If the original "Godzilla" is the "Citizen Kane" of giant monster movies, then "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" is the art-house equivalent for daikaiju films. This film is abstract, filled with all sorts stylistic choices from its director Yoshimitsu Banno that screams of the 1970s and Japan's counter culture. There's a lot of it that still doesn't make any sense to me, but helps contribute to its style over substance approach to make it the most unforgettable Godzilla film.
To appreciate "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" fully, let me set the stage - In 1971, Japan was suffering from a massive pollution problem. The country had become incredibly industrialized, and Tokyo was one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Millions of pounds of waste were produced every day, and the government did have a viable way to getting rid of it, dumping trash and nuclear waste into the ocean, while the air around most major cities became toxic. It got so bad in city that most people living there developed asthma.
If life in America was bad in the 1970s due to pollution, it was even more unbearable over in Japan.
On top of that, this was the point when Japan's youth fully embraced its psychedelic side and experimented with all sorts of drugs, music, and ways of rebelling.
When director and writer Yoshimitsu Banno visited the city of Yokkaichi, he saw the landscape covered in black smog and the ocean filled with foam from dumped trash and detergent. After that, he started formulating the idea of an alien monster that fed off all of our pollution and how it would grow unstoppable because of our arrogance towards waste.
When I learned this was how "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" was created, I immediately thought about how similar that is to Tomoyuki Tanaka's experience with creating the first "Godzilla" - Looking down at the ocean from a plane and thinking of a giant monster rising out of the sea. As we'll find out, this isn't the only similarity between these two films.
Banno submitted his idea of an alien monster that transforms because of pollution to Toho and they loved the idea, but of course thought the movie would sell better if Godzilla was involved. Toho gave Banno free reign with creative control over "Godzilla vs. Hedorah," but gave him an extremely limited budget and only 35 days to shoot the movie, including the monster sequences. This allowed Banno to try a few things that had never been tried in a kaiju film before.
As a result, "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" screams of the 1970s, filled to the brim with counter culture ideals and movements, like the underground dance sequence where there is clearly some trippy drugs in the air as a woman in a skin-tight body suit and long hair singing to a large group of teenagers. Scenes like these are typically followed by trippy or odd sequences, like one of our main characters, Yukio (Toshio Shiba), imagining that everybody in the club has fish masks on while they're partying.
Then there are just strange sequences that make no sense at all. There are three short animated scenes, showing Hedorah's growth and how he'll take over the world. At one point, Hedorah flies through the metal frame of a building, which is followed by the building collapsing in on itself with no sound whatsoever. Or a scene late in the film that is framed like the opening of "The Brady Bunch," with multiple screens that show people outraged about the government not doing enough to stop Hedorah, as well as one shot showing a baby trapped in a pile of sludge.
I don't think anybody will complain when I say "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" is the weirdest Godzilla film. And yet, I honestly love this film for its odd sense of unmatched style and brutal honesty against how the government was handling the pollution problem.
There isn't much to the plot of this film - A local doctor discovers an odd-looking tadpole-like creature that turns out to be from a much larger monster that has been attacking everything out at sea, in particular oil freighters. The monster leaves a wake of pollution and destruction in its path and continues to grow as he takes on more trash and toxic material. The doctor eventually finds out this creature came to Earth on a comet from another galaxy and has been slowly but surely growing larger off of our pollution. He suspects that if this monster, nicknamed Hedorah, is left unchecked, it could wipe out spread a giant wave of pollution over the planet and kill everything.
So how does Godzilla fit into this? This is the first film that officially makes Godzilla a planet-saving hero. In the first portion of the Showa series, there was no doubt he was the villain. After "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster," there was a bit more ambiguity about who Godzilla was fighting for, but leaning more so towards fighting for himself. But now Godzilla is a super-hero for all of Japan, coming to our rescue to stop the threats we cannot hurt. In this case, our introduction to Godzilla is a breath-taking shot of him rising with the setting sun and roaring into the distance, followed by him blasting the waste-filled ocean with his atomic breath.
One aspect I find truly fascinating with "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" are its many similarities to the original "Godzilla." In particular, Hedorah's introduction is eerily similar to Godzilla's introduction - a monster that lurks beneath the sea and attacks unsuspecting cargo ships that causes a national panic. On top of that, Hedorah represents the biggest concern of the Japanese people at the time, and their growing fears of pollution affecting their lives, much like the original Godzilla reflected the world's greatest concerns in the 1950s over nuclear weapons.
And how ironic is it that the manifestation of the world's problems in the 1950s has to fight the reflection of those problems in the 1970s?
Hedorah is a terrifying monster, looking like a massive pile of sentient sludge aside from two giant red eyes. He takes on multiple forms and each stage is more striking than the last, especially his final two stages, a flying form that uses toxic gas as propulsion and an utterly massive from that reigns supreme over any other Godzilla monster from the Showa era. His attacks consist of firing acidic sludge balls and his corrosive body that continually gets stronger. This makes for one of the most difficult fights Godzilla has ever had.
As for the monster fights, these are some of the more brutal scenes in the entire series. Starting from the first fight, we have Godzilla throwing Hedorah around like a rag doll that sends acidic sludge all over the city that has disastrous results. In the final battle, Godzilla loses one of his eyes, all the skin on one of his hands and is dropped into a giant pile of Hedorah's sludge. Hedorah's composition and fight style makes for some of the more imaginative scenes involving Godzilla, especially since his atomic breath has no effect on the space monster, meaning Godzilla has to get close to a monster made of acid and smog.
Hedorah ends up dominating most of their fights, especially after their first encounter, so it is serial to see Godzilla trying so hard to defeat a monster and getting absolutely no where. He gets about as desperate and feisty as Anguirus did against King Ghidorah in "Destroy All Monsters." These fights don't have the best cinematography of the series, but they're different enough that I can't help but admire them.
And that's this film in a nutshell - This is the weirdest, most "out-there" Godzilla movie and I adore it for that reason. All of its little eccentricities and odd moments are honestly the highlights of the film, as Yoshimitsu Banno puts all of the problems and style of the Japanese in the 1970s out there for us to see in all of their abstract and bizarre behavior. These scenes take what would have been an average monster movie and turns it into one of the best examples of daikaiju art.
If "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" is the dress rehearsal for what was about to come, and "Destroy All Monsters" is the grand finale to everything Ishiro Honda and crew worked towards, then "Invasion of Astro-Monster" (aka "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero") is the main act. This film takes everything that "Ghidrah" started and amplifies it, giving us a near perfect mix of the daikaiju and alien invasion genres that the Godzilla would try to emulate many times, but never get quite as great as "Invasion of Astro-Monster."
I like to think of this film as the final installment of a daikaiju trilogy that also includes "Mothra vs. Godzilla" and "Ghidrah," with each subsequent film building ever so slightly on top of the last one. One could even argue that the fourth film in that series of events is "Destroy All Monsters," even though two other Godzilla films happened between this and DAM. This is also the first Godzilla film to bring in a then-famous American actor in one of the lead roles, in this case Nick Adams, who had previously been in films like "Rebel Without A Cause," "Mister Roberts" and "No Time For Sergeants" even forming a solid friendship with James Dean. Adams would also go on to be one of the lead actors in "Frankenstein Conquers the World," while Toho would bring in other American actors like Russ Tamblyn to be in their monster movies.
One thing I would like to talk about first is the music. Once again, Akira Ifukube provides his usual impactful soundtrack for this movie, but for some reason the music is immensely effective this time, especially when the characters are in space. Ifukube gives us a soundtrack that feels like something out of "Forbidden Planet," while still giving us his typical grandiose flare. In fact, the piece Ifukube did for the space sequences was so effective that the American version made it the main theme.
And honestly, I think it's a much more effective theme than the Japanese version. This might be the one time where American version is superior to the Japanese film. In fact, here's the Japanese theme for "Invasion of Astro-Monster."
It's an effective military march and screams of triumph (this won't be the last time we hear this song in a Godzilla film), but it doesn't match the tone of the film that is about to come. "Invasion of Astor-Monster" is the closest the Godzilla films get to being a space opera, but this theme sounds like something you would see troops marching to. It's not bad, but not great either.
