The Godzilla Anime Trilogy

The Big G has had a ton of exposure when it comes to entertainment media and is no stranger to the world of animation, although it hasn't always played out in his favor. I'll be honest, I don't think the Hanna Barbara Godzilla cartoon is that great and as for the animated series based on the 1998 film? Look, I know that show has it's fair share of fans and if your one of them then that's great, but I'm just not one of them.
However, those were American productions. There had never been any from Japan, the birthplace of one of the most well known forms of media: Anime. 
For the last few years, I've been wondering weather or not Godzilla would ever be featured in a full length Anime film or even a series. And now we have a whole trilogy of films. Each given a theatrical release in Japan and were eventually released via Netflix. 

GODZILLA: PLANET OF THE MONSTERS
Japan: November 17,2017
Netflix: January 17, 2018

Looking at this first teaser poster you'd probably never even guess that this was a Godzilla movie. There really couldn't have been a shot of his head? tail? foot? A silhouette in the background? Just something to tell me that this isn't just a generic mech, war movie, without even a hint of Godzilla? There would eventually be a better poster released. But your not here to hear me rant about posters, you wanna know what I thought about Planet of the Monsters right?
Or is it Monster Planet? Or Godzilla: Part 1: Episode 1? I dunno, it wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if it didn't have at least 5 different titles, right?

I have to say, Planet of the Monsters falls into the category of Godzilla movies that I don't enjoy more than others but would still want to watch on occasion. So it's in the same camp as films like Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla and Destroy All Monsters.

Probably the films biggest shortcomings are the characters. Most of them are pretty stock and generic. You'd think even Yuko, the female character would have something interesting to do/say, given the series' history of strong female characters. But no, she's just kinda there...
The main character, Haruo, is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand you can understand his motivations and he does come off as a smart character. On the other he acts recklessly and shows an Ahab complex with Godzilla.
The only other characters I was interested in were the 2 leaders of these alien races. One of which, initially offers to help earth get rid of Godzilla with the help of their Mechagodzilla, or at least that confusing pile of scrap they call "Mechagodzilla". There's this one character named Metphies who keeps talking about their races god, who I had a sneaking suspicion has 3 heads. 
Also, am I the only one who thinks that Metphies likes Haruo a little bit more than a friend?

I suppose I should talk about Godzilla himself now.
First of all, I want to issue an apology to the 2001 Godzilla, for years I've been referring to him as "Grampzilla", given his posture and appearance. But looking at the 2017 design, this Godzilla deserves that name more. 
At first, I wouldn't have called the design one of my favorites. But I will say that Godzilla looks a lot better in the actual film than he does in any promotional material (and especially the toys).
If there's one thing I absolutely LOVE about Godzilla in this movie though, it's his behavior. He puts little to no effort into annihilating whatever threats come his way, and I mean that in a good way. You get a real sense that this is more than a  monster, but rather an all powerful God! His Atomic Breath is more like an instant kill laser that flashes by in an instant, it reminded me of that moment from 'The Return of Godzilla' where Godzilla merely fires a small portion of his breath to destroy a nearby helicopter.  And as if his tail wasn't already a weapon of mass destruction in it's own right, it can now emit a powerful shock wave.
The action scenes were pretty fun to watch and the plan used to fight Godzilla was pretty creative. And that's the main reason why I can't hate this movie, even the lesser Godzilla films have fun action that make them worth it. That and Godzilla, then again why wouldn't you watch a Godzilla movie for Godzilla?
Take it for what it is and remember it's only the first part of a bigger story.

GODZILLA: CITY ON THE EDGE OF BATTLE
Japan: May 18, 2018
Netflix: July 18, 2018

I will admit, I had no real expectations for the next part of this series. But still, I would give it a chance. I sat down and watched it with my buddy, Kaiju Kidd. And after it was over, we both agreed that this installment was a pretty big improvement over 'Planet of the Monsters'.

But I think most people cant seem to look past the fact that despite being featured on the poster, Mechagodzilla is not featured in the movie and doesn't have a big slugfest with Godzilla.
Is it Toho's fault for displaying Mechagodzilla prominently on the poster in the back? Or is it our fault for missing the point of the title?

