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They don't make posters like this anymore. I

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Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Ah, the American version of the original Gojira. After a bit of a hiatus, I was looking forward to watching this but admittedly, I'm a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's not really bad, it's just not Gojira. I know I should be judging this movie on it's own merits and stuff but I can't help it, the changes made it a weaker film. Let's start with Steve Martin, portrayed by Raymond Burr, as an American journalist who happens to be in Japan when it all starts kicking off. He decides to hang about after being questioned because the guy questioning him decides it's fine for him to tag along to anything he likes. A dutiful journalist who eventually is injured whilst doing his thing, what a hero. The editing for all of Steve's shenanigans cuts out a lot of the original content and the overall run time is shorter. The dubbing is all over the place, sometimes the Japanese people speak Japanese, other times they speak English when there's no English speakers around and when Steve is there his sidekick translates for him. All of this does not do the movie any favours. That being said, Raymond Burr's acting is fine. They integrated him reasonably well with other characters via over the shoulder shots. This is acceptable. I preferred the original character interactions though, the fact the characters even bother speaking to Steve just seems unnecessary. There is not enough Serizawa in this film. For all it's flaws, King of the Monsters does maintain it's seriousness. It loses some but keeps most of it's anti-nuclear sentiment. The anti-American slant is gone. The action sequence is maintained and so is the score. This is good. I forgot how much death and destruction was in the original. I can definitely see how this helped introduce western audiences to the longest running movie franchise of all time. The success of which probably would not have been as great without this entry. I prefer the original but I do like this, 3.5/5? Yeah, that'll do.

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GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER RAIDS AGAIN MOTHERFUCKER.

Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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Gigantis The Fire Monster (1955)

Okay, so here we have the American version of Godzilla Raids Again. The first big difference you may notice is that they changed Godzilla's name to Gigantis. This is weird and doesn't really make a whole of sense. American audiences may not of known what a Godzilla was but they wouldn't know what a Gigantis is either and it's not really any cooler sooo... what gives? A lot of other things were changed. The most notable and hated by Godzilla fans are the English dub and constant narration my Tsukioka. In my opinion, the dub isn't that bad. Apart from Kobayashi sounding like a fucking talking sack of potatoes, everyone else is okay. The narration does seem a bit excessive but at least it explains what is going on. I, admittedly, was a bit lost whilst watching Godzilla Raids Again. I don't know whether it was because it was late and I was the tired. Reading subtitles can become a chore and you will undoubtedly miss things under those circumstances. Or it could have been I was missing some kind of cultural cues that Japanese people might understand from what is being said that don't necessarily translate well. It was probably the tired thing. I also wrote that review a couple of days after watching the movie so I may have forgotten other elements. With all that in mind, I am probably committing heresy when I say I think I preferred this version. I understand why purists would hate it but starting this journey from the very beginning and going in with an open mind, having that extra bit of assistance with the narration was welcome. ...Raids Again was definitely a step down from the original Gojira and it needed more entertainment value to make up for the lack of social commentary and allegorical elements. They rushed ...Raids Again out in something like 4-6 months after Gojira. They were trying to cash in on the success of the first movie but missed the mark. I think what the American version did was fill the gaps and elevate this confused monster movie, that didn't know if it was a serious or more light-hearted action flick, and made it fun. It amped up the campness and I could buy into that for what it was. It wasn't trying to please some elitist fans 50 odd years later, it was aimed to entertain American audiences in the 1950's. Now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, what else to cover? It feels like they inserted a lot of filler to pad out the lengthy narrative segments. Sound effects were changed but that didn't really bother me. One line I liked in this version that stood out to me was from Yamane. He said, 'Our fate is no longer in the lap of science, it is in the lap of the gods', which was badass. Not Serizawa badass but good enough. This line may have been in the original version but I didn't pick up on it but in this one, it worked. That's all I'm saying. In the meeting, right after the pilots first see Gigantis and Yamane is there with his copy of Gojira, they insert a bunch of stuff about where these creatures came from and there's some odd video footage to accompany Yamane's bullshit. It is then followed by scenes from Gojira. It doesn't seem necessary but it was mildly amusing. There were other particular plot points that made a lot more sense when explained by the narration but I don't really want to get into a step-by-step of the plot again. It also gave a bit more insight into the characters feelings and motives. I know people will disagree but fuck them. Lastly, I want to mention the ending. The ending was definitely not as good. We didn't get hero stare and a warm line out to a friend who sacrificed his life. We kind of do but the impact isn't there and it quickly moves on to how Tsukioka and Hidemi will live happily ever after. Which sucks because no one lives happily ever after, especially when your world is inhabited by giant monsters bent on the destruction of human kind. People will be judging me harshly after this post. They will say I don't know what I'm talking about and am an idiot for not being able to follow the original version properly. To those people I say, I give Gigantis The Fire Monster a 4/5 and would probably watch this again before Godzilla Raids Again and I would drink beer and enjoy it. Just let people enjoy the things they enjoy and stop being whiny bitches. I repeat, Gigantis The Fire Monster, 4/5. Sit back and enjoy it for what it is.