Now here's the American theme.
Every time I watch the American version and this theme starts up, I get chills down my spine. It's so isolated and distant, almost alien-sounding. As a kid, I was so scared from just this theme alone that I wanted to turn off the movie, even though the rest really isn't that scary. Even the part where you catch a hint of Godzilla's theme it sound eerie and foreign. I have no problem with this being the main theme for the American verison.
Anyway, the film begins in the year 196X...I guess they got so far into the future they just stopped using numbers for the years. Scientists have discovered a large planet, nearly as big as Mars, that had been hidden behind Jupiter until now. The planet has an interesting composition and the fact that it has just been discovered makes the world authorities send up a space ship to go travel to this new world, nicknamed Planet X.
Aboard the rocket are two astronauts, Fuji (Akira Takarada) and Glenn (Nick Adams). This again shows Ishiro Honda's desire to focus on the brotherly love between nations, since Fuji and Glenn are constantly exchanging jokes, talking about their troubles back on Earth, and enjoying a light-hearted atmosphere where the two act like they've known each other their entire lives.
Interestingly enough, when the movie was filmed, the entire cast spoke Japanese except for Nick Adams, who spoke all of his lines in English, yet everyone seems to understand each other perfectly. In the Japanese version, they dubbed over Adam's lines so that he speaks Japanese, while the English version restores Adam's original performance and dubs over everyone else. I've yet to watch a version of "Invasion of Astro-Monster" where everyone speaks in their native tongue.
Anyway, as the rocket approaches Planet X, they make some quick observations about the surface and how it looks like a sea covers most of the planet when it's really just oddly colored rocks, and how the gravity is a third of what it is on Earth. As they land on the surface, I'm still amazed their landing looks as good as it does. This looks like something out of "2001: A Space Odyssey," especially with the giant looming presence of Jupiter over them. Some of the other Toho alien invasion films had a tendency to look cheap at times, but this one goes all out to make it feel other-worldly, especially with its eerie music.
After Fuji and Glenn land on Planet X, they take a moment to see how different this planet is from Earth, like how it lacks visible atmosphere and appears to be nothing but barren rock, almost like the planet has been deserted. While they set up their international flags, Fuji sees some strange yellow lightning in the sky and his contact with Glenn is cut off. But the weirdest thing of all is that he returns to the landing site to find the rocket has disappeared.
As if things couldn’t get worse, an odd looking cylinder pops up out of the ground and politely tells him to step inside. He refuses and gets his gun shot out of his hand for good measure, and suddenly changes his tune and he is taken underground.
The introduction to these aliens, who refer to themselves as the people of Planet X but are more commonly known among fans as the Xillians, is slow and mysterious, building up this odd atmosphere where everything is cold and methodically calculated by the aliens. Their hallways are long and sterile, built only to serve their function while the lights are only lit on the necessary parts. Before we’ve even seen the aliens, we already know so much about them through their minimalistic yet logical environments.
Glenn and Fuji meet back up and we’re introduced to the leader of the Xillians, as well as their classic alien outfits, complete with visors that make it impossible to see their eyes. The leader claims that they are now their honored guests and that their rocket is safe, kept in an underground bunker. Before the two can ask why everything is underground, we find out exactly why – Monster Zero arrives and starts to attack the surface.
As the Xillians make preparations for its attack, we learn that Monster Zero is actually King Ghidorah. The leader says that everything on this planet is numbered and categorized, which explains Ghidorah’s name change, and that Monster Zero’s initial attack destroyed their above ground civilization, forcing what was left underground. After a short attack by Ghidorah, and a short pause when the Xillians’ water supply is damaged, the leader returns to say that everything is fine and that they have a request for the astronauts. Since they don’t have the ability to defeat Ghidorah, they want to borrow Earth monsters that have defeated the space dragon before – Godzilla and Rodan.
The Xillians say that all they need is permission from the people of the Earth and they’ll handle the rest, even rewarding humans with a miracle drug that will cure all known diseases. They even know exactly where Godzilla and Rodan currently are on Earth and will transport the two of them to Planet X to fight King Ghidorah. While this is suspicious, keep in mind that we already know these aliens think much differently than we do, so it’s no stretch that their social and political etiquette would be far more alien to us as well.
The astronauts return to Earth and immediately meet with the world leaders to discuss the Xillians request. The leaders are a bit conflicted, unsure of the aliens’ true intentions and how they went about telling us their request. But the majority seems to be in agreement, this is a golden opportunity to kill
three giant birds with one stone. Not only would Godzilla and Rodan be moved away from Earth, but they’d have the cure to every known illness. Ishiro Honda’s idea of paradise would be complete!
The next big development comes when the Japanese defense force finds movement at the lake the Xillians said Godzilla was located in. But instead of finding Godzilla, a classic bubble-headed alien spaceship flies out of the lake and hovers over the defense forces. When I think of alien space ships, these white and blue crafts are usually the first ones to come to mind, especially with the alien sound effects they make.
The next morning, the Xillian leader reveals himself to the people of the Earth, apologizing for hiding on our planet without our permission but says that our two worlds will now work together as one people. The leader deploys two more space ships to get Godzilla and Rodan in the most outlandish yet stylish way possible by removing the two from their environments without waking them up and putting the monsters inside of a stasis bubble, allowing them to transport the two to Planet X safely.
I've always loved this particular sequence, because it is so strange to see vastly different effects and weapons used on these monsters. Even at this point, bombs and planes had been over-used, so to see Godzilla trapped in an alien bubble to be taken to another planet is a nice change of pace.
The Xillians head back out, bringing along Glenn, Fuji and their commander to return to Planet X. At this point, our two astronauts begin to suspect the Xillians are up to more than they are leading on. With stasis fields that can stop a creature of any size in its tracks, a fully functional underground world with far more advanced technology than us and space ships that can travel between Earth and Planet X in less than four hours, why would they have so much trouble with King Ghidorah?
Along the way, the Xillians reveal that their ships are controlled using brain waves and that their thoughts are electronically controlled by computers, meaning there is no emotion in what they do, only facts and logic. They worship their computers as gods - to disobey a direct order from the computer is to disobey all of the Planet X culture.
Eventually, they make it back to Planet X with Godzilla and Rodan in tow, and they begin working on getting the two out of their stasis bubbles. Of course, just as they are finishing up, King Ghidorah arrives to cause more destruction. The Earth monsters are freed just in time and we begin the only monster fight in the Godzilla series that doesn't take place on Earth.
One criticism fans have with "Invasion of Astro-Monster" is how there are so few monster scenes, with this fight coming halfway through the movie and the only other scene is at the end of the movie. For a while, I agreed with this criticism until I realized this is an alien invasion story first, and a daikaiju film second. The monsters are not the main attraction here, they are mostly just plot devices to move the Xillian story along. The monsters make it stand out from other alien invasion films, but so does changing the story so we come to the aliens first.
That being said, this is a memorable monster fight between Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah, if only for the landscape they are fighting on. It feels like more of the final battle from "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" but with improved cinematography and Godzilla's crazy body slam at the end that forces Ghidorah to flee. This leads into one of the oddest moments in the entire franchise - Godzilla's victory dance.
Although it provides to quick laugh to see Godzilla jumping into the air and striking a pose, part of me feels this is where it becomes clear that Toho was marketing these films towards little kids. Why else would they put this shot of Godzilla dancing after he forces King Ghidorah to flee? The only thing missing is Rodan joining him in the dance.
Speaking of Rodan, his contribution to the fight is dropping one big rock on King Ghidorah. As we will see later, Rodan doesn't do much in this movie other than serve as another monster for the poster.
In the middle of the fight, the astronauts start to explore more of Planet X and find out a couple things - Gold is a plentiful resource to them, water is valuable, and all of their women look the same. In fact, they all bare a striking resemblance to Glenn's girlfriend back on Earth, Ms. Namikawa (Kumi Mizuno). The two are captured by the Xillians and forced to leave the planet in a copy of their original rocket. The Xillians hand the recipe for the miracle drug on a tape to the commander and the three head back to Earth, taking one last moment to say goodbye to Godzilla and Rodan.