If I'm being completely honest, I never really liked that design of Mechagodzilla. So in a weird way, I'm glad I didn't get to see it in action. What we got instead was a Mechagodzilla made from a nanometal substance that reformatted itself and became an entire city. I personally found that concept to be intriguing. The way the Bilusaludo talk about the ways to use the nanometal to enhance the newly dubbed "Mechagodzilla City" and also create weapons to fight Godzilla reminded me of scenes from 'Shin Godzilla' with Yaguchi and his team. Those scenes are fast paced and exciting.

Surprisingly, Haruo is a better character. Following his crushing defeat at the hands of Godzilla in the last part, he got a slap in the face by the reality that is Godzilla and is actually more of a sensible character. 
A lot of the new technology is cool, including the Vulture mech, which is an especially badass weapon. And hey, it gives Yuko more to do. 

Once again the final action scene is the highlight of the movie. And it gets pretty off the wall bonkers! Especially when you find out the full extent of what the Bilusaludo can do with thier nanometal.
Overall, this is a pretty fun entry in the series and a nice change in quality.

GODZILLA: THE PLANET EATER
Japan: November 9, 2018
Netflix: January 9, 2019

Oh...boy...
I thought only the climaxes of these anime movies were supposed to be crazy? This entire third part is bat-sh*t insane.

Following an even bigger soul crushing defeat by Godzilla, Metphies calls upon the god of his people to rid the earth of Godzilla. And he doesn't intend to stop at Godzilla.

This god as many of us predicted, ends up being Ghidorah. Y'all know Ghidorah right? The three headed golden dragon that spits lighting? Well, this isn't the monster we're familiar with.
This Ghidorah is portrayed as more of a Lovecraftian horror, each of the creatures heads come from protals in the sky with the length of thier necks seeming virtually infinite. And his very presence causes space, time and reality to distort beyond rational belief. 

This time, Metphies gets to show his true intentions, in a genuinely terrifying and creepy manner. He convinces most of the surviving humans to submit to Ghidorah and he pretty much makes them drink the Kool Aid.
And the rest of the movie deals with some heavy, existential stuff. So much so that I started to wonder if maybe Hideaki Anno directed the wrong Godzilla movie, if you get what I'm sayin'. 

Admittedly, Godzilla and Ghidorah don't exactly have a huge fight and one particular monster is only shown for a few seconds. This would be a major disappointment for most G-Fans. Enough to say that this movie sucks
...
So, why am I not disappointed? 
Is it possible for a Godzilla movie with little to no Godzilla action in it to be a good movie on it's own?

Planet Eater took the same tension and action I enjoyed from the previous films and turned the dial to 11. As creepy, uncomfortable and depressing as the movie was overall, I still enjoyed watching it. It gave me stuff I'd never seen or even knew I wanted to see in a Godzilla movie.
Even Haruo's final decision to bring peace to the Earth once and for all, even though it makes for such a downer ending, it does make sense. 

The Godzilla series is almost 65 years old and has had many different versions and interpretations. Godzilla can be the enemy of mankind, the savoir of humanity, protector of the environment. A symbol of man's folly, weapons of mass destruction, and the wrath of nature. A series needs to evolve and present new ideas to stay relevant and interesting while keeping the elements that worked before.
Did this series do that? In some ways no, but in a lot of ways it did. 
I myself liked 'Planet of the Monsters' fine enough. And the next 2 installments got better as they went on. So I enjoyed this series overall, enough to want to buy the movies on Blu-ray if Netflix decides to do that. (But not before Daredevil Season 3!)

If anything, this series as a whole proved that Godzilla can work as an Anime. And if Toho decides to make another series like this, I am more open to the possibility then I was before. 

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

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MEZCO TOYZ KING KONG OF SKULL ISLAND | Figure Review

Being primarily a Godzilla/Kaiju toy collector, I like to check out a wonderful thing called Toy Fair for the chance that maybe something related to my interests will come out that I simply have to have.
And one of these things revealed at last year's Toy Fair happened to be a King Kong figure!
This got me very excited because unlike Godzilla, Kong doesn't get many figures produced unless he has a new movie coming out. And this was announced a year after "Kong: Skull Island" was released.

