Why Toho Shouldn't Make Anymore "Old Fashioned" Godzilla Films

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InstinctiveGigan

MemberMothra LarvaeOct-23-2013 12:21 AM

I hope Toho will not make anymore Godzilla suit movies. Before you throw your tomatoes at me and call me an untrue fan, hear me out. I think it'd be suicide for this character after next year if Toho went back to making their Godzilla films. Audiences will hear "new Godzilla movie", get excited as hell, and be disappointed by the quality (your basic Toho Godzilla film) and say stuff like "what is this shit?" and "wow, the first one in 2014 was way better, what a disgrace". It's like releasing Pacific Rim 2 in classic Toho style, fans for the original will be pissed and disregard the rest of the movies. Also I gotta say Legendary and Warner Bros. made Pacific Rim and after it's success they're now making a sequel. It'll be the same for Godzilla, Gareth will probably direct it again, and hopefully Toho is using this movie to test the quality of this version of Godzilla so they can trust Legendary with their other monsters; and we'll get our Destroy All Monsters dream movie. I want Godzilla to be a new hit success with the nowaday generation, and it would be financial suicide to go back to the way things were if this movie is good in terms of both box office and critic reviews. As a kid, I loved the classic Toho films and even years from now I still will, but guys our Godzilla is coming to the big leagues (heh, get it?), he needs to be given such treatment. All fictional characters (Superman, Batman, Spider-man, Robocop, etc.) are being given serious treatment on a professional level, it's the big guy's turn. For those hoping that they will totally still make their classic Godzilla films because they did it with the 1998 Tristar film, please remember how much heat the Godzilla character got from that movie, it was a failure and Toho grabbed all their legal rights shit and ran. But Tristar already had a deal with Toho to release more Godzilla films in the U.S. after the 1998 one, but thanks to the film's failure they compromised on the deal by releasing Godzilla 2000 in U.S. theatres. The reason that worked back then but it won't now was because the 1998 film was so bad the 2000 film could only add dignity to the character; which worked cuz that's exactly how I got into Godzilla. If this movie becomes as lovable to both basic movie-goers and G-fans as Gareth and the team hope it does, another classic Toho Godzilla film won't be acceptable to the public, at least that's my opinion. Okay, I'm sure I pissed a lot of you off, feel free to show me your pain. What's your take? Want more Godzilla films from classic Toho with a Godzilla suit and everything? Or would you like this Godzilla to be the (hopefully) bright and shiny, new future for our gigantic, scaly friend?

Durp004
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I don't think there's anything wrong with toho getting their rights back and doing their own movies, as chances are they wouldn't be released in the US theatrically like most of the movies. Basically what would happen best case scenario for me is this movie does well and gets as many sequels as possible, which will probably be a trilogy. Then toho gets their rights back and goes back to making their own movies for those of us that still want more. Granted a lot of the new fans wouldn't like it, but as they delve deeper into the character and watch the 28 movies that came out before this 1 and any sequels they'd hopefully realize this is just part of the character. Hopefully toho will adapt and upgrade but personally I don't see that much wrong with suit actors, and if your budget isn't ridiculously high like the mainstream hollywood movies the CGI you get looks worse anyway. The real problem I'd see with complaints in the voice over as no matter how well toho's done it in the past it's still blatantly obvious its dubbed.

InstinctiveGigan
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@DURP004 All excellent points, I hope you are right. But it's not so much the effects I'm worrying about with the old Toho films, for pete's sake the original 1954 Godzilla film can still hold up. But Toho hasn't been very good at story telling. Other than the Godzilla scenes where the guy beats the crap out of the monster the title says he's fighting, there isn't much there. The human parts are mere boring transitions between Godzilla scenes. In my opinion anyway. Godzilla Final Wars is a very prime example of that. That film was Toho's way of celebrating 50 years of Godzilla (their highest budgeted and most cinematic Godzilla film to date) and besides the first 5 minutes and final 30 the movie is a stinker.