As the three make it back to Earth safely, they start the tape the Xillian leader gave them so everyone on the planet can hear the good news. Unfortunately, the tape does not have the recipe to cure all diseases, instead it's a command by the Xillian leader - surrender control of the Earth to them or they will wipe out all of humanity.
In this tape, they reveal their plan - They always had control over King Ghidorah, using their brain wave machine to use him as their puppet. Now that they have Godzilla and Rodan on their planet, they can do the same thing to those two. They've always had a base of operations set up on Earth, so they've always known what we were up to. Additionally, Ms. Namikawa is an Xillian agent who was sent to spy on Glenn. If the world leaders do not willingly give up the planet in 48 hours, they will unleash the three monsters under their command and destroy everyone.
Another criticism fans with this film is the Xillien's plan - Why go to all the trouble of befriending humanity if the only reason to do that was so they could gain control over Godzilla and Rodan? Couldn't they have just used their brain wave machines on the two monsters while they were on Earth? I've never had too much of a problem with this complaint, since this provides a great over-arching story that has a shocking twist halfway through the movie. If it just started with the Xillian's attacking Earth and demanding control, the first half of the movie would be lost and we wouldn't have had those atmospheric and eerie scenes on Planet X.
That being said, the first half of the movie is the strong portion. From here, we get a mad scramble by the scientists and world leaders to find a way to combat the Xillian's and their monsters. Fuji pulls out a file of a machine that just so happens to be their ace in the hole - a device that distrupts magnetic waves, which would cut off the Xillian's control to the monsters. Apparently, every stupid scientific idea was kept in that drawer, kept their until just the right occasion and it becomes useful.
The best scene in the second half of the movie comes when Ms. Namikawa and Glenn meet again, Namikawa wearing her Xillian uniform. She explains that, while she was sent to spy on him, she truly did fall in love with him, something she never expected to happen, especially since it went against what the computers told her to do. I find this is more effective than other lover-turned-spy reveals, because Ms. Namikawa's directive to follow only what the computers tell her and Kumi Mizuno's performance. This is a woman who doesn't regret falling in love with Glenn, but does regret that it had to be this way. For the first time in her life, she's feeling emotions and cannot cope with them.
Namikawa ends up sacrificing herself when an Xillian commander tries to take Glenn prisoner and he vaporizes her without a second thought. This leads to some William Shatner-like acting from Nick Adams, as he screams at the top of his lungs after watching his girlfriend fade into nothing.
Other than that, it's mostly movie science about disrupting the magnetic waves, Glenn learning about the Xillian's weakness to loud sounds and a last-ditch attempt to save the planet. The better parts are the scenes showcasing some unique effects, like an Xillian spaceship melting a massive radio dish until it caves in on itself with very little noise, like watching a hot air balloon deflate.
The Xillians figure out what the humans are up to and move their attack ahead of schedule, sending Godzilla and Rodan to attack Japan while the space ships head out to attack the magnetic wave disruptors, known as the A-Cycle Light Rays, which apparently have been mass produced in the last day and a half because now they've got about two dozen of these things.
The attack by the monsters is a mix of stock footage and new scenes, though blended together so the old shots don't feel tiresome or reused. While the new footage is pretty neat to see, since we finally see the defense force attacking both Godzilla and Rodan at the same time. The budget problems of "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" are finally solved here and we get that all-out assault I was asking for. King Ghidorah eventually joins the fight and we get some of the best city destruction from the Showa series.
Except for Rodan, who just flaps his wings a couple times and knocks a couple shingles off someone's roof.
At this point, the humans put their plan into action. They send out a nation-wide signal and order everyone to turn up their radios as loud as possible and emit the noise that the Xillians cannot stand. Apparently, this works on their ships too because they start to malfunction, giving the defense forces enough time to finish setting up the A-Cycle Light Rays without being blown up by the aliens.
This is the point in the movie when the main Japanese theme comes into effect, as everything comes together in Earth's plan to stop the aliens. Their ships are breaking down, the monsters have been knocked out when their signal is disrupted, and the Xillian's Earth base has been located and blown up by a squadron of tanks (though it still takes them about ten shots to hit one house in the middle of the forest). It is an effective triumphant moment to see the humans not only overcome three giant monsters, but also a computer and logic-driven alien race.
Of course, this isn't the end of the movie yet - Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah have only been knocked out. Godzilla is the first one to awaken, who immediately get both of the others up and is ready to resume fighting King Ghidorah. We get a much better fight out of it, as Godzilla continually gets blasted with Ghidorah's gravity bolts but still does his best to get up-close to the space dragon and knock his three heads around. The fight ends in a way that is similar to the finale to "King Kong vs. Godzilla," with the three monsters tackling each other and throwing themselves off a cliff and into the ocean.
King Ghidorah is the only monster to emerge from the ocean and flies off into outer space once again. I would assume that, if this is the same logic as "King Kong vs. Godzilla," Ghidorah is considered the winner. We get some final bits of character development, as Glenn and Fuji share one last laugh before their commander orders Glenn to return to Planet X and become its new ambassador, giving everyone one last good joke.
"Invasion of Astro-Monster" is arguably Toho's best and most fascinating alien invasion tale. The aliens feel like a vastly different people instead of actors wearing a funny mask, their world is unique and captivating, and the idea that we were the first ones to reach out to them feels works well here. While the monsters don't get a whole lot of screen time, it is just enough to add a greater sense of scope to the movie.
This is one of the few Godzilla movies I would recommend watching in English over Japanese. Not only do you get to hear more of that creepy theme, but seeing and hearing Nick Adams' natural charm and charisma is a big plus too. Overall, this is a classic Toho daikaiju film and one of the best. It's smart, inventive, charming and filled with great effects and cinematography.
For a long time, I didn't enjoy this Godzilla film, "The Return of Godzilla." This was mostly because my only experience with the film was the American version that drastically changed the intent and message of the original Japanese version. The American film, "Godzilla 1985" was made by New World Cinema, owned by controversial B-movie filmmaker Roger Corman. But the reason Corman turned out a sorry product with "Godzilla 1985" was because you had a B-movie director trying to handle a monster movie that is deadly serious.
It wasn't until I watched the Japanese version recently that I understood why this is regarded as one of the best Godzilla films. "The Return of Godzilla" is the spiritual successor to the original 1954 "Godzilla" in more ways than one. It not only ignores every Godzilla film that happened between 1955 and 1975, but it updates the original's message on nuclear weapons and progression of science for a modern age by setting it in the midst of the Cold War.
Honestly, Japan has one of the most unique perspectives on the Cold War, even if they weren't involved. They sit right in the middle of two countries that were one bad argument away from nuclear war that could annihilate the world. If any country was going to get caught in the crossfire between the United States and the Soviet Union's ego battle, it was going to be Japan.
Not only that, but Japan had evolved a lot since the last Godzilla film in 1975, becoming a economic and technological powerhouse, but still with visible wounds from World War II. So it made sense to bring Godzilla back to make a new statement about the world and its use of nuclear weapons.
Keep in mind that in the three Godzilla movies prior to this one, we had a robot that looked like Jack Nicholson that could change his own size despite his creator not programming that in him, an underground civilization that had its own giant monster that looked like a cockroach, a princess singing to a giant golem/dog monster to wake it up to fight a giant robot, and Godzilla taking on the power of electricity to turn himself into a magnet. It's safe to say that the Godzilla series had stopped taking itself seriously and wanted to tell a story that harkened back to the first Godzilla film, the one that dared to show a whole hospital full of people that had been affected by Godzilla's rampage.
There's not much to say about the plot, especially since the title is the most accurate descriptor - Godzilla returns. The film is set in 1984, during the height of the Cold War, when a massive shift in the tectonic plates causes Godzilla to erupt out of the Earth and to reek havoc on Japan once again.
