"GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH"
Usually I never give something that major away, but the film not only plays on the fact that Godzilla is going to die, but during the time of the film's release, Toho has been constantly promoting that this is going to be the film where the "King Of All Monsters" himself, is going to be gone for good. It may not seem shocking now since more Godzilla films have been made as time went on, but at the time this was the equivalent of comic-book fans finding out about Superman dying. It just seemed too unreal and hard for fans accept. Despite that the Godzilla franchise is still going, and that it's been many decades since fans cried about his on-screen death, does it still hold up as a powerfully sad movie as fans build it up to be; ON WITH THE REVIEW!
Miki (Megumi Odaka) travels to "Birth Island" to check on Godzilla and his son, only to discover that the Island is destroyed; Godzilla's son is missing; and Godzilla himself is destroying Tokyo as he now appears to have glowing lava-like rashes all over his body. It appears that Godzilla's nuclear energy is growing out of control and is slowly dying from it, where he'll explode and cause a nuclear meltdown that will destroy all of humanity once his temperature reaches 1,200 °C. As the G-Force starts to prepare anti-nuclear cold weapons to reverse Godzilla's self-destruction, the Oxygen Destroyer that killed the Godzilla in 1954 has created a mutated army of crab like monsters that together evolve into a giant monster called "Destoroyah" to kill Godzilla and all of humanity.
Let me start out by addressing the "elephant in the room" which is the obvious continuity error of tying this film with the original 1954 film. Incase if you haven't read my review on "Godzilla VS. King Ghidorah", to make a long story short, the characters went back in time to prevent Godzilla from destroying Japan, only to discover that they just postponed his destruction on Japan by erasing all the previous events leading up to his battle with King Ghidorah. In other words the events of Godzilla's attack in 1954, to his attack in 1984, to his fight against Biollante should have never happened due this time alteration. So what's this film's excuse to this error in continuity, well it now suddenly turns out that they only postponed the events when the second Godzilla in 1984 attacked, and that the first one's attack on Tokyo still happened. Now I'll buy this added piece of logic since none of the other films have clearly claimed that they erased the history of the first Godzilla, but it still makes no sense! The Futurians plan in "Godzilla VS. King Ghidorah" was to erase Godzilla from history all together, but yet it turns out that they only tampered with alternating time by erasing the second one. I suppose in some respects, I can understand why they would just erase the second one since the first one died where he is no longer a threat against their plans to take over Japan. But why are the people who join them in their conquest so stupid? How come none of the people who went back in time with them suspected that they were just erasing the second one as opposed to the first one or both, since they both have totally completely different origins? Did they just forget that these are two totally different Godzillas, instead of being the same? I guess it shouldn't really surprise me that much since everybody in Japan thought that the Godzilla in "The Return Of Godzilla" is the same one, even though the other one clearly vanished into nothing where it's impossible for him to ever come back or pop out of a volcano. I'm not going to bother ranting about the confusing time travel logic again, or dwell on the continuity errors any longer. But the point I'm making is this series attempts of REALLY trying to follow continuity fails just as much as the "Showa Era" failed at following its own logic.
But with continuity errors aside, how's the actual film? Well, when I heard that the film was going to be as dark and grim as the original film, as interested as I was in seeing the film, I didn't think the film was going to be anywhere near as great as the first Godzilla film. Because every other Godzilla film I reviewed, as enjoyable as they are, never fully captured the same look and feel as the first film had. And even though tying the first film with the last film of the "Heisei Era" seemed interesting, I didn't think it was going to work at all because of the series' failed continuity. When I watched the first five minutes of the film, my jaw dropped and I was hooked. The reveal of Birth Island being gone was shocking. Godzilla's new design looked incredible! The way he looks, acts, and sounds is just as scary as the first Godzilla and ten times scarier than he acted and behaved in "The Return Of Godzilla". The scene of him destroying Tokyo looked dramatic as it’s carried out by neat special effects, and a haunting score composed by Akira Ifukube. And to end the amount of terror that this sequence threw at me, we see a recreation of the original title for the first Godzilla film, to seeing an animated "Oxygen Destroyer" jump in front of it, to suddenly seeing red and blue titles hit the screen in front of a burning Tokyo. The only nitpicks I have about the intro was how not amused some of the pedestrians behaved when Godzilla's roaming the city. And the poorly acted English speaking pilot. But aside from that which are really small nitpicks, this opening got me so invested and hyped up that I was begging for the rest of the film to be just as fantastic as the first 5 minutes.