Durp004
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Yes unfortunately Godzilla movie's have had bad story plots in general, but I think coming up with a good story for Godzilla is extremely hard, and something I want to see how Legendary does. Godzilla is like every superhero, without their everyday persona. This makes it so you have to focus on a human that isn't directly related to Godzilla for most of the movie until he shows up. This is extremely hard to do when the main selling point in the monster. It's like making a Batman movie but not having the Bruce Wayne character to substitute in when batman's not on screen. You basically have to pretend these side characters are important until the main guy comes in. Bryan Cranston said the upcoming movie is very character driven, but that means story wise it will either work really well and show a way that you can do a story with Godzilla, or it will fail and because it's so character driven be extremely boring for 90% of the film. On the bright side most of the reboots do fairly well story wise since it's the first time the monster appears so you can heavily focus on origins and backstory, and be about the main character Godzilla without him being on screen to keep you occupied but if there is a sequel it will be interesting to see how they work the storyline in.

G. H. (Gman)
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One day Toho will probably make more Godzilla movies, but I think that day is so far away that they won't look like the movies we've come to love. So wouldn't worry about Godzilla reverting, per say. Tokusatsu is a dieing subgenre of film and television. The Japanese Godzilla and Gamera series are dead, both ended with box office flops. Other giant monster movies have either been less successful or marketed to a niche group. Very young children are the only ones that keep the genre alive with programing like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. Meanwhile, special effects director Koichi Kawakita has implemented school courses about the dieing art of tokustatsu and how to film them-- it's basically a last ditch effort to introduce the art to another generation or at least make sure it won't simply be forgotten. I think the latter scenario is more likely. It Toho ever produces another Godzilla movie it will be a long time from now. Right now they figure they can make money off Godzilla by letting other studios make the movies for them. They can't lose in such a position. They only have something to gain out of that-- whether or not the new movie is a flop. By the time Toho does make another one they'll probably use a very different method of bringing him to life and use an entirely different generation of filmmakers to do it. But again, I imagine that day is very, very far away.

"'Nostalgic' does not equal 'good,' and 'standards' does not equal 'elitism.'" "Being offended is inevitable. Living offended is your choice."

Gimm-e
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Although I love Godzilla 1954, You're not going to get audiences excited for a guy in a rubber suit in 2013.

You don\\\'t see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage!

G. H. (Gman)
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Kinda. They would always have one audience: The fanbase. Unfortunately, that's just not enough today. But I think InstictiveGigan is also hinting at a larger problem than just the dieing art of tokusatsu. The fact is the Godzilla series hasn't seen many great movies since the 1960s. The 1970s were fun, but goofy. The Heisei series was a screenwriting nightmare-- reduced to nothing but quick cash grabs by the end of its run. The Millennium series is similar, but a little more eloquent. Still, that resulted in very stagnant and repetitive story lines. It's not simply that the effects in Godzilla were stuck, but the filmmakers creating these movies were running out of steam as well. There have been some decent ideas in the last thirty years, but not a whole lot of revolution. The Heisei Gamera trilogy did a better job of that, but even that series reverted quickly with [i]Gamera The Brave[/i].

"'Nostalgic' does not equal 'good,' and 'standards' does not equal 'elitism.'" "Being offended is inevitable. Living offended is your choice."

G. H. (Gman)
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I also want to add, this isn't an admittance of hatred for the Godzilla movies made in the last thirty years. I love quite a lot of them actually and still watch them often. But the 1960s had a spark and team talent that the genre hasn't found a lot of in the last three decades.

"'Nostalgic' does not equal 'good,' and 'standards' does not equal 'elitism.'" "Being offended is inevitable. Living offended is your choice."

Huge-Ben
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as much as I also love the classic films they alone can not compare to todays technology and I would love to see TOHO start reviving their Godzilla movies once again but with todays technology and no rubber suits but back then during the late 50's-70's people didn't care what they saw on the big screen my, my how times have changed but I agree pacific rim was absoultly bad ass and this new Godzilla movie will be even better

http://hugeben.deviantart.com/ check out my gallery of Godzilla artwork! Follow me on Twitter@thebigbadben90.

BCrockett94
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I agree. I don't think that Toho is going to risk creating an inferior product of something they created. I think Godzilla will no longer feature suit acting, or they might, but that's until they can get better CGI... It's atrocious, as of 2012. I think they made the movie Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.. God, that CGI sucked. That being said, they'll probably stop making Godzilla movies until they improve on their CGI and animation, or maybe we'll get a few more suit movies, or like someone said, they might even lend Godzilla to a few international studios until they can compete with CGI Godzillas with their own CGI Godzilla.

Why Toho Shouldn't Make Anymore "Old Fashioned" Godzilla Films

InstinctiveGigan

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