Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Time travel movies mess with my head. However, GOJIRA VS KINGUGIDORA is the only time travel movie I can follow. To a certain extent. Like, when Big G has been erased from time, why do the Japanese folks still talk about him?

Godzilla is easily at his best here, with his battles with King Ghidorah, the JSDF and their maser tanks and when he gives Sapporo and the Shinjuku distrcit a lovely pounding. Best bit: Big G torching Shindo.

King Ghidorah is good in this movie, but his fight with the jets is not very good. I think the ultimate Ghidorah would be a cross between this one and the Ghidorah from MOSURA 3.

Koichi Kawakita does a lovely job on the special effects. I always prefer Godzilla to battle at night, as that's when the opticals (eg Godzilla atomic heat beam) are at their best.

Akira Ifukube really breathes life into this movie, especially with the use of the Godzilla theme on the end credits.

Roll on GOJIRA VS MOSURA!

"Size does matter." So proclaimed the ad campaign of the Americanized Godzilla foisted upon us by Emmerich and Devlin in 1998. If only they had paid more attention to movies like this before they tried to retool Godzilla. Because their overgrown iguana is no match for the towering behemoth of indestructible, nuclear-fueled fury introduced in this movie.

Untold legions of fans grew up with the original Godzilla in the '60s and '70s. We found comfort in the quite cheesy special effects, massive plot holes, extreme overacting, and hilarious dubbing. Not to mention the martial strains of Akira Ifukube's trademark musical scores. The heisei series of second generation Godzilla movies may have offended some purists, but did stick with many of the same elements. Many of the effects were now very good, but others were still unintentionally laughable. The dubbing, of course, was as bad as ever. Logic is the last thing one should expect from a Godzilla plot, and it's not very much in evidence here. But this is all how we like it!

From the tortuous contortions of the time travel plot came a new Godzilla, leaner and far meaner than ever before. No more would he be the protector of Japan. Along with the new origin backstory for Godzilla, we're treated to one for this new King Ghidora, which resembles the original Ghidrah only in name and appearance. But while it took the combined might of all of Japan's monsters to slay Ghidrah, the new and improved Godzilla singlehandedly slew Ghidorah without working up a sweat. Truly a force to be reckoned with.

It's a shame that the second generation films were never released theatrically in the US and only recently released on video. Americans deserved to see that there wasn't a vacuum between Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla (1998). And a generation of American kids, too young to find the old films interesting, lost a chance to be hooked on what's arguably a cultural icon.

This film came to my attention when I attended the first Monsterama Con in 2014 in Atlanta. One of the honored guests was Robert Scott Field who played an android. According to Fields, this film has been recognized as the third best Godzilla movie of all time. In Japan it received the equivalent to our Oscar Award. This film delves back to the origin of Godzilla and the epic battle with his equal King Ghidorah. The future visitors to modern 1990 Japan warn of destruction and want to change the course of the future but manipulating the present. A fun use of old school special effects and fun to see movies made pre- CGI. This movie is a joy for any Godzilla enthusiast. His name is Godzilla!

Hitchcock would have admired the no-nonsense progression of this movie. There's no stuffing around with unnecessary sub-plots or boring character histories basically what we want to hear about is Godzilla.

This is from the modern series of Godzilla redoes. The original was 1955, and millions of camp sequels followed in the 60's - and now these latest movies in the 90's. So this looks like a modern movie - with modern technology available, yet they've retained the puppet-like Godzilla. Many have complained at how fake it looks - but considering all the other self-reference, they've definitely done it one purpose. Why do Godzilla computer animated when the vintage puppet Godzilla is so fun!

There's nothing better than a camp movie that knows its camp - this is very fun stuff. For example, the obvious parody of American sci-fi flicks: we see two US soldiers discussing casually how they'll take over the island they've just discovered "yes, the stars and stripes will fly here too." And they see our heroes flying in on their time machine/ufo and think its a space ship (which it is). One says to the other: "Let's just keep this secret. You can tell your son about it, when he's born, Major Spielberg." The slickness of the entertainment actually is the best homage to Spielberg here. These are the kinds of movies Spielberg makes, and the kind of movies we all used to love when we were kids. Good on them, I say.

There is plenty of sci-fi action: UFOs, time machines and futuristic creatures. There are also references to American war movies in the war-like sequences with US troops fighting Godzilla on the Bikini Atoll (or whatever atoll it is - one famous for Nuclear testing). There's adventure, also: the troupe going back in a time machine to 1954 to try and wipe Godzilla from existence is a very exciting adventure premise.

7/10. Thoroughly recommended entertainment.

There's a lot to dislike in this film: awful English scripts, more plot holes than plot, and a long wait before Godzilla finally shows up.

Luckily, all of these flaws are made up for by its awesome monster battles, fantastic music, cheesy humor, and sheer entertainment. In the end, the balance is positive, and anyone who can get over their logical disbelief should have a lot of fun with this movie. It reminds us that there's more to movies than dull realism and sophisticated storytelling.

It's no masterpiece, but its definitely one of the Big G's most fun films.