Godzilla; Mothra; King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
(2001)
(Page 2)
That said,.I fully plan to get plenty of people angry when I say that this movie is overrated. So many members of the Godzilla community praise every aspect of this production, and I loved it too when I first saw it. Sadly, everytime I rewatch this movie, my opinion of it becomes lower and lower. It's not a bad movie, but many call it either the best G movie since the original or the best G movie period, and I just find that to not be the case.
But of course, I'm not one of those kaiju fans that absolutly worships director Shusuke Kaneko. In fact, I don't think I ever formed an actual opinion on him until just recently. In preparation of reviewing this film, I rewatched the acclaimed 90's Gamera trilogy. After watching all four (including GMK) of his dips into the kaiju genre, I came out realizing two things. 1. Whether it's the painful Showa entries, MST3K versons of the Showa entries, or even the superior 90's trilogy, watching three Gamera movies in a row gives me a headache. 2. Kaneko doesn't impress me. I'll refrain from reviewing the Gamera films, since I'm trying to concentrate on GMK (the short of it is 1 is watchable, 2 is lame, 3 is brilliant), but my general impression of Kaneko is that he's a man of great ambition, but he often overshoots the basket (case in point being those foolish wings that Gamera sports in 2 and 3. We needed those for what reason?). Upon watching GMK again, while I find it a better film than the first two Gamera films, I still think he overshot his mark.
Like this Gamera trilogy, GMK attempts to bring a more mystical story to the table. My problem is that I'm not big on fantasy (which explains why I'm not a LOTR fan, at least). A little bit is OK in my kaiju features, but if it comes on too strong, then I start to get turned off. I strongly prefer my kaiju portrayed as giant beasts, not particularly interested in good or evil, but just trying to survive in a world they percieve as their territory, like the 60s Godzilla films or the Heisei series. The more fantasty based kaiju are rarely amung my favorites. It's one of the reasons I'm not big on Mothra and it's also a reason I loathe King Ceasar.
Unfortunatly, the film suffers for me, with all the generic Guardian Monsters nonsense and talk about how Godzilla represents the tortured souls of war or whatever. It takes it's toll on the human side of the story, which is praised for supposed "depth" by many kaiju fans. I don't see much depth in it, myself. I liked the characters, but they were far from three dimensional. In fact, instead of giving these characters the depth that would have been nice, most of the film's opening act is basicly just various people saying "Godzilla? Hasn't been seen in 50 years. Guardian Monsters? That's just a legend." Yeah, excuse me while I don't care. The rest of the movie is filled with running around, following the monsters while other characters make worried grimmaces at the camera. Not exactly what I call compelling human drama.
On the technical side, the visuals are pretty good, but the monsters themselves look pretty shabby. I have the guts to say it, Godzilla's suit in this movie is hideous. I was initially keen on the design when images of it were released, but upon execution, it's just terrible. G looks like a cross between Deadite Ash from Evil Dead II and Barney the Dinosaur, and the result just isn't effective. Head animatronics look horribly mechanical and the bottom half of the design is disturbingly chubby (which I wouldn't have minded, had Godzilla's first full body shot not been a massive closeup of Goji-crotch). There are a few modifications that could have salvaged this fiasco, but since the movie has already been released and on DVD, it would be pointless to describe them. Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah are all a bit too plastic for my tastes, as well (though the latter two get a bit of CG enhancement to make them look more lively).
The last aspect of the film is Kow Otani's score, which is decent, but mildly annoying. I strongly prefer the themes of Michiru Ohshima, who thankfully returned to the G franchise in the next instalment.
But hey, kaiju films aren't art. I like the film, and the monster battles are probably the best of the Millennium era, but everything else fails to live up to it's reputation. Can you blame me for being a little more embrasive of the mindless fun of Godzilla X Mechagodzilla? Is that wrong?
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