Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

[edgaguirus]

Or the airport casually going about business as usual while Godzilla and Destoroyah fight in the background. I guess this is a routine thing for Tokyo, but still.

In contrast, you have Gaira's arrival at the airport causing the tower staff to frantically order a plane not to land. I guess by the time of G vs D they were just used to it.

[MrRockett 2.0]

Perhaps they could’ve showed them keeping it a secret to prevent a wide-scale panic. The authorities could’ve tried telling the populace a different reason as to why he was glowing red.

Yeah. Literally anything, a few lines of dialogue, a short press conference scene, could have helped so much.

Agreed. they're all rather nonchalant about the supposed end of Tokyo if not all of Earth

Well if we take into consideration that by then the people were used to and knew to evacuate wherever the monsters were. The military and scientists knew what was happening with Godzilla, there was a very short timeframe to deal with what was happening. Telling the public "Godzilla is glowing red which indicates he's going to melt down, destroying Japan and possibly the earth" would do nothing for anyone. Outside of a miracle, they were done. Now that miracle was Junior, but they didn't know that.

So instead of widespread panic that ultimately could have caused global problems of their own because life did go on, they gambled on secrecy. If it ends it ends, if it doesn't you avoid global problems caused by panic and hysteria.

I never had a problem with the lack of information to the public.

[Yumiyoshi]

There is the potential for taking a thriller angle with the governmental response (or lack thereof) to the whole Burning Godzilla situation, but Okawara and Omori were not interested in it. Being charitable with this movie, I'm not going to critique it for what it missed out or chose not to do, but rather what it does which is a bit poor. I have not watched it in quite a couple of years, but I remember the oxygen destroyer dilemma feels pretty half-baked before it gets dropped. A lot of the callbacks to that very first movie read more as fan service and trying to find an in-universe reason to make a new monster a credible threat. I sometimes read people consider this to be 'dark' and 'heavy' the way Shin or -1 are but I never quite understood what big somber theme is being communicated. It's a movie interested in the legacy and death of the brand of Godzilla, but not any of the suffering behind that original picture. The movie doesn't meaningfully communicate with the original film or the audience.

To counter my negative opinions, I do love the suits for Destoroyah's final form and Godzilla. Their smoke effects give the monsters a unique touch, I can't remember any other suits off the top of my head with similar details. It's a little detail but they help give depth to the lighting, which Kawakita is already quite skilled with. Both designs stand out with their coloration; it's not a bad duo to end your Godzilla career on.

[edgaguirus]

I never saw the connections to the first film as fan service, but as a way to say goodbye to Godzilla. You make hints at his origin story and end it with a big finish.