GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, viewed today, seems like it was inevitably the Godzilla movie that was going to get made in 1966. This was, after all, the year in which the author of James and the Giant Peach was commissioned to write a James Bond movie in which spaceships eat other spaceships and a villain’s space-age compound is housed within a hollowed-out volcano. The collision between the stodgy, adult-driven popular culture of the early sixties and the encroaching influence of sixties youth culture and it’s defining mistrust for authority had resulted in camp becoming the dominant aesthetic in seemingly every pop culture producing country in the world, and it was no longer safe for any pop icon born of the old order to be presented without a conspicuous display of tongues being placed firmly in cheek. Also, recent years had for the first time seen the vast majority of Television shows and movies being produced in color, something that producers were demonstrably eager to exploit via the widespread use of pop art-inspired, comic book-like palettes of bright primary colors, a tendency that is well in evidence in some of Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster’s sets. Lastly, the influence of the aforementioned Bond films had reached critical mass by 1966, which makes it unsurprising that Godzilla’s handlers would draw upon their tropes as well. In short, all of these trends listed above come together in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, resulting in it being probably the most overtly comical, modish, and giddily irreverent film in the Godzilla series.
#1 by lyzard on February 2, 2009 - 3:49 pm
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…or as I like to call it, Attack Of The Narcoleptic Monsters. A good long uninterrupted sleep has been one of my personal ambitions for about as long as I can remember now, and the fact that a goodly percentage of this film’s, um, “action” consists of humans trying to wake the monsters up, and that upon being woken, both Godzilla and Mothra are grouchy as hell, makes this film speak to me most profoundly.
#2 by KeithA on February 2, 2009 - 4:52 pm
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I relate to this movie pretty much every Saturday, when all I want to do is sleep in at least later than I would on a work day, but the early riser next to me gets bored and starts prodding and poking me and telling me celebrity gossip until i give up and crankily rise from my slumber. I think I’m going to demand from now on that any attempts to rouse me before eleven on a weekend be delivered in the form of a hundred Japanese people in blackface singing and dancing at the foot of my bed.
#3 by lyzard on February 2, 2009 - 5:14 pm
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Oh, and the OTHER thing about this film that I adore is that it starts out at a dance marathon that lasts, what, less than 3 days? – then moves to Infant Island where the natives have to dance for days and days and days on end to wake up Mothra. Pathetic civilised people!
#4 by Blake on February 2, 2009 - 7:14 pm
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I love this movie. It was my first G film and I watched it multiple times in the first year I had it, before I started getting other G movies to watch.
#5 by Todd on February 2, 2009 - 8:09 pm
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Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is an all dancing, all sleeping extravaganza.
#6 by Blake Matthews on February 3, 2009 - 4:34 am
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I think a lot of attacks aimed at this movie are based on Ebirah and how much people think he is an inappropriate opponent. Nonetheless, like Spiga/Kumonga and Kamakiras/Gimantis, Ebirah looks great and I think he one of the better-realized monsters in the Toho canon.
#7 by The Rev. D.D. on February 3, 2009 - 9:49 am
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Part of it may be the relative paucity of monster stuff. I know this made me think less of it in my younger days. I’ve grown to appreciate the non-monster stuff, and while I wouldn’t consider it among my favorites I do watch it more often than I once did, and am less likely to fast forward to the monster fights (looking at you, Godzilla x Mechagodzilla).
I always thought Ebirah was a great-looking monster, and even though a big-ass shrimp is never going to be a match for the freakin’ King of the Monsters, I thought they gave him a credible battle plan (pulling G underwater, for instance) and at least tried to make it seem like he wouldn’t simply become the world’s biggest hor’s deouvers in 5 seconds flat. Hell, he lasted longer than the American G… (Naturally I’m talking about the original Ebirah, not the newer version that got beat up by alien mutant ninjas with laser guns.)
Although I can understand people’s complaints with some of the Fukuda films (although I admit the dislike for Son of Godzilla will always remain a mystery to me), I have to say I’ve never agreed with them for the most part. (If nothing else, he brought us Gaigan.) My hope is that his films will find more favor now and in the future, when compared to the uneven 90s offerings, and especially to the mostly lifeless 21st century films.
And not just by people like us who howl with delight when a physics-defying robot with a stupid name holds a ginormous bomb-spitting beetle so a radioactive bipedal dinosaur can nail it with a couple of flying drop kicks.
(Although, truly, anyone who CAN’T appreciate that has no soul.)
#8 by Blake Matthews on February 3, 2009 - 10:47 am
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I like Fukuda’s films–they’re very fun films. As a youngster, I thought this movie was a bit slow-paced, but as I learned to appreciate the human stories in kaiju eiga, the movie got to be more entertaining and fast-paced as time went on. I think that Fukuda’s films have gained more of a following over the years, although in part for MST3K value.
Nonetheless, as I’m an apologist for practically ALL Godzilla films, I’ll stick up for the “lifeless” Millenium series and the Heisei series as well. What I won’t stick up for is Toho itself, who show a disturbing contempt for Godzilla fandom, not to mention a creative deficit that ranks up there with the worst of Hollywood. They had the right idea with the story contest that led to “Godzilla vs Biollante” and its a shame that the movie didn’t do well enough for them to continue doing similar things.
#9 by Blake on February 3, 2009 - 6:02 pm
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Nerd note: Sadamasa Arikawa worked on the FX for the beloved “Mighty Peking Man.”
#10 by The Rev. D.D. on February 3, 2009 - 10:06 pm
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I’ll agree with you, Blake, on Toho’s view of the fans. But even as one of the biggest kaiju eiga enthusiasts around, I find it hard to defend most of what happened in the Millennium series. Perhaps “mostly lifeless” was a bit of an overstatement (well, except for GxMG); nonetheless, most of those films had a lot more wrong with them than they had right, and while I’ll gladly defend the Heisei series (which were mostly good, or at least entertaining) and the older films, I find it harder to muster up defenses for the Millennium movies.
