"GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE"
Taking place directly after the events of Godzilla's attack on Tokyo in 1984 (which is very rare for a Godzilla film to immediately pick-up where the last film left off); a team of scientists collect Godzilla's cells that were left in the rubble from his destruction. But it also turns out that a few American extremists are also at the ruins of Tokyo to take a few of Godzilla's cells for their own personal needs, only to soon find themselves being killed by an assassin whose mission is to steal the cells and bring them back to an Institute of Technology and Science that's located in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Saradia. The President of the Institute hires Dr. Genshiro Shiragami (Koji Takahashi) and his daughter Erika to merge the cells with genetically modified plants to help the country (No! Mixing the cells from a ferocious radioactive beast like Godzilla with anything isn't going to do any good at all! I mean they can't be this stupid!), but a terrorist attack on the Institute prevents them from conducting the experiment, as the explosion from the attack destroys the cells and kills Shiragami's daughter. Five years later, the JSDF fear that Godzilla may come back, and hire Scientist Kazuhito Kirishima (Kunihiko Mitamura), and military Lieutenant Goro Gondo (Toru Minegishi) to lead the project of creating "Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria" from Godzilla's cells as a weapon. However, it turns out that two American agents from a biological corporation called "Bio-Major", and the assassin from the "Saradia Institute of Technology and Science" are still after Godzilla's cells, and plan to go to the extremes of threatening Japan with terrorism if they don't get what they want. Meanwhile, Dr.Shiragami has put his Daughter's cells inside a rose with the hope that Erika's soul is still living inside the plant, as he's being aided by a Psychic named Miki (Megumi Odaka) to help him with his research. After seeing his roses get damaged from the tremors of a volcanic eruption; Shiragami joins the JSDF and gains access to Godzilla cells. But Shiragami selfishly puts Godzilla's cells in the damaged rose to keep his daughter alive, and thanks to his selfishness, a new giant monster in the form of a plant has emerged. To make matters worse, Godzilla has returned, and is back to causing mayhem and destruction, as he fights against the army and the new giant monster.
When I heard that this film was an underrated Godzilla classic, judging by the plot and concept of the monster, I found myself scathing my head a bit. I mean Godzilla fighting against a giant plant is considered to be an overlooked classic? Just the idea of Godzilla fighting a plant that pretty much has the same abilities as the plant from the remake of "Little Of Shop Horrors", to me seemed way too silly for this new age of dark Godzilla films for it to become plausible. Also the whole purpose of mixing Godzilla's cells seemed like a stupid idea. I get the idea of using Godzilla's cells as a weapon in case if Godzilla ever returned, but the idea of using Godzilla's cells for anything seemed like a very foolish idea that will most likely backfire considering how dangerous and deadly of a creature he is. When I finally got around to watching the film so that I can review it with the rest of the Godzilla films made during the "Heisei Era", I surprisingly did find myself understanding why people like this Godzilla film, as well as finding myself enjoying this flick. The film however does have one huge weakness, and that sadly is the story. While the story is not bad, it's pretty complicated for a Godzilla film. With all the previous Godzilla film's you can understand them fine, but with this one you really have to pay attention and keep up with almost every little detail, especially during the first 20 minutes or so that build-up to both Godzilla and Biollante. The film is flooded with so many characters as it tries to explain its scientific logic regarding Godzilla, his cells, and the new monster Biollante at such a very fast pace that it at times feels rushed, and very hard to keep up with the plot and characters, and what they are saying about the situation. However, even if the logic is confusing and at times sounds stupid and makes no sense (like the whole mixing of Godzilla's cells idea, for example), you'll still find yourself overall invested, or in the very least entertained by the story and action, while getting some kind of idea of what's going on.
