Say Something Negative About The Heisei Series

[BlankAccount]

Most of the "tooth & claw" combat is just bumping into each other, which is a shame because there are good melee fights in some of the movies such as Godzilla and King Ghidorah's fight, Battra larva at the bottom of the ocean mixes things up and Rodan's with Godzilla. Heck Godzilla actually lifts up Mechagodzilla by the head and curb stomps him.

[Voyager]

The cinematography is poop post-KG. The Heisei Gamera films did it better.

[HedorahIsBestGirl]

The cinematography is poop post-KG. The Heisei Gamera films did it better.

Post-King Ghidorah? I'd say post-Biollante. Sure, KG has a few standout shots like Shindo's "reunion" with his dinosaur buddy and MKG's arrival, but on the whole I think the camera work is middling at best. It also started the Heisei series' annoying trend of failing to make its monsters feel large in scale, though it certainly isn't the worst offender in that regards; as in most categories, Space Godzilla is bottom of the barrel when it comes to this.

[eabaker]

The cinematography is poop post-KG. The Heisei Gamera films did it better.

Post-King Ghidorah? I'd say post-Biollante. Sure, KG has a few standout shots like Shindo's "reunion" with his dinosaur buddy and MKG's arrival, but on the whole I think the camera work is middling at best. It also started the Heisei series' annoying trend of failing to make its monsters feel large in scale, though it certainly isn't the worst offender in that regards; as in most categories, Space Godzilla is bottom of the barrel when it comes to this.

There are more than a couple of scenes in GvsKG that I think are staged and shot pretty cleverly. The one that generally leaps to my mind first is Shindo's introductory scene, pulling focus from the model dinosaurs to his face, then zooming out to a master WS as he rises and walks closer to the other characters. There are a few other places in the movie where long takes are choreographed in interesting ways.

It definitely doesn't look as good as Return or Biollante, in its compositions and especially in its lighting, but I think on the whole it's far more dynamic than the movies that followed.

[Terasawa]

Although the Heisei films look flat and not very cinematic on the previous TriStar DVDs I think those are preferable to the sickly greens and yellows that infest the Toho HiVisions and Sony's Blu-rays. The colorist(s) really fucked those up. I think it's hard to gauge how those movies must have really looked on film.

Edit: Typos, dammit.

[eabaker]

Although the Heisei films look flat and not very cinematic on the previous TriStar DVDs I think those are preferably to the sickly greens and yellows that infest the Toho HiVisions and Sony's Blu-rays. The colorist(s) really fucked those up. I think it's hard to gauge how those movies most have really looked on film.

Fair point. I still feel we can fairly judge them in terms of composition, blocking and movement, though.

[Terasawa]

That's true, those movies are pedestrian in that regard.

SpaceGodzilla had a different crew than the other '90s Godzillas, including a new DP. Masahiro Kishimoto shot SG while Yoshinori Sekiguchi shot the others (and Orochi). There are a couple of early reviews of SG in whatever issue of G-Fan that cite "beautiful photography", and I think that's arguably the film that stands out the most --visually-- of the 92-95 films. Unfortunately, that's also the film with probably the most SFX content shot by Kenichi Eguchi (who shot the SFX scenes in all the Heisei movies), so...

[Gigantis]

If we're including other Heisei monster films in this, Orochi the Eight Headed Dragon is a huge disappointing mess of a film of what could've been an amazing epic retelling of one of Japans greatest stories. The designs for the monsters and sets look lovely, but holy poop the characters and plot just drag it down so much to the point i can't find much love for it.

[eabaker]

That's true, those movies are pedestrian in that regard.

SpaceGodzilla had a different crew than the other '90s Godzillas, including a new DP. Masahiro Kishimoto shot SG while Yoshinori Sekiguchi shot the others (and Orochi). There are a couple of early reviews of SG in whatever issue of G-Fan that cite "beautiful photography", and I think that's arguably the film that stands out the most --visually-- of the 92-95 films. Unfortunately, that's also the film with probably the most SFX content shot by Kenichi Eguchi (who shot the SFX scenes in all the Heisei movies), so...

I was under the impression that Kishimoto also shot vs. Mothra, and I've seen both him and Sekiguchi listed together for Destroyah.

[Terasawa]

That's true, those movies are pedestrian in that regard.

SpaceGodzilla had a different crew than the other '90s Godzillas, including a new DP. Masahiro Kishimoto shot SG while Yoshinori Sekiguchi shot the others (and Orochi). There are a couple of early reviews of SG in whatever issue of G-Fan that cite "beautiful photography", and I think that's arguably the film that stands out the most --visually-- of the 92-95 films. Unfortunately, that's also the film with probably the most SFX content shot by Kenichi Eguchi (who shot the SFX scenes in all the Heisei movies), so...

I was under the impression that Kishimoto also shot vs. Mothra, and I've seen both him and Sekiguchi listed together for Destroyah.

I stand corrected. Sekiguchi's toku credits are Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Orochi, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, all three Heisei Mothra movies, Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, and the Sazer-X movie. He was also an assistant cinematographer on Submersion of Japan, Prophecies of Nostradamus, and Princess from the Moon.

Meanwhile, Kishimoto shot 19 (Nineteen) (1987), Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, GXM, GMK, and GXMG.

(All according to Japanese Wikipedia, in case I'm wrong this time. )

[eabaker]

That's true, those movies are pedestrian in that regard.

SpaceGodzilla had a different crew than the other '90s Godzillas, including a new DP. Masahiro Kishimoto shot SG while Yoshinori Sekiguchi shot the others (and Orochi). There are a couple of early reviews of SG in whatever issue of G-Fan that cite "beautiful photography", and I think that's arguably the film that stands out the most --visually-- of the 92-95 films. Unfortunately, that's also the film with probably the most SFX content shot by Kenichi Eguchi (who shot the SFX scenes in all the Heisei movies), so...

I was under the impression that Kishimoto also shot vs. Mothra, and I've seen both him and Sekiguchi listed together for Destroyah.

I stand corrected. Sekiguchi's toku credits are Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Orochi, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, all three Heisei Mothra movies, Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, and the Sazer-X movie. He was also an assistant cinematographer on Submersion of Japan, Prophecies of Nostradamus, and Princess from the Moon.

Meanwhile, Kishimoto shot 19 (Nineteen) (1987), Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, GXM, GMK, and GXMG.

(All according to Japanese Wikipedia, in case I'm wrong this time. )

And I will certainly agree with (what I interpreted as) your suggestion that Kishimoto's work is generally stronger than Sekiguchi's (allowing for some variation based on the director with whom each is collaborating).