(1954)
Overall: GOOD
Toho's initial kaiju template setter Godzilla, (Gojira), begat the longest running cinema franchise of all time and is a quirky combination of sincere, post-war contemplation and goofy special effects. Green-lit after a failed Japanese/Indonesian production fell through, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, special effects man Eiji Tsuburaya, science fiction writer Shigeru Kayama, screenwriter Takeo Murata, and director Ishirō Honda all contributed narrative ideas into the final project which on Honda's insistence, was treated seriously as a cautionary metaphor for nuclear bomb fallout. The towering, prehistoric title monster is an iconic creation by Teizō Toshimitsu and Akira Watanabe and represents the emotionless, unrelenting release of mankind's catastrophic tampering with mother nature. While Godzilla and his several hundred-deep film series would quickly evolve into less potent and more silly popcorn fodder for suitmation enthusiasts, his presence here is strictly melancholic as Honda maintains a tone that is oddly clashing from how ridiculous and poorly dated the technical aspects come off. The pacing is also regularly unforgiving, though as opposed to virtually all later installments, (as well as pretty much every giant monster movie in general), the actual human characters here are given conflicting depth that benefit the film's themes, as opposed to just being time-wasting pieces of flesh to deliver boring dialog in between the fun destruction moments.
(1955)
Overall: MEH
Japan's version of an abominable snowman movie was the lackluster Half Human, (Jūjin Yuki Otoko), a slow, plodding example of too little action and too much padding. While American and British films from the era that were based on the same Mount Everest footprints photographed by Eric Shipton in 1951 do not fare much better, Ishirō Honda's crack at the yeti legend features three different gangs of uninteresting characters in the Japanese Alps; an anthropological expedition, animal trappers, and a local commune who worship the snow beast and his comparatively more adorable son. The ninety-five minute running time feels twice as long as we endlessly bounce between everybody standing in huts, cabins, or tents discussing and/or arguing about what is going on, all while the audience is just waiting for more goofy shots of a guy in a guerilla suite to roar and smash things. When the monster finally obliges, it serves the bare minimum of breaking up the monotony, but the film is neither atmospheric or suspenseful as there is no real mystery, plus too many thinly developed characters are on screen to even keep track of. Cliches abound with superstitious tribal people, brutish, manically cackling animal hunters, and the calm and collected expedition team. An even less appreciated American version was also released with bad dubbing of course as well as John Carradine in the lead because that guy always needed a paycheck.
(1958)
Overall: MEH
A rushed, lackluster kaiju film wrought with production issues, Varan the Unbelievable, (Daikaijū Baran, Giant Monster Varan), is a paint-by-numbers, Godzilla-with-horns movie in all but name. Toho was initially commissioned by the American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters company to produce a three-part, ninety-minute monster movie for television and after being granted an insufficient budget with shooting having already begun, AB-PT went belly up financially which left Toho with no other choice but to rework the project into a standard feature. As one could imagine, the results are episodic and dull since director Ishirō Honda and crew scrambled with stock footage and recycled shots from the first two Godzilla films serving as the glue to keep a story together that offers up absolutely nothing unique to the already redundant formula. The first thirty-odd minutes feature three different groups of scientists visiting an isolated village, each of which take turns being surprised at the giant title creature living there. The rest of the running time is one failed military attempt at blowing Varan up with bombs after the other, first in water, then on land, and then back in water again. Throw in some ill-fitting and jaunty, "In the Army Now" music and bathroom break moments like everybody discussing their predicament and proclaiming that this new explosive that they have yet to try will definitely do the trick and, (as George Harrison on The Simpsons would say), "Eh, it's been done".
No comments:
Post a Comment