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For starters, this was once my favorite Godzilla movie.
I don't think I've outgrown this kind of film;
I'm still a fan of many bizarre kaiju flicks.
But I think the initial awe at the origin plot,
time travel, and the updated Ghidorah and Godzilla
has just worn off with time, and the fundamental
flaws of the film are far more visible now. The
sub par acting, poor character development, and
special effects blemishes have become more obvious.
Also, the Americanization of the film is saturated
with terrible dubbing. These negative aspects
do not, however, detract from the positives of
the film: the triumphant return of Akira
Ifukube and the raw innovation of a back-to-Showa,
kitschy plot. However, the storyline did create
a swiss cheese continuum of eye-brow raising "huh,
wait...?" moments with the paradoxical time
travel aspect. Nevertheless, the film is light-years
from a disaster, and it was a substantial box-office
success.
In the year 1992, the sudden arrival
of time travelers from the distant future spread
wonder amidst the Japanese populace. These Futurians
from the year 2204 returned to this time period
to warn the world that Godzilla would soon strike
again and completely destroy Japan. These people
from the future assembled a task force of three
of three contemporaries, Kenichiro Terasawa, Professor
Mazaki, and the psychic Miki Saegusa, to accompany
them to the past in order to prevent Japan from
experiencing total annihilation. In 1944, on Lagos
Island in the South Pacific, a furious battle
between a young, un-mutated Godzillasaurus and
US troops struck awe in the time travelers. The
US troops retreated, and the Godzillasaurus was
left on the brink of death. Teleporting the wounded
beast to the cold depths of the Bering Sea, the
Futurians apparently defeated this denizen of
the mesozoic before it could mutate during the
Bravo H-Bomb tests and cause a tremor in modern
society.
Upon their seemingly triumphant
return to the 1990's, it became abundantly clear
that not all was as it appeared. A new, three-headed
dragon had appeared... King Ghidorah. The advent
of this creature was the direct result of Futurian
duplicity. Bred from genetically altered animals
placed on Lagos (by the Futurians), King Ghidorah
grew to immense size, and packed a terrible punch
in its dreaded golden gravity beams. The seemingly
benevolent temporal wanderers were, in truth,
actually attempting to topple Japan before it
could become a corrupt political and economic
superpower in the relatively near future. Little
did these Futurians realize that a nuclear accident
in the Bering Sea, during the 1970's, had already
thrown an unexpected, and highly ironic wrench
in their works. The Godzillasaurus had mutated,
it was 100 meters tall, and it was a virtually
unstoppable juggernaut that could seriously ruin
the the time travelers' plans for destruction.
Now, the two abominations would be bought together
to battle, but the question remains... who is
the greater menace, King Ghidorah or Godzilla?
The plot is probably the most interesting
aspect of the film (next to music, of course).
It's also one of the redeeming values that saves
the film from disaster. Formulating a specific
origin for the Heisei Godzilla is an enormous
treat. Even the Showa timeline, though it showed
theoretical evidence for the origin of Godzilla
in the original movie, never revealed actual footage
of said origin. The fact that Godzilla is shown
alive during World War II really shakes up preconceived
notions about the character, as well as the continuity
of the series as a whole, thereby adding a creative
new dimension (which was, unfortunately, not really
pursued in future films). The only big problem
here is the time travel aspect, which has sparked
countless debates. The best explanation seems
to be that the creature that mutated into the
original Godzilla wasn't the one that was relocated,
and the one that was relocated became the modern
Godzilla. No matter how strong the resolve of
many arguments, undoubtedly questions will continue
to remain and arise due to the bizarre nature
of this unorthodox Godzilla film.
While the plot is a refreshing,
Showa-esque romp through time travel and genetic
oddities, the acting leaves much to be
desired, from most parties involved. Yoshiyo Tsuchiya
is the outstanding performance in this film, even
though he's one of the supporting actors. His
ability to portray emotion, although reserved,
is still light years ahead of the other cast members!
The scenes where he encounters Godzilla face-to-face
are actually some of the most sorrowful and touching
moments in the 90's Godzilla films. Reprising
her role from the previous film (the first actress
to do so in the Godzilla series since Emi and
Yumi Ito), Megumi
Odaka adds a charming, and familiar presence
to the film... solidifying tight Heisei continuity.
Her role, unfortunately, isn't all that powerful,
nor is her character explored very far in the
plot of this entry in comparison to the prior
film. The main character Kosuke Toyohara, is one
of the deader performances to abound in this movie.
There seems to be little emotion, and little motivation,
let alone a solid basis in character development
to help him out... and he's the hero! Amidst the
protagonists, nobody else really stands out, at
all. The villains are the only other interesting
characters in the movie, but the performances
here are weak as well. Chuck Wilson and Richard
Bergerwell don't seem very experienced in their
craft. Granted, they're speaking Japanese, so
I have to give them superb props there, but the
performances are just so cheesy Saturday-morning
cartoon villainy (that phrase used to have meaning).
