W00t. Another patent pending Steve Godzilla movie review!™
Godzilla Versus Destroyah
Doom, doom, DOOM! Absolute, final, ultimate DOOM is what Godzilla versus Destroyah is all about. After weeks (No, scratch that. MONTHS. <_<) of waiting on Amazon.ca to receive my order, I’ve finally gotten my hands on a copy of this film, what was intended to be the final chapter in the Japanese Godzilla legacy, paving the way for an American Godzilla franchise.
Plot: Bass island, the home of Godzilla and his adopted son, (Minya, Minilla, Little Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, whatever the frell you want to call him), has mysteriously disappeared in the blink of an eye. Turns out the uranium deposits deep underneath the island were ignited by a massive volcanic eruption, causing the entire island to explode. Godzilla and his offspring are no-where to be found.
Not long after, the presence of Godzilla is revealed after he surfaces near Hong Kong, roaring in agony, and lays waste to the entire city. But something’s amiss! Parts of Godzilla’s body, as well as his dorsal fins are scarred by massive, bulging, scab-like patches, which are glowing a fiery shade of orange. Likewise, his eyes are glowing orange as well, and his normally electric blue atomic breath is a sinister shade of red, fringed by massive electric bolts. Godzilla is putting out an insane amount of power for reasons that will be made clear soon. Little Godzilla, meanwhile, is no-where to be found.
Nobody can figure out exactly what is wrong with Godzilla, so the help of a college student, who specializes in the study of Godzilla, is enlisted to present his theory and join G-force in helping figure out what is going on.
They cut to the chase fairly quickly. It turns out that Godzilla’s heart is like a nuclear reactor. In the nuclear explosion on Bass Island, Godzilla absorbed too much radiation, and now his body is putting out an insane amount of energy, causing his body temperature to steadily rise. When his body hits a certain temperature, his heart will explode. The results will be devastating; Godzilla’s heart will create a massive explosion more powerful then all of the atomic weapons on earth combined, which will cause a chain reaction that’ll ignite the atmosphere and incinerate the earth. In other words, Armageddon is coming, and we’re all utterly, horribly DOOMED if we can’t figure out a way to stop it. The only way to save the world is to figure out a way to build an Oxygen Destroyer, which successfully killed the original Godzilla.
Meanwhile, this scientist guy discovers Micro-Oxygen, which is similar to the Oxygen Destroyer. He’s also discovered that microorganisms in the place where the Oxygen Destroyer was detonated long ago are mutating… but that isn’t important right now! We’ve got the end of the world to worry about! G-force asks the scientist to build an oxygen destroyer, but he can’t, as he doesn’t know how to. The clock is ticking; the end of the world is coming ever closer…
The Oxygen destroyer isn’t an option. So, G-force tries another idea. They plan to use their latest super weapon, the “Super X III”. The Super X III is equipped with special lasers that fire super low temperature beams of light, and are capable of freezing targets. They plan to freeze Godzilla, and hopefully lower his body temperature and minimise the damage. The Super X III is sent, and they manage to freeze Godzilla, temporarily.
Remember those microorganisms that weren’t important earlier? Well, they are now. Attention to their existence is alerted when they somehow make their way into an aquarium, and use their micro-oxygen powers to disintegrate all the fish. After that, they mutate into a bunch of 10 foot high, reptilian/crab like creatures, and infest a local mall and battle a bunch of soldiers in a scene reminiscent of “aliens.” The creatures then all come together to form one huge monster, which is called “Destroyah.” So now, we have *two* monsters running amok as opposed to one.
Meanwhile, Godzilla has thawed out, and is now heading north, towards the Bering Sea. The ****’s really hit the fan now; cooling Godzilla down has prevented him from exploding, but this caused a reaction within his body that’ll cause a meltdown when his body temperature hits 1200 degrees. The meltdown will cause a chain reaction, a version of the “China Syndrome”, only far, far worse. So, instead of exploding and destroying the earth, Godzilla’s going to melt down and destroy the earth even worse then he would’ve before. On top of that, he’s supposed to melt down in less then a week. Mankind is DOOMED.
