I was mostly interested in what your response would be to the 1954 movie being "serious". I really didn't expect what you said though. Wow. I love the heisei and later showa era movies. I love them becuase they were tokusatsu and had great monsters with well done tokusatsu-style effects. But they were not "good" movies. Thats what you don't get bob. You provide no reasons why the 3 you mentioned are better. Why? Because you don't have any. I also find the notion that without it's franchise it would be a forgettable footnote to be pretty stupid. A great movie is a great movie. It stands on it's own, like any other number of classic movies(its main inspiration, king kong, comes to mind), and the fact you can't get over the fact that the franchise ran it's course in japan and ended is pretty sad. The 1954 movies was, overall, the best movie in the franchise. Mostly the human characters were actually well written. As opposed to most of the other movies where they were forgettable at best(including your 3 favorites.) The movie, overall, was well made. The first sequel, godzilla raids again, was fucking horrible. It tried to do the same thing as the first and failed. It's not too different from king kong's direct sequel that no one remebers or cares about. So they embraced the emerging tokusatsu genre with godzilla vs. king kong and were able to find their nitch.
I still think it should have ended with destroyah. I could never get into the millenium series. 2000 was a rushed piece of shit made because of the 98 amercian movie, vs. megaguirus was proof that the showa era no longer worked, the two mechagodzilla movies were boring and mediocre, final wars was a hot mess(still don't know what to make of it), and GMK was the best one, but still had major issues. All I'll say is this, you have no business watching the new movie because you have no reason to give it a chance. repeat after me bob, GODZILLA IS NOT SUPERMAN. I don't see the relation between that and this. It's going back to the first movie. That's exactly what the first heisei era movie and did and EVERY SINGLE FUCKING millenium series movie did. Or at least tryed to. Oh, and the amercian version of the 1954 movie sucked. Cut almost all of the characterization out to make room for raymond burr stating the obvious. It was cut that way for purely racist reasons and for a "good" liberal like you not to see that is funny. I guess the "japs" don't deserve liberal protection.
I mean, I really loved the heisei era movies. But it wasn't because they were good movies. Well, vs. king ghidorah was so bad it's good(it really has to be seen to be believed, one of the most insane time travel plots I've ever seen in my life. It makes NO sense, but is it fun) and vs. space godzilla was the last of the showa era throwbacks that actually worked. vs. biollante sucked ass as a movie, but biollante is a crowning achievement of the franchise and tokusatsu genre. The way they were able to use practical effects work on biollante in the finale and make it look so fucking good is a thing of beauty. I still think the best showa era movie ( not counting the 1954 movie) is the last, terror of mechagodzilla. Still cheesy, but scaled back enough to work. OK human charcters, and a FANTASTIC finale between godzilla and mechagodzilla. Hell, the humans actually got to do something for once by defeating titanasaurus.
I liked the trailer. I'll watch the movie and give it a chance. I wondering what the fuck you were expecting bob. The reason vs. megaguirus didn't work for me was because of the heavy use of CGI partly. For example, in vs. space godzilla, there is a space battle between space godzilla and MOGEURA. IS it CGI? Nope, they used a black background with plastic asteroids one it and moved the models in front of it. It looks bad honestly(overall, vs. space godzilla had pretty poor effects work compared to the others around it), but thats why it works as a showa era throwback. It's never going to be the same thing. Tokusatsu was a genre defined by a special effect, making it very different from other genre's, and while it effects will always be there in japan and elsewhere, it's time has passed. Super sentai and kamen rider may still be on the air, but they make HEAVY use of CGI. It's not the same thing. It's sad, but I think it always had a shelf life. It's just very limiting.
In the end, if the makers of king kong in 1933 had access to CGI, would they have used it? I think the answer is yes. Likewise, would the makes of godzilla(or gojira if you prefer) in 1954 used it if they had access it it? Once again, I think the answer is yes. The suitmation effects of the 1954 movie were very much in keeping with the cutting edge giant monster movies of the era from other countries. And in the 1954 movie, he was a serious. He was a literally symbol of the most terrible weapon ever created by mankind, the atomic bomb. They dropped that in the sequels and went with the tokusatsu norms of the day because it was a one movie concept. There was nowhere else to go with that. And it is, still to this day, a classic, and one of the best movies ever made.
PS-pacific rim is overrated. I liked a lot of the robot and monster designs and some of the fights were great, but the story sucked ass and the climax didn't work. And if they were making a "homage" to the tokusatsu genre, they might as well gone with some over the top space villians that turn into weird shit when they die. Instead, they ripped off the independence day aliens. Whoopee.