As fast as the pacing for this film is, when the film started building-up to Godzilla I actually found myself still hyped to see him. Scenes like the classroom full of kids showing Miki their drawings of Godzilla after given an assignment to draw what they all dreamed of; and Miki visualizing Godzilla still being alive inside the Volcano, had me completely excited to see this monster to awaken once again. And when he finally does show-up, his on-screen entrance is just as exciting as the build-up was, as we see him surrounded by flames roaring while the classic Godzilla theme plays in the background. Unlike the last film where I found myself overall bored by the scenes involving the chaos and destruction that Godzilla causes, this film had me completely glued to the screen as I was in great awe watching Godzilla fight against the army and destroying the city. They didn't feel as slow and dragging like the last Godzilla film was. They went at a fast and energizing pace that still gave you time to embrace the awesomeness of the action for these scenes. What also amazes me about these scenes is they hardly ever look like a guy in a rubber suit destroying a miniature model of Tokyo; it for the most part looks legit! Almost every scene with Godzilla and Biollante from the way they are shot and edited looks and feels gigantic. Even when you can see through these effects, there's still a largeness to how these scenes are shot with its fast paced kickass action that still makes you forgive how obvious the effects look at times, especially in the scene when Godzilla is destroying Navy ships where you can tell when they're using stock-footage of Navy boats firing, and when they’re using modeled Navy ships! Though I will admit, most of the matte paintings for this film are very unconvincing, especially when we visit the fictional country of Saradia. Out of all the effects that I found myself amazed by, it has to be the way Godzilla looks in this movie. As scary as Godzilla looked in the last movie, he still looked pretty silly with his dead animatronic face. In this film on the other hand, he looks very realistic! I hardly ever got the impression that I was staring at a man wearing a Godzilla suit; I literally thought I was looking at an actual monster. The face looks very lifelike. The suit doesn't look as fat and heavy as all the other suits looked, nor does it even look like a suit for that matter. And the way he moves and acts by using his body language and roars all feel natural instead of feeling overly exaggerated when portraying his animistic behavior. The effect for his Blue Atomic Breath also looks just as awesome as it did in the last movie.
So Godzilla is awesome in this movie, but what about the new
monster Biollante who I thought was going to be a cheap knock-off of the plant from
"Little Shop Of Horrors"? She too is just as awesome as Godzilla
is. Don't get me wrong, the logic surrounding this monster is still confusing,
and at times makes no sense, especially when considering the fact that the
spirit of Dr.Shiragami's daughter is inside this monstrous plant. I'll
also admit that Biollante is a pretty weak opponent for Godzilla to fight
against, since she keeps getting her flower ass kicked way too easily for the
majority of the fight scenes between her and Godzilla. But with that said, I
still think that Biollante is a pretty cool monster. In the scenes that
build-up to the monster like the scene with Shiragami mixing Godzilla's cells
with the rose cells, during a dark and stormy night; and the sequence with the
fast moving vines of an off-screen Biollante attacking the terrorists that have
broken into Shiragami's lab, were so creepy and exciting, that I couldn't wait
to see what the monster herself will look like. When I first saw her in her
first form as a rose, I found myself surprisingly amazed by it. Granted, the
monster herself, and her first on-screen appearance wasn't anything as mind
blowing or scary as something like King Ghidorah or MechaGodzilla for example.
But the effects for her rose form looks just as realistic as Godzilla looks in
this film. And the design for this monster of being a red rose with sharp teeth,
and having vine-like tentacles that have either sharp tendrils or teeth as she
makes these wailing cries, is very creepy and unsettling (especially when we
see her at night). But as eerie as Biollante in her rose form is, she’s also very
enchanting for how beautiful and cute she looks and sounds. I find it pretty fascinating how Toho was able to make the monster look
both come across as cute and terrifying at the same time, when with a monster like Mothra, she
never stops being cute, even when causing destruction.
