Better Visuals: Ghidrah or Monster Zero? in Japanese Giants Forum

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Better Visuals: Ghidrah or Monster Zero?

Author	Comment
bigmackdaddy	Better Visuals: Ghidrah or Monster Zero?	Lead	[-]
Jun 25 11 4:39 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm tempted to give this one to Ghidrah based on Ghidorah's destruction scenes alone, but the hand puppet scenes are really jarring. With Monster Zero you have competent work, but nothing as grandiose as the destruction of Tokyo in Ghidrah. Also, Godzilla looked silly in this movie. Which film do you think had the superior visuals?
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Uchujin65		#1	[-]
Jun 25 11 10:10 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Pretty close to equal, Ghidorah has great special effects scenes far superior to the otherwise kind of boring human sequences. Monster Zero however has the outlandish Planet X sequences which are fantastic and the human stuff is far more compelling, I dunno, the tone of that movie just feels more epic but it is bogged down with all that stock footage from Rodan. jlcarrozza.com
Kaijubait		#2	[-]
Jun 25 11 10:57 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Monster Zero for me. Prefer the Godzilla suit (but prefer the Mothra Vs Godzilla suit to either, which is pretty much the same as the Ghidrah suit-- don't ask). LOVE the city destruction scenes. Ghidrah's rampage in this is one of the most realistic looking displays of monster carnage I've ever scene, and it blows away what Kawakita did with Ghidrah 26 years later. Like the UFOs - the monster transportation sequence. Yeah - I'm gonna say MZ.
SparkieGojira		#3	[-]
Jun 25 11 8:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I love GHIDRAH more over all as a movie, but with a few exceptions, it's just not as eye-popping and colorful as MONSTER ZERO. I'm not sure GHIDRAH exploits wide screen quite as well in all-out Monster Bash context. There are shots of all three monsters sharing the scene in MONSTER ZERO that make my jaw drop. Oh and lets not forget the Oxberry composite shots combining the monsters with real people. They've always seemed absolutely seemless to me. MONSTER ZERO does mark the only time I can recall seeing the wires on Ghidorah's necks. But given the complexity of the action, and that it is taking place on an alien planet (with a dark, wire unfriendly cyclorama.) I'd never take marks off for that. I think Ghidorah himself was more impressive in the first film though. I really liked the curving arch in his wings when they are not in use. And what happened to his gravity bolts in between films? In GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER they do like the name implies; buildings fly apart. In MZ his ray's effect on buildings is limited to some chipped edifice. The MZ Godzilla reminds me of Cookie Monster. And I do not mean that to be disparaging. The suit is perfect for the way he is characterized in MZ and GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER. A sort of lovable big lug. Rodan's suit seems technically more proficient than in GHIDRAH, but I still say he comes across as the Larry Fine of monsters in both films. -Clark
Uchujin65		#4	[-]
Jun 25 11 9:40 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Kaijubait wrote: LOVE the city destruction scenes. Ghidrah's rampage in this is one of the most realistic looking displays of monster carnage I've ever scene, and it blows away what Kawakita did with Ghidrah 26 years later. I agree there, even though as a film I much prefer Monster Zero to Ghidorah, Ghidorah's sudden attack on Tokyo is probably one of the most masterful destruction scenes Tsuburaya ever directed, it just looks amazing and very realistic and life like. The stuff in Monster Zero isn't as good. jlcarrozza.com
Kaijubait		#5	[-]
Jun 26 11 12:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Uchujin65 wrote: Kaijubait wrote: LOVE the city destruction scenes. Ghidrah's rampage in this is one of the most realistic looking displays of monster carnage I've ever scene, and it blows away what Kawakita did with Ghidrah 26 years later. I agree there, even though as a film I much prefer Monster Zero to Ghidorah, Ghidorah's sudden attack on Tokyo is probably one of the most masterful destruction scenes Tsuburaya ever directed, it just looks amazing and very realistic and life like. The stuff in Monster Zero isn't as good. I was talking about Monster Zero.
SparkieGojira		#6	[-]
Jun 26 11 6:51 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	But MZ also lets down in the Gravity Bolt mayhem, no? -Clark
Kaijubait		#7	[-]
Jun 26 11 10:44 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	SparkieGojira wrote: But MZ also lets down in the Gravity Bolt mayhem, no? Gee, I didn't think so.
SparkieGojira		#8	[-]
Jun 26 11 10:47 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Am I watching the same movies as everyone? -Clark
