XPost: alt.movies.monster   
   From: xplar@netscape.net   
      
   I wouldn't single Kaneko out for this problem. It's a deep part of Japanese   
   filmmaking. There's been a division between those influenced by Hollywood   
   and those by French and Euro cinema since the 20's. Honda fell into the   
   second camp, while his buddy Taniguchi was apart of the Hollywood   
   style.Kaneko has a Hollywood eye, but only for kaiju. I personally re-edited   
   Megalon to make more sense and remove the waste and it helps somewhat. It's   
   a process that takes a lot of time, and is not worth it on non-letterboxed   
   prints, (Fullscreen productions permitting). Space Godzilla was one of the   
   worst, if I remember correctly.   
      
      
      
   "jdlees"  wrote in message   
   news:f77964be.0309031426.799205b4@posting.google.com...   
   > "Rhindle The Red"  wrote in message   
   news:...   
   > ... > The film seemed to be edited by a first-year film school   
   > student.  Shots   
   > > were too long or useless.  The director seemed to have no idea how to   
   build   
   > > suspense.   
   >   
   > I agree. Until I got the Region 3 copy with English sub-titles, I had   
   > no idea there were so many throw-away scenes. For example, we cut away   
   > from the fight between Godzilla and Baragon to military headquarters   
   > to hear the general say, "They're telecasting the fight." Uh, no   
   > kidding. We've already seen the TV crew, and we've seen the telecast.   
   > Why do we need someone to tell us what we already know? At another   
   > point, we cut away from the fight to Yuri, and she says, "Godzilla's   
   > so huge." Ooookay, like, we already know that. During the underwater   
   > "fight" with Ghidorah, a great length of time is used to position Yuri   
   > on the bridge, and then she gives a speech on TV, which everyone we   
   > ever saw in the film is watching. What does she say? That the army and   
   > the Yamato monsters are fighting Godzilla, and that she will do her   
   > best to cover the story. Again, no important or new info is offered,   
   > just some throw-away dialog. Then there's that extensive, expensive,   
   > and ultimately unsuccessful spfx shot of the battleship on the CGI   
   > ocean. On the bridge of the ship, a sailor says, "No sign of Godzilla.   
   > Some people still don't believe he exists." What a waste of film   
   > budget and time to set up a shot with dialog that tells us nothing we   
   > don't already know. There are many other such scenes in GMK.   
   >   
   > Watching the film in Japan, but not understanding most of the Japanese   
   > dialog, I assumed such scenes contained something relevant or   
   > important. As it turns out, they were all virtually superfluous. I was   
   > particularly flabbergasted by Yuri's scene on the bridge. I thought   
   > sure she was saying something inspiring to the nation, or resolving   
   > some of the inconsistencies in the plot. When I read the banal dialog   
   > she actually spouted, I was amazed.   
   >   
   > Had GMK film been released theatrically, I'm sure it would have been   
   > trimmed to less than 90 minutes, and been improved by doing so.   
   > Apparently, the cuts made by the Sci-fi Channel (I didn't watch the   
   > telecast) were, in many cases, simply not the ones that should have   
   > been made. - J.D.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)