Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[Mini-Godzilla]

Monster Zero and his gang of evil aliens invade Earth again, but this time, the whole Toho monster line-up is waiting to take Ghidorah down. A cheesy, excessive rehash of Astro-Monster that establishes Monster Island (an idea toyed with in the previous two films) and does as much with its obviously-limited budget that it can. The near-future setting appears to be contradicted by later films, but considering that this was obviously meant to be the final Toho daikaiju film, I won't hold that point against it.

[Showa Gyaos]

Ugh....I've said this many times, and *hopefully* this will be the last: I hated it. It was boring throughout the movie, and people b*tch about how Godzilla: Final Wars was mostly human action. Heh....the thing is, Destroy All Monsters seemed to have the same thing, but with only a little more "action" for the monsters. When it comes down to it, the terrible acting and slowly-paced action results in a smelly turd. It bored me as a kid, and it still does.

[g2kmaster]

Got around to seeing this film or the first time in a good long while (try 6 years or so) and I got to say, I liked it alot. Through out the film, what came to my mind is that while one of the hallmarks of the Showa series is variety, another hallmark is the bledning of many science fiction elements. We have giant monsters and space travel science fiction elements in one with a good human plot. That's pretty good by my count. As for claims that this film are boring, I didn't belive it. I thought that the film was castly paced. When I had to pause once to use the facilities, I checked out much of the flm had gone by. 50 minutes. I thought it was 20. I thought that was cool. Though one thing which I would like to make a point is that except for the fact that both plots have aliens and a large amount of kaiju, you can't really compare this film to "Godzilla: Final Wars". You just can't. The biggest difference I noticed is the kaiju. The battles are so different. GFW is just Godzilla battleing everyone one on one. Not really a war, just a string of one on one battles (ok, maybe one two-on-one battle and one three-on-one battle but c'mon). DAM has all earth kaiju vs. King Ghidorah. And that battles seems alittle more epic at how the kaiju are seeming taking turns taking pot shots at the KG. Just really great.

[KaijuMaster]

One of my all time favourites. Destroy All Monsters was the last half-descent film for me until Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla (1974). Whilst the plot is quite cliched and poor, This is Tsuburaya's last and best special effects film. (I don't really count Godzilla's Revenge). The battles are a throwback to the glory days of Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster for me, with the scale and violence of them making up for slightly iffy suits for Godzilla. There is so much in Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs Gigan essentially became Destroy All Monsters Stock Footage with a couple clips of a new monster. Oh, and when I find it I'll the picture of a publicity event that I believe was the last public sighting of Eiji Tsuburaya, Ishiro Honda, and Tomoyuki Tanaka.

[Goji]

The stock footage in GIGAN is from a ton of different sources. There really isn't that much used from DESTROY ALL MONSTERS overall.

Also, Tsuburaya didn't direct the SPX in DAM, Mr. Arikawa did.

[edgaguirus]

DAM is one of the best of the Showa age. The killak aren't much, but the monster scenes are exciting and fun. There are a few corny lines, but it's a satisfying movie with the ultimate fight.

[Tim85]

Just got done watching it. Still love it. I saw Varan landing at Mt. Fuji for the first time. Maybe watching it on the widescreen TV helped. I don't know how I missed it in earlier viewings.

I practically have the Mt. Fuji battle memorized because I used it in high school for speech class for when we had to do an analysis of a movie scene and I watched it countless times to figure out when to start and stop it so it can fit in the required time frame. After we introduced the scene, we showed it and then gave an analysis. I commented on the teamwork of the monsters: how when they tried to go one-on-one with KG and lost but when they joined up, they beat him. Childish, I know; but it was mearly an excuse to show it in school. Got an A. Best of all, I didn't get made fun of or mocked for it. Several classmates I talked to about it after class said they like it.

[Old Gregg]

Easily one of my favorite kaiju movies. Lots of monsters and SFX shots. Plot's decent, as far as kaiju movies go. Final battle at Mt. Fuji is the most impressive sequence in any Godzilla movie. Choreographing all those wire, suits, and puppets was certainly not an easy task.

[KaijuMaster]

One of my all time favourites. Destroy All Monsters was the last half-descent film for me until Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla (1974). Whilst the plot is quite cliched and poor, This is Tsuburaya's last and best special effects film. (I don't really count Godzilla's Revenge). The battles are a throwback to the glory days of Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster for me, with the scale and violence of them making up for slightly iffy suits for Godzilla. There is so much in Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs Gigan essentially became Destroy All Monsters Stock Footage with a couple clips of a new monster. Oh, and when I find it I'll the picture of a publicity event that I believe was the last public sighting of Eiji Tsuburaya, Ishiro Honda, and Tomoyuki Tanaka.

Actually my bad... A lot of that footage is from War of the Gargantua's.

[shinmattiathekaiju]

Love this movie,is my second favourite.

It features almost all the Toho monster,what can you ask for more?

The music score is great as always.

4/5

[King Caesar]

I love this movie, the plot, even the characters. Their is a good balance of human conflicts and monster clashes, but I was mad as hell when Varan, Baragon, Kumonga, and even Manda lacked much screen time. Get rid of the stupid Fire Dragon thing and just put in the other monsters to fight someone or something!

Special effects and some shots in the movie are impressive as well.

My rating: 4/5

[Hellspawn28]

I still wish ADV give us a better DVD since I hear the DVD releases of DAM are all shit. I always found it funny how Godzilla attacks NYC in this movie and a Godzilla movie was later made in NYC 30 years later.

[King Caesar]

^ That was Zilla who did that (according to GMK and GFW)...but yeah that is kinda funny.

I got the ADV for my b-day a while back and yeah it kinda sucks..

[Goji]

Yes, he said "A Godzilla movie made in NYC". Even if I personally don't consider it a "Godzilla" film, it technically still is, regardless of what us fans have to say on the matter.

I also don't recall FINAL WARS making any reference to his attack on New York. The character is simply featured in the film.

[Legion1979]

^ That was Zilla who did that (according to GMK and GFW)...but yeah that is kinda funny.

The reference to GINO in GMK was a joke and doesn't indicate the '98 film has anything to do with Toho continuity. Secondly, Toho considers the '98 version a different monster from Zilla in Final Wars. For all intents and purposes (and as much as we don't like it) the 1998 creature IS Godzilla.

[miguelnuva]

the only problems I have with the film were

All monster should hae fought ghidorah and the fire dragon battle.

everything else was great.

[Hellspawn28]

^ That was Zilla who did that (according to GMK and GFW)...but yeah that is kinda funny.
..

Yeah funny that Godzilla attacks NYC in this movie in year 1999, and in 1998 the American Godzilla attacks NYC. It's like one year later, NYC gets attack by the real Godzilla .

[King Caesar]

^ Ha, that's great. Godzilla has attacked NYC twice then, according to the whole franchise. In DAM and in an unlisted 1999 movie.

[ScottA]

This was one of my favorites.
My dad took me to see it at the movies when I was a kid.

-ScottA

[King Caesar]

^ It's a great movie...you know you can put your name in the signature instead of just typing it everytime.