This Kong figure is mostly based on the original 1933 Kong, but adding battle scars on the body like the 2005 and 2017 incarnations.

Mezco Toyz has made a fantastic looking Kong. The body has a great sculpt and is perfectly proportioned. Kong's fur is very nicely sculpted and the dark brown paint mixed with touches of light brown and grey looks great.

And as I mentioned before, there are scars on the body which look great and adds some character to Kong.
The expression on Kong's head looks very grizzled and stoic, which fits perfectly.

It may be because it's winter and delivery trucks can be pretty extra cold during that time (speaking from experience here), but when I first got this figure and opened him out of the box, trying to move his joints proved to be difficult especially the legs. I actually let my Kong sit for a bit before trying to move it around some more. If yours happens to be hard to move around, I suggest doing that. That or use a hair dryer to heat the joints and make it easier.

But that aside, the articulation on Kong is great!

Kong's head can look really high up, look left and right and can tilt side to side. Trying to force movement on the head will cause it to pop off, which is actually a necessity.

The body can twist all the way around at the torso, tilt left to right and can bend forward and backward.

Kong's arms are incredibly expressive. The arms can move outward, rotate and twist at the shoulder. And the elbows and hands can bend and rotate.

As for the legs, mine are still a little stiff. From what I've been able to accomplish, the legs can move forward, a tiny bit backward and twist at the hip. The knees can bend and there is rotation there as well. And the feet can rotate and bend.

Kong comes with a fair number of accessories.

The alternate roaring head looks amazing! The teeth are nicely sculpted and painted.

Kong comes with a pair of closed hands, and a hand meant to hold the included Ann Darrow. The scaled Ann looks okay, there's only so much you could do with something that small.

And lastly, a pair of shackles are included with actual metal chains attached to them. These shackles can be opened and attached to Kong's wrists.

There is also another version of this figure, the Black and White PX Previews Exclusive that comes with some different accessories.

Scale wise, this Kong doesn't exactly fit with your standard 6 inch Godzilla figures. He makes them look puny in comparison. The only Godzilla figures I could match up to Kong and have it kinda make sense were the SH MonsterArts Kou Kyou Kyoku Godzilla 1989 and NECA's 24 inch Godzilla 2014 figures.

It's been a while since the SH MonsterArts King Kong figure was released and that figure has since become hard to find and commands some pretty high prices online.
While that is a shame, I say that this figure is a better alternative to those looking for a great Kong figure to add to their shelves. This figure is truly amazing and I cannont recommend it enough!

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
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Mowgli | Gryphon's First Impressions

I must admit, it took me a while to figure out what to do with my blog when I first created it. It was out of sheer impulse that I decided to make a post about, of all things, my thoughts on the casts of upcoming Jungle Book movies.
But sure enough, I was able to find my footing and get it on the track it's on today. But now that the second movie I talked about has come out, I figure I should bring things full circle and give my thoughts on it.

To start I need to say that this is not the Disney version of the story you grew up with. This is more comparable to the original Rudyard Kipling novel. The novel had a much darker tone and much of the characters behaved pretty differently.

I myself have never read the book, but based on my limited knowledge of it, this movie feels pretty authentic in replicating scenes from it. Well, the stuff with Mowgli stories anyway.
And to be honest, I really enjoyed the darker take on the story. 
Most of the cast did an excellent job with their rolls. Andy Serkis plays Baloo as more of a gruff and tough drill sergeant, but still with a heart of gold. Benedict Cumberbatch was casted perfectly as Shere Khan. And I really liked Christan Bale as Bagheera, he gives probably the most emotional preformance in the film. And the rest of the animal actors serve their parts well.
The CGI for the 2016 Jungle Book was and still is amazing to look at. The CGI for this movie is also pretty good, though I think I prefer the wolves in the 2016 version more. The wolves in this movie could've used a bit more of a touch up in some scenes. 

As for the human actors? Well, Mowgli was pretty good. This was certainly the most realistic take of a boy raised in a jungle by wolves I've ever seen.

The rest of the human cast feels like an afterthought. The hunter has somewhat of a story that isn't really expanded upon and the woman who takes care of Mowgli after he goes to the man village shows up and does nothing more of value.
I don't think those characters were even given names. 