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Smash his fucking head in!

Godzilla Raids Again! (1955)

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Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

I watched this a couple of days ago and am writing this from some rudimentary notes I made right after watching it. So, I’m not expecting to be going as in-depth as I did with the first Godzilla. Then again, this wasn’t a movie that requires as much analysis. It was my impression that the first couple of Godzilla movies were relatively serious affairs and that the silliness sort of crept in by the 60’s but I feel that a lot of the serious subtext that appeared in Gojira was gone by the time he raided again. This came across to me like Michael Bay’s Transformers next to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Anyway, let’s do this. I realise I completely missed any sort of synopsis or overview of the events of the film last time, so let’s start with that.

There’s these pilots. One of them makes an emergency landing and is stranded on an island so another pilot goes down to get him. They are chilling out, laughing about those women back at the office! WHEN FUCKING GODZILLA APPEARS WRESTLING ANOTHER GIANT SPIKY LIZARD. They make it back to a board room where they and several other very serious looking men, including Yamane from 1954's Gojira, sit and watch 1954's Gojira. They recap how they defeated him and make sure we don’t forget the Oxygen Destroyer and the knowledge of how to make it are gone. Also, the pilots identify the other spiky lizard as Anguirus. A name not nearly as cool as Godzilla.

Eventually, they hatch a plot to lure Godzilla away from the city with ‘light bombs’ aka flares, whilst all lights in the city are switched off. The only problem is someone decides to transfer some prisoners during the blackout, they escape, a high-speed chase ensues and they crash causing a huge fire. Godzilla likes fire. The military piss Godzilla off by opening fire on him. WHEN FUCKING ANGUIRUS APPEARS TO WRESTLE WITH GODZILLA. Saved by the bell.

So, Godzilla doesn’t attack the city but during the fight it becomes collateral damage. After an exhaustingly long grapple-fest, Godzilla fucks up Anguirus’ shit by smashing his head through a building, tearing his throat out and hitting him with the death breath. After all this, Godzilla forgets about the city and goes home.

Since the factory the pilots work for has been destroyed, the owners decide to move and start fresh in a different city. They decide to have a party at a restaurant. At the party they receive word of one of their ships sinking; it was attacked by Godzilla. This is the last straw!

The two pilots and presumably the military work together to track Godzilla and attack him. They manage to trap him by shooting the mountain and boulders fall on him. The pilot, Kobayashi, dies during conflict. A hysterical woman runs into her bosses office to tell them, they stare bewildered. Apparently, older Japanese men do not understand why a woman would be this upset over a friend’s death. The rest of the pilots plan bury Godzilla completely by causing an avalanche. A long action sequence, explosions and an avalanche later, Godzilla is defeated. The living pilot from the start of the movie does a hero stare into the distance and says, 'Kobayashi… we got Godzilla for you…’, THE END.

That is that. There isn’t a huge number of talking points as this movie is pretty upfront about what it is and I’m guessing that’s going to be the case for a lot of the 'VS.’ movies. I’ll probably just end up gushing about how awesome/funny the fight sequences are or whether the costumes were any good. In fact, I’m going to discuss those things now. The Godzilla costume was still awesome, very similar to the first suit. For more in-depth information on each of the Godzilla suits, I have a link!

http://becominggodzilla.com/official-toho-suits/

It’s pretty interesting and I will probably be referring back to it for each movie. The Anguirus suit was a little less impressive but did the job. It relied on the actor being on all fours a lot of the time and as we know humans are not as comfortable on all fours as animals that are intended to be are. The fight between the two was a lot of lunging and grappling. I would have liked to have seen more punching or biting, anything to provide a bit of variety. The head smash through the building was cool, though. Other special effects were serviceable.