As I let the film play on I started to get more and more emotionally invested in it than I did with any of the previous Godzilla movies that were made after the first one. Don’t get me wrong in "Godzilla VS MechaGodzilla 2" every scene with Godzilla was emotionally investing as well, but in the long run all he’s really doing is searching and defending his son. Here you see him slowly die and getting weaker from the nuclear energy, while going insane from the constant pain which causes him to destroy buildings out of frustration and anger. And he has trouble controlling his powers which make his out of control rage even worse, plus making things harder for him when he fights against Destoroyah. Now comparing that, to him finding his son, I’d say that’s more tragic and sad. The costume for Godzilla looks almost as realistic as it looked when he fought against Biollante, especially with those glowing lava-like rashes all over his body which looks cool but mighty painful at the same time. If I had one tiny gripe with the costume, I will say he still doesn't have that much expression as he used to have, but the direction, sound effects, and the music more than make up for the lack of expression that Godzilla has on his face, since it 100% conveys Godzilla's pain and suffering beautifully. As for Godzilla's death at the end, without giving too much away, let me say that I haven't felt this emotionally crushed by a Godzilla film since the ending to the first film. It's seriously a very brutal and heartbreaking scene. And the effects for him melting look very convincing!
After being disappointed that Toho took a step backwards in the previous film where they made Godzilla's son look and act like Millina from the "Showa Era", I was beyond grateful that Toho had scrapped the over the top cutesy personality and design that they gave to his son in the last film, and make him look and act like his Father, which is something that Toho has never done before with the character. It's great to see Godzilla's son finally follow in his Father's footsteps, by having him behave monstrous and actually kick another giant monster's ass. He even puts up a decent fight, instead of giving you the impression that he's screwed from the very moment when he entered the battle. You feel like that he has a chance with taking down this monster. But as tough and badass as he is, Toho doesn't shy away from maintaining a gentle side of the creature, which is actually more subtle than any of the other versions I've seen of this monster. He's also given 1 or 2 touching moments with his Dad that are just as tragic as watching Godzilla slowly die.
Now here’s a little fun fact about this film. Originally Toho was going to have Godzilla fight against the ghost of the Godzilla from 1954, but the Producers didn't want Godzilla to fight another clone of himself three times in a row, so they changed the idea. And thank god they did, because Godzilla physically fighting a ghost of himself is not just a stupid idea, but it was about time that Toho would create an original monster who’s not based off of any of the previous monsters (like SpaceGodzilla and Battra). And my god is Destoroyah an upgrade from the last monster that Godzilla has fought! Remember how I talked about the lack of intimidation that SpaceGodzilla had, and that I always got that sense that Godzilla was going to defeat him one way or another. Destoroyah is far away from that! Every moment he has on screen is absolutely terrifying from the way he moves, fights, and looks as he seems to mercilessly plan to destroy the world and all of humanity out of complete joy! The best way to describe him is he looks like a shape-shifting demon from the fires of hell! This whole duel is pretty much the equivalent of Godzilla fighting against the devil. It just looks beyond scary in what ever shape or size it takes, whether it's an army of crab-like monsters, or a flying demon with bat-wings. And if you think a devil like creature that can change into different forms isn't threatening enough, he also carries laser beams on different parts of his body that provide different attacks, is a very skilled fighter, and treats most of the abuse that he takes from Godzilla like a friendly slap to the back. But what really raises the stakes higher of Godzilla's life being at risk is he's made out of the weapon that successfully killed thee first Godzilla! And the most awful part about the monster is, if he does succeed with killing Godzilla, humanity now has to deal with him who is worse than any other monster that Godzilla has ever faced!
In the last film I criticized how it was flooded with too many characters and subplots that aren't interesting, and how they made Miki into an insufferable whiner. Thankfully in this film, Toho fixed all that. Miki for instance isn't just standing around pointing fingers at people. She actually tries to do something, by monitoring Godzilla's son's actives in hopes for him to not become a heartless monster like his Dad. She hardly succeeds, but at least she's trying to do something helpful, rather than just complain and insult people. She's also more understanding about the situation even if she does disagree about the choices that the G-Force and other characters make. As for her using her physic powers she doesn't really use them much in the film, because she appears to be losing them where she'll be replaced by another women with physic powers named Meru (Sayaka Osawa) who she and Miki share a nice little bond together. Finding out that the best human character in the series is going to lose her powers (for unexplained reasons) just adds to the overall sadness that this film brings. And what makes this concept even sadder is as Miki doesn't want to lose her powers; her replacement wishes that she would lose her own so she can live a normal life (which was added to the English dub from what I've read). So as helpful as her replacement is, and how she thinks more with her head instead of her heart unlike Miki, she isn't happy to have these powers or to be taking Miki's place.
