Picture this: you’re walking alone in Tokyo at night along the ocean shore when suddenly the tides pull back and gather into a giant wave, and out emerges a man in a 6,5 200-pound Godzilla suit!
You walk past him…
The well-known King of Monsters, Godzilla, is getting a sequel to Minus One, which was a massive success, earning critical acclaim and significant box office revenue on a small budget. The new film is titled Minus Zero, and so far, it has only garnered a small amount of hype because it …no hype for it has accumulated on the internet. Why? Because nothing about him is new, instead of looking into the future, let’s dive into the ocean of Godzilla’s past, the first time Godzilla had stomped on screen.
In Japanese culture, this movie was an absolute hit, grossing approximately $4,000,000 in 1954, which, in today’s money, would be equivalent to about $48,000,000. This is particularly impressive considering the audience was only 9.6 million people. After the first movie, the franchise would thrive and gain a world record for the longest continuous-running film series, becoming an iconic symbol of destruction and peace.
Godzilla was originally a metaphor of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
An ancient creature awakened and mutated by the radiation of atomic bombs, which would then strive through cities looking for more radiation to absorb, and the practical effects that went into it were extremely tedious.
First, the way the movies were made used a technique called suitmation, which involved a suit bigger than scale for perspective. They created the suit by using a frame of bamboo, wire, and chicken wire, over which layers of latex were applied to create a scaly texture. The final suit design would weigh 200 pounds along with suitmation to make the illusion of a giant creature they would make very detailed miniature replicas of buildings in Tokyo, so when the actor Harou Nakajima in the 200-pound suit would appear on set, it would make him look giant, and to add on to other effects, they made the playback speed of Godzilla slower, sometimes even three times the normal speed
The end of the suitmation technique for Godzilla came after the 2004 movie Godzilla: Final Wars, when they transitioned to CGI. Some fans appreciated the enhanced detail and realism, while others criticized it for lacking weight and artificial quality. However, some argue that CGI is the best approach since it allows the creatures to come to life on screen.
But because of this change in the franchise, they would begin to be more flexible with how they could make the Godzilla movies better looking after the license agreement had been made with Legendary Pictures by Toho Productions, and with this, they made 2014 Godzilla,2019 Godzilla King of Monsters, 2021 Godzilla Vs Kong, and 2023 Godzilla Minus One, 2024 Godzilla x Kong The New Empire and with most recent with a re-realease in theaters Shin Godzilla, fan favorites from across all 40 movies in the franchise are between Shin godzilla and Godzilla minus one
But with all 40 movies ranging from 1954 to 2024, it’s no surprise that people aren’t as excited when it’s mentioned that the franchise is getting a new film, but for the future, we could see that maybe this new movie will be a blockbuster classic looked upon by the upcoming generation, and will continue to be the giant monster franchise we all know and love