They're like watered-down Xiliens. At least Anna
Nakagawa has something with which to work. Her
role as the woman torn between her misguided ideals,
her patriotism, and her love is quite intriguing...
in theory. But again, she isn't very skilled in
her craft, and she seems to have that 80's "I'm
your newest girlfriend, MacGyver" persona
about her. Finally, there's Robert Scott Field,
as the Terminator. I didn't say the Terminator,
did I? I'm sorry, I meant to say Lobot. Wait...
I mean M11. Ok, so it's obvious some inspiration
was derived from other sources when this character
was made. So, how well does Field handle the performance?
He has the role of an android, I guess he's about
as proficient as any other actor in the traditionally
deadpan, and sometimes quirky android role. Although,
he does run funny (yes, I know it's a terrible
sfx shot, but I couldn't resist). For those of
you, like me, who will see the dubbed version,
this must be said: UGH! In the eighties, at least
they tried. Now, it just seems like a
joke. Granted, it isn't as bad as All
Monsters Attack (1969) by a long shot,
but it is still so groan-worthy that it borders
painful. The voices have that hearty theatrical
quality that just borders on the realm of cheese.
Quickly forgetting the dubbing...
we must move on to the aspect of this film that
won an award: special effects. Hmm, it's
a fairly uneven effort. Forced perspective in
the initial Godzillasaurus battle is a little
annoying, but it's always obnoxious to know they're
cheating. The Godzillasaurus suit itself is fairly
impressive. There's a nice reptilian hunch, complete
with brownish, scaly skin (as compared to the
charcoal bark texture of the mutated Godzilla).
When the final Godzilla is shown in the movie,
it's a slight, yet noticeable improvement over
the previous film. Though the differences are
minute, the thing to note here is that the catlike
features have been downplayed this time around,
and a much more ominous, prehistoric facade has
replaced it. As for Godzilla's foe, King Ghidorah,
the work here is, again, a mixed bag. King Ghidorah's
design is sleek, and in my humble opinion, an
improvement over the Showa design (dodges rotten
tomato). The only problem is that there isn't
enough fluid movement in the suit, and it actually
falls flat in the area of organic illusion compared
to its Showa counterpart. And it gets really
inorganic in the flying scenes (jet scene in particular),
but the terrible composite effects during these
scenes doesn't help either. As for the creatures
that become Ghidorah: the Dorats, they are met
with almost complete failure. Sure, they're cute,
but they're SO unrealistic (they must
be the precursor to those terrible Furbies). Mecha-King
Ghidorah, while suffering from some of the same
problems, is actually less of a concern in regard
to a lack of fluid movement, due to the expected
inorganic nature of a cybernetic monster. Getting
away from the suits for a second, one should bring
up the Ghidorah shadow... it's just off,
perspective-wise and in general appearance, and
is luckily only a quick rotoscoping blemish (although
it sticks with you). But speaking of rotoscoping,
the beam work is fantastic here. This has to be
one of my personal favorite breath effects for
Godzilla, sparky crimson streaks amidst a spectral
blue column of fire. And the gravity beams are
a major improvement over the Showa timeline as
well, more resembling streaks of glowing energy
than ever before. But let me derail the rotoscoping
critique to focus on models before moving on.
The model work here is proficient, especially
in the final Tokyo scenes. However, it certainly
isn't Return
of Godzilla (1984) proficient (although
it is doubtful that few will ever be). Finally,
the sets must be mentioned. Yes, the MOTHER ship
sets look fairly Star Trek-ian... but they are
still pretty pleasant to the eyes, especially
considering the last futuristic sets Godzilla
audiences saw were the aluminum foil control rooms
of the 70s kaiju epics.
Concerning music, this film is
a major contender not only in the Heisei timeline,
but in Godzilla history as a whole. Granted, most
of the themes are remakes. The UFO theme is a
redo of the Godzilla and King Kong fight theme
from the Japanese version of King
Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) (particularly
interesting due to the fact that this film was
first planned to be a remake of said film), the
battle between the jets and Ghidorah is a redo
of the "Get Rodan!" theme from Rodan
(1956) (you guessed it), and the repetitive Godzillasaurus
theme has vague, yet discernable similarity to
city-destruction themes from Godzilla
(1954). King Ghidorah's theme has been updated
as well, giving it a much heavier bass quality,
which is, again, an upgrade in my humble opinion
(dodges a rotten pineapple). Godzilla's theme
also makes it's triumphant reappearance, heard
in stock as the main title of the previous film,
but here, in full force as the greatest sign that
the Maestro had finally returned to the series.
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
is, regrettably, a rather unappreciated entry
in the long running G-series. It's biggest contributions
are an origin story, the return of Akira
Ifukube, and the advent of a 100-meter Godzilla.
Otherwise, there are some poor special effects
and some rickety character development only barely
holding this film aloft. Still, I can't deny that
it was, only quite recently, my all-time favorite
Godzilla film, and if you don't enter this movie
with preconceived notions, you can end up enjoying
it on a very fun level. It's certainly not a bad
movie, perhaps even a tidge underrated. |
(2.5/5)