Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

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Arrow
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Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Arrow »

http://lh4.ggpht.com/weirdposters/SHsNv ... ter_03.jpg

Discuss people!

I honestly don't have too much to say about this one. It's been a personal favorite of mine and features a great Toho cast. Unfortunately, there are parts of the movie that are a bit boring. Overall, it's in my Top Ten... but it's got its flaws.
Last edited by Arrow on Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Arrow »

Legion1979 wrote:Gotta fix the poster link.
Yeah, for some reason I can't post images. Something about only 1x1 pixels allowed...

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Mr. Clean »

Fantastic. Just fantastic. Kind of bittersweet though, it truly is the "grand finale" of the golden era of the showa days, but at least there's still the wacky awesome 70s films that followed.

The final battle really makes this films though.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Ethan »

It's only major flaw is the anticlimatic battle with Fire Dragon. Otherwise it's got some great acting, special effects and music. Granted Monster Zero is the definitive invasion flick.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by HayesAJones »

I adore this movie. It brings together some great monsters and has a spectacular final battle. One of, if not my single favorite Showa flick.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by ZigraDude »

Destroy All Monsters is one of my favorite Godzilla movies. It feels like a nice ending to Toho's golden age of monster films, and I do know that it was originally planned as the last Godzilla movie. It also made the debut of my favorite Godzilla design and would later be recycled for three more movies. It was also the first movie I saw as a kid that starred my favorite Godzilla opponent, King Ghidorah. I already knew who he was, but this was the first time I saw him in action. The final battle is awesome, although I wished Baragon and Varan got something to do in the movie than just standing around, but of course the Baragon suit was in terrible condition and Toho only had the gliding Varan prop by the looks of it. Oh well.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by ZigraDude »

Legion1979 wrote:When I first saw Destroy all Monsters I had no clue who Varan or Baragon even were so their absence didn't even bother me.

I had the Godzilla Likes to Roar book from Random House as a kid so I always liked Varan from the beginning. When I found out Varan was in DAM, I remember thinking to myself "It's about time Varan was in a Godzilla movie!" After finishing the movie, I was a bit disappointed. Some people complain about Manda, Kumonga, and Mothra not doing much in the movie. I was always satisfied with their roles in DAM because Manda was destroying Tokyo with Mothra, Godzilla and Rodan, while Mothra and Kumonga actually participated in the final battle. That's what I meant by Baragon and Varan doing nothing but just standing there. They could have done something, but of course that couldn't happen with the time or budget. But it really doesn't bug me that much. I'm just glad most of the monsters in DAM had a role in the film.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Blackout286 »

This movie is a good one, but as stated before. Some parts are boring. But it made up for others like:

1. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and Manda attacking Tokyo
2. Godzilla and Angurius guarding the base and attacks the military while Rodan handles the skies
3. Monster Island Monsters vs. Ghidorah
4. The Ending, showing all of the Monsters back on Monster Island

There's not much that I can really say about this film, some or most parts are boring. But it makes up for it in kaiju packed action. Although I saw this movie with my friends, seeing it now my friend Brandon said " You know, this is the only kaiju alien invasion movie in which hot females try taking over the world. WHY CAN'T THIS HAPPEN OFTEN!"

I couldn't help but lol, because he didn't care that those "hot females" were strange looking metal alien slugs or whatever xD

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by Guardian7 »

A good and fun movie.
I am lucky I have both the AIP and Japanese versions of this film.

I wish we could have learned a bit more about Monsterland/Ogasawara Island and maybe a little of its history. But that is minor and just me.

A lot of the human characters were pretty well done.
Kyoko Yamabe (Yukiko Kobayashi) starts out kinda innocent. While under control of the aliens and in "under siege" Tokyo she gives that creepy grin/smile/smirk... Just pure gold. Now that was a sinister look.
Dr. Otani (Yoshio Tsuchiya) died too soon in the film. I really liked his character and felt he was better than Dr. Yoshido (Jun Tazaki) who's acting for some reason seemed a little flat to me.

Favorite Scenes:

Manda, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra attacking Tokyo. Manda was so cool in this portion of the film. It was great to see Manda rampage in a city.

Gorosaurus' rise in Paris... pretty cool looking!

Ghidorah Smackdown!

Rodan taking on the Fire Dragon/saucer.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by DaikaijuSokogeki! »

One of the few Godzilla flicks I've only seen dubbed (sadly, just the International dub). It's a fun film to put it simply. Although Toho was careless quite a bit during the production of this one (seriously, Gorosaurus looks NOTHING like Baragon), it still has a lot going for it including the sheer number of kaiju and the solid work from the FX and music. Still, the heroes are plain and the Kilaaks are, honestly, unmenacing villains. On the other hand, this movie introduced my favorite Godzilla suit so I have to give it props for that, and making Anguirus and Gorosaurus complete bad-asses.

So yeah, not a bad film but one I don't praise too much. It's fun, but flawed.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by TokyoVigilante »

A fitting end to the first half of the Showa era. An interesting and engaging story, some flat-out perfect special effects shots (the shots of the men around Godzillas feet around Mt. Fuji just blow my mind how seamless they are), great score and cast, as to be expected from this era.

But the Kilaaks SUCK. Worst Toho invader, period. Interesting origin, sentient mineral slugs, but their human portrayal was incredibly lame and their motivation was non-existent. Seatopians were better. It's such a shame that after The Mysterians and the Xilians that they dropped the ball so hard for these aliens.

Whatever. The final battle on Mt. Fuji is glorious.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by GotengoXGodzilla »

One of the more entertaining films of the series. Basically, this film says "Screw the plot and character!! Lets focus on nothing but the action!" Normally, that would be a bad thing for me. But, the execution on this is what makes this film so fun to watch. While the plot isn't all that interesting, and the characters are forgettable, that's not the reason I watch DAM.

The fight scenes are spectacular, especially the final battle on Mt. Fuji. They really went all out with this, and that's what makes it so much fun.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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.

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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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. ;)
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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. :D 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.
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Re: Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Post by 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.
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