Oh this brings memories of my (still going) youth when i was a little kid who was also the biggest Godzilla geek you had ever met.....
Well, since this thread is here i might as well ask, what is the general concensus on Godzilla 1985/The Return of godzilla?
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I watched the majority of the Showa lineup [Save for KOTM, Gojira, Raids Again and King Kong] alongside Fox Kids, Nick and the old Disney Channel when I was a little kid. When I finally got to see the Heisei, the quality of the video was like watching the older Power Rangers , video wise. That's why I knew it was Japanese and propelled me to tokusatsu.
I HATED 1985 as its the worst pile of garbage I have seen since Airbender and Evolution. Never mind Fatburr or any American cast members not interacting with the characters or pretending to with doubles, it was like I was watching an episode of Power Rangers Samurai or like watching two entirely different films within one.
Almost wish Steve Martin had a heart attack in the film to provide morbid entertainment on the American side as he and the other useless lazy men felt really unneeded. If they wanted to make a film, they should have just spliced American actors into the Japanese destruction footage and made their own movie. Their attempt to make a sequel of the 1956 mashup was a failure in my eyes because it ignored all of the reasons why the first was a hit.... not to mention Dr. Pepper.
On the other hand, I like The Return of Godzilla. While not impressive in of itself, the reboot without the garbage fared far better and I can watch that over and over again.
KOTM and Gojira are both enjoyable to me because the former had expert shooting and editing skills in it as a scifi pulp film while the latter is a horror monster film that is reminiscent of King Kong or the other older monster eiga.
If there's era I do prefer it is the Showa because although the Heisei had superior stories, the former had imagination and the monsters didn't shoot beams at each other for the whole length of the film like a giant monster version of Star Wars.
Godzilla better move and fight his opponent in the reboot because if its just beam wars, I am walking out and banging my head onto a desk, because I could care less if Godzilla looks like an iguana if Godzilla can actually fight.