starhawk60.movieserialmess...		#9	[-]
Jun 26 11 11:21 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree Sparkie. The explosive effects created in Ghidorah are more dramatic than in MZ. I have to give my vote to Ghidorah. When he appears as a ball of fire from the meteorite, I have to rank that scene as the one of the most visually stunning of all the Godzilla movies.
Edkkakumon		#10	[-]
Jun 26 11 11:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Visually, I say MZ. The models for the ufos and rocket were good, and Planet X was realistic looking.
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rvoyttbots		#11	[-]
Jun 28 11 8:35 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have to go with MZ. Those saucer effects are stunning. GHIDRAH looked clumsy in comparison. Especially when the plane exploded at the beginning. Last Edited By: rvoyttbots Jun 28 11 8:38 AM. Edited 1 times.
Hachigatsu		#12	[-]
Jul 1 11 9:24 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, the plane wouldn't explode in a fireball, y'know. But, GHIDRAH does have some OUTSTANDING effects sequences — and you should see the stuff that they didn't use! August Ragone Author EIJI TSUBURAYA: MASTER OF MONSTERS Blog THE GOOD, THE BAD AND GODZILLA
bigmackdaddy		#13	[-]
Jul 2 11 1:36 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Hachigatsu wrote: Well, the plane wouldn't explode in a fireball, y'know. But, GHIDRAH does have some OUTSTANDING effects sequences — and you should see the stuff that they didn't use! What did they leave out?
Kaijubait		#14	[-]
Jul 2 11 9:34 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	http://youtu.be/_krVHkWrkl0
bipolarber		#15	[-]
Sep 13 11 2:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	From an art direction standpoint, I much prefer Monster Zero... The sets for Planet X, it's underground cities and control rooms, the X-ians costumes (predating Devo by over a decade!) and the general quality of the work... There's some real dream stuff in this movie (MZ) far more than many of the other films Toho had been doing in the series. Spaceships, alien planets, underground civilizations, (multi-level control rooms and seemingly endless, smooth walled corridors) flying saucers, cloned babealicious women... monsters floating away in bubbles like State Fair balloons, melting radio telescopes... etc., etc... And it's all realized beautifully. For a kid's film, this movie was packed with more hardware than most Irwin Allen productions, and really pushed the story which seems almost copied from "Zombies of the Stratosphere" Except they added the monsters, and babes. "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
bobzilla		#16	[-]
Sep 15 11 9:40 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	MZ always looked desaturated to me. It looked barely in color. Especially on the planet. Plus, everything about the aliens was basically black and white.
bipolarber		#17	[-]
Apr 23 12 10:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Which movie had the better visuals? Heck, that's easy! Two words: Kumi Mizuno. (in a tight fitting X-ian uniform, no less!) "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
specialque		#18	[-]
Apr 23 12 1:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm a sucker for Monster Zero, even if it did slight Mothra a bit. Those aliens really push it over the edge though, and I think Rodan and Ghidorah look much better in this one.
bipolarber		#19	[-]
Apr 23 12 4:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	And I'm not sure about the color complaint on MZ... Knowing how some of these films have aged, we might not be seeing it in it's original saturation level. Not all of them were preserved as well as "King Kong Escapes" was by Universal... Saperstien may have not kept the original print from which the American dubs were made. We might just be looking at a release print, which might not be up to the original quality. "[The audiance] will populate the darkness with more horrors than all the horror writers in Hollywood could think of. If you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for the dark patches." -VAL LEWTON
Goji		#20	[-]
Apr 24 12 9:20 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	An original UPA print was utilized for the transfer on the 1998 DVD release of MONSTER ZERO, so they are still out there.. Unfortunately, because the format was so new at the time, the quality doesn't hold up these days, however it is the only way to see the original UPA version on DVD, without the slightly alterations made by Classic Media on their 2007 release. WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, on the other hand (which also utilized a transfer of the UPA version), looks pretty good. Granted, the DVD was released a decade after the Simitar MZ release.
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Better Visuals: Ghidrah or Monster Zero?

Better Visuals: Ghidrah or Monster Zero?