Lord Liaden Posted February 18, 2021 Report Share Posted February 18, 2021 32 minutes ago, slikmar said: I am sorry, there was a 1998 Godzilla film? I thought that only existed in the same universe someone thought Highlander 2 was a good idea, ie a dark universe. It did spawn a pretty kick-ass animated series, though. 4 minutes ago, Dr. MID-Nite said: That's an understatement. LOL I'm not even getting into the utterly indescribable creatures like Hedorah and Biollante. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 19, 2021 Report Share Posted February 19, 2021 Except for Mothra and Hedorah, I still consider Japanese kaiju primarily lizard-based. Even when fused with other things, be they plants or mechanized parts, they are still mostly reptilian or saurian in appearance. King Caesar has fur, but they just couldn't resist the temptation to give him reptilian/saurian skin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted February 19, 2021 Report Share Posted February 19, 2021 9 hours ago, Dr. MID-Nite said: I'll also note that Godzilla is more popular than all of Harryhausen's monsters put together. (I love Harryhausen's films as well). I agree, I was just playing around. I've yet to actually find that movie on streaming and it only ran once on the Creature Feature when I was a kid that I caught it, near the middle-ish. I'd love to give it a watch sometime. Just waiting for it to pop up on something I already subscribe to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 19, 2021 Report Share Posted February 19, 2021 Which movie are you referring to, PG? Several kaiju and Harryhausen films are on reputable online hosts these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. MID-Nite Posted February 19, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2021 15 hours ago, zslane said: Except for Mothra and Hedorah, I still consider Japanese kaiju primarily lizard-based. Even when fused with other things, be they plants or mechanized parts, they are still mostly reptilian or saurian in appearance. King Caesar has fur, but they just couldn't resist the temptation to give him reptilian/saurian skin. This may be true of Toho, but beyond that...the sky's the limit. Tokusatsu TV has given us every type of kaiju imaginable. Lord Liaden 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted February 20, 2021 Report Share Posted February 20, 2021 On 2/18/2021 at 8:23 PM, Lord Liaden said: Which movie are you referring to, PG? Several kaiju and Harryhausen films are on reputable online hosts these days. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, that I linked above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 20, 2021 Report Share Posted February 20, 2021 On 2/18/2021 at 11:23 PM, Lord Liaden said: Which movie are you referring to, PG? Several kaiju and Harryhausen films are on reputable online hosts these days. 4 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, that I linked above. If you don't mind Spanish subtitles, you're covered. https://archive.org/details/the-beast-from-20-000-fathoms-1953 Pattern Ghost 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 20, 2021 Report Share Posted February 20, 2021 On 2/18/2021 at 9:37 AM, Spence said: Nor does inflating King King to many times his height and pasting him into a movie with a Kaiju suddenly transform a standard animal monster into a Kaiju. While I think that, in at least a very literal sense, inflating King Kong to many times his height does indeed transform him into a kaiju, I'm beginning to sorta see things Spence's way. I've been thinking about the latest trailers wherein we see Kong punch Godzilla in the face and swing his 'zillaxe and so on, and the image of a 300+ foot-tall ape is looking, well, wrong to me. It is one thing to have saurian/alien monsters of that size--as they are all creatures of complete imagination--but apes are actual creatures that we are accustomed to only seeing as roughly man-sized. Even scaling King Kong up to a mere 50' or 60' (as in the original film) is a disbelief-suspending stretch, but the more I think on it, 350' looks completely incongruous. I guess I prefer my kaiju to not look exactly like a real-world animal in every way except for size, which as I think on it, also applies to Mothra. But even there I think if you design Mothra to not look exactly like a moth, but like a mutated alien moth-like creature, then it works better, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grailknight Posted February 20, 2021 Report Share Posted February 20, 2021 So you want Battra Or transfomer Mothra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 6 hours ago, zslane said: While I think that, in at least a very literal sense, inflating King Kong to many times his height does indeed transform him into a kaiju, I'm beginning to sorta see things Spence's way. I've been thinking about the latest trailers wherein we see Kong punch Godzilla in the face and swing his 'zillaxe and so on, and the image of a 300+ foot-tall ape is looking, well, wrong to me. It is one thing to have saurian/alien monsters of that