When we see Biollante in her second form, that's where all the cuteness and beauty from her completely fades out, where she's reduced to a monstrous creature with her crocodile like design that looks filthy and slimy, as she can now use different attacks like spitting out large quantities of radioactive corrosive sap, can change herself into a cloud of spores, and finally roam around (unlike in her rose form). The scenes of her in her second form aren't just cooler than the scenes of her in her first form, but the effects for this monster really shine at best where they look realer than ever. The way she acts and moves around along with her vicious and gross-looking appearance just seems very lifelike. I couldn't even see any of the wires that were activating her tentacles, nor could I tell when I was looking at a guy in a suit, or a puppet on stings! It's interesting to note that Biollante's design was finalized only halfway through production, and that the final fight between her and Godzilla was shot at last minute, which took over 20 crew members to create her in her final form, and make her seem alive by using over 32 piano wires. And despite that there's a bit of a rushed pace for these fight sequences between Biollante (in both forms) and Godzilla, as well as Biollante coming off as a weak opponent for Godzilla to fight against, they're still kickass fight sequences, from the way they're shot and choreographed, as we are being presented by some of the most impressive effects that has ever been brought to a Godzilla film! Also the sound effects and the scenes of Godzilla ripping -off some of Biollante's stems look and sound harsh and brutal to the point where you can almost feel the pain that the monster is feeling.
One of the downsides to the film is, while the scenes with Godzilla and Biollante fighting against each other are awesome, there's sadly very little of it! However, the scenes with Godzilla fighting against the military do make-up for the lack fighting time between these two monsters, especially when he fights against another "Super X". When I first saw the second "Super X" in this movie, and heard about the updates that it had, I was just as I hyped as I was with the build-up to these two monsters. And when I saw the "Super X2" finally fly as triumphant music was playing, a part of me felt like that this film was going deliver the thrill and excitement that the last Godzilla film failed to give me when it involved the first "Super X". And it did, from the way that these scenes are shot, edited, and paced, with special effects and sound effects that are just as cool as all the other action sequences that I've previously talked about in this film. Now I do think that the fight scenes between Godzilla and the “Super X2” would have been more intense if there were people actually inside the "Super X2" who are putting their life at risk, instead of having it being operated by a control system (that’s almost looks like that they're playing a Video Game), but considering that people died in the first "Super X", I'm quite pleased that the military is moving forward with their ideas, than making the same mistake twice. What's also cool about the "Super X2" is that it not only has the same amount of weapons that made the first one so awesome, but it also can reflect the ray's from Godzilla's blue atomic breath back at Godzilla, which is pretty similar to King Caesar's power in "Godzilla VS MechaGodzilla"! As for the scenes with the army fighting Godzilla with their tanks, lasers, missiles, and weapons that were made to specifically destroy Godzilla, they too are awesome fight scenes as well!
The film as you can imagine does have a couple of scenes of the human characters fighting each other, and as nice and cool as some of those scenes are, they're for the most part not as great as all the other scenes that I've praised in this movie. When I saw the opening scene with the Japanese army chasing after three American soldiers, as exciting as the pacing for the scene was, the way how the actors portray the soldiers being shot don't at all look real (they act almost exactly like how the Native Tribe in the film "Mothra" die), and in one or two shots during this sequence, the army for some reason never fires at the American extremists when they're clearly right in front of them at point blank range! I also didn't like the cartoony sound effect that was used in one of the later scenes of the movie when one of the main characters knocks-out one of the villains. Another thing that I found to be very sloppy in the movie is the music. While it's not bad, it does feel a bit messy since the music constantly changes from sounding like music that you'd hear in an Godzilla flick; to sounding like rock and pop music that you'd hear in a 80s film during that era; to even at times sounding like music that you swore that you heard from other films like "Superman" and "JAWS" for example. Sometimes these different choices in music would fit a scene, but when they don't fit a scene, they really sound out of place. I guess when you have a conductor who's trying to imagine what the film would look like, since he didn't see the movie while he was recording the score, chances are that the final result would be pretty messy, and it sadly is.
We now finally come to the cast of human characters in this movie, and I must say that despite the film has way too many human characters that are hard to keep track of (which I’m sure that I’m going to miss talking about a few of them), they overall are good characters who are interesting and likable, as the actors portraying them give a performance that feels natural as they perfectly interact with one another. But to make one thing clear about the acting in this film, I'm only talking about the acting being good in terms of the Japanese actors, because the English speaking actors in this film are terrible with their constant word slurring, and unnatural line delivery. Though I will admit, the actor who plays the Terminator like assassin was a complete badass, who's actually a legitimate threat to the characters, unlike that cool sunglasses wearing assassin in "Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster". I'm not saying his acting is overall good, because the way he speaks is just as terrible as all the other English speaking actors. But with that said, at least he's given very little scenes that involve him speaking with another character.
