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ironymaideni saw the Japanese cut of Godzilla today. i realized that i was oh so very young the last time i saw the actual black and white film, in the American version with the addition of Raymond Burr. i was surprisingly tired, after forgetting to eat dinner last night and staying up late enough to see C arrive home safe from Auburn, and this morning he fed me a tidbit about how the act structure of Raiders of the Lost Ark changed the pacing of films ever after.
Godzilla does feel almost languid. i enjoyed it, and the effects were not as laughable as the people behind me thought they were. i actually had an unfortunate moment of thinking that i liked the way they humanized the waves smashing a village by showing a child's toy house and stick tree being washed away...oops, that wasn't art, it was 10 percent of the effects budget. for what it was, the monster really was pretty good. it was more obvious to me this time that he wasn't so much burning Tokyo as irradiating it, and i was able to appreciate the recurring presence of geiger counters and the dread they represented to denizens of postwar Japan. even more, i appreciated the scientist's fear of perpetuating another environmental disaster. the h-bomb references were heavy-handed, but really considering that it was a fifty year old genre film from a country with a depressed economy and a self-esteem problem, okay.
often i was simply charmed by the effects. Godzilla was attacked by the CUTEST AIRPLANES EVER. AND THEY SHOT SPARKLERS AT HIM! the next time i rampage through a major metropolitan area, i hope they shoot at me with sparklers, with just the same accuracy. (of course, that's about as likely as me kissing someone who is fireproof.)
Godzilla does feel almost languid. i enjoyed it, and the effects were not as laughable as the people behind me thought they were. i actually had an unfortunate moment of thinking that i liked the way they humanized the waves smashing a village by showing a child's toy house and stick tree being washed away...oops, that wasn't art, it was 10 percent of the effects budget. for what it was, the monster really was pretty good. it was more obvious to me this time that he wasn't so much burning Tokyo as irradiating it, and i was able to appreciate the recurring presence of geiger counters and the dread they represented to denizens of postwar Japan. even more, i appreciated the scientist's fear of perpetuating another environmental disaster. the h-bomb references were heavy-handed, but really considering that it was a fifty year old genre film from a country with a depressed economy and a self-esteem problem, okay.
often i was simply charmed by the effects. Godzilla was attacked by the CUTEST AIRPLANES EVER. AND THEY SHOT SPARKLERS AT HIM! the next time i rampage through a major metropolitan area, i hope they shoot at me with sparklers, with just the same accuracy. (of course, that's about as likely as me kissing someone who is fireproof.)
