Favorite Godzilla Design

[Red-Death Gigan]

Tokyo SOS Godzilla all the way! The chest scar made him look even more badass than he did in Godzilla X Mechagodzilla (Kiryu)!

[Cimmerian Dragon]

I didn't feel the G2K design was "retro" at all, considering it's such a departure from every Godzilla we had seen before, which is part of why I'm not a big fan of it (The snaggle-toothed mouth look just doesn't work for me; I think it looks ridiculous). The retro title would probably go to the GMK Godzilla (IMO), if anything.

I always thought the slimmer body and the big eyes (especially compared to the Heisei suits) and the evil-eye brow were evocative of the '64 suit (my personal fav, and part of the reason I liked the G2K verion). Not as old-school as GMK, obviously, but with some of the Showa-flavor thrown back into the mix.

[TokyoVigilante]

The jagged skin texture, colouration, and wavy spines are a pretty aggressive design in comparision to everything that proceeded it. It's very effective in being the "21st Century Godzilla; fresh and edgy and modern!". GMK Goji is a much more modestly designed incarnation and more reminiscent of the older looks.

[Goji]

I didn't feel the G2K design was "retro" at all, considering it's such a departure from every Godzilla we had seen before, which is part of why I'm not a big fan of it (The snaggle-toothed mouth look just doesn't work for me; I think it looks ridiculous). The retro title would probably go to the GMK Godzilla (IMO), if anything.

I always thought the slimmer body and the big eyes (especially compared to the Heisei suits) and the evil-eye brow were evocative of the '64 suit (my personal fav, and part of the reason I liked the G2K verion). Not as old-school as GMK, obviously, but with some of the Showa-flavor thrown back into the mix.

That's an interesting observation, and actually, I agree with you on the "evil-eye brow" look. I think it's the mouth that just kills it for me. It reminds me of a crocodile's, and just looks so over the top. It's just one of those things I can't get over I suppose. It also probably doesn't help that I'm not fond of either G2K or GxM.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

That's an interesting observation, and actually, I agree with you on the "evil-eye brow" look. I think it's the mouth that just kills it for me. It reminds me of a crocodile's, and just looks so over the top.

We should call him AsymetriGoji. Seriously, the jagged spines, crooked teeth...it's kind of that suit's gimmick. I still like the design overall, though.

[kaijukurt]

My favorite design of the Millennium series was Godzilla's SOS suit, I don't really have specific reasons.

[Rody]

Mire/Gira-Goji has excellent body proportions and is decently flexible, but the face kills the suit. There's no expression here, which Godzilla needs to be effective. This suit gives no impression of intelligence or thought of any kind.

[Brian4205]

^ I disagree. In Godzilla 2k I could totally tell what was going through his head a lot of the time, but with Gira Goji it was lost.

[Goji]

You "can totally tell what's going on in his head all the time"? Lol..come on man. The eyes are expressive, and that's really about it.

[Brian4205]

Like they say, The eye's have it.

[therealmccoy]

You "can totally tell what's going on in his head all the time"? Lol..come on man. The eyes are expressive, and that's really about it.

No, really. When he appeared out of the water for the first time you could SO tell he was just dying for a cheeseburger.

[Rody]

Personally, I think Final-Goji is the best Millennium suit. It takes the Heisei design and gives it proper proportions and flexibility. The downsides are that he's too skinny, the head's kind of small & the eyes squinty(this is nitpicking), and the spines are just bad.
Overall, though, I think it has the least amount of (major)faults out of all the Millennium suits.

[Goji]

Like they say, The eye's have it.

Yet Rody wasn't talking about the eyes, he was talking about the face.

[Brian4205]

You "can totally tell what's going on in his head all the time"? Lol..come on man. The eyes are expressive, and that's really about it.

Look, Just out of personal preference I don't like the robot heads in most of the heisei series look really fake, and don't really improve the story. I feel like I can understand what Godzilla is thinking more in the Showa series and Godzilla 2000, because they have expressive eyes and head movements. After Godzilla vs Biollante I felt the preformance of the suit actor is replaced by the robotic head, which has a (no pun intended) robotic preformance. The curling lips, and awkwardly moving head never worked for me, it made him look like a snoody old woman, the worst offender is in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, but The Kiryu saga was just as bad at this. So, I'll take may stiff head, and expressive eye's any day.

And as John Ford once said, "Anybody can direct a picture once they know the fundamentals. Directing is not a mystery, it's not an art. The main thing about directing is: photograph the people's eyes."

If you don't know who John Ford is, then don't reply until you find out.

[Goji]

"A snooty old women"?! That's pretty funny, I'll give you that, though I definitely don't really get the comparison. The animatronic heads were not ever meant to "improve the story" in the first place, so I'm not sure where you're going with that. They were there to give Godzilla more expression since the head of the suits weren't capable of as much expression. Also, the Kiryu films had no animatronic heads. Get your facts straight.

And who are you to tell me NOT to reply? This is a public forum. That John Ford is quote is out of context, and has nothing to do with what we're talking about here.

[Rody]

Brian4205 has a fair point; the eyes are integral to the face and it's expressions. If he was able to make out Mire-Goji's personality, then that's fine. I couldn't, but perhaps that's just me.
Final-Goji also has an eye problem; the eyes could be expressive, but they're always shadowed so you cant' see them, except in extreme close-ups.

[Brian4205]

Look, if a preformance is bad, it detracts from the story. Movies are a story telling medium. The expressions they gave him in those movies, I felt subtracted from the preformance, therefore were bad. I'm sorry for wording it poorly before. As for the John Ford quote, it has everything to do with what were talking about. Your making the argument that the expressions improve the suit, while I am making the argument that they are not, but that the eye's are what the main focus should be on. Yes, while I agree that the suits I favor could be greatly improved by a subtle lip quiver or so, I also feel that too much "expression" detracts from them. In the end, I will take a suit with great eyes, and is shot well in its movie, over an animatronic head, or not animatronic head, that goes overboard. It's like the rubber suit equivalent of over acting in my opinion.

As for me telling you to respond I was merely trying to keep you from posting something along the lines of "Well John Ford is an idiot" or something to the same extent, and I apologize for the misunderstanding.

[Goji]

Thanks for going into detail this time. I now have a better understanding of where you're coming from. I apologize for sounding a bit rash in my initial response.

[SaiyanRider54]

This was REALLY hard to pick which one I like the most since I like all of them, But I think I like G2k/GxM design the best. It looked very reptilian and reminds me of a dragon, especilly with the orange atomic breath. G2k was also one of my first Godzilla movies (the others being KOTM and GINO) so its very nostalgic.
GMK is second because of those spines and his menacing face. The beer belly and huge (obviosly fake on the suit) claws on his feet ruin it for me.

[Brian4205]

Thanks for going into detail this time. I now have a better understanding of where you're coming from. I apologize for sounding a bit rash in my initial response.

No problem. It was really, my half asleep fault.