Our heroes get a plan. This new monster is essentially a living oxygen destroyer. Why not get it to fight Godzilla? Hopefully, it’ll kill him, and thus, prevent Armageddon. Then they can finish off the wounded Destroyah, and all their monster problems will be solved! All they need now is a convenient plot device-…err… some way to bring these two monsters together, so they can fight.
Well, our heroes get a very convenient plot device not long after, and it’s about 80 feet high, has dorsal fins and scales. In a blatant act of plot, Little Godzilla surfaces not too far away. The young Godzilla has grown into a juvenile, teenage Godzilla, as a result of absorbing a ton of radiation from the Bass Island explosion. The young Godzilla frightens a beach full of tourists, but nobody is hurt, because Godzilla Junior is gentle. Now that Godzilla’s adopted son is here, they plan to use him as bait to attract the adult Godzilla to battle Destroyah.
They take Godzilla Junior to Tokyo, because it’s imperative that they adhere to Kaiju movie cliché and make sure the final battle takes place in Tokyo. (Thus explaining why Godzilla attacked Hong Kong at the start of the movie as opposed to Tokyo; gotta leave Tokyo intact for the final battle!)
Destroyah appears, and attacks Junior Godzilla. A battle ensues, and Junior is nearly killed. Fortunately, a blast from Junior’s atomic breath at point blank range blasts Destroyah and sends it crashing into a nearby building. So much for that… if Destroyah can’t beat Junior, what hope does it have against an adult Godzilla?
Godzilla, meanwhile, rises from the ocean to meet his son. It’s a touching reunion, it is; the two haven’t seen each other since their island asploded, after all. The two Godzillas lumber towards each other, no doubt eager to give each other a great big monster hug! <3 Awwwwww…
Suddenly, Destroyah emerges from the rubble in its final, ultimate form. The creature is absolutely gigantic, even towering over Godzilla! The fiend blasts Godzilla with its micro-oxygen ray, and knocks him over. Then it swoops down, seizes Junior by the throat, and carries him high into the sky. Destroyah then drops the young Godzilla from about 80 stories, mortally wounding him, and all but kills him with a savage assault from his Micro-oxygen ray.
Godzilla cries out in sadness and fury. Needless to say, after seeing his son brutally murdered in front of his very eyes, he’s rather pissed off. In fact, pissed off doesn’t even begin to describe it. Godzilla goes ballistic, and attacks Destroyah. An epic battle ensues. Godzilla blasts Destroyah with his Atomic Breath, and Destroyah fires back with his Micro-Oxygen ray. Destroyah takes flight, clasping Godzilla’s throat with his tail and dragging him around. Godzilla gets back up, blasts him, and closes the distance. The two monsters duke it out; Destroyah hacks away at Godzilla with his horn, and Godzilla rends at Destroyah’s flesh with tooth and claw, causing the creature to puke up piss-yellow blood. Destroyah splits apart into a pack of mini-Destroyahs, trying to overwhelm his opponent with sheer force of numbers, but he’s still no match for Godzilla. Godzilla beats ‘em down, and Destroyah is apparently defeated.
Godzilla runs over to Junior. Godzilla attempts to revive his son by breathing radiation into him, but his attempts are futile; Junior is dead, and there’s nothing he can do to bring him back to life. Godzilla’s grief is only temporary, as Destroyah comes back, and blasts him again while he’s got his back turned.
The battle continues, and Godzilla attacks Destroyah once more. Godzilla’s temperature is steadily increasing; his body has gotten so hot now that his dorsal fins are beginning to melt! His power at its absolute pinnacle, Godzilla blasts away at Destroyah with his new supercharged atomic breath. Completely overwhelmed by Godzilla’s supercharged atomic breath, Destroyah attempts to fly away and retreat. The army opens fire on the creature with freeze weapons, and Destroyah freezes in mid-flight, plummeting to the ground and exploding upon impact, finally dead.
