GotengoXGodzilla wrote:It also has to deals with suspension of disbelief. A lot of blockbuster films put out by Hollywood could be seen as "campy", because they rely on high-concept ideas that are ridiculous in our reality. Yet the public perception of these films isn't "camp".
This is why I brought up the Alfred Hitchcock part in my first post. In almost all of Hitchcock's films, the characters will still say ridiculous things (meant to make the audience laugh) in the middle of very intense and suspenseful scenes, yet those films aren't considered "campy". It's the same thing for the Showa Godzilla films.
And before anyone says Hitchcock never dealt with ridiculous giant monsters, Hitchcock did deal with a lot of ridiculous stuff that rival that of giant monsters. Hitchcock dealt with birds turning on humanity, a guy who mimicked his dead mom to tee so much that he developed a split personality which his mother eventually took over, guys fighting on the top of Mount Rushmore, two guys swapping murders so that neither one gets caught, two guys killing a man and then having a party in the same room where they stored the dead body, a man who only killed rich widows because of absurd reasons and all of
Vertigo.
Hitchcock knows ridiculous. If ridiculous were a woman, Hitchcock would have married her.
Actually if you keep up with the news (well, celebrity gossip is more appropriate), he would have sexually harassed her, not married her.
But on a serious note, your opinion (which was presented as a factual statement) that opinions can't be right or wrong has me wondering if the level of my confusion is worth venturing into this.
Don't think I'm feeling it tonight. But oh yeah, even Toho Kingdom's website calls Seatopia undersea, as well as just about every other site with a review of the film I've stumbled across. You tried to call me out on some BS and now refuse to admit defeat. *shame*
(moving on)
Someone said this:
"It also has to deals with suspension of disbelief. A lot of blockbuster films put out by Hollywood could be seen as "campy", because they rely on high-concept ideas that are ridiculous in our reality. Yet the public perception of these films isn't 'camp'."
Whenever there is science fiction, there has to be suspension of disbelief. Whether it's aliens, science experiments gone wrong, zombies, giant dinosaurs, whatever. That is CLEARLY not a problem for Godzilla fans. I don't see how anyone who cannot suspend belief can really enjoy any Godzilla film if it doesn't take itself seriously and look realistic, which probably only leaves maybe the 1998 version. If you watch any Toho Godzilla film there are aspects that look fake or look totally unrealistic. Part of it is the limits of suitmation, the miniature sets (which looked most unrealistic in the hesei series due to Godzilla's 100 meter scale), or the crappy CGI. It's not the the subject matter as much as it is the obvious ploys of the eras SFX, the humanizing elements of supposed monster characters that developed over the years, the comical dubbing, monsters dancing, poor music (not the powerful epic music created early on in the series, but the pretentious 70's videogame quality music that plagued some of the Showa series as well as the series since), illogical and impossible fighting moves that, while fun, immediately scream FAKE, the random additions to Godzilla's abilities (flying and magnetism) that show up conveniently but never happen again (when it would make sense to use it), re-use entire scenes and clips from old films and try (horribly) to edit them seamlessly into new films, the style in which it become more catered to children (the look of costumes, frequent child actors as the center-stage star, the 70's Japanese pop music during the credits *shudder*), etc.
Nobody here finds that there is anything wrong with that being there. We're just calling it like we see it. And the Japanese culture thing doesn't really work if you have Japanese creators acknowledging it as campy even during those times. Inoshira Honda didn't like it. But Tsuburuya was a supporter of it if I remember correctly, and wanted to make the Godzilla films more kid-dominated like Gamera films of those years.
It's okay to be campy. The James Bond series has had several campy films and moments (cartoonish villains included)--all the success Austin Powers films had is thanks in part to the original campiness and just exposing it in a theatric, comedic and goofy fashion. But Casino Royale kind of changed the game in a big wayand Skyfall looks absolutely ridiculous (in a non-campy, badass way).
EDIT: And holy crap that chick from Godzilla X MechaGodzilla is the best post in this entire thread. I'll be back in about....35-45 minutes.
