative of the whole Godzilla series. Sometimes, they're not as unpleasant as the AEMs; AAA's are your friends and family who'll never understand our obsession. But others can be quite unbearable: more appropriate initials might be ASS.

Which do you favor?

I am unabashedly an MEA! For me, a Godzilla movie is only as good as the monsters fighting in it. For instance, I prefer vs Smog Monster over vs Mothra (64), even though both are polar opposites among fan favorites. I simply like the massive, indestructible Hedorah over a fuzzy moth and two grubs. In fact I always wondered what American moviegoers thought of Godzilla vs the Thing; to find out the "world's most terrifying monster" is a furry butterfly.

Although I try to come of as an Expert first on Godzilla vs Destoroyah, I'm still a Monster Fan at heart. For Experts, this movie can be about Godzilla's death, his finale and the implications. Yet I have chosen to focus on his battle with Destoroyah.

Finally, I mean no irreverence if I roll my eyes at the metaphors, I enjoy both Monster Fans and Experts equally. I've had some great conversations with both kinds and do not consider one superior to the other. The beauty of being a Godzilla fan is that it's based on your own personal preferences on your favorite monsters, favorite movie, and how you choose to enjoy them.

For the non-Godzilla fans (the AAA's)

Why the attraction to Godzilla? His movies are so cheesy.

Why do you think they're so campy? Probably some of these reasons:

• Bad acting. Actually, this is more attributed to bad dubbing. Many times, only a few people handle the voices for many characters and are rarely people of Japanese descent. Large people get high-pitched voices and vice versa. Females invariably get squeaky, giggly voices. Children suffer the most. Add the distraction of watching words not matching lip movements, and it’s a wonder any characters get portrayed with dignity.
• Goofy effects. Let me guess: a man in the rubber suit? What are you comparing the Godzilla movies to? Jurassic Park and CGI weren't made in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, so surely you weren't comparing Godzilla movies to those, were you? The alternatives to Godzilla movies were marionette puppets for giant birds, jerky (and expensive) stop-motion photography, and dressed-up live lizards. In that light, I think most Godzilla movies had excellent effects for their day, especially in the 50's and 60's. And guess what? Even the $125 million TriStar movie featured scenes with suitmation and miniatures!
• Silly plots. One can look at every movie made and find parts that just don't make sense. Twister (evil meteorologists?), ID4 (no virus checker?), Phantom Menace (omnipotent Force that "binds the galaxy" is bacteria?), Saving Private Ryan (risking 8 men to save one?). Okay, that last one was a true story, but even in real life not everything works out logically.

I'm not going to tell you that all the Godzilla movies were Casablanca compromised by bad dubbing and low budgets. Some of them were simply horrible, even in light of the above extenuating circumstances. A favorite whipping boy is Godzilla vs Megalon, and deservedly so. Plot and sense of scale were ignored, plus there was Jet Jaguar, tail slides, stock footage, dancing, tag-team wrestling, handshakes, and Jet Jaguar (he gets mentioned twice). Most of the 70's Godzilla movies had abysmal budgets and were geared toward kids, but even the staunchest G fans have a hard time with this one. Sadly, this is the most common Godzilla movie in the US since it has become public domain, and is therefore most people's first (and sometimes lasting) impression of a Godzilla movie.

The Heisei series might appeal more to those who like modern effects. The monsters' bulk makes them look less like men in suits, the beam weapons are more spectacular, and people and the military use more advanced technology. However, it should be noted that these movies were made almost two decades after the Terror of MechaGodzilla, so the effects SHOULD look better.

Weren't a lot of Godzilla movies spoofed on Mystery Science Theatre 3000?

No, only two of Godzilla's 25 movies ever appeared on MST3K. Godzilla vs Megalon was one, and I've already described that above. The other was Godzilla vs the Sea Monster, where Godzilla fought perhaps his lamest foe (and least popular monster: just try and find any Ebirah toys).

Many of the goofy antics that were featured in those Godzilla movies do not appear in the Heisei series. The tone is more serious, especially since Godzilla is a mean monster. While a certain degree of campiness pervades many Godzilla movies, the poor dubbing accounts for much of what audiences consider silly. In MST3K, much of Joel and the robots' derision centers around the dubbed voices, campy translations, and mismatched lip movements, which are not really Toho's fault.

