So who actually likes the Heisei series?

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SaferEmerald
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by SaferEmerald »

Heisei series is by far and away my favorite Godzilla era. For starters, I much prefer an actual continuity. It's why I prefer Deep Space Nine to TNG, for example.

We see Godzilla more as an unstoppable beast as opposed to the corny Showa-era stuff where they attempted to humanize him *too* much. I much prefer the implications and subtleties in the Heisei series.

Miki is one of my favorite characters in the franchise.

The Heisei series has some of the most memorable touching scenes. In GvB for instance, you have the kids holding up the drawings they came up with from their dreams. I always liked this scene, seeing it now also reminds me of the first Silent Hill movie. Kids' drawings can be creepy yo. Then we have Godzilla's death in GvD. In GvKG, there's the staredown scene that I love.

GvSG is the only film in the Heisei series I'm on the fence about, and I don't even feel like it's necessarily bad. Even if I did, it wouldn't be anywhere near as terrible as Godzilla Vs. Megalon and Godzilla's Revenge.

I only have one beef with GvD and it's very minor, and just makes me laugh more than anything. There's this guy with glasses that always repeats things in the form of a question.

"Explosion?"
"Meltdown?"

GvD also has the best opening scene imo, special effects-wise. There's this wonderful shot, just before it cuts to the title, of Godzilla blasting a harbor with his ray. And of course his design in this film remains my favorite to this day.

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by DarkLord »

My idea of Godzilla has always been one of a monstrous, indestructible, apocolyptic beast. Godzilla as featured in G '54, Mothra against G, the Heisei and Millenium series' pretty much depict him perfectly, to my mind. From what we're hearing, the Godzilla in LP's forthcoming project should be from the same mould.:D

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by eabaker »

SaferEmerald wrote:Heisei series is by far and away my favorite Godzilla era. For starters, I much prefer an actual continuity. It's why I prefer Deep Space Nine to TNG, for example.
Well, Deep Space Nine is a much, much better show. The thing is, Deep Space Nine uses its continuity to tell a meaningful, epic story. For the most part, the Heisei Godzilla films use continuity in a lazy way, not really exploring it as a storytelling tool.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by tenup »

Heisei=Toho's greed. The 90's was a tainted decade for Godzilla. Sadly Toho execs didn't learn their lesson and went on to produce a not so impressive Millenium series. If GMK was done back in 99, Godzilla would have had a more successful recovery after 98's disaster.

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by gzilla46 »

Why would you NOT like the Heisei Series? It brings Godzilla back to his darker roots from 1954, in contrast to the campy Showa series.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by eabaker »

gzilla46 wrote:Why would you NOT like the Heisei Series? It brings Godzilla back to his darker roots from 1954, in contrast to the campy Showa series.
Yes, it does that successfully for three films, and then it spends the next three films flailing about without any characterization for the monster, before finally getting a grip on him again with the series finale.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by gzilla46 »

Legion1979 wrote:
gzilla46 wrote:Why would you NOT like the Heisei Series? It brings Godzilla back to his darker roots from 1954, in contrast to the campy Showa series.
See, the thing is...it really doesn't. None of the Heisei films ever get anywhere near as dark and powerful as the original dark. G'84 is only "dark" because everything takes place at night, while Biollante (at least to me) is more poetic than anything else. There's certainly nothing dark about any of the films after that. Godzilla vs Mothra is pure lightweight fantasy, Mechagodzilla is straight mecha sci-fi and Space Godzilla is just corny as shit.

And I dislike Showa-haters who write off the entire first 20 years of Toho sci-fi as campy. Really...?
What about the one with Destroyah. The one where Godzilla dies.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Mr. X »

Legion1979 wrote:There's a film where Godzilla dies?
I laughed too hard at this. Legion, you're awesome at times. :lol:

So, gzilla46, couple words of advice:

1. Never knock the Showa films. Ever.

2. You don't have to give a brief description (even as brief as "The one where Godzilla dies") when you're talking about a Godzilla film. This is a Godzilla forum; we've all heard and seen the movie before.