Of course, we only catch a brief glimpse of Godzilla in the first 45 minutes, so the first half of the film follows the implication that Godzilla is back once again. The Japanese government doesn't respond well to the news that a giant monster is coming to destroy everything again, so they don't do anything about it until they feel like there's enough evidence to suggest Godzilla is on the move. This results in a Russian nuclear submarine being attacked and destroyed by Godzilla, with the Soviets immediately blaming the Americans for destroying the sub and the Japanese for letting this happen in their waters.
Once the prime minister gets confirmation that it was Godzilla that destroyed the sub, it puts all of Japan in a difficult and almost hilarious spot - The prime minister has to stand in front of the entire world and tell everyone it wasn't the Americans that attacked the Soviets, it was Godzilla! So not only have you made things politically difficult between two warring nations, but you just confirmed that a giant fire-breathing indestructible monster could strike anywhere in the world at any time.
This sparks a long debate between representatives of Japan, America, and the Soviet Union, with the two former nations both pushing their own nuclear agendas on Japan. The Soviets say their in more danger, since Godzilla is much closer to Russia than America, and that they should be the one to take care of the monster. But the Americans and Japanese are now allies, so they think they should destroy Godzilla.
This is what I mean by the Japanese being a difficult spot with the Cold War - stuck right in the middle of two powerful nations who want to use Japan for their own needs. This is a country that's already seen the horrors of nuclear weapons first hand, and they know they don't want to go through it again. In the end, the film's decision on this is to show the resolve and determination of the Japanese people by saying they will not be bullied or threatened by anything that either side wants to force on them. The prime minister's ultimate choice is that nobody will use any nuclear weapons on Godzilla, even if he reaches the Japanese mainland.
Instead, the Japanese government starts searching for other alternatives to stop Godzilla aside from dropping a giant death bomb on him. The defense forces' top weapon is the Super-X, a flying fortress that could withstand Godzilla's atomic breath and comes equipped with cadmium missiles that would infect Godzilla with a poison that will slow down his heart. The prime minister gives his approval and the defense force is up on alert.
Additionally, the government hires scientists to research everything they have on Godzilla to try and find an exploitable weakness. This is where our main cast of characters come into play, including reporter Goro Maki (Ken Tanaka), sailor Naoko Okumura (Yasuko Sawaguchi) who witnessed Godzilla erupt from the Earth at the beginning of the movie, and professor Makoto Hayashida (Yosuke Natsuki). Hayashida lost his parents in Godzilla's initial attack in 1954 and describes Godzilla as a living nuclear weapon - he can't be reasoned with, can't be out ran or over powered, nor does he care about the lives he is trampling or setting ablaze. He is without mercy, compassion, or fear, only the desire to destroy.
We get our first glimpse of Godzilla about halfway through the film when he attacks a nuclear power plant in Ihama, and it is a haunting yet forceful introduction. The first few shots are from Godzilla's point of view as he breaks through a bank of fog to approach the power plant. Then there's a shot from a soldier's perspective, starting at Godzilla's toes and working up the entire length of his body to show how imposing he truly is. Outside of the newest Godzilla films, "The Return of Godzilla" is the best film to put Godzilla's size and scale to good use, especially with so many shots from human perspectives as Godzilla is about to trample on them.
I've always had mixed reactions to the Godzilla suit in this film. Sometimes the suit looks terrifying, especially from lower angels and shots that focus on his gigantic mouth. His teeth and massive maw might be the scariest part, because any time there's a shot of Godzilla reeling back to roar, the dread and hopelessness of fighting him sinks in even deeper.
The problem I have with this Godzilla suit is how inconsistent it feels. Sometimes the animatronics on the head and mouth are great and sometimes they look silly. There are several shots of Godzilla with the most derpy and lifeless expression on his face, like he has a thousand-yard stare. There's also points where Godzilla has an insanely tiny neck, like his head has inflated like a balloon. I wouldn't have a problem with any of this if it was constantly like that, but it keeps changing depending on the animatronics they used.
This film may have some of the best special effects of any Godzilla film, but the animatronics weren't as good as they could have been.
Anyway, during Godzilla's attack on the power plant, the scientists are confused when Godzilla stops his attack just to follow a flock of birds. Professor Hayashida proposes that Godzilla was distracted instinctively by a homing signal caused by these birds, since he is related to them in some way. The scientists find their weakness to exploit and come up with a plan to plant a similar homing signal at a nearby volcano, lure Godzilla to the mouth of the volcano, start a contained volcanic explosion and capture Godzilla inside of it.
Unbeknownst to all of these plans by the Japanese government, the Soviets have gone against the words of the prime minister and have one of their ships disguised as a freighter in Tokyo Harbor that is prepared to launch a nuclear missile from their orbiting satellites. Should Godzilla attack Japan, an automatic countdown for the missile launch will begin.
As this dire news comes to life, Godzilla rises out of Tokyo Bay and makes his way towards the most populated city in the world. The defense force does their best to fight off Godzilla, but they're about as successful as using a squirt gun to stop a shark. Godzilla not only blows up every jet but reduces nearly every ground troop to ash with one blast of his atomic breath.
When I was a kid, the special effects for "The Return of Godzilla" always looked weird to me. I would say this is because they looked so different from the effects of the Showa series. The thought that special effects would get better over time never crossed my mind. Not only are the effects in this film more lively and realistic than the Showa series, but they're even better than most of the effects in the later Heisei series.
Consider the start of Godzilla's initial attack on Tokyo here, where we see an lively and brightly colored Tokyo landscape, filled with neon signs, buildings taller than Godzilla and a modern train track. One of the first shots is the side of a building that shows Godzilla's reflection before we even see the rest of him, followed Godzilla accidently stepping in hole that leads underground to the subway and his claw scrapping the side of that same building, sending glass and metal beams every direction. This is followed by Godzilla dislodging a train from the tracks and lifting up one of the cars to roar at it.
This film takes advantage of its landscape and Godzilla's size every opportunity it gets to make a rampage that is almost as terrifying as his original attack on Tokyo in 1954. Almost.
Anyway, the freighter that holds the missile countdown is attacked and damaged by Godzilla and the timer starts. The captain tries to stop the countdown before it's too late, but is killed due to his injuries before he can do so, and the nuclear missile is launched right at the heart of Tokyo. While this is going on, the Super-X is launched to combat Godzilla, which tanks Godzilla's atomic breath and fires enough cadmium shells to slow down his heart and knock him unconscious.
This victory is brief though, since the Japanese immediately get word that the Soviets launched the nuke at Godzilla and they can't stop it. The prime minister begs the Americans to fire a counter-missile at the nuke before it's too late and they do so, leading to the suspenseful scene that you'll find in any Cold War film involving nuclear weapons.
However, where this film differs is that the two missiles collide in the stratosphere just above downtown Tokyo. While the nuclear blast was averted, it does light up the surrounding atmosphere, providing a bright orange and red light show that leads to an electrical storm and an EMP that shuts down everything electrical in Tokyo, including the Super-X. But some things involving Godzilla never die and every blast of electricity from the storm is drawn to him. With all that extra power, Godzilla awakens again and heads straight for the downed Super-X.
This leads to my favorite part of the movie as Godzilla and the Super-X had an all-out fight through Tokyo, putting all the special effects to use. Even though the Super-X pilots forget about the cadmium shells, they put up a great fight as they get continually blasted by Godzilla and even fight through the giant holes Godzilla puts in the sides of buildings. I love the shot of the Super-X firing everything through this giant hole in a skyscraper while Godzilla just walks right at the machine, even with the building in the way.
The fight ends with most of downtown Tokyo being set ablaze and Godzilla knocking over a building three times his size on top of the Super-X. This leads to some great cinematography as Godzilla's size not only comes back into play, but makes great use of the burning city.
Just as Godzilla is about to crush Goro Maki, Professor Hayashida finally finishes setting everything up at the closest active volcano to Tokyo, Mt. Mihara. He turns on the machine and it immediately gets Godzilla's attention, who stops his rampage on Tokyo to head to the volcano. Once he's there, suddenly the shot of Godzilla's thousand-yard stare works when he sees the machine sending out the homing signal, realizing it's too late for him to leave and is dropped into the mouth of the volcano.