Getting back to our Japanese cast of characters; first there's Dr.Shiragami who's the cause of Biollante's birth due to his selfish needs of wanting his dead Daughter's spirit to live on, and how the actor Koji Takahashi expresses his determination towards his experiment, and his pain and sorrow of missing Daughter not just because she's dead, but because he felt like he was the cause of her death by taking her to the lab where she'll be killed due to his love for science, is pretty sad. It's not emotionally heart wrenching or anything, due to the film's fast pace of trying to cram so much stuff in, but the sadness and emotion is still there, and acted out pretty well. Ryunosuke Kaneda as the head of the foundation that keeps Godzilla's cells is perfect for the role of this man who wants to (foolishly) duplicate Godzilla's cells. And rather than being as selfish and mean as the other corporations that are after the cells, he has more of a jolly, but very naive approach like the character John Hammond in "Jurassic Park" for example. His motivation means well, but he hardly takes the time to realize the consequences of what he wants to do with this scientific discovery. Kunihiko Mitamura as Dr. Kirishima gives a very solid performance as this scientist who carries a very cynical view on the Government's use of science, which is just as interesting as hearing Dr. Serizawa in the first Godzilla film talk about the Government using scientific discoveries as weapons, just without the heavy emotional grabbing drama. The characters on the Military side of the events are just as intriguing as the characters on the scientific side of the events. Toru Minegishi is enjoyable and cool as Colonel Gondo who wants Godzilla to show-up so he can get into the action, and Masanobu Takashima as the young sergeant Colonel Kurok, is great at showing how passionate the character is of trying to find ways to defeat Godzilla without ever giving up, until he's officially down for the count. Finally we head to the female characters of the movie, and aside from one, they're hardly ever memorable. The scientist's daughter Erika barely gets any screen-time for her to shine, and Yoshiko Tanaka as Kirishima's girlfriend, while likable, there's nothing about her that really stands-out. The only female character who I found myself completely interested in was Megumi Odaka as the Psychic woman Miki. While being under the person who has Psychic powers for no rhyme or reason trope, Odaka's performance, and how the character uses her powers, are played and acted out so effectively that they not only provide great dramatic build-up to both monsters, but the character, and how she uses her ability are very interesting. Just how she stalls Godzilla with her powers, tries to communicate with Biollante in her rose form, and is even shown teaching a classroom full of Psychic kids in one scene (which I wish was explored a bit more), are interesting and fascinating scenes that leave me in great awe and wonderment about this character and her skills. I understand that she will be appearing in the rest of the Godzilla films that follow during this era, and I honestly can't wait to see more of this character, and hopefully learn more about her and abilities.
After previously being disappointed by a Godzilla film that I found to be good and groundbreaking for the franchise, but very overrated, I'm really glad that this film for the most part met the opposite of my expectations. Granted, the English speaking actors are terrible. The music sounds very out of place on many occasions. Biollante is not a worthy opponent for Godzilla to fight against. Some of the fight scenes involving the human characters are pretty sloppy. And the overall story for the film is very convoluted as the film goes at a very quick pace. But with that said, the rest of the film is fantastic. Godzilla is scarier than he was in the previous film. Biollante is a cool new monster who I honestly wish wasn't so overlooked in the franchise. The action scenes involving the giant monsters are completely awesome! The characters are very likable and interesting. And the effects are probably some of the best effects that I've ever seen in a Godzilla film! While "The Return Of Godzilla" started this new Era of Godzilla films by bringing the franchise back to its original dark and gritty roots along with its new look and updated effects; this film in my opinion, while not perfect, has indeed improved upon it, making it better than the first installment to the "Heisei Era".
RATING 4/5
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