3. The Heisei series nowhere near as dark the original Godzilla film. Not even relatively close.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Goji »

gzilla46 wrote:Why would you NOT like the Heisei Series? It brings Godzilla back to his darker roots from 1954, in contrast to the campy Showa series.
This post alone exemplifies what is wrong with some of the posters on this forum, as well as the younger generation of fans, in general.

The 90's films, for the most part, are not particularly good Godzilla movies. After '91, it was really all downhill from there.

None of the Heisei films went "back to his darker roots from 1954". This never happened.

Not much of the Showa series can really be considered "campy". Regardless, I'll take camp over the dull, plodding films made after '91, any day of the week.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Captain Aktion »

If I wanted to say so, the entire Godzilla oeuvre is "campy". I don't know why there is a distinction between "darker" and "funner". Ideally, the best one would be both, right?
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Julia Bristow »

Goji wrote:
gzilla46 wrote:Why would you NOT like the Heisei Series? It brings Godzilla back to his darker roots from 1954, in contrast to the campy Showa series.
This post alone exemplifies what is wrong with some of the posters on this forum, as well as the younger generation of fans, in general.

The 90's films, for the most part, are not particularly good Godzilla movies. After '91, it was really all downhill from there.

None of the Heisei films went "back to his darker roots from 1954". This never happened.

Not much of the Showa series can really be considered "campy". Regardless, I'll take camp over the dull, plodding films made after '91, any day of the week.
same here.
All Movie snobs can just f off IMO

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Lain Of The Wired »

The kaiju battles were too short

The special effects were great, most of the time you could see the strings but I'm ok with that

The kaiju looked great

The English dubs were terrible
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by SaferEmerald »

Goji wrote:
gzilla46 wrote:Not much of the Showa series can really be considered "campy".
Really?

King Kong Vs. Godzilla
Godzilla Vs. Megalon
Godzilla Vs. Gigan
Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster
Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster
Godzilla's Revenge
Invasion of the Astro-Monster/Vs. Monster Zero
Son of Godzilla
Ghidorah
Destroy All Monsters

All of these are camp incarnate. That leaves us with the original, Raids Again, Mothra Vs. Godzilla, and the two MechaGodzillas.

Well over half of the Showa era is campy. I enjoy most of them myself, but to say they're not camp is pretty outlandish

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Julia Bristow »

Camp doesn't equal horrible Safer. Just look at Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or the Showa Godzilla films that are campy.
All Movie snobs can just f off IMO

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Goji »

Who the fuck cares? The films made from '62-'68, especially, are much more skillfully crafted (and simply better movies in general) anything made in the 90's. Hell, all of the 70's films are more entertaining than anything made in the 90's. Period.
UltramanGoji wrote: Cranky because you got mad I implied GFW isn't a good movie aren't you
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

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Goji wrote:Who the skreeonk cares? The films made from '62-'68, especially, are much more skillfully crafted (and simply better movies in general) anything made in the 90's. Hell, all of the 70's films are more entertaining than anything made in the 90's. Period.
That is an opinion I do not share. I love the Showa films but only up to Destroy All Monsters. The movies made from 62-68 are classic Godzilla films in my opinion but I think the majority of the Heisei series are as equally good. I like Godzilla more of an evil force than the hero he became and I like the better special effects of the Heisei series.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

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I don't care that you don't share it because it's MY opinion, and one that's shared by a large percentage of the fandom. The two 80's entries are the only Heisei films that even come close to the quality of any of the Honda/Tsuburaya entires, or even the Fukuda 'Island films'.

You like "the better SPX effects of the Heisei series"? Most of said effects aren't "better". Not by a long shot.

-The miniature work after '89 isn't exactly impressive. More like serviceable.

-Sparks, sparks, and more sparks. I didn't realize that this is what happens when Godzilla smashes into gigantic (organic) mutants/other dinosaur mutations. It's tacky, and looks terrible.

-The adult Mothra may be the worst Toho marionette in history. There is no excuse for it looking as grungy, and lifeless, as it did. The Mothra made by Tsuburaya and his crew looked and moved more realistically almost 30 years prior to the 1992 film. 30. Years. That's sad.