• Biollante: Couldn't stand Godzilla's torching. In some Heisei movies, Godzilla should've fought instead of blasted. In this one, his breath was so damaging to Biollante, I wondered why he didn't just torch the plant and be done with it. Destoroyah was able to ward off even Godzilla's super-heated red ray until the runaway radiation made the blast too powerful.
• King Ghidorah: Did his rays ever hurt Godzilla? Destoroyah's rays had a powerful effect on Godzilla, never failing to stagger him. If there was one monster who got shafted in the 90's, it's poor Ghidorah. He went from a monster that Godzilla could never fight alone (once needing nine monsters to help), to one who got beaten twice in the same movie, even while returning in a stronger form. And the ultimate humiliation: even Mothra beat him solo.
• Mothra: Arguably, this could be Godzilla's most powerful Heisei enemy, the only one to finish his battle with Godzilla fully intact. I say the fight was fixed! The screenwriters abandoned logic and let Mothra win.
• MechaGodzilla: Why did they build hands on him? The same G fan majority who complain about the laser-light shows are also the ones who consider the MechaGodzilla battle the best fight. Talk about contradictions. Destoroyah was able to physically slam Godzilla using just his tail.
• SpaceGodzilla: And you say Destoroyah was slow and bulky? Besides, SpaceGodzilla had the worst tactics of any monster. Rarely used his shield, left a battle he handily won over Godzilla, did not follow up his victory over Mogera in space, made his base of operations in Fukuoka with only one skyscraper to use as a power source… Destoroyah was a bit more intelligent, look at the size of Destoroyahs cranium in my diagrams in Destoroyah: Kaiju Biology!

What about the roller skating Junior at Haneda?

With a fraction of a Hollywood budget and a few months to make this movie, it is totally unfair to compare it to an American movie. Not every effect is going to look stellar. When I first watched the movie, I did not notice Junior gliding. Therefore, it didn't look bad to me. After I watched it again, I noticed it, but that doesn't count. It's a phenomenon based on the paralysis of analysis, where if you analyze something enough, all sorts of flaws will emerge.

On the other hand, some effects did look really poor. Take the vehicles, the Super X3 and Tanks look like toys and I thought Toho could've done better. Some say part of the reason is Godzilla's large scale and if he becomes half that size it should alleviate some of this, as miniatures will be easier to make. However, Godzilla, at 100m, never appears in a scene near a miniature. The only time a monster is near a tank is the attack of the Aggregate Destoroyah, who is 50 meters tall. This, of course, means that the miniatures were meant for that scale. Looks like Toho has more work to do there.

I've also read about the Japanese penchant for stylized art versus representational art. And the mediums they use to express this are military vehicles? Uh-huh…

So it is agreed that some scenes in Godzilla vs Destoroyah had shoddy effects.

Again, we could sit here and do that with all the Heisei movies. With Toho, they do relatively well with the budgetary and time constraints. Nevertheless, when the effects are bad, they can be really bad. To wit:

• Biollante: The ending aura/photograph
• King Ghidorah: One hint: running
• Mothra: How did the building fall through the people? And couldn't Mothra's and Battra's legs at least done something?
• MechaGodzilla: Where was Rodan's propulsion? Since he rarely flapped his wings, he must've had another method for staying aloft.
• SpaceGodzilla: Take a wild guess…

The new Gamera movies are better than Godzilla movies.

I agree the Gamera movies are impressive, especially in light of Gamera's earlier MST3K-fodder films. But be honest, wouldn't you rather see those effects lavished on Godzilla instead of a flying turtle?

Irys and Legion do look cool, but Daiei forgets one of the cardinal rules: Never let the villain upstage the hero.

I recently showed Dulce Gamera vs Legion, a movie that's similar to Godzilla vs Destoroyah (right down to the human-sized critters). She thought that the effects did look great, but was terribly bored through the first 2/3 of the movie. Gamera 3 totally failed to keep her attention. Dulce, an indifferent kaiju watcher if there ever was one, thought that Godzilla movies "were a lot more fun".

I'm sure someone could list the ways Gamera 3 had a better story and production values than any Godzilla movie. Fine, but I want to see the kaiju in kaiju eiga, and frankly, short scenes at the beginning and end don't cut it for me. Especially since those battles were like watching strobe lights.

You don't really discuss the Aliens knock-offs, like the police battle and the double jaws.

I try not to.