King Kong vs. Godzilla

So yesterday I downloaded and watching King Kong vs. Godzilla, in Japanese, with English subtitles. I haven't seen this particular one in years.

It was one of the ones we watched alot when I still lived at home, and I want to say my cousin Stephanie frequently watched it with us as well. We never one of those families with a whole series of VHS tapes of recording shows. So we just had the one Godzilla VHS that we had gotten from Fred's (the one time we went to Fred's) for 5 dollars.

I think at the time that we watched it then, we were a little disappointed that King Kong didn't look the "same" as we were used to from the original black and white film. I think we were also a little confused (and bored) by the jumps from the Japanese to the American additions, but didn't care. Monsters fighting would be happening any moment. Aaaany moment. Also we were always able to notice the shadow of the spears thrown during the giant octopus scene.

Anyway, I remembered most of the Japanese characters watching it this time around, and their awkwardness made more sense with the original dialogue. However, more things stood out this time. For whatever reason, the suit for the King Kong face closeups is different than the full body suit. Like, completely different. And seriously, this has to be the saddest looking Godzilla ever. He barely makes an appearance as far as I'm concerned. And while the wikipedia article on this movie states that it was one of the more popular suits (yay wikipedia), I'd say it's the most crumpled and squishy-headed looking one of the series.

I kind of get the impression that the people making this one didn't feel like putting a lot of effort into the minatures sets for whatever reason. I will say that the Godzilla rampaging through the city scenes were fairly decent, and that the actor in the King Kong suit does a good job of acting like an overgrown ape. Probably the more redeeming quality of this movie is actually the goofiness of the characters from the Pacific Pharmaceuticals company. Most of their actions are actually funny, and I'd swear I've seen charachatures of them in anime.

However, I think the worst part of the movie is actually the fight. Because it seems that King Kong's ultimate weakness is (DUM DUM DUM DUUUUUUM) ROCKS! I actually fell asleep around this time because I was a) tired, and b) bored of Godzilla kicking rocks onto King Kong. It was just ridiculous.

Anyway, I'm looking into acquiring for the near future the main movies that came before this in the series, which are Godzilla Raids Again, Rodan, Mothra, and Frankenstein Conquers the World. In the meantime, I can finally finish The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.