Gojira Year: 1954 Director: Ishirou Honda Written by: Ishirou Honda, Takeo Murata Threat: Radioactive Dinosaur (Godzilla) Weapon of Choice: The Oxygen Destroyer Based upon: original IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Wow, tons

Rish's Reviews
A friend of mine invited me to see Gojira with him the other night, and though I wasn't thrilled with the idea, I gave it a shot. And I'm glad I went. For its fiftieth anniversary, a few prints of an extended, subtitled, fully-Japanese version have been making the rounds, and it was quite interesting.
When several Japanese ships are destroyed at sea, our heroes discover that a gigantic radioactive reptile is to blame, having been created/mutated/annoyed by recent nuclear attacks. When the creature rampages through Tokyo, our heroes have to destroy it before it's too late.
The parallel between the H-bomb and Godzilla was very clear and I couldn't help but feel a lot of the movie was a reaction to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm not a student of Japanese culture like tyranist is, and I found a couple of moments puzzling. But the premise, threat, and basic sentiment of the film was universal.
There was practically none of the light-heartedness and silly fun of the later Godzilla movies. He was clearly the villain, and though you feel a bit sorry for him at the end, it's clearly him or us in this scenario.
While primitive, some of the Godzilla special effects were quite impressive, and a few looked good even today. Still, there were a lot of chortles from the audience, even for scenes that looked fine.
The film was long. Both of us were tired, and I have to admit to nodding off for a few seconds. I leaned over to tell my friend to make sure I didn't fall asleep again only to find that his eyes were closed and he was gradually curling into fetal position. Whoops.
Released in America in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, that version had new scenes starring Raymond Burr and a lot of the story pared down.
I'd Recommend It To: This is commonly regarded as the best of the Godzilla movies, so if you're at all a fan, you owe it to yourself to see this version.
Posted: August 24, 2004

Total Skulls: 7

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?