The final scene of Godzilla being forced inside of Mt. Mihara has always been a weird one to me. The music is immensely sad and a little heart-breaking, as if this is a terrible thing we're doing or that we're supposed to feel sorry for Godzilla. While the scene does have breath-taking cinematography, especially in the final shot of Godzilla falling inside the volcano, I never felt bad that this had to happen to him. Godzilla is the true villain of this movie and now the rest of the world is safe from his destruction. Still, the ending is just as satisfying as the rest of the movie so I can't complain too much.
I should mention that, like "King Kong vs. Godzilla," the American version of this movie is different. Roger Corman wanted to make a film that didn't feel like an American-version of a Japanese film, but to make a sequel to another film, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" That film was the American-version of the first Godzilla movie, which took out 10 minutes of original Japanese footage and added 20 minutes of new footage, mostly scenes with American actor Raymond Burr playing a reporter who witnesses Godzilla's attack on Japan firsthand. While that movie is fine, it does strip away most of the nuclear weapon subtext and complexity of the Japanese film and simplifies most of story.
Likewise, "Godzilla 1985" takes out most of the subtext involving the Cold War and simplifies everything down to just an average monster movie. The American version brought back Raymond Burr to play the same character he did in "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" though changed his name slightly. His character's name was Steve Martin, which wasn't a problem in 1956, but in 1985, comedian Steve Martin was popular. They didn't want to confuse people so they just referred to Burr as Mr. Martin, as he is now a consultant for the Americans who are witnessing Godzilla's attack on Tokyo.
One controversial change "Godzilla 1985" made was during the scene on the Soviet freighter after the countdown has started. In the American version, the captain deliberately launches the missile instead of attempting to stop the missile.
"Godzilla 1985" is a dumb movie that lacks complexities or understanding of the source material and would rather promote products like Dr. Pepper instead of tell a good story.
"The Return of Godzilla," on the other hand, is a worthy successor to the original "Godzilla." It is moody, atmospheric, and downright chilling at times, especially in the details with Godzilla's attack. It makes a modern statement on nuclear weapons and the Cold War without diluting it for the sake of drama or action. The special effects, while looking a little dated at times, still hold up today and look different from any other Godzilla movie. As the start to the Heisei series, you couldn't have asked for something better than this.
And so we finally reach my top ten favorite Godzilla movies. If you're as big of a Godzilla nerd as me, you already know which films are in my top ten. The question is where will they fall. I will give those who don't know a bit of info on my top ten - I still have one Heisei film, one Millennium, one that doesn't quite fit into any series at this point, and seven Showa movies. In case you were wondering, the first Godzilla series is my favorite series.
Speaking of the first Godzilla series, let's talk about its revitalization in the 1960s. While the first Godzilla film was a massive hit worldwide, "Godzilla Raids Again" proved to Toho that a series wasn't viable at the time, so they put Godzilla on the backburner for a while. It wasn't until Toho was approached by American producer John Beck to make a new King Kong film that Toho considered bringing Godzilla back again.
At this point, Godzilla had been off theater screens for roughly seven years, allowing Toho to make a wider range of monster movies, like "Rodan," "Mothra," "Varan," "The Mysterians" and many others. But everything changed when they decided to make "King Kong vs. Godzilla."
I've already written an insanely long recap on "King Kong vs. Godzilla"'s history in my novel-length write-up on King Kong's history, but here's the jist of it - John Beck approached Toho to create the effects for Willis O'Brien's idea about Kong fighting a large version of Frankenstein's monster (without O'Brien's permission to ask Toho for help). Toho happily agreed but thought the movie would sell better if Kong fought Godzilla instead of Frankenstein's monster. At this point, Toho was basically given free reign to do what they wanted with the Japanese version of the movie, and thus "King Kong vs. Godzilla" was born.
I should note this film is so much higher than films like "Destroy All Monsters" and "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" mostly for nostalgic reasons. This is the first movie I ever remember watching. It is the movie that not only got me into Godzilla, but cinema in general. I must have been three-years old when I first saw "King Kong vs. Godzilla" on a television station (probably the Sci-fi channel) and not being able to take my eyes off the screen while Godzilla and Kong fought on top of Mt. Fuji. For me, this movie is what I watch if I want to feel like a little kid again, rooting for Godzilla to roast Kong with his atomic breath, only to immediately turn around and cheer for King Kong as he zaps and punches Godzilla.
Is the movie actually any good? I would say the Japanese version is a pretty damn good monster movie, but the American version can be skipped outside of the monster sequences.
There are three Godzilla films where the Japanese and American versions are so radically different that they might as well be different movies entirely. We'll cover another one of those three next time, but "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is one of those movies, since the American version basically strips the plot, atmosphere, and music from the Japanese version in favor of it's own dumbed-down narrative. As such, the plot description for this one will be kept smaller than usual.
One thing I will give "King Kong vs. Godzilla" credit for is being the one that started the trend. Even though it was not the first Toho film to pit two monsters against one another, with "Godzilla Raids Again" being the first to do that, every "Vs." monster movie that came after would follow in this movies footsteps. Both monsters share the title, they get fairly equal screen time and development, and the majority of the third act is dedicated to their final battle. Without "King Kong vs. Godzilla" to set the trend, we would have the premise for the rest of the Godzilla series.
One thing that does bother me with this movie though is that it tries a bit too hard to be like the original 1933 "King Kong" with its Kong segments. Everything feels like a direct translation of the first Kong movie, from their journey to find him on a newly discovered island, to capturing him and bringing him back to civilization, to a rampage through a major city while clutching a woman in his paw. Granted, Ishiro Honda and Toho loved King Kong to death and this was their way of paying homage to the granddaddy of all giant monsters. Still, the only King Kong segments I enjoy in this film are the ones that stray from the first film, especially when he's fighting Godzilla.
This version of Godzilla is a little different from most other interpretations. Instead of the walking nuclear weapon we got in the two previous Godzilla films, we get a more bestial monster. One with a more innate curiosity with the things he's crushing or burning, but still just as unstoppable as ever.
My favorite use of Godzilla in this movie comes after he breaks free from his icy prison and makes his way towards the Russian mainland. It's a series of three short shots that show the Russians firing at Godzilla with everything they have, but Godzilla repeatedly gets closer in every shot, unfazed by anything the Russians are doing to him. The first shot he's so far away that you can barely see anything, but the final shot shows a terrifying monster with huge claws and teeth coming for you without any hesitation.
Part of what sells this version of Godzilla is the suit, which is far bigger and clunkier than any other Godzilla suit. While later Godzilla films would try to humanize him, this Godzilla is massive, like a big wall of radiated flesh and muscle. His spines are huge, but his head is pretty small, except for his eyes with are practically bulging out of his head. This is a Godzilla that finds a good balance between terrifying and beast-like.
The same cannot be said for the King Kong suit, which is pretty ridiculous. His fur is all mangled and messy, his face and chest looks misshapen and the prop they used for his close-ups is nightmarish. If they had a Kong suit that matches this Godzilla suit, this film would be much higher on my countdown.
Like I said, the story between the Japanese and American versions are fairly different. The Japanese version focuses more on a failing television studio, run by the over the top Mr. Tako (Ichiro Arishima), that wants to focus more on children friendly content, but learns that most kids find their shows boring and dull. The company learns of a recent voyage by a pharmaceutical company to an island in the south Pacific, named Faro Island, where they found a bunch of natives that worship a giant creature as their god. Upon hearing this, Mr. Tako says this god could be just the thing to boost their ratings and orders two of his lackeys to go to Faro Island and bring back this monster god.
Some of these points are still the case in the American version, but they glance over the whole failing television studio problem, skipping straight to the meeting with the scientist returning from Faro Island. In the Japanese version, we witness first hand how bad things are going and how desperate Mr. Tako has to be to save his company. The American version regularly cuts to the United Nations in New York to tell us about what else is going on in the world, as well as analysis's to tell us about why Kong and Godzilla are coming back now, why they're so inclined to fight each other, and who might win.
