Godzilla 1985

Godzilla returns in a (somewhat) serious vehicle with a (somewhat) big budget. Americans yawned or laughed this off the screen, for the most part, but if you dig Godzilla you should dig this, his most respectable film since the 1954 original.

Yes, it's not that fast paced. No, Godzilla doesn't fight with other creatures. So what? After about twenty lurid, cheap movies that involved Godzilla in mortal combat with rubberized foes, it was nice to see him get back to menacing basics here.

While the special effects are not quite up to the Hollywood standard, they're still entertaining and reasonably convincing. American critics who slammed the film's look were being just a tad intolerant - all foreign films tend to be cheaper than ours, so inferior effects are a given. My bottom line for judging SFX is not, "are they realistic?" but "are they fun?", and the shots of Godzilla laying waste to Tokyo are indeed fun.

Godzilla fans often complain about the film's overtly political concerns and somber mood, but I have to disagree with them; I like a bit of realism, a bit of credibility. I do think that there are several better, faster-paced Godzilla films (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, GMK), but this is still a standout entry in the series.

Who knows when we'll get another solo vehicle for the big G? The upcoming Godzilla: Final Wars will apparently feature a total of ten monsters. At least in this movie, Godzilla had the spotlight all to himself.

I firmly believe that Godzilla is criminally misunderstood in America. Much of this comes from the horrendous dubbings that we are often exposed to. The Americanized version even features Raymond Burr and a giant Dr. Pepper product placement. This makes it tough to take the film seriously on any level. I encourage you to search out the original version. You might be lucky enough to find it on ebay as a region 0 DVD. You won't find it in Blockbuster or most video stores.

Admittedly, it takes a special kind of person to search out the original, then look past the `special' effects and see the metaphysical implications of a giant monster destroying mankind. This may or not be worth your time, but if you decide to watch this film, watch it, not as `Godzilla 1985,' but as `Gojira 1984.' Otherwise you might as well stick with the Devlin/Emmerich remake that's just as funny as the dubbed versions, but for all the wrong reasons.

Also, an excellent score is turned in by Reijiro Koroku, it takes inspiration from the classic Godzilla theme but adds some real depth.

I have seen this film many times when I was young, but only the Raymond Burr version named "Godzilla 1985" which I later realized that the Raymond Burr scenes are entirely pointless and some of his lines are off and don't make sense, including ridiculous scenes in the American base where there's a Pepsi machine and a character drinks Pepsi when a serious moment happens just for advertisement, bad dubbing, bad dialogue, and the people working on the film removed the scenes with horrors of nuclear devastation, but I'm not giving an eight to the American version, I'm giving it to the Japanese version, which I have seen recently on DVD and I got to say this version is more superior. First of all, you can take the film more serious, and the film doesn't add crappy humor, and no Raymond Burr scenes. I also like the haunting score by Reijiro Koroku, and the fact that they makers of film brought Godzilla back to his roots, and the film also has a bigger budget so, the special effects, Godzilla suit, and miniatures are more better made (not perfect though). This is in my opinion, this is second greatest Godzilla movie next to original un-cut Gojira.

Godzilla 1984 stands out as one of the best and most politically imbued Godzilla films ever made and deserves more credit for what it accomplished. Godzilla

1984 single-handedly revitalized the Godzilla franchise into the machine it is today and ushered in a new concept for what the monster could be; gone are

the kiddie children and the super-robots, the monster melees and monster

dancing - here is a return to what Godzilla truly is: and unstoppable force of nature. The original Japanese version is far superior to the butchered American cut and their political agenda is far more subtle than the American's tactless editing of the Russian nuclear launch sequence. Fans would do well to view

the original as it retains the history and dignity of the first Godzilla film.

-Note; this is based on an English dub of a non-edited, non-Americanised version of this movie. Ergo, without the Raymond Burr scenes and the hefty changes made (why do those yanks always insist on messing with Japanese originals?). The box called it "the Return of Godzilla"-

As a kaiju film on it's own, it's nice enough. As a big 80's-90's return to the screen for Goji, it's dreadfully underwhelming.

There are quite some good things in here; the film does a good job of establishing a more dark and menacing atmosphere. Godzilla is a proper monster in this movie in that he should be feared, and with no other big monster to battle against him around, he's suddenly lots more tricky to get rid of.

Alas, he's also a little dull on his own in this film. There's a long and slow build-up before the destruction actually begins. But when Goji does finally reach Tokyo, the city-stomping that ensues in much more sedate and uneventful than what the viewer's been hoping for, and doesn't manage to really satisfy one. Instead, Goji spends a lot of time just standing around, and leaving lots of large buildings simply untouched (while you very badly -want- to see him smash them up). Once he's killed off in a rather daft way, you're left with a pretty empty "was that everything?" feeling.

Furthemore, the Godzilla suit doesn't look all that slick and modern. In facial close-up shots, his eyes look painfully plastic-like, for instance. The numerous scenes of people excitedly running about, trying to avert or escape from more catastrophes do add suspense (there's the whole atomic missile subplot as well), but we were hoping for a good new Goji flick, not a cold war drama story.

Although disappointing on the whole, as a curiosity, it's worth a go for kaiju fans, and shows an interesting darker, more menacing side of Godzilla that rarely surfaces outside of the original 1950's film (and perhaps Godzilla vs Destroyah). One really has to feel sorry for the over-stressed prime minister in this movie. The man deserves a good vacation in Okinawa after all that ^^. Despite it's shortcomings, kaiju die-hards can still enjoy this more or less (others needn't bother, there are better giant monster flicks for them out there). And of course, even this rather low-level Goji entry can still wipe the floor with that pathetic Tri-Star Godzilla travesty any day. Granted, that's not saying very much, but oh well... If you must see this, try to go for a non-edited version, as I'm told the US release had some very hefty changes that strongly marr the film.