I’ve either made or thought up of ideas for edits for some of the Heisei films. Even though it’s my favorite Godzilla series (I especially love Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, King Ghidorah, Destoroyah, and Biollante, my top four all time favorite Godzilla films), they’re the one’s I watch the most so I knew going in what to fix.
First, Godzilla vs. Mothra. I actually like this movie quite a bit, it’s in my top 15, but it’s not without it’s flaws. Most of the cuts were cutting the lines where that one dude (the one often seen with Akira Takarada’s character in the gray suit and grey hair) where he kept on making goofy faces with horrible line delivery, the unnecessary environmentalism stuff, some of the wonky effects shots, and adding a roar sound effect for all of the shots where Godzilla’s mouth is open but there’s no roar (which is such a pet peeve of mine; literally every Godzilla film has at least one occasion, I’ve checked, where this happens but this is the one that suffers the most and it’s the most noticeable here; there’s so many shots here that just grind my gears because he’s clearly meant to be roaring but there’s no roar sound effect. There could be a shot where it’s just him in the center of the frame and there’s no roar sound. Sound designers? Hello?! Though I guess it’s still better then literally giving Godzilla SpaceGodzilla’s roar in some shots two films later).
I’ve been wanting to make a Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II extended cut, as Takao Okawara initially wanted too, adding in all (or just most) of the scenes cut from the film, especially Miki’s interaction with Baby (which I literally have no idea why they cut because it’s great). I have two problems though that keep me from doing it, which are that I can’t understand Japanese and no subtitles seem to exist anywhere so it would be impossible for anyone who doesn’t speak Japanese to understand the added in human scenes because there’s no subtitles, and second, I can’t find the scenes in a good quality. If someone would be willing to help me fix any of these two problems, I will be eternally grateful. Other then that I wouldn’t make any changes to the film because I absolutely love this film so much (my favorite of all time) and the editing is excellent.
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is easily the one I’ve edited the most because it’s the most flawed. I cut everything about G-Force and the UNGCC in the first act besides the opening scene so I could remove the awful space battle with no eyebrows raised, the subplot about Miki having a connection with the fairies, all of the times Kiyo acts like a wimp and complains about having to do the simplest of jobs (like climbing) on Birth Island despite working for an organization that fights kaiju, the butt shot, the scene where Koji and Kiyo suddenly go from Project T to killing Godzilla and being so dim witted they think they can kill Godzilla with guns, Miki deciding to stay on the island, the whole Mafia subplot, the whole Miki and Koji love subplot (including the time where she helps Koji get Yuki get his foot un-stuck using telekinesis), and some parts of the final battle that made it drag out. I ended up cutting it do only an hour and 15 minutes and it’s perfectly coherent. I would add back in the deleted scene of Godzilla trying to free his son but the scene hasn’t been released at all, which is a shame.
I haven’t touched Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah because literally my only problem (the fact that, while Wikizilla’s video perfectly clears up the time travel stuff, the movie itself doesn’t clearly explain it enough) can’t be fixed, I haven’t touched Godzilla vs. Biollante either, and for Godzilla vs. Destoroyah I think I went in and trimmed like one or two wonky effects shots and that’s it.
I may make my own thread if you guys want me to elaborate more on the one’s I changed (just one thread for all of the films though, don’t want to unnecessarily clutter the forum). I could end up making some for the Showa and Millennium films as well if I feel like it (some ideas that come to mind are trimming Monster Zero a little so the pacing is better because the pacing is horrendous, cutting the Minilla subplot from Final Wars, and adding the Steve Martin scenes to the original Gojira).