Talkback: GMK - Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah (2001)

[Rody]

GMK does have some haphazard effects at times.
It sounds like your friend and brother are just prejudiced against Godzilla, so there's not much you can do about that.

I think it's a good film, but I would also rank MOTHRA vs. GODZILLA, SON OF GODZILLA, and possibly INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER above it.

[attilagodzilla]

Well they probably are. Its also probably because it's a guy in a suit. and what do you expect from teens that are 14 years old. And i have to give them that some of the effects are bad, but i think most of the effects are very well done.
Mothra vs godzilla is a great movie i have to give you that but i still like gmk better because a bug vs a giant mutated dinosaur doesnt interest me that much
Although GMK also has that in the movie.

[Carthormerr]

Well they probably are. Its also probably because it's a guy in a suit. and what do you expect from teens that are 14 years old. And i have to give them that some of the effects are bad, but i think most of the effects are very well done.
Mothra vs godzilla is a great movie i have to give you that but i still like gmk better because a bug vs a giant mutated dinosaur doesnt interest me that much
Although GMK also has that in the movie.

I always get pretty mad about that. Main reason I avoid watching most G movies with an audience

[attilagodzilla]

^ i think i should avoid watching with an audience because i was really really mad after that.
Oh well if they don't like it then they don't like it.
Godzilla will always be my favorite franchise.

What do you think was the best piece of music out of the movie?

Mine is probably " determined to protect the future" that is the song that plays during the scène where they broadcast from the bridge just before godzilla hits it with his atomic breath

[Carthormerr]

What do you think was the best piece of music out of the movie?

Mine is probably " determined to protect the future" that is the song that plays during the scène where they broadcast from the bridge just before godzilla hits it with his atomic breath

I thought the music was good. Not as good as his Gamera scores, but still good. I'm a Kow Otani fan. I don't remember every piece. I recall that one, as well as the Main Title and the Forgotten Horror

[Kaiju-King42]

I'm actually a big fan of GMK's music. My favourite millennium soundtrack, and my favourite non-Ifukube soundtrack of the Godzilla series.

[Giga Kaiju]

One of the best Non-Ifukube Soundtracks in the series. Every time i listen to it i got hooked
and want to see the movie. You can picture the movie in your mind when you hear every single track
but that can be said about any other in the series.

[GodzillaSpawn]

I'm actually a big fan of GMK's music. My favourite millennium soundtrack, and my favourite non-Ifukube soundtrack of the Godzilla series.

Yup! When that main title track comes on and the title of the film flashes on screen over the skin of Godzilla, Ghidorah, Baragon and Mothra as the backdrops...I just get amped up!

[tenup]

GMK's soundtrack adds everything it needs to in a Godzilla film. Horror, Mystery, Suspense etc. My two favorite scenes that the soundtrack reflects very well are the ones when Godzilla is attacked by the drill missiles, and when Ghidorah reaches his final stage and unleashes its lightning beams at Godzilla in the water battle scene. Needless to say the water battle scene was the worst turning point of the film imo.

[Giga Kaiju]

^ Another good one is when Godzilla rises from the water and charging his Atomic Ray just before
it comes out from one of his shoulders.

[TyrantGojira]

I love this movis with all my heart, it's dark, violent, and intense. The Godzilla in this film is my favorite incarnation of the kaiju, he's pure evil and bent on genocide on the human race. An overall underrated film.

[Rody]

Underrated? I am pretty sure the fandom LOVES this film.

I admit I don't like it quite as much as I used to, but I still consider it one of the franchise's best.

[GodzillaSpawn]

I think if anything its pretty overrated. I love it, but has several parts that drag on, the water fight with Godzilla and Ghidorah was pretty underwhelming, Godzilla's death was lame (although the beating heart was a nice touch). It certainly has its flaws. It's still pretty high up there for me, especially due to Godzilla's portrayal and the music. But it's not nearly as good (in a serious way) as the original Godzilla or Mothra vs. Godzilla and not as good (in a pure entertainment way) as KKvG, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, or Ghidrah. My .02

[Superrex]

The soundtrack is awesome! I can't decide which piece(or whatever you call it)is my favorite! Although one problem is that they all sound the same,just with an instrument added here or taken out.

One I remember is when they are looking at the wrecked sub and see Godzilla's dorsal fins. It's creepy,but that's why I love it.

[eabaker]

It may be highly praised on these boards, but there are certainly some fans out there (a vocal minority, I think) who absolutely despise GMK. It was very controversial among North American fans on its original release, in part because of issues with its portrayal of Godzilla, and in part because of some rather surprising chips that some people seemed to have on their shoulders over the praise that Kaneko had received over the Gamera trilogy.

I consider Kaneko easily one of the best directors ever to work in the genre, and certainly the most consistent.

Kaneko's take on Godzilla is an extreme one, and I don't think an ongoing series would work with Godzilla remaining so explicitly malicious. But that's what was so cool about Toho's approach to the Millennium series: by abandoning continuity, filmmakers were given the opportunity to experiment, and the freedom to make outlandish choices. Really, it's a shame that more of the movies didn't attempt such bold approaches.