size--as they are all creatures of complete imagination--but apes are actual creatures that we are accustomed to only seeing as roughly man-sized. Even scaling King Kong up to a mere 50' or 60' (as in the original film) is a disbelief-suspending stretch, but the more I think on it, 350' looks completely incongruous. I guess I prefer my kaiju to not look exactly like a real-world animal in every way except for size, which as I think on it, also applies to Mothra. But even there I think if you design Mothra to not look exactly like a moth, but like a mutated alien moth-like creature, then it works better, IMO. It's an understandable perspective, but note that Legendary Kong doesn't look exactly like a real-world animal in other ways than just size. Unlike every real ape on Earth, Kong's locomotion is fully bipedal, although his legs are proportionately shorter and arms longer than human. His feet have much shorter toes than real apes do, and don't appear to be prehensile. Kong's torso and abdomen are built more like a muscular man's than an ape's. You could say he's like a giant sasquatch, but I will offer no opinion as to whether the sasquatch is real. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 I guess that wasn't obvious to me, nor do I suspect it is obvious to most folks who aren't either well-versed in primate anatomical structure or looking specifically for such differences. To my mind Kong just looks like a really big ape, and not a kaiju in the traditional Japanese sense. slikmar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 Fair enough. Perhaps having viewed the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy, I was more sensitized to the differences than some. But Kong standing, walking, and running fully upright rather than on all fours struck me immediately, and led me to pay attention to other details. It's a distinct contrast to Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong, in which Kong is very clearly a giant gorilla. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 1 hour ago, zslane said: To my mind Kong just looks like a really big ape, and not a kaiju in the traditional Japanese sense. Would it help if he looked more like this guy? 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 21, 2021 Report Share Posted February 21, 2021 Yeah, the mugato is a lot more like what I would expect a Japanese ape-like kaiju to look like. But they would also have added more reptilian skin features as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattern Ghost Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I couldn't find any apes with scales pics. 🤷♂️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 1 hour ago, Pattern Ghost said: I couldn't find any apes with scales pics. 🤷♂️ zslane, Pattern Ghost and Lord Liaden 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I found a few. This is probably the best. zslane and Pattern Ghost 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 That one still has a very ape-like silhouette; I think breaking that up with some head and spine spikes would help a lot. 😀 Pattern Ghost 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 2 minutes ago, zslane said: That one still has a very ape-like silhouette; I think breaking that up with some head and spine spikes would help a lot. 😀 Okay, how about one of these? Pattern Ghost 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Now we know what Godzilla-Kong offspring would look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt the Bruins Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 So all the fighting we've been seeing in the trailers is just the lead-up to a passionate Sam & Diane type of romance? 😆 Starlord 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted March 14, 2021 Report Share Posted March 14, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zslane Posted March 14, 2021 Report Share Posted March 14, 2021 I honestly can't believe that Godzilla never wielded katana during the Showa era. I mean, the movies got so goofy that he looked and acted less like a giant, menacing saurian and more like Jacky Chan doing Godzilla cosplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted March 14, 2021 Report Share Posted March 14, 2021 Yes, but at that point the movies were aimed more at children, and swords might have been considered too scary. Or maybe they just couldn't come up with an excuse for swords that big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted March 14, 2021 Report Share Posted March 14, 2021 The more I see, the more my expectations drop. As much as I enjoyed the recent look and feel of Godzilla, this show looks like they have abandoned what they had and are going straight for kiddie absurd. I know the all kaiju and monster movies are absurd, but the good ones promote a premise with a level seriousness. Now we have a suddenly tiny Godzilla (compared to the carrier) and Big Ape with Axe that apparently absorbs atomic breath. Really disappointing..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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