This leads to some ridiculous notions that still stick to Godzilla to this day, like his brain being the size of a marble or that he's a fusion of a T-Rex and a Stegosaurus, neither of which is the case, especially since Godzilla's spines look nothing like that of Stegosaurus' dorsal plates. The acting in these segments is also not good and it all comes across as pretty pointless since they're so far away from the action and never contribute anything outside of dumb observations.
With Mr. Tako's lackeys off to Faro Island to find King Kong, the rest of the world turns its attention to the Bering Sea where many large icebergs have started popping up. They find the sea is much hotter than it should be and send in a United States submarine to investigate. They find an iceberg that is glowing a strange blue color. Like a bunch of idiots in the Godzilla universe, they approach the iceberg and crash right into it. And before they're able to do anything outside send up an emergency flare, they submarine is engulfed in flames and we hear a familiar roar.
As a rescue helicopter spots the submarine's emergency signal, they notice the iceberg they crashed into starts breaking apart to reveal Godzilla, who makes his way back to land. This is a great reintroduction to Godzilla. The scene takes its time to build up the mystery of the many icebergs, the desperate attempt to save the sub from flooding, only to be set on fire instead. It feels like a classic submarine battle from films like "Das Boot" or "The Hunt for Red October," only these guys don't even realize they're in a battle or that they're fighting a giant monster.
After this, the film spends a lot of time on Faro Island, rehashing the 1933 "King Kong" until Kong finally shows up and does battle with an actual octopus. Once Kong has defeated the octopus with some boulders, the special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya has the octopus for dinner, and Kong finds some berry juice made by the natives and immediately falls asleep. Tako's explorers use this opportunity to snatch up King Kong and send themselves back to Japan while towing Kong.
One thing I never thought about "King Kong vs. Godzilla" when I was a kid is just how silly and comical the film feels. Tako's explorers befriend the natives with radios and cigarettes, the whole idea of tying up a giant monster to a boat and towing him back to Japan (yet he doesn't wake up until he end of the journey), and the concept that a failing television studio is responsible for all of this. Part of the reason I never saw this is because the rest of the film takes itself rather seriously, especially the scenes involving Godzilla which go into gruesome detail about the carnage he is inflicting across the land.
It's like "Godzilla vs. Biollante," which has a ton of silly and ridiculous stuff in it, but otherwise takes itself rather seriously.
As soon as Mr. Tako arrives on the ship towing King Kong, they engage in comedic hijinks, flailing themselves around a lever that will ignite all the dynamite around Kong. After the Japanese defense forces tell Tako that Kong isn't allowed to enter Japanese waters, Kong of course starts to wake up and they try to light up the dynamite anyway, which only results in letting Kong run loose on Japan.
This leads right into the first confrontation between King Kong and Godzilla, and it is an extremely short fight, mostly to show how different these two monsters are, as well as how Kong will be fighting an uphill battle against a monster that's just as strong as him and can breathe fire. Kong throws a couple of boulders at Godzilla, he retaliates with his atomic breath, Kong doesn't know what else to do and leaves.
After that, the two monsters go their separate ways and we watch the defense force try to combat both of them. They come up with an incredibly complex plan to deal with Godzilla, including fill all the rivers around him with gasoline to lure him into one spot, drop him into a giant hole they dug and set off lots of dynamite. It goes about as well as you think it would, but it is nice to see the defense force thinking outside the box.
Their other plan exploits one of Godzilla's weaknesses in this movie - lightning...even though in subsequent films it'll either wake him up from a long nap or turn him into a magnetic pole. The defense force strings a massive electrical fence around all of Tokyo to prevent Godzilla from getting inside. It works and Godzilla retreats to Mt. Fuji. However, the electrical fence is their undoing when fighting King Kong, who gets stronger through electricity.
Part of me thinks this was originally a concept from the first draft of the movie, when it was King Kong fighting Frankenstein, where Kong shied away from lightning and Frankenstein grew more powerful by taking it in. Otherwise, it always felt like the lightning was a deus-ex-machina to help Kong in his final battle against Godzilla.
Anyway, Kong tears through the electrical fence and rampages through Tokyo for a little while as they reenact more of the 1933 movie, with Kong even climbing to the top of a famous Tokyo landmark with a woman in his hand. The defense force calls upon Mr. Tako and his explorers to use the same berry juice that put Kong to sleep on Faro Island. It succeeds and Kong passes out in the middle of his rampage.
But the defense force gets word that Godzilla has been spotted on Mt. Fuji and they're exhausted from fighting both monsters. Their next best idea is to bring Kong to Godzilla and have the two of them fight each other, hoping that they'll destroy each other. And of course, they do this in the most ludicrous manner possible, stringing together around six hot air balloons to Kong and a couple helicopters and carrying him from Tokyo to Mt. Fuji like he's a puppet performing for a stage show.
I've never had that much of a problem with this sequence, mostly because of what follows it - the climatic battle between two titans on top of Mt. Fuji. This battle is just as fun to watch as the final monster battle at the end of "Destroy All Monsters," if not more so because of how creative Kong gets during the fight. It's over-the-top while still being grand in all the best ways. From the start as Kong uses the mountain side as a slide to ram Godzilla, the tone and mood are set immediately.
When I think of an all-out brawl, this fight is the first thing that comes to mind as the two monsters throw everything they have into their attacks, throwing each other down the mountain side, with Kong grasping at anything he can and Godzilla lighting his opponent up with his breath. The fight gets even more crazy when Kong gets a power-up from a lightning storm and starts pounding Godzilla with his electrically charged fists.
This is the fight that all other kaiju battles strive to be.
The battle even ends on one of the most iconic shots of the entire series - the two monsters standing on opposite ends of a pagoda and tearing it apart to get at each other, as if they're fighting over who can tear down this ancient building first, before they both fall off a cliff and into the ocean together.
For a while, there was a controversy over the ending of "King Kong vs. Godzilla." It was believed that, in the American version, King Kong is the first one to surface and is the victor. While the Japanese version had Godzilla rise out of the sea and he was the winner. I remember for years people spread rumors about the alternate endings to this movie, but it turns out it's all fake. In both versions of the movie, King Kong is the only one to rise out of the ocean after the battle and is declared the winner of the battle.
I'd just like to take a moment to call BS on this ruling. Just because Kong was the first to come out of the water doesn't mean he won. Godzilla could still be down there waiting for Kong to keep fighting. If anything, Kong is retreating so he should be the loser. Maybe Godzilla just hit his head on some rocks and he'll be ready to fight again in a minute. This fight is so good that I don't want it to end right there, I would have loved to see this fight continue in the ocean, so it sucks that they just ended it right there.
Overall, I love "King Kong vs. Godzilla" but the Japanese version is superior to the American. The film is silly but not overtly silly that you cannot take it seriously. Most of the sequences involving Godzilla are terrifying and suspenseful, especially when he's the only monster around. The characters are likable enough, especially Mr. Tako and his explorers who add some much needed levity to the scenes on Faro Island. Of course, the highlight of the film is the final battle and it is still just as satisfying and exciting now as it was when I was a kid. If you've never seen the Japanese version of this movie, I highly recommend that version for its improved story and soundtrack.
Full disclaimer on "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II" - This is my ultimate guilty pleasure Godzilla movie. This isn't a particularly well-made Godzilla film, and is more-or-less just a dumb popcorn flick that exemplifies how repetitive the Heisei series could be. But goddamn, I love this movie!
Honestly, there's a lot to love about it. The soundtrack by Akira Ifukube is one of the best he did since the 1960s Godzilla films. Every monster scene feels unique and carries enough weight that it makes every fight feel substantial, not to mention every monster gets a good chance to shine. The plot, while simple, does its job at creating one of the better "Man vs. Godzilla" films of the Heisei series. But what really gets me with "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II" is its ending, and we will get to that later.
I should note this isn't a direct sequel to 1974's "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla" (though that film did have a direct sequel that I'll talk about later). This film takes place in the middle of the Heisei series, right after "Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth" but before "Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla." There aren't many films out there that have the number two in the title but are not sequels, and this is one of them.
