Chrispy_G wrote:
Stepping out of the fanbase....and away from the fandom that drive me to spend a lot of time collecting, owning, and watching EVERY Godzilla movie.......objectively I think there are too many Godzilla movies. I'd love it if there series had historically taken more of a priority of 'quality over quantity'...each era always stars off with promise, and then once they switch into 'Churn them out every year', the quality or integrity dovetails.
I don't agree with this. The large number and wide variety of films in the Godzilla series is one of the defining aspects of the franchise. Sure, there are probably a couple of films we could do without, like Godzilla Raids Again and Godzilla's Revenge, but I don't think getting rid of these films would actually improve the quality of the franchise as a whole.
I particularly disagree with your sentiments about the 70s Godzilla films. Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Terror of Mechagodzilla are two of my favorite Godzilla films, and the franchise would appeal to me substantially less without them. The three films in between, while lesser in quality, are still stylistically interesting and entertaining enough to justify their existence. Sure, people love to mock Jet Jaguar and the ridiculous dropkick, but would you really want Godzilla vs. Megalon removed from the franchise? It brought us two fun, if outlandish, new kaiju and one of the best battle sequences in the series.
I do agree that the Heisei era was a pretty big mess but, again, while the quality of the 90s films was often mediocre, they all have their moments and brought me a lot of joy as a kid who owned them all on VHS. Even Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, which is very possibly the worst film in the entire series, created a new foe for Godzilla who has been used effectively in other media like comics and video games.
The TriStar films is pretty horrific, but I don't think I'd wish it out of existence. It gave rise to Godzilla the Series, which I enjoy quite a bit, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Legendary's Godzilla films would be a lot worse if they didn't have the TriStar film as a perfect example of what
not to do.
If I was forced to trim the Godzilla series down, I'd definitely start with the anime trilogy. They're the only Godzilla films I find completely negligible, and even then I'd much rather see those movies made better than completely erased from existence.