Then we have Yukari (Yoko Ishino) and Kenkichi Yamane (Yasufumi Hayashi) who are the offspring's of Dr. Yamane's adopted son in the first film (who we barely got to know). Just like all the previous human characters that I've mentioned, they too are just as engaging as the other characters are. Kenkichi is a failed scientist who can't follow in his Father and Grandfather's footsteps, where the only thing he's good at is studying Godzilla which he only does as a hobby that obviously (and quickly) gets him a position in the G-Force. And Yukari is a feisty but observant journalist that wants answers. Obviously these characters aren't anything that new, since we've seen these character tropes before in the franchise, but their performances and personalities are still good enough to keep you attached to them. The last of the human characters is Momoko Kochi reprising her role as Emiko Yamane from the first film. As short as her on-screen appearances are, it doesn't feel like that the film just threw her in to give her a cameo for her to say "remember me, I was in the first Godzilla film". She does have interesting things to say about the current events in the film mainly being centered on her adopted niece and nephew thinking about asking Dr. Ijuin to reinvent the "Oxygen Destroyer", which doesn't please her at all. They want to create it to save the world despite that it goes against Serizawa's wishes, while Emiko is against it since she's afraid about the possibility of it being used as a weapon against humanity as her ex-lover feared. Just like the political commentary in the first film of the franchise, none of these choices are right or wrong since they're up for moral debate, which is a nice call back to the original, while still keeping true to the film's story. Kochi gives a natural performance as this old and lonely woman where all she has left are her memories of the past that still haunt her to this day. It's such a moving performance, that I seriously wish that she was in more scenes of the movie, instead of being cut-out of the film before the film reaches its second act. I would love to see her reactions to watching Godzilla die, and seeing the monsters that were mutated by the destroyer. I'd be invested in seeing her spend more time with the characters, and watch her somehow get into the middle of the chaos. But as disappointingly short as her screen-time is, she still owns every single scene she's in along with the use of stock footage from the first film to help support her emotional performance.
Another thing that I admire about the film connecting to the original is the references. And I'm not just talking about the characters being related or based on the original characters, or the discussions and stock footage of the events from Godzilla's first attack in history. There are actually a few little Easter eggs that reference or mirror the original all throughout the film. Some are obvious, while others are subtle. One of my favorite little details that call back to the original is the stegosaurus model in Kenkichi's room, which looks like the same model that Dr. Yamane had in his office in the first movie, when he's sitting down in the dark after hearing about humanity's attempts to kill Godzilla, rather than study it. Regarding the film's visuals, effects, and monster action it’s definitely one the franchises best. The suits look well detailed. The choreography and direction for the monsters fighting are on the edge of your seat entertaining and well put together scenes that don't heavily rely on overusing the optical effects for the lasers. We get to see a 3rd Super X that’s more powerful than any of the other Super Xs. The models are shot up to scale. The effects like the fish dissolving, Godzilla being frozen, and of course Godzilla melting are beyond impressive (even by today's standards). Adding the blood, green ooze, and foam effect for the monster's being injured are especially welcomed for a film as dark and bleak as this. The city being burned up and destroyed looks just as apocalyptic as Japan looked in "The Return Of Godzilla". The puppetry used for the man-sized Destoroyah's makes them looks eerie. And the score by Akira Ifukube has everything you can ask for in terms of music for a Godzilla film. Am I going to say that all the visuals look perfect? No. Some of the effects do look phony at times (especially the visible strings for when Destoroyah and the Super X3 fly on numerous occasions). And even though the film does have its own original look while still successfully calling back to the original, just like how films like "Godzilla VS King Ghidorah" and "Godzilla And Mothra: The Battle For Earth" ripped-off a few movies, this film decides to rip-off "Aliens" in the sequence when the man-sized Destoroyah's are attacking the city that's shot similar, has soldiers who are dressed similar to the troops in "Aliens" as they carry flame throwers to draw them back, and one of the monsters has an Inner Jaw just like the Alien. However, as fake as some of the effects look, the good ones still outweigh the bad ones. And as painfully obvious that the man-sized Destoroyah's attack looks similar to "Aliens" I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still sucked in by the action and thrills of that sequence.
I didn't think none of the other Godzilla films could ever capture the same look and emotional effect that the first film carried. But after seeing this film, it turns out that I was wrong. It's not perfect, the continuity is still a bit confusing, and the effects can look cheesy at times (though the original had some fake looking effects as well). But on the whole I was blown away by it from beginning to end. The story is sad to the core. The majority of the effects look stunning. The score is epic. The overall look and tone is depressing. Destoroyah is the best original monster that the "Heisei Era" has ever created. Making Godzilla's son resemble his Father is awesome. The monster action never gets dull. The acting is grand! And connecting the final film of the "Heisei Era" to the original film, despite not making a whole lot of sense, the emotional connection and throwbacks are so strong that you overlook the confusing logic! The Godzilla franchise may still be running today, but it is still never-the-less a sad end to the second Era of the franchise.