The film begins with the creation of the G-Force, the worldwide organization tasked with tracking and defeated Godzilla once and for all. The first weapon they build to fight Godzilla is a machine called Garuda, a large jet-like object with two maser cannons on it, but it was put on the backburner after G-Force considered it too weak. Their next big discovery came when they explored the bottom of the sea and found the wreckage from Mecha-King Ghidorah after its fight with Godzilla at the end of "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah."
The G-Force salvaged what they could from Mecha-King Ghidorah and started reverse-engineering its armor and technology, which is pretty big considering it's made up of tech from the 23rd century. The G-Force then set out to use this knowledge and power to create their next big project - MechaGodzilla.
The film spends the next little while talking about how badass MechaGodzilla is, describing how they basically took the weapons the Heisei series has built up to this point and put it in MechaGodzilla. It has Mecha-King Ghidorah's armor and schematics, missiles that can paralyze Godzilla like the first Super-X did in "Return of Godzilla," and it even has an upgraded version of the Super-X2's fire mirror, able to absorb Godzilla's atomic ray to power its ultimate weapon, the Plasma Grenade.
Now the only thing missing for this operation are MechaGodzilla's pilots. The G-Force basically makes an entire school to teach trainees the best way to fight Godzilla, including lessons on the amount of time between his dorsal spines lighting up and his atomic ray being unleashed. All of this shows just how far Japan has come in their fight against Godzilla and the knowledge they're accumulated on him.
My only complaint is that the characters they show that will end up being the pilots are pretty big douchebags. The commander is a stickler for the rules and seems to go out of his way to terrorize other people. His second-in-command is an American woman, who wastes no time demonstrating her martial arts abilities (something that I'm sure will come in very handy against the 100-meter tall fire-breathing lizard). And then there's our main character Aoki (Masahiro Takashima), a bumbling idiot who is a bit too obsessed with Pteranodons and Pterodactyls, too the point that it gets in the way of his job of being Garuda's mechanic and working as a MechaGodzilla pilot.
While this is going on, a group of research scientists head to a remote island in the Bering Sea. On a rocky cliff side they find two large eggs, one that looks like it was opened from the inside and another unopened and supposedly intact. As they examine the unopened egg and strap it into their helicopter to return to Japan, the egg starts glowing red and the wind on the island starts to pick up.
The scientists quickly find out the cause of the wind - Rodan.
Like most of the other monster scenes in this movie, I adore Rodan's introduction here, starting out on a long shot of the set where you can barely see Rodan in the background until he finally arrives on a large rock pillar overlooking the scientists' camp. The whole time the scene remains silent, except for the sound of Rodan's wings. But once Rodan gets on his perch, his theme music starts playing very slowly, just enough to send shivers down my spine every time. As soon as he lets out his roar and unleashes his attack, then his theme song goes to work, Ifukube providing the perfect match to Rodan's speed and strength.
I would also like to take a moment to talk about Rodan in general. To be honest, I was never a big fan of Rodan. I really liked his design with the red/brown color scheme and spikes on the chest of a giant pterodactyl, but Rodan's character in the Godzilla films always made him seem like a coward. In "Destory All Monsters," after getting blasted with one of King Ghidorah's gravity beams, he flies away. Rodan is the only monster to retreat during that battle, which really painted my picture of Rodan as a scaredy-cat. He was alright in "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" but seemed like the odd-one out compared to Godzilla and Mothra. Same with his other appearance in the Showa series, "Invasion of Astro-Monster." I didn't hate Rodan's appearances in the Showa series, but it really came across like the filmmakers didn't know what to do with him.
But this version of Rodan? He's swift, pretty cunning for a giant monster, and isn't afraid to take on any threat despite how powerful they might be. I'm not afraid to admit this is my favorite incarnation of Rodan.
There's just one little problem with this scene, as well as with the rest of the film - in the English dub, they call him "Radon" instead of Rodan. I know that's his Japanese name, but this isn't the Japanese version of the film. He has an English name, so call him by that name!
So just as things are looking bad for the scientists, since Rodan has forced them to a precipice over the ocean, the ocean lights up and a familiar blast of blue energy shoots out of the ocean towards Rodan. The scientists point out the obvious and Godzilla rises out of the ocean to do battle with Rodan.
This battle is spectacular. The shot that convinced me of this is later on that reveals how much smaller Rodan is than Godzilla, where the mutated pterodactyl looks like he's about a fifth of Godzilla's size. And yet Rodan dominates most of this fight by finding different ways to combat Godzilla. He attacks him from behind, he slashes Godzilla's ankles and supersonic speeds and even forces him into a giant pile of rocks. This Rodan is one of the few Heisei monsters that doesn't have any energy attacks, so it's amazing to see a fight where the monster has been far more creative with their attacks. Even Godzilla doesn't use his atomic ray that much, mostly just near the end of the fight, though not before downing Rodan and stomping Rodan until he's as flat as a pancake.
During the battle, the scientists escape in their helicopter with the large egg and Godzilla is victorious, knocking Rodan into a cliff side with his atomic breath, though oddly enough Godzilla seems to chase after the helicopter.
I should also note that all this happens within the first fifteen minutes of the movie. "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II" wastes no time getting straight to the reason we're watching this movie.
The scientists take the egg back to their institute in Kyoto to study it, believing that it is a pteranodon egg, since it came from the same nest as Rodan's egg. After hearing about it on the news, Aoki immediately ditches all of his responsibilities at G-Force and drives to Kyoto to see a real pteranodon egg, much to the irritation of the lead researcher Azusa (Ryoko Sano) and the audience. It doesn't get any easier when he starts hitting on her.
Aoki gets his hands on a plant-like sample that came from the egg and who should come across Aoki and the sample but our dear friend Miki Saegusa. She says that she picks up strange vibes from the sample and takes it to the "psychic institute" so that about a dozen kids can put their hands around it and see if they can feel anything. Sure Miki, you keep telling yourself that you can talk to plants. First "Godzilla vs. Biollante" and now this.
Anyway, the institute can make a recording of what the kids picked up from the plant sample and play for the scientists to hear, noting that it sounds like a very odd piece of music. But apparently they put this music at its maximum volume because the egg hears the music and starts hatching. But instead of a baby pteranodon, a baby Godzilla comes out instead.
While the scientists are initially scared about a baby Godzilla inside their lab, they quickly learn it is a friendly plant-eating dinosaur that thinks Azusa is his mother, since she was the first person he saw. But just as everyone is celebrating this new creature, Miki senses that Godzilla has made landfall in Japan and is rampaging throughout the country.
This immediately gets the attention of the G-Force as they scramble to launch MechaGodzilla. The Captain waits for every pilot to show up, noting that Aoki is missing, since he's still in Kyoto goofing off. They get a new back-up pilot and this leads to about a five-minute launching sequence of MechaGodzilla. Yeah, good hustle out there guys, Godzilla's probably destroyed two major cities at this point.
And so we come to our first confrontation between Godzilla and MechaGodzilla. I have to admit that they suit acting for Godzilla and the props they use to show Godzilla's facial expressions is wonderful here, since we get a full range of emotions from Godzilla reacting to a monster that looks exactly like him, from confusion to rage to dominating.
The fight itself is exactly the kind of stuff I love from a battle between these two - MechaGodzilla easily overpowering Godzilla with his vast range of beams and weapons and Godzilla not being able to do much in response. My favorite part is when Godzilla finally uses his atomic ray, is shocked to see it did nothing to MechaGodzilla and then gets blasted with the Plasma Grenade, going down in just one shot.
Unfortunately, the pilots get a little bit cocky and forget about Godzilla's nuclear pulse, which sends their final attack of shocking Godzilla with an anchor right back at them and shutting down MechaGodzilla. Godzilla gives MechaGodzilla one last big body slam for good measure and walks away to continue his rampage.
After a pointless fight between Godzilla and military, we learn why Godzilla suddenly showed up now - he's on his way to Kyoto to get the baby Godzilla. The scientist hide the baby in the basement of their building but Godzilla just starts tearing the building down. In an attempt to calm the baby down, he apparently tells Godzilla through their telepathic link to leave him alone...which Godzilla does so reluctantly. Again, I have to applaud the suit acting here because it really does come across like Godzilla doesn't want to leave the baby here, especially after everything he went through to get here, and is sad to leave the only other member of his race with these people.