Believe me, I’m not happy that I feel that way; I want to love every giant monster movie and show I see and feel proud to inflict it on others.
#11 by Blake Matthews on February 4, 2009 - 4:30 am
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As far as the Millenium series is concerned, I think the quality of the monster scenes, both the battles and the city destruction, are just top drawer. Excellent stuff. To me, where the Millenium series faltered was in their “dependence” on Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla in several of the films, not mention the anti-G organization storylines, which had run their course by Godzilla vs. Destroyer. Godzilla vs Megaguirus was able to make the storyline work because of “novelty” of villain monsters.
#12 by El Santo on February 4, 2009 - 8:41 am
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“Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster is an all dancing, all sleeping extravaganza.”
And with this single sentence, Todd gets closer than I did in four pages to pinning down why I loathe this movie nearly as much as Godzilla’s Revenge.
#13 by Blake Matthews on February 4, 2009 - 9:02 am
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*reads El Santo’s review of “Godzilla’s Revenge”*
What’s so bad about G-Fan?
#14 by The Rev. D.D. on February 4, 2009 - 9:54 am
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Again, pretty much on board with you Blake. The monster stuff tends to be fantastic; everything around it tends to be crap, and unless it’s mostly monster stuff (GxMxMG was like that, which made me think more highly of it than most of the other Millennium films) it’s going to wear on you. GxMG and Final Wars in particular had this problem (although Final Wars at least had Jesse Ventura 2.0 to liven things up a bit.)
Anyway, I feel compelled to pull GvsTSM out to see how I feel about it now (it’s been a couple of years now…fresh eyes would help.)
#15 by MatthewF on February 4, 2009 - 10:11 am
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My new theory: Doctor Who is Godzilla. To whit: It started off black and white and serious, went colour and funky in the 70s (by bbc standards, i.e. not very), got seriously cheap and silly and ultimately died of shame in the 80s. It then had a failed big budget american relaunch. Then was taken back by it’s original owners and remade with lots of money and energy and marketing.
It also has the same debate; he’s too silly, he’s too serious, he’s too young, etc etc etc, and as you say it generally comes down to who was the one you bonded with when you were 12.
#16 by Blake Matthews on February 4, 2009 - 10:24 am
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Well, what do you know, there’s a small review of the movie that I wrote up several years ago at my old site. http://www.geocities.com/drngor/gvsm.html
#17 by KeithA on February 4, 2009 - 10:27 am
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I look forward to the day Godzilla finally dons John Pertwee’s “action dandy” outfit.
#18 by Todd on February 4, 2009 - 11:07 am
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Hey, if the next wave of Godzilla films were all to feature Freema Agyeman, I’m all good.
Very enjoyable review, Blake. There’s just something about Godzilla movies that requires any review of them to incorporate an element of personal memoir.
*Having read El Santo’s review*
Wow, El Santo, harsh! (But eloquently stated, as always.) I will respectfully agree to disagree. But I’ll mention that, now that the original Japanese cut is available to us, we can see that the “reveal” of Ebirah actually didn’t take place until about a third of the way into the movie. (I know, not that it makes an incredible amount of difference.) Also, Fukuda later said that he remained unhappy with the film due to the cuts he was forced to make by Toho because of budgetary constraints, so he was far from the happy slasher when it came to the evident scaling back that was done.
#19 by Blake Matthews on February 4, 2009 - 12:37 pm
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Oh, El Santo, if you still feel you’re the lone voice in the wilderness with Godzilla vs Space Godzilla, check this out: http://www.geocities.com/drngor/gvsg.html
#20 by KeithA on February 4, 2009 - 4:11 pm
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I haven’t watched it since the 90s, but I remember my reaction to Space Godzilla being, “Hmm, that was a movie that exists.”
#21 by supersonic on February 4, 2009 - 4:23 pm
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Anybody else feel that the original G2K was an exception among the “lifeless” millenium series?
#22 by Blake on February 4, 2009 - 5:27 pm
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I enjoyed GxM more than G2K…G2k is one of those movies that I thought gained a bit more in its English incarnation.
#23 by The Rev. D.D. on February 5, 2009 - 10:20 am
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G2K had a strong beginning and a pretty good ending, although I find the middle a bit of a slog. It and GMK are the exceptions; the others left me disappointed (GxMxMG), rolling my eyes (GxMega), both (Final Wars) or bored and a bit angry (GxMG). This is all based on the non-monster stuff, because if nothing else the Millennium series had some excellent kaiju throwdowns.
In self-serving news, today is my birthday, and I’m glad there’s a Godzilla thread here at this time so I can actively contribute and then slip that note in, rather than bursting into some random thread and looking like an attention-starved child.
Later all.
#24 by Blake Matthews on February 5, 2009 - 10:22 am
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Happy B-day!!! (mine is next Tuesday)
#25 by The Fishin' Mortician on February 5, 2009 - 1:15 pm
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Between the Mogera, Mechagodzilla, and Space Godzilla, the Millenium series, even though they had some spectacular amounts of collateral damage, the monster battles themselves consisted of way too much long range exchanges of missles and atomic halitosis. Which is why I always prefered the close combat of the earlier series when the monsters actually beat the living hell out of each other.
#26 by Blake Matthews on February 5, 2009 - 5:40 pm
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I’m willing to forgive the beam wars as the Heisei series in general gave more screen time to Godzilla than in several of the 70s Showa films, where he simply showed up on cue to fight the bad monsters.