Godzilla’s temperature has now hit 1200 degrees; it’s time for the meltdown of DOOM! The army opens fire on Godzilla with their freeze weapons as he slowly dies in front of them, trying to cool him down. Godzilla melts all the way down to the bone, and eventually into nothing. His radiation pours out of his body, threatening to kill all life on earth with the fallout… but then, the radiation levels begin to plummet, and then disappear! Godzilla Junior, revived by his father’s radiation, emerges from the rubble as a fully-grown, adult Godzilla.
Review: …I am left utterly speechless at the awesomeness that is Godzilla versus Destroyah. I have vague memories of seeing a bit of this movie when I was little, and I’d read about it online, but until now I could never appreciate what an incredible movie this is. Words simply don’t do it justice.
Godzilla versus Destroyah was made during a time when Godzilla’s popularity in Japan was beginning to wane. Toho wanted to give their Godzilla series a rest, and let the Americans take over; hopefully an American Godzilla movie series would boost Godzilla’s popularity, and at the same time, Toho could make a ton of money off of it due to royalties and not have to do any work themselves. The problem is, that in order for the Americans to make their own Godzilla, the Japanese Godzilla had to die first.
Originally, “Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla II” was supposed to be the final Japanese Godzilla movie, and the Americans were to pick up from where it left off. Godzilla was supposed to die, and his son would take his place in an American made movie series. Unfortunately, due to some legal stuff, the Americans weren’t ready to make a Godzilla film just yet, so Toho had to alter the ending of Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla II. Godzilla versus Space Godzilla was released after it as filler, and then Godzilla versus Destroyah, the final Godzilla movie, was made.
Overall, I think Toho did a really, really good job making a final movie for the Heisei Godzilla series. Godzilla versus Destroyah easily ties with Godzilla versus Megaguirus as my second favourite Godzilla movie. (Godzilla 2000 is my favourite and always will be, BTW.)
Godzilla versus Destroyah has a good story, and is very fast paced. The story didn’t drag on; there were no breaks in the story for any long, boring bouts of shoddily written character interaction that most “serious” Godzilla movies attempt. Character interaction was kept to a merciful minimum; the humans explain what’s going on, and that’s about all they need to do. In fact, if the writers had bothered to try and stick any lengthy bouts of character interaction into the film, that would’ve hurt it in the end. The characters are simply too generic to bother developing, and the fact that the EARTH IS ABOUT TO BE INCINERATED IN LESS THEN A WEEK gives ‘em a good excuse to rush. Really, who’s going to sit around and blather on about their past when we’re all going to die? Time would be better spent trying to find a way to solve the problem at hand.
The generic, underdeveloped characters are really the only problem I have with this movie, but I’m used to that in Godzilla movies. I don’t sit down to watch a Godzilla movie to watch something character driven, I watch Godzilla movies to see guys in rubber monster suits beat the stuffing out of each other, and Godzilla versus Destroyah gives me just that.
The fights were excellent, leaps and bounds above the previous Heisei movies. They were savage, brutal, and violent. Not just two monsters standing around blasting each other with energy beams and occasionally bonking into one another, a la the final battle in Godzilla versus King Ghidorah. There was plenty of primal tooth, claw and tail action to go along with the explosions, which is always good. ‘Tis more entertaining to watch hand to hand combat then shooting back and forth. The destruction is incredible. Godzilla and Destroyah lay waste to vast swaths of metropolitan areas in their melee.
The special affects were reasonably good. Great for a Godzilla movie, decent for a mid 90’s film with very little CGI. The rubber suits are well made; Godzilla looks very imposing in his “Meltdown” form. He looks like he’s in terrible, screaming agony, which he is. The blazing red eyes and glowing fins, along with the ugly, glowing orange scabs, make him look very frightening, as well as somewhat pathetic. You can tell just by looking at him that Godzilla is in horrible pain the entire time; he’s overloading with nuclear energy which threatens to burst from his body, he’s burning from the inside out. Steam constantly drifts from his scabs, the scabs pulsate and glow brighter when he’s exerting himself… it looks hideous, and it’s beautiful at the same time in the way it’s executed.
