It still is my favorite Showa Godzilla movie. The human drama is good(much better than GINO's) and the SFX are the best Showa effects. Ejii Tsuburaya did a good job. The Jumping Shay dance was protested by Tsuburaya and Honda, but Tanaka insisted to keep it in.
The showa series has left a taint in the minds of americans about Godzilla series forever.
It left a taint in my mind.
shareI don't know if this film really warrants being called "under-rated."
David Kalat in A CRITICAL HISTORY AND FILMOGRAPHY OF THE GODZILLA SERIES, Stevel Ryfle in JAPAN'S FAAVORITE MON-STAR, and Stuart Galbraith IV in MONSTERS ARE ATTACKING TOKYO - all three praise the movie. And I don't hear many dissenters out there saying it sucked.
In any case, it is a wonderful piece of colorful pop entertainment.
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But it does have a ridiculously low IMDB rating here at least. I'd rate it one of the best of the original series, and a big improvement over Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster.
"This time it's no more Mr. Passive Resistance!"
this is no way better than Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster!!
Godzilla hardly fights in this movie. Theres hardly any action, even though its still okay.
There's a lot more action than Ghidorah. That has the constant Toho problem of putting almost all the monster action in the last two reels, and in thiscase they talk forever in that monster summit before getting down to it. Rodan and Godzilla'sfight is pretty pitiful stuff, throwing and heading that rock from one to the other while baby Mothra watches like a tennis spectator.
"This time it's no more Mr. Passive Resistance!"
at least its lengthy and they all get stuck in to King Ghidorah.
The thing that made me embarrassed to be a Godzilla fan was the Jumping Shay Dance that Godzilla does. its plain stupid. The fight at the end of this one should of been longer aswell. All the talk kind of builds up to nothing near the end.
- but it's only a few seconds. That rock throwing bit in Ghidorah seems to go on forever - and that's after comedy Rodan, looking for all the world like the Giant Claw on a bad day, has spent about three minutes pecking Godzilla on the head...
"This time it's no more Mr. Passive Resistance!"
but in Monster Zero, all Godzilla and Rodan do to 'banish' Ghidorah from Planet X is throw rocks at him. Then Godzilla jumps on him! wat was that all about?
The aliens didn't even need Godzilla and Rodan in the first place, so why 'borrow' them when they could just control them anyway?
thats the thing that makes it a bit dumb.
I agree that this movie is underrated and one of the best Godzilla movies. I much more prefer it over King Ghidorah and King Kong vs Godzilla. This movie has better effects, better pacing and a cooler story in a cheesy sort of way. Godzilla looks really good in this one compared to some others. Ironliclly it is one of the few that I don't own. It is on my hit list though.
shareI loved this movie and couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of the classic media dvd. The dance never bothered me, and it wasn't til years later that I learned it was a Japanese tv pop culture reference.
"There's my buttercup!"
Actually, it was Honda and Tanaka who objected to the Shie. Tsuburaya overruled their objections with "the kids'll like it."
shareI must have watched this a good few times as a kid.
I just watched this after about 8 years away, it wasn't a super experience.
The pacing of the film is way too slow, the monsters are hardly in it, they don't go anywhere near a city, the human drama is far to contrived and poorly realised.
The whole film was just too slow and too little.
Even if it does have some moments which are great it's a movie that with it's content should have only just pushed past 60 minutes, not over 90.
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Even if you hate Uwe Boll, give Postal a try, be offended or entertained.
I've been doing a bit of editing and cut the film down to 78 minutes, hopefully making it more enjoyable, I left all the monster fight footage untouched because that's what you go to a Godzilla film for. Also I used the English Dubbed version.
If anyone wants a look let me know.
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Even if you hate Uwe Boll, give Postal a try, be offended or entertained.
I never found the film slow, actually. I always thought it was a lot of fun, and it looked really good when I saw it in widescreen...really slick looking science fiction movie.
Saw it projected once, at the Egyptian Theatre, and two of the special effects guys were there to speak briefly and claim a little long-overdue credit. Awesome evening.
Though I think monster zero is a good movie,I thought it was a little overrated.
shareYeah, I really don't understand why Toho kept making all these monster movies that only showed monsters at the end. Maybe it was due to budget reasons, but why not just make the movie a tad shorter then?
shareI agree, Monster Zero is underrated. I've been watching all the Japanese monster movies and a lot of them are boring, stupid, and disappointing. This one actually has a story and it makes sense! It's easy to follow, and the characters are generally likable. I was expecting this one to really suck, but I enjoyed it immensely!
shareNot to mention that the non-kaiju characters are actually interesting. Glenn, Fuji and Namikawa are all cool, and even Tetsuo is pretty likeable. All I have to say is:
"In defense of earth...we're gonna fight to the last man, baby!"
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If there were reason for these miseries,
Then into limits could I bind my woes.
This is the first Godzilla movie I ever saw (at about 8 years of age) and it began an obsession that's been with me ever sense.
shareI agree that this movie is definitely underrated and it is my favorite Godzilla movie besides the original. Its just plain fun and does have a good story, plus I enjoy Godzilla being a "good guy". Also, that victory dance actually made him look almost "cute", like a big dog that had just gotten a treat or a belly rub/long pet for doing something right.
Courage is being scared to death- and saddling up anyway