While my heart will always belong to the Disney versions, I will always be open to different versions of classic stories even if they don't always work out in the end.
Luckily, I really enjoyed this version and may find myself watching it again on Netflix from time to time. I do wish I got to see it in a theater though. 
If you're looking for a new take on The Jungle Book and don't mind more darker elements, go ahead and check it out

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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Musings from the Lair - King of the Monsters Edition (12-10-2018)

Wow, it has been far too long since I've done one of these. I haven't done one of these since September of 2016.

It was 5 years ago today that every Godzilla fan was (mostly) waiting patiently for the first official trailer for the 2014 reboot to come out. And here we are today, with the release of the second official trailer for the highly anticipated Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
The first trailer from Comic Con was so amazing and beautifully apocalyptic. This one delivers all that and more. We get to see better views of the monsters, a hint of what sort of action will take place and even some great character moments. And the hint that there may even be more monsters to be discovered is really exciting to think about. So I'd say this trailer was equally satisfying and only makes my hype meter grow taller than Ghidorah sitting on Godzilla's shoulders.
Also, did anyone else catch the Dunkin' Donuts billboard?

But now, I think the trailers and new footage from King of the Monsters needs to stop! Most of you know this too well, some trailers have a tendency to spoil the best parts of the movie or even give away the final shot (*cough*Sony*cough*). Legendary Pictures films seemed to be the exception, but after the last trailers for Kong: Skull Island and especially Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, It's made me a bit concerned. They showed far too much footage and even gave away certain moments that would have been amazing to see first on the big screen. And trailer channels on YouTube that show the big moments before the actual trailer aren't helpful either!
The last 2 trailers and even viral marketing from Monarch Sciences have wetted my appetite enough. I already wanna see this movie so bad that I'm willing to wait 5 more months and avoid anymore trailers and information regarding the movie to make the experience all the more better.

Now I figured I've give my thoughts on the designs of the monsters that were surprisingly revealed through new SH MonsterArts figures!

GODZILLA:

Our boy has undergone a few tweaks to his design. I personally liked the original look just fine, but I do like the improvements. The dorsal fins especially look amazing. The only thing that gets me is that I miss the whip like end of the tail. Although I do wonder if these changes will be addressed in the movie, maybe the tip was torn off in a previous battle?

MOTHRA:

Mothra seems to have the most radical redesign of all the monsters so far. The legs are larger, the head is smaller and she looks generally less fuzzy and more insect like than past incarnations. Honestly, I really like this look and after seeing it in action I feel like it'll grow on fans who are still on the fence about it.
Now when are we gonna get to see more of her Larva stage?

RODAN:

So, remember that maquette that leaked onto the internet that everyone liked but were told was fake? Yeah, they lied!
This Rodan looks great! An awesome re-imagining of the classic Showa design. Nuff' said.

KING GHIDORAH:

And finally we have the big boy himself. Ghidorah is simply fantastic, the heads look great, the body is good and the wings are gigantic. After years of hearing people speculate that Ghidorah's body would be changed to more resemble Smaug from the Hobbit movies, it is so refreshing to see that they kept the classic look of the 3-headed titan.


I am extremely satisfied with the looks and I can't wait to get my hands on those figures. And yes, I will more than likely release reviews of them. I plan to start saving for them as soon as it becomes January. 

This is now my new phone wallpaper!

2019 appears to be the Year of Godzilla. And to celebrate the occasion, my next retrospective will be themed as such, leading up to the release of King of the Monsters on May 31st.
As far as other plans go
Figure Reviews are up in the air depending on what I can afford and what I feel like reviewing.
I realize that I have yet to review any of the Godzilla Anime movies, I am waiting for Planet Eater to come out so I can watch that and review all 3 parts in order. 
I also forgot to review The Meg. Damn it. I will have to fix that.

The next review that will follow some time after this post...is something you will never guess. But let's just say, it's been a long time coming. 
Now I wonder how long it will take me to do another one of these? I'm thinking 5 years. lol

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

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SOFVI SPIRITS HAKUJA | Figure Review

We now come to the last of the trio of Kaiju from Pacific Rim Uprising: Hakuja.

Hakuja happens to be my favorite Kaiju from Uprising. I think Hakuja has a great design and this figure captures it pretty well.

