Godzilla 1985 (1985)

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1. 

   Siskoid

   In 1984, Toho brought back Godzilla after almost 10 years, or 30 years, seeing as they ignored every film but the first. In this timeline, Gojira was never a hero kaiju fighting off a series of villainous ones. (An American version called Godzilla 1985 even had Raymond Burr reprise his role as a journalist who cuts in and explains the action, at the cost of actual footage, from the 1954 original). The fully Japanese version, also called The Return of Godzilla has a fairly good human story, with characters trying to put an end to the monster's rampage (although one female character seems retrograde even for the 80s), but in terms of effects, there's not ENOUGH of a jump since the previous 1975 effort. Godzilla's face and neck are more mobile thanks to animatronic technology, and the miniatures bigger in scope, but the quality is much the same. If you'd told me this was made in the 70s, I would have believed you. The recent and much ballyhooed Shin Godzilla perhaps owes more to THIS version of the story than it does 1954's. Its procedural qualities, how subtitles are used to introduce a wide cast of characters and organizations, were all taken to the next step in Shin. The best part by far is how the film uses the Cold War and Japan's fear of being caught in the middle to update Godzilla's metaphorical ground, with both super-powers making an appearance and threatening to destroy the monster themselves, Japan be damned. Smartly done. If only the monster action had felt like as much of an update. 5 years 10 months ago

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