After that, there's a bit of down time where a few key things happen. Aoki is fired from the G-Force but is given a second chance when he suggests combining Garuda with MechaGodzilla to form a more powerful machine. The G-Force takes in Azusa and the baby Godzilla so they can study its biology in the hopes to learn more about Godzilla. And finally, after a chorus of little children sing the same song that woke up the baby Godzilla from its egg, Rodan apparently hears the song and is not only revitalized but is given a power-up, turning from Rodan to Fire Rodan and makes his way towards Japan.
The G-Force studies the baby Godzilla and learns that it has a large cluster of nerves at the base of its tail, acting almost like a second brain. They assume that Godzilla must have this as well and create a new weapon to take advantage of this - The G-Crusher. Once they destroy that nerve cluster, Godzilla will not even be able to stand up. They also plan to use the baby Godzilla to lure Godzilla into the open and conduct their next attack on a deserted island.
Of course, Miki makes a complaint against this plan, saying that it is too horrible to use on Godzilla. This leads to the funniest part of the movie when the leaders of the G-Force say that they're not only moving forward with the G-Crusher plan, but they want Miki to be the one to pull the trigger. Her psychic powers will make finding the second brain much easier and she is ordered to go onboard MechaGodzilla the next time Godzilla emerges.
Any movie where someone with authority gives Miki Saegusa a smack down and tells her what to do is great in my book.
But just as the helicopter takes the baby Godzilla and Azusa to the island, it is attacked by Fire Rodan. The chopper is destroyed and Rodan takes the container with the baby and Azusa away. This leads to Fire Rodan's rampage through a major city (even stopping by Japan's Disneyland for a moment), and it is a nice attack, especially with Ifukube's heart-pounding music and the massive shadows Rodan casts over the city.
The scientists speculate that since the baby Godzilla and Rodan came from the same nest, that they have a deep connection to each other. Anytime the baby Godzilla's eyes glow red, either Godzilla or Rodan have responded by coming to the baby's rescue. They're not attacking just for the sake of attacking, but to protect the baby Godzilla.
The G-Force responds to this by sending out MechaGodzilla and Garuda to combat Fire Rodan, figuring that Godzilla will probably be here soon as well. While the G-Force assigns an experienced pilot to Garuda, Aoki decides to be a jackass and hijacks piloting duties for Garuda because "it was his idea." Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.
As the day turns to night, Rodan lands in a metropolitan area and starts to open the crate holding Azusa and the baby just as MechaGodzilla and Garuda show up. We learn that Rodan's transformation granted him an energy-based attack, which I don't have a problem with since Rodan still prefers to attack his enemies head-on. The only reason they gave him a beam is so MechaGodzilla could absorb it to power the Plasma Grenade.
This leads to a brief aerial fight between Fire Rodan and Garuda, which ends after Rodan rams Garuda and causes it to crash. After that we get a pretty damn good battle between Rodan and MechaGodzilla that is one of the more brutal Heisei fights. Like his earlier fight with Godzilla, Rodan puts up one hell of a fight, and it works for a while since MechaGodzilla was designed to fight Godzilla and not him. Rodan is able to damage some of MechaGodzilla's systems with his beak and direct attacks, including knocking out his eye lasers, and actually takes several blasts from the Plasma Grenade before getting a giant hole blasted in his chest.
Of course, just as soon as Fire Rodan is defeated, Godzilla shows up to continue the fight. Suddenly, the mood takes a drastic change as the pilots are convinced that this will be the battle where humans finally overcome Godzilla. The problem is that MechaGodzilla is weakened due to their fight with Rodan and Garuda is out of commission.
This leads to a fight that pretty much exemplifies the Heisei series, as Godzilla and MechaGodzilla engage in a beam war, where their energy weapons clash in mid-air and cause an explosion of sparks that knocks them both to the ground. The fight does get better once MechaGodzilla is incapacitated and Godzilla starts throwing him around like a rag doll.
Aoki is finally able to get Garuda running again and launches it to fight Godzilla. After a brief struggle where Godzilla gets knocked down, that gives them enough time to link up the two machines to form their ultimate weapon, Super MechaGodzilla, with Garuda acting as a jet-pack for the already stacked robot.
We get another beat down from Super MechaGodzilla, unleashing all of their combine weapons until Godzilla is down long enough for Miki to locate Godzilla's second brain. While she hesitates, she does target the brain and they unleash the G-Crusher, destroying Godzilla's nerve cluster and paralyzing him. After a few more blasts of Super MechaGodzilla's attacks, they succeed and kill Godzilla.
I'm not kidding. According to reports from Toho about this scene and a shot later that shows a motionless Godzilla, the G-Force is successful in killing Godzilla here. It's not too often you see humans overcoming Godzilla through sheer force and firepower but this is a pleasant change of pace.
But of course, you cannot finish off Godzilla like this. Which leads us to the best part of the movie, as the baby Godzilla can sense that Godzilla is in trouble and breaks through the container and roars as loud as he can. This roar doesn't do anything for Godzilla, but it does awaken Rodan once again. With the little energy he has left, he gets up to help out in the fight. Super MechaGodzilla sees that Rodan is still alive and blasts him, forcing Rodan to land on top of the dead Godzilla.
With no other options left to them, Rodan sacrifices his life energy and transfers it into Godzilla. This sequence gets me every time. Maybe it's because of Ifukube's wonderfully emotional music, or maybe it's the way Rodan slowly dies, his body glowing like the last few ashes in a fire. But the main reason is that it serves as a perfect cap to Rodan's character in this film, giving up everything to save the only other life he cared about.
Rodan's energy revives Godzilla's second brain and causes a massive storm of radiation, as Godzilla rises back to his feet and roars in triumph. The Godzilla theme music starts up and we see that the storm has caused MechaGodzilla's armor to start melting. Then Godzilla shows off his newest weapon after gaining Rodan's energy, the Hyper-Spiral Beam. Anything this beam touches is engulfed in massive flames and explosions.
While this maybe an incredibly stupid scene, I love every second of it. The way Godzilla is brought back to life, the heroic sacrifice from Rodan, the music, and the effects work on Godzilla's beam are all wonderful here. When I think of how awesome and badass Godzilla can be, this finale is one of the first scenes that comes to mind.
With Super MechaGodzilla being weakened by the storm and his new power boost, Godzilla is successful in destroying the robot just as the pilots escape. Godzilla finally makes it to the baby Godzilla, who is at first reluctant to go with Godzilla, but after hearing more of the psychic kids singing is convinced to leave the humans and go be with one of his kind. Godzilla and the baby head back out into the ocean and we get some parting words from our heroes about the constant fight for survival or some nonsense.
"Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II" knows exactly what it wants to be - a very dumb popcorn action flick. It gives the audience exactly what it came for, not wasting any time to jump right into the action sequences and building the story around those scenes. The fights are some of the best of the entire Heisei series and the music provides some great emotional punches to accompany the action throughout.
It should also be pointed out that this is one of the few Godzilla films where it doesn't feel like there's one true villain. Godzilla and Rodan do everything in this film out of protecting the baby Godzilla, while the G-Force is doing their job by protecting the world from the dangerous giant monsters. While some of the characters are douchebags or idiots, they do make it clear their mission is also protection. In the end, everyone in this film is just trying to save their species.
The story is nothing special and feels dumbed down on purpose to make people crave the action scenes even more. And while there are a plethora of stupid and eye-rolling moments, I loved just about every one of them, especially those involving Godzilla and Rodan. It is filled to the brim with Heisei clichés, including beam wars, and sometimes laughable special effects, but they don't bother me in this movie.
I have so much fun with "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II" every time I watch it. As a kid, this was my favorite Godzilla film. The ending is mostly the reason for this, with Rodan's sacrifice and Godzilla's triumphant return feeling so grand and badass. But I can admit this still isn't a great movie, which is why it is my guilty pleasure Godzilla movie.
