GotengoXGodzilla wrote:I'm just going to go ahead and say that GFW is a bigger insult to the Godzilla franchise than the American Godzilla film. At least that can be enjoyable at times.
OUCH!
That's uber bad GotendoXGodzilla! Almost signature worthy!
It seems GFW works better in overall monster carnage, while kicking the can on the human interaction by trying way too hard, and semmingly forcing it in to stop the monster action instead of complementing it, while the American Zilla works better on the human drama and interactions (even with terrible actors!) but fails to deliver on the monster damage (the US Military holds that honor in the film).
Okay Destroyer, here's what happened:
Too Many Monsters (Money could've been easily saved by removing unnecessary "flying battleships" that were going to be blown up anyway, and using the MechaG III Kiryu suit one last time in place of them or even using up all of the Maser Tanks and Military vehicles that had been created up until that time to be destroyed. I mean, they had tons of cityscapes left over from GMK (2001) that they sold(?) or loaned(?) to Quentin Tarantino for his Kill Bill movies right?)
Too Many Actors all vying for screentime for some reason or another in an unfinished script. Take a cue from past movies, and shorten the cast after the desired monsters were picked and budgeted in.
Too Much Money spent on advertising (Godzilla always does that for free by word of mouth)
That includes
Too Much Hype by Toho themselves. They have seemingly learned their lesson as the reigns are being handed over to another studio in the US (I think Legendary is US based) for the time being.
Although I would had to disagree with
TokyoVigilante that the monster designs are a welcome suprise for the most part.
GODZILLA, while not my favorite (
Godzilla 1989 is), works for all intents and purposes.
MOTHRA, this Tokyo SOS version, works again as probably one of the best Mothras this side of 1961!
GIGAN, although, after purchasing a figure of it at Toys R US, this design of the Cyborg is growing on me, but I still have issues with the color scheme without the green and gold of the original. Perhaps
MEGALON, should have been buried under the Earth with Gigan being brought with the Aliens on their journey.
ZILLA, what can I say that hasn't already been said, let's just agree on, this needed to be done, and any and all money that was used to make this battle happen was well worth it! *cheers from the audience*
MANDA, an excellent improvement over all of the designs (althought I still don't understand what those long "feelers" are in his leg and armpits...are they meant to glow like how an angler fish [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angler_fish ] has bio illumination to catch prey -
any one have any info on this?) of the past, this Manda is great but why money was wasted on a suit looked like poor CGI in the actural film, I don't understand. His ability would have had far better use created the infamous deleted scene of Destroy All Monsters battling Godzilla, only this time, in an underwater battle!
EBIRAH, from intial concept art to the actual screen, the sea monsters works as both a menance and overall interesting choice of giant monster. The problems arise from the sea monster's application into thescrit. Why not have it destroy the great sea highways of the Pacific Ocean, or serve as an opponent for Godzilla under or abovewater in Tokyo Bay? The concept was there in the early script where they decided to have the battle off camera (Why would this be a good idea?! This is a Giant Monster Movie!!!) and just randomly hit a big blob of pollution that goes by the name of HEDORAH, and just end up overcooked by
HEDORAH's searing acidic skin and Godzilla's radioactive atomic heat ray? Besides, was the sea monster not already shredded to bits by the ...*cringes*... Mutants by this point in the script?
EBIRAH could be worth more than that, while
KAMACURAS could've easily ended up on the other side of OZAKI's maser rifle.
ANGUIRUS, although the concept art is very noteworthy, the reason this design falls below the Destroy All Monsters variant, is due to the shortened jaws, the teeny tiny horn on the tip, and the lack of pronounced fangs. The longer neck they made looked great in the artwork, but horrible on the final application. Something went wrong from the drawing board to the production floor.
RODAN, again, the suit design fails far short of the intended design. Looking at the concept art shows the Wings out of proportion, the head design was not an improvement over the original or
FIRE RODAN of the 1993, along with the thickness of the legs (I know its a man in the suit, but with as little as they used and displayed Rodan in the film, why have a man in it at all?).
KAMACURAS or
GIMANTIS for the AIPers out there, from design to film, worked really well. I enjoyed the camouflage addition to the monster's powers and the color change from red (original) to brown (concept) to green(final), but was really the weakest of the Final Wars cast in terms of a foe to battle Godzilla. Possibly could have been cut to say costs.
KUMONGA or
SPIEGA for the AIPers out there, oddly enough, never named in the film, yet works well in concept and while the color scheme was quite eyecatching, the monster did not translate well in film. They took away the monster's poison stinger! And the webbing didn't even work at all. I can deal with the silk out of the mouth instead of it's butt for campy reasons, but forming a web in mid air out of its own web spit? Please, my suspension of disbelief came to a screeching halt. A possible cut to save costs.
KING CAESAR, simply feels out of place without a
MECHAGODZILLA to contend with. This is where the cute, and red, GMK
BARAGON could have taken over since Caesar had big giant "cute" anime eyes for some reason.
HEDORAH, more wasted money. Very well designed update to the monster, but why use on Godzilla's, hell, even Toho's most unfavorable monster designs to honor Godzilla? More wasted money. Sensing a pattern here? This is the best way to not only let a film go belly up on an untested director of the genre, but also to end up with an unprofitable $8,000,000 Million Dollars, in the hole -in the red.
MONSTER X, wrong on so many levels and simply feels out of place amongst other monsters of Godzilla fame. This is where the hype and secrecy came back to bite the producers and creators in the gross profit butt. As I have said before, MX acts like an Ultraman or Power Rangers monster and not a proper Godzilla foe.
KAISER GHIDORAH, as Lord Gappa once wrote, "...they failed by making Ghidorah an obese garbage bag." This is does not honor the 50th anniversary, but rather slaps the fan in the face for a cheap thrill. Now,
GRAND KING GHIDORAH would have worked far better. right? The buildup for
MONSTER X should have rested on
KING GHIDORAH's arrival and no one else.
MINYA, does anymore need to be said? I will admit that the suit was an amazing tribute to the character itself, but again, not needed, and more money wasted.
However, on the other side of the coin I do completely agree with,
TokyoVigilante, in that Godzilla: Final Wars did not honor Godzilla's 50th Anniversary.
I mean, they let Godzilla have a son, again....for the third time! Godzilla could have easily have walked off into the sunset by looking at the crashed alien craft, an obilierated King Ghidorah, and a managled Kiryu, with a flatten Tokyo in all directions....Done and Done.... back to Monster Island, you know?