Junior Godzilla looks interesting. He’s very well designed. He looks youthful and energetic, and despite no longer being a baby, he’s still “cute.” The corners of his mouth are slightly upturned, giving him a vague hint of a smile. Overall, he feels like a gigantic puppy. Not a little puppy, but more a hyper, lovable year-old puppy. He’s in-experienced, but he’s scrappy and courageous. He goes into battle against a stronger opponent and nearly dies, but still manages to win, and he becomes an endearing character in the process. This helps make it all the more tragic when Destroyah brutally murders him later on.
Destroyah is an excellent foe for Godzilla. He may not be Godzilla’s most powerful enemy, (That title rightfully belongs to Hedorah, the Smog Monster,) but Destroyah still presents Godzilla with a good challenge. Destroyah looks vile and menacing in all of his forms. His hideous visage, his grating screech, his ruthless, sadistic, dirty and underhanded combat style, along with his cunning, malice and inherent cowardice, all come together to make him a despicable enemy. He’s also a bully, picking on monsters far smaller and weaker then himself. It’s really easy to hate this thing.
If one thinks about it, Destroyah is technically the good guy, as he’s the only thing that can defeat Godzilla and keep him from destroying the planet, but his portrayal makes Destroyah out to be a bad guy. It’s very strange. Godzilla is the one who is going to cause Armageddon, not Destroyah, but because Godzilla acts nicer, he’s still technically the hero. Godzilla doesn’t *want* to destroy the world; this whole meltdown thing isn’t his fault. He mourns over the death of his son, and desperately tries to revive him. Destroyah, OTOH, eats people in his first form, overwhelms junior Godzilla in his second form, and all but kills Junior Godzilla right in front of his father’s eyes in his final form. He then continues to attack Godzilla, hit him while he’s got his back turned, go to any length to defeat him, and then run away with his tail between his legs when the battle isn’t going in his favour. Destroyah may be mankind’s saviour, but he’s still the villain.
It makes sense that Destroyah would be portrayed as far more powerful and evil then Godzilla; Godzilla is a creature born of radiation, whereas Destroyah is born of the Oxygen Destroyer. The Oxygen Destroyer was supposed to be even worse then atomic weapons, and Destroyah is a physical manifestation of that concept. In order to overpower something bad, we have to create something even worse. Godzilla is terrifying, but Destroyah is even worse then he is.
And of course, comes the in-evitable comment on Godzilla’s death scene. It was very well executed, IMO. The sombre music was a nice touch. And the way he slowly fell apart, with his flesh dripping away to reveal the bone, and then the bone melting away to nothing, seemed to me like a reference to the death of the original Godzilla, who died pretty much the same way.
This movie has a very serious tone. None of the camp and silliness present in most other Godzilla movies. The only camp comes from the cheesy dubbing and bad special affects, (both of which I like, mind you. It’s all a part of what makes Godzilla so enjoyable, IMO). Godzilla versus Destroyah takes itself very seriously, and it’s a good thing it did. This movie is supposed to be about the end of the world and the death of an icon. Being too silly would’ve ruined it.
…But enough of my rambling. Godzilla versus Destroyah is an incredible movie. It has action, plot, cool monsters, DOOM, and boring characters that mercifully stay away and let the monsters do their job of entertaining us. Godzilla versus Destroyah kicks the asses of all other “serious” Godzilla movies. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Tokyo SOS, GMK, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla versus Mothra… even the original Godzilla: King of the Monsters pales in comparison. Godzilla versus Destroyah pwns them all, bitchslapping them in the face and making them bow at its feet. I give Godzilla versus Destroyah a whopping 9.5 out of 10. If you haven’t seen Godzilla versus Destroyah, SEE IT NOW. This, I command!
-Stephen J. Greene