The special effects are some of the best in the series, and to my eyes the Godzilla and Baragon suits are among the most convincing, expressive, and well-articulated kaiju costumes ever constructed.

The story has a very strong core thematic concept (although one that some viewers found a bit muddled, and that's not entirely surprising), and manages to weave its themes into the story without feeling ham-fisted or polemical.

The first two acts rank highly among the best kaiju filmmaking ever. The tension builds well, the various parallel story threads all paced well and tying together gradually. Godzilla's initial rampage and his fight with Baragon are some of the most thrilling scenes of monster spectacle ever realized.

General Tachibana and Yuri are both very well established, interesting, engaing personalities. The supporting cast is a little bit of a mixed bag; Shiro Sano and Hideo Amamoto's characters both serve their purposes very well, but Yuri's two young male colleagues are never fleshed out as well as they ought to be, though that's not a huge problem.

Where the movie does fall apart for me a bit (not disastrously, mind) is in its final third or so. The final battle (starting with the Godzilla/Mothra bout) goes on for too long, the brawling is mostly not especially well staged, and King Ghidorah's repeated defeats/revivals feel redundant. Meanwhile, the adventures of Yuri with a video camera never tie in enough to the central action, and her peril doesn't carry the dramatic weight that it should.

It's in many ways a wonderful movie, dark with tinges of gallows humor, heavy without being heavy-handed, generally exceptionally well conceived. That I feel it falls short in some places is no condemnation of the filmmakers; they were attempting something bold, and even if their success wasn't absolute, their efforts were admirable and the pluses far outweigh the minuses.

[GodzillaSpawn]

Yeah, looking back at it, the film loses it's traction a bit in the third act. The battle with Mothra and King Ghidorah gets uninteresting after a while for sure.

Still, I cannot help but grin when Godzilla's biting Ghidorah's neck and Mothra tries to sneak up on him, only to be swatted viciously by Godzilla's tail. Eerie and epic at the same time. As well as when Godzilla is approaching the battleship and Mothra tries to sneak up on him again and Godzilla spins on her and incinerates her.

Godzilla was just toying with everyone in this film.

[eabaker]

Oh, yeah, there are definitely some very good moments in that final battle. I just think it could have been tightened up, and some of that runtime used to establishing Mothra and King Ghidorah a little better prior to the battle.

[tymon]

Where the movie does fall apart for me a bit (not disastrously, mind) is in its final third or so. The final battle (starting with the Godzilla/Mothra bout) goes on for too long, the brawling is mostly not especially well staged, and King Ghidorah's repeated defeats/revivals feel redundant. Meanwhile, the adventures of Yuri with a video camera never tie in enough to the central action, and her peril doesn't carry the dramatic weight that it should.

Hit the nail on the head. The first two thirds are fantastic but I'm usually pretty bored by the final act, which is unfortunate.

Godzilla vs. Baragon is the highlight of the film IMO.

[kpa]

It may be highly praised on these boards, but there are certainly some fans out there (a vocal minority, I think) who absolutely despise GMK. It was very controversial among North American fans on its original release, in part because of issues with its portrayal of Godzilla, and in part because of some rather surprising chips that some people seemed to have on their shoulders over the praise that Kaneko had received over the Gamera trilogy.

The idea that GMK was somehow controversial was pushed hard by JD Lees and G-Fan, but not because of praise Shusuke Kaneko had received for his Gamera work. Lees had a falling out with Norman England, who is good friends with Kaneko, before GMK was released. After that, Lees began telling false stories -- both online and in his zine -- about Kaneko and GMK in a pathetic attempt to smear the director and his work.

JD claimed that GMK abandoned Godzilla's nuclear origins (the mushroom cloud and Tachibana's concern that he may be contaminated actually emphasized that aspect of Godzilla), that Toho booted Kaneko off the next Godzilla movie (Kaneko has a one picture deal and was already signed to do a film for Shochiku after GMK), that Kaneko tried to steal Makoto Kamiya's FX director credit (Kaneko personally selected Kamiya to work on GMK, and lobbied Toho to give Kamiya is very first lead FX director job), that Mothra flings her poop at Godzilla (?!), that Shinji Higuchi didn't do the FX for GMK because Kaneko was jealous of him (Higuchi was busy with his own projects but directed the FX for the jet battle as a favor to Kaneko and Kamiya), and so on.

The blatant lying to G-Fan's readers showed a complete lack of respect to those people who trusted (and paid) JD to tell them the truth about these movies and the people who made them. It was one of the key reasons I quit buying the magazine 10 years ago... there's a world of difference between making an honest mistake and flat-out lying.

[GodzillaSpawn]

^Hollllly crap. I used to read that magazine religiously but stopped getting it when GxMegaguirus came out. Is it still coming out bi-monthly or have they abandoned it? That's a shame really. Very unprofessional.