The head is nicely sculpted and the paint for the most part looks good. I would have added more paint on the tusks. I would complain about the eyes not being visible enough, but I think that makes Hakuja look cooler. Beneath the Hammerhead looking parts of the head there is some bright green paint as opposed to the blue paint usually seen on the Kaiju. It looks pretty neat.
Also, the tongue looks nice.

The back has nicely sculpted plates that extend to the tip of the tail. And the back is covered in blue paint the emulate the luminescent light seen on the Kaiju bodies.

Hakuja is the only Uprising Kaiju to have more than 4 limbs, much like most of the previous movies Kaiju. He has 6 legs with various armored plates, which are nicely painted blue with the yellow lines really stand out well.

The underbelly is just the basic light brown body with some tan airbrushed spots for good measure. Going back to the neck, it has some luminescent lines on it and those look great.

Hakuja's only articulation points are it’s legs which can move forward and back. Upon inspection of this figure you might think the head is capable of rotation, it’s not.

As you can see Hakuja is pretty small compared to the other Kaiju, but that doesn’t make him any less threatening.

I’m pretty pleased with this Hakuja figure and I’m equally satisfied to have the complete trio of Kaiju from Uprising.

Now that only leaves the question: Is there a Mega-Kaiju figure in the works? I honestly hope so. Actually, I almost wouldn’t mind seeing Sovfi Spirits figures of past Pacific Rim Kaiju, seeing the work they did just fills my mind with a lot of wishful thinking. But for now, I am fine having the 3 great Kaiju figures we have now.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
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Let's Look At: NECA SHIN GODZILLA ATOMIC BLAST

Previously, on The Gryphon's Lair:

Yup, I called it!
Then again, so did probably a few other people. But that’s beside the point.

Since I have reviewed the original NECA SHIN GODZILLA, articulation will not be discussed again as it is pretty much the same. The body has a darker black skin color and even though the red orange paint varies on every NECA Shin Godzilla figures it still stands out pretty well. 
But now let's look at the new features. 

This is meant to be Shin Godzilla during the moments where he unleashes his Atomic Ray (the best scene in the movie, for the record), with a new head sculpt and different paint on the back and tail.

The new head looks really nice. I think the detailing inside the mouth is pretty well done. The purple inside may seem minuscule to most people. 
The teeth look better on this head than they did on the original figure. Although, this figure still retains the eyes from the original for some reason. Shouldn't they be all silver?

The neck has some light purple paint as well. Both sides of the neck aren’t completely painted to give the flickering effect as seen in 'Shin Godzilla'.
We get the same paint on the neck as well, unfortunately it doesn’t show up as well when looking at it from the front.

Looking at the back, the dorsal fins have the purple and white glow which looks good overall. The glow continues over so subtly down the back of the tail to the illuminated tip. I actually think the tip of this figures tail is painted better than the original. And those odd patches from the original NECA Shin are nowhere to be seen.

But what’s an Atomic Blast figure without the breath effect pieces? This one comes with 2 of them! One for the mouth and one for the tail.

Once inserted they stay in tightly and look great.

Get enough of these pieces and you can recreate the scenes with the beams that come out the back. If you can figure out how to get them to stay on the back.

 

It wasn’t until I took a closer look at the figure and noticed a pretty big mess up on NECA's part. Aside from the nail paint spilling onto the feet, the feet themselves do not match at all.
How did this happen? 
I am at a loss for words.
I’ve looked at lot of other reviews for this figure and they all have the proper foot, some with a deformed toenail that might be fixable with a hair dryer. But mine appears to be a special case. I even went and tweeted NECA themselves about this. Currently awaiting a response... 

Also what is that? A tumor? 

Despite my complaining about the flaws in my figure, I actually still recommend picking it up, I think it’s an overall good figure to add to your collection. It beats having to pay  outrageous oversea shipping prices. 
I will say that it is lucky that these NECA Godzilla figures come in clear packaging so you can spot details like that and hopefully pick out the best of the bunch. Though, from what I've heard the packaging may be changed in the future for newer figures and the release of 'King of the Monsters'.
If you seek this figure, I hope yours turns out better than mine.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 
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