RATING 5/5
MY OVERALL THOUGHTS ON THE "HEISEI ERA"
Comparing the "Heisei Era" to the "Showa Era”, it is an improvement over the last series, but it still carries nearly the same amount of hits and misses. Just like how the "Showa Era" started out grim but then got campy as it went along, this series pretty much does the same. We get two (three if you count "Godzilla 1985") that are dark and gritty, and the films that follow afterwards would go down nearly the same family friendly path as the other films would. The only major differences are the last film would be just as serious and dramatic as the first film, and be (in my humble opinion) the best one of the series, rather than the first one being the best. And the campy family friendly tone wasn’t as treated as over the top as most of the films in the "Showa Era" were. The human characters aren't as boring or serviceable as the characters in the earlier films since there are plenty of characters that I remember and care about, especially the recurring character Miki. But there are still characters that do come off as forgettable, which are mostly the Military characters and the characters in the first film. Actually I think one of the biggest changes that the “Heisei Era” did poorly at when casting actors was hiring English speaking actors. None of them can't act for their life, nor seem to look like they understand what the Japanese actors are saying in their native language, which for me are the most insufferable and awkward parts of the scenes when we spend time with them. Comparing the effects to the ones in the "Showa Era" they definitely are major improvements. Sure a good half of them at times do look fake, but for the most part I found myself mostly amazed by how much these effects have evolved over time. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure a good chunk of the effects in the "Showa" films were good for their time too, but just by looking at the films in the following series, not only has technology advanced as time went on, but Toho seemed to be putting more care and effort into creating most of these effects, when in the "Showa Era" you get the impression that they were rushing some of them in their films (especially when they have to rely on using stock footage from their previous films). The monster action we get in these films are just as awesomely entertaining as the earlier Godzilla films are, but they do at times get tedious or just seem not to be edited or paced right.
For me the biggest problem that I have with the series is how hard it tries to tie all the films together and follow continuity. I'm not against idea, if anything I was really delighted to see the series try to give itself a cohesive narrative by having each film be a legitimate continuation of the events from the previous film. And when I saw that "Godzilla VS Biollante" immediately picked up after the events of "The Return Of Godzilla", it at first seemed promising. But when we get the time travel logic in "Godzilla VS King Ghidorah" that just simply screws up all continuity and logic for the rest of the series, that's when I started to lose all hope for Toho’s efforts of trying to successfully tie the films together as one gigantic story. And after watching and reviewing it in its long run, the two most pointless entries in the series (three if you count...uh you know the drill by now) are "Godzilla And Mothra: The Battle For Earth" and "Godzilla VS SpaceGodzilla". You can pretty much skip these two movies and still completely understand what's going on. I know "SpaceGodzilla" introduced the Island where Godzilla and his son live on, but after so much time passing by, I think you can safely assume that Godzilla and his son lived on some kind of Tropical Island after all these years. I guess another downside to the series failed attempt of connecting these movies into one story is how none of them can stand on its own since you have to see the other films to understand what's going on. At least with the "Showa Era" as bad as the continuity was in their films, the majority of sequels were still able enough to stand-out as their own movie where it didn't feel like a requirement for you to watch the previous films.
But the biggest praise that I have to give these films is the amount of respect they treated the monsters. Unlike how the monsters in the "Showa Era" got goofier and went from looking badass to child friendly as the series went on, this series for the most part doesn't fall under that trap. Sure Godzilla's suit got a little cheesy as the series went on, and changing Godzilla’s son to Millina as he got a little older are indeed downgrades. But aside from that, I don't have much to complain about the series handling of the monsters. The recreations of classic monsters like King Ghidorah, Mothra, Rodan, and MechaGodzilla are great upgrades in terms of designs, effects (even if they are clunky at times), and giving them a new origin and purpose in the series. The new monsters such as Destoroyah, Battra, Biollante, and even SpaceGodzilla (despite not being my favorite) are nice creative editions to the franchise. And the flaws that I pointed out in terms of handling Godzilla’s Son and the Godzilla suit do improve greatly as the series went on (especially when we get to the final movie). Overall while it’s not a perfect reboot, or a great one for that matter, I do feel like that it gets more things right than what the previous series did.
RATING FOR THE "HEISEI ERA" 4/5
That does it for the second era of Godzilla films, join me next year as I review the 3rd and (as of right now) last full Era of Godzilla films known as the "Millennium Series".
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