-Don't even get me started on the forgettable characters/performances from the 90's.

What you're saying about the 60's films doesn't make much sense, because Godzilla wasn't a "hero" in the films from '62-'68. This didn't happen until the '70's.


I could go on about what makes the 90's films so underwhelming, but there isn't really a point. It's common knowledge to most of the fandom who have already discussed this stuff to death in the past.
UltramanGoji wrote: Cranky because you got mad I implied GFW isn't a good movie aren't you
Chrispy_G wrote:I'll say it one last time, Trump wins in a landslide.
I'll gladly eat crow if it doesn't turn out that way....but at this point it feels painfully obvious, as it has for months.

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by SaferEmerald »

Sydney Aradi wrote:Camp doesn't equal horrible Safer. Just look at Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or the Showa Godzilla films that are campy.
I know this :P. I said I enjoy most of them myself (all but the island ones, Megalon, and Gigan)

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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by Gojira1963 »

Goji wrote:I don't care that you don't share it because it's MY opinion, and one that's shared by a large percentage of the fandom. The two 80's entries are the only Heisei films that even come close to the quality of any of the Honda/Tsuburaya entires, or even the Fukuda 'Island films'.

You like "the better SPX effects of the Heisei series"? Most of said effects aren't "better". Not by a long shot.

-The miniature work after '89 isn't exactly impressive. More like serviceable.

-Sparks, sparks, and more sparks. I didn't realize that this is what happens when Godzilla smashes into gigantic (organic) mutants/other dinosaur mutations. It's tacky, and looks terrible.

-The adult Mothra may be the worst Toho marionette in history. There is no excuse for it looking as grungy, and lifeless, as it did. The Mothra made by Tsuburaya and his crew looked and moved more realistically almost 30 years prior to the 1992 film. 30. Years. That's sad.

-Don't even get me started on the forgettable characters/performances from the 90's.

What you're saying about the 60's films doesn't make much sense, because Godzilla wasn't a "hero" in the films from '62-'68. This didn't happen until the '70's.


I could go on about what makes the 90's films so underwhelming, but there isn't really a point. It's common knowledge to most of the fandom who have already discussed this stuff to death in the past.

No need to be defensive. All of this is personal and subjective.

Godzilla slowly began to be the Hero in Invasion of the Astro-Monster. In the Island films Godzilla is not depicted as a seriouis bad guy.
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Re: So who actually likes the Heisei series?

Post by SaferEmerald »

Gojira1963 wrote:
Goji wrote:I don't care that you don't share it because it's MY opinion, and one that's shared by a large percentage of the fandom. The two 80's entries are the only Heisei films that even come close to the quality of any of the Honda/Tsuburaya entires, or even the Fukuda 'Island films'.

You like "the better SPX effects of the Heisei series"? Most of said effects aren't "better". Not by a long shot.

-The miniature work after '89 isn't exactly impressive. More like serviceable.

-Sparks, sparks, and more sparks. I didn't realize that this is what happens when Godzilla smashes into gigantic (organic) mutants/other dinosaur mutations. It's tacky, and looks terrible.

-The adult Mothra may be the worst Toho marionette in history. There is no excuse for it looking as grungy, and lifeless, as it did. The Mothra made by Tsuburaya and his crew looked and moved more realistically almost 30 years prior to the 1992 film. 30. Years. That's sad.

-Don't even get me started on the forgettable characters/performances from the 90's.

What you're saying about the 60's films doesn't make much sense, because Godzilla wasn't a "hero" in the films from '62-'68. This didn't happen until the '70's.


I could go on about what makes the 90's films so underwhelming, but there isn't really a point. It's common knowledge to most of the fandom who have already discussed this stuff to death in the past.

No need to be defensive. All of this is personal and subjective.

Godzilla slowly began to be the Hero in Invasion of the Astro-Monster. In the Island films Godzilla is not depicted as a seriouis bad guy.
Started with Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster actually

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