I was shocked at how easily Godzilla was beaten in the movie. Snow and rocks? Really? The last one required a weapon as powerful as the Hydrogen bomb and this time they had rocks? The only acceptable explanations are that this Godzilla was weaker than the first one or he is not actually dead and will eventually unbury himself. I guess we’ll see in the next movie, (well, it will be in three movies time because I’m going to be watching the American re-releases of the first two movies first). After the ending to the first movie, this was obviously going to be a different Godzilla but before watching it I always assumed there was only one Godzilla. Then again as he changes appearance there’s probably a different Godzilla in every movie. This is a revelation.

There was a couple of other things that would have really helped this movie out. Number one, the original theme tune. The score in Gojira was amazing, if it had been used in ’…Raids Again’ it may have come across more serious or like more was at stake. Number two, a Serizawa type character. You know, a badass scientist. More of that, less of Yamane pretending he knows everything.

Well, those are my thoughts on Godzilla Raids Again. You can watch it if you want, it’s alright. For what it was though, there may be better to come from later movies. 3/5.

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Gojira (1954)

Where it all began. This is my first step in a journey of Tolkien proportion. Though, not a hobbit in sight; quite the opposite, actually. The original Godzilla stood at 50 metres tall, with gnarled skin, twisting its way across his radioactive body and boasted some pretty legit terrifying nuclear death-breath that would vaporise flesh and could turn Tokyo into a ‘sea of fire!’. I have vague recollections of a Godzilla cartoon being on tv when I was a kid but it did not resemble the true King of the Monsters I saw today in any way.

As far as my background knowledge of Godzilla, truthfully, it’s a very limited. As mentioned, I barely remember enjoying the animated series (originally aired 1978-1981), when I was a child in the 90’s. I remember the hype and furore of the 1998 version but don’t think I actually saw it all the way through. And lastly, the 2014 movie directed by Gareth Edwards, which I thought was pretty good but we will get to that much, much later. So, I am coming into this pretty fresh. All I know is that Godzilla has always interested me; the idea of a radioactive dinosaur monster is ridiculously cool and I felt the compulsion to explore every inch of this universe.

Now, cards on the table, I loved this movie. I kind of expected to and that usually helps but I think that everything about it hit me right in the sweet spot. I feel one of the most important things is the creature design and I love me a man in a rubber suit (ugh, what?). I was a huge fan of the original Power Rangers series when I was wee, so I am primed for bad monster costumes however, Godzilla actually looks awesome. The black and white helps lend a sense of mystery and menace to the creature. Yes, the first time we catch a glimpse of him, it is broad daylight but he still looks scary. The costume holds up and in context, is the shit.

The copy I watched had all the graininess and wear you’d expect from a movie made more than 60 years ago and that really does add to the atmosphere. Cinematography was put to good use, especially in framing and composition when it came to the special effects. Obviously, you can tell the buildings are models and the cars are toys but they did a respectable job at covering it up. I was so engaged by the complete chaos when Godzilla was tearing through Tokyo that I accepted everything they threw at me. The little men spilling out of the fire truck, buildings exploding, guns firing. Everything happened so fast, you just get swept up and it actually lasted longer than I expected. Just when you thought that the destruction sequence had to be winding down, it just kept going. Fucking yes.

The human characters were a bit humdrum but served their purpose. The love triangle I could take it or leave it. I’ll say this though, Serizawa was a badass. A scarred, eye-patch wearing, pissed-off scientist that accidentally creates the worlds greatest weapon of mass destruction kills himself with the aforementioned weapon after destroying all his research, to kill Godzilla and to protect the world from that knowledge falling into the wrong hands and also resigning to the fact the woman he loves can then be with the man she loves… well, that’s a guy I’d like to drink with… in silence.

Getting to the serious elements now. A conversation about Godzilla would not be complete without touching on the whole 'cold-war tensions and atomic age anxieties’. Japan had been through a bit of a rough patch and was still suffering from nuclear fallout. Not only were the scars of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still fresh but in March of 1954 the fishing boat, Lucky Dragon No.5, strayed into a U.S. nuclear bomb testing zone and the crew was exposed to massive amounts of radiation (one crew member died) and some of the irradiated tuna made it into the market. I’m guessing the whole fishing boat thing at the beginning was an allegory for this incident. This was clearly an attempt to help the Japanese people face up to their anxieties of the time and get over them in order to move forward. The last lines of the film however, remind us that we cannot ever forget as it could happen again at any time. Chilling, right?

Overall, this is an awesome movie with a serious message and ultimately has become a classic because it has really resonated with audiences for generations. I wonder if the same can be said for all the sequels…. hmmmmm.

Anyway, Gojira/Godzilla (1954), go fucking watch it, 5/5.