Discussion: When did the Showa Age go Wrong?

[GotengoXGodzilla]

After Godzilla's Revenge was made, there were still three decent/good Godzilla films. Godzilla's Revenge may suck, but it didn't ruin the Showa era.

Also, Minilla was one of the driving forces of Son Of Godzilla, so I can't really hate Minilla.

[TokyoVigilante]

King Kong vs. Godzilla to All Monsters Attack is such a wonderful unbroken chain of goodness. They're the only Godzilla films I brought with me other then Godzilla vs. Megalon, GMK, and Godzilla: Final Wars.

[Rody]

Minilla's terribly ugly, but his character is one of the most fleshed-out of any Toho kaiju. I respect him for that.

[menschenjaeger]

I haven't ploughed through the entire 42 pages, but...I enjoy reading the arguments for EXACTLY, PRECISELY the same reasons I enjoy watching guys in suits beating each other up in scale models of major Japanese cities.

My .02... yeah, after a while, the Showa-era films certainly didn't go where I would like to have seen them go. They can't all be War of the Gargantuas or Ghidrah. The stock footage and lackluster kaiju action (I'm looking at you GvGigan) are what really drained some of the awesome factor. That and it constantly being "Godzilla chases off pesky aliens."

I think the only kaiju eiga to ever integrate fun + excitement + horror + story + effects with anything close to 100% success would be the Heisei Gamera trilogy, but those couldn't have happened without what came before. Other than Gojira, Showa-era movies were shooting for giving an entertaining moviegoing experience, and most delivered.

[RedZillaKing]

Godzilla's Revenge to Godzilla vs. Megalon were dark times indeed. After that the series started to pick up again... Only to go on a 10 year hiatus.

[Goji]

Yeah, also, this is the biggest gap we've had between films since the 70's

The next one won't even be a Japanese produced one, and who even knows when we'll see one of those again.

[Killswitch]

When thinking about the 70's Showa films, if you subtract the obvious - low budget, poor quality etc. What stands out? The cool and strange stories.

Smog Monster, Robots, Cyborgs etc., it was all cool. What was lacking IMO was Godzilla. He didn't match the intensity of his foes. He acted too human, and the suits were too friendly looking. Yes, I know the films were made for a younger crowd, Godzilla was now a Super Hero, but he was too silly.