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Arch Stanton wrote:

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Kaijubait wrote:

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Not to dog on Arch, but that wasn't the only thing I disagreed with. Gorgo would have also made my top ten. I think its by far the best of Eugene Lourie's monster trilogy, and the suit is beautiful. No tongue? So what? Still looks great.

GORGO is a well-crafted film with great photography and a very nice music score. But that suit is much less believable than Godzilla's -- and Godzilla's isn't all that hot, either. And it's not the 'no-tongue' thing that bothers me so much -- it's that rigid flapping jaw that wouldn't convince an eight-year old. And surely those goofy claws bother even you just a tad.

Frankly, I can't think of hardly any 'man-in-suit' giant monsters that ever convinced me they were the least bit real. Maybe DAIMAJIN or Godzilla in GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: ALL-OUT MONSTER ATTACK -- and that's a big 'maybe.' Consider the difference in the believability of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Now that's a believable suit. Would it work as a giant monster? No, but that's why suits are just about the worst way to go for something gigantic.

As for GOJIRA/GODZILLA, I just don't get it. Why would anyone think it was a great movie other than for the very serious tone of the devastation? The effects are just a complete mess and the storyline is extremely juvenile. Everyone knows it's a copycat of THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, so just compare the rational thinking of BEAST compared to GODZILLA. For example, when Godzilla finally reveals his radioactive breath, there is absolutely no response to it at all -- hey, it happens all the time. Don't you think everyone (particularly the paleontologist) would be going apeshit over a revelation like that? Nope, not a word about it (in GOJIRA, anyway).

And doesn't it ever bother anyone that none of the Japanese monsters are ever harmed by tanks, bazookas or massive missiles? Even given their size, there would still be some kind of damage done. Nope, not a word about it. No impervious flesh comments, no force field, no nothing. That's one big reason the Japanese monster movies are off in another world.

I love Godzilla movies and I grew up loving GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS. But the idea that anyone would think that it was a really good movie on the level of KING KONG (or even THEM! or GORGO) is beyond me. Godzilla movies are terrific to me as fun, but as movies they just aren't even in the same ballpark -- which is why I had to separate them from the rest in my top ten lists.