Wizard School Mysteries Book 3: Wicked Witchcraft has been out for three weeks now (in paperback and kindle formats), so it's time to continue an old tradition of mine. We're going to talk about slasher movies, faustian pacts, Halloween episodes, and lots and lots of spoilers, so dive in with me after the cut if you've read the book, won't you? WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Ok one last minute addition to this: concept art for the gods that appear in his book!
Different pantheons, same domain
Saw Godzilla Minus One again and yeah, just as good if not better than I felt it was the first time.
But it does have me thinking - well, honestly, I've been thinking about this for a while - about how often critics of this series have bandied the argument that only certain Godzilla movies are "true to the spirit of the original," and others are not and thus are trash. It's always used as a way to not just praise the movie in question the critic is talking about, but to still paint most of the Godzilla movies as disposable garbage - which is really to protect the critic's status as an authority by emphasizing they do not challenge the popular assumption that Godzilla movies are by and large garbage, and instead only think certain Godzilla movies - a rare and specific few - managed to rise above their station as garbage to be worth something.
Godzilla (1985) is the only Godzilla movie to hold true to the spirit of the original.
Shin Godzilla is the only Godzilla movie to hold true to the spirit of the original.
Godzilla Minus One is the only Godzilla movie to hold true to the spirit of the original.
And I have... too many thoughts on this to put in a normal tumblr post, I should probably organize them into, like, an essay (god it's been ages since I actually wrote one of those, nowadays I just let myself ramble with only a thin grasp of a point). But this is bullshit, right? This is a bullshit thing that critics and especially fans, so many Godzilla fans do this. It's so fucking cowardly and pretentious, the act of a person without the bravery to truly stand up for art they love, a person who'd rather cover their own ass than be bold enough to fight for what others have ignorantly deemed trash.
Like, my feelings on Shin Godzilla are not negative - they're lukewarm, a "well it's not really for me but I get what they're going for" feeling. But so many people for so many years have held it up high and said, "Finally, a Godzilla movie that's not trash like all the other sequels, one that FINALLY lives up to the SPIRIT of the first, FLAWLESS, PERFECT FILM!" that I can't help feeling resentment for it, a sort of petty envy at how it is constantly held up so the people praising it can shit down on all the others that preceded it. I think I've been more harshly critical of it than I have most Godzilla movies specifically because so many people feel the need to praise it as flawless while shitting on the Godzilla movies that I like more - as if I need to find flaw in Shin Godzilla to prove my love for the others.
Which is cowardly too, in all honesty. We shouldn't need to burn one movie to praise another.
I love Godzilla Minus One. Objectively (or as objective as any critique I make can be) I think it's the best movie since the original, maybe even surpassing it (unlike the 1954 Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One has not jump cuts or other glaring editing mistakes caused by a rushed production time that didn't allow for proper film coverage). And while it may well be impossible to overcome nostalgia and topple the Holy Trinity of Godzilla sequels in my personal rankings, it might manage to fight its way into my top five Godzilla movies. It's an excellent movie, one of the best for sure.
...but people are ALREADY doing the "It's the first Godzilla movie that's true to the spirit of the original!" bullshit already, and specifically using it to tear Shin Godzilla down. I'm at least a little guilty of it - I mean, it was just an honest expression of my preferences, but still, there wasn't a need for me to express my lukewarm feelings on Shin while praising Minus One - and fuck, man, I already regret that.
It's a coward move. Fight for what you love even if people say you're cringe or uncultured for it. Fuck 'em, be the atomic freak you were born to be. You can't find your monster island if you don't.
On a similar note, I’m also sick of people “defending” the Monsterverse films with the argument that “Hey, Godzilla movies have always been stupid turn-your-brain-off trash entertainment, look at the Showa films and how dumb and silly they were!” The Godzilla films of the 60’s and 70’s deserve more respect than that, and so do at least three of the Monsterverse movies.
On tonight's pre-birthday double feature, I'm watching Yellow Submarine and The Blues Brothers, two movies that cemented the idea in my mind that defeating the forces of evil with sick tunes will always be the hypest shit.
I’d kill to have an art book for Yellow Submarine - concept art, character models, anything I could just peer over and study in depth. It’s got such a unique and distinct style to its surreal visuals and nothing quite matches it.
One thing that annoys me is when an Art Of book for a monster movie only has a fraction of its pages devoted to concept art of the actual monster, most of which is just the final design, and then over the course of several years late you occasionally see bits of interesting monster concept art from the film that WASN’T in the book and it’s MADDENING because you just want to see ALL THE MONSTER CONCEPT ART SHOW IT TO ME YOU FUCKS
The art book better have concept art for all of those minor monsters. Especially Muto-With-A-Different-Head.
notapangolin asked:
What are some of your favorite non-fantasy or sci-fi films?
I could list a bunch of horror movies as a loophole here, but I’ll go for the spirit of the question. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite non-genre films:
theload asked:
Maybe. Those are options to consider.
captainwordsmith asked:
Since the plot of both films is really close to Dracula, I’d just be remaking Dracula, so I’d use the character names of Dracula.
ironiconion asked:
I haven’t even heard of ‘em! Still, they’ve got a low bar to step over as far as Space Succubi movies go.
okay, did I just get Berenstain'd, because I remember hearing somewhere that the Showa Anguirus was originally supposed to have wings but they scrapped it before going into production
and I could've sworn I even saw concept/promotional art of his shell splitting open like a beetle's with insect wings folding out (and I'm not talking about the Heisei concept art with a similar concept), but I can't find any evidence for this anywhere and feel like I must've hallucinated it all
You mean this?
I remember it being an illustration but I could be wrong
maybe I need to make a "lost media" video about it where I open with VCR sound effects and narrate it like I'm covering an unsolved murder
Wikizill has couple more maquettes from the early pre production of the movie, but no concept art of it that I could find showing the wings.
