Godzilla vs. Destroyer

When I first heard about this latest movie, I knew that it was going to be a good one. It is, and MORE! The special effects, the storyline, and, of course, the cataclysmic confrontation between the Big Green Guy and this malignant, super-powerful force of destruction appropriately named DESTROYAH! He smothers King Ghidorah as Godzilla's most powerful adversary after just one battle!

This truly isn't your father's Godzilla, and the sheer brutality of this new series proves it. With the creation of these movies, Godzilla has reclaimed something he hasn't had in a while: ATTITUDE! Meaner, bigger, and more powerful than ever, a true 'G fan' such as myself loves it!

The ending was a heartbreaker. Godzilla's body could no longer take over 40 years of radioactivity, as well as an ongoing war with Destroyah (he is one, bad...shut yo'mouth!) Now I hear that a new Godzilla movie is looming on the horizon. I knew that this movie couldn't be the last one. Godzilla is IMMORTAL! I would like to see him take on Destroyah in his vintage form.

On a Godzilla movie scale of 1 to 10, I give 'Gojira VS Desutoroia' a TWELVE!

This was the last Godzilla film in the Heisei series, and it certainly topped all the rest. All the stops were pulled out to make this one a fantastic and explosive film that made July 4th a real firecracker.

First, they are trying to develop some new chemical to kill Godzilla and they create some really neat looking creatures that look somewhat like a crab or a lobster with a long neck and a head. I really don't think Godzilla will have any trouble with these things as one spent five minutes trying to get a girl our of a car and couldn't do it before he was destroyed.

But, the creatures apparently form in to one Destroyer and this one kills Baby Godzilla. Godzilla arrives to do battle and what a battle it is. The fireworks were spectacular and the sound track was marvelous.

Add to the mix a space shuttle-like super jet piloted by a cross between Tom Cruise and Will Smith and these babies don't stand a chance. Since this is the end of the series, you know Godzilla will die, but you can be sure that he will likely comeback in some form in the future.

When I first saw this movie, I hoped this would have more of a brooding, menacing feel to it than it did. I half expected them to return more to the tone of the 1954 GOJIRA, especially since they made so many other references to the original, like bringing back Momoko Kochi as Emiko.

Instead, G. vs. Desutoroia was shot in the usual nervous style of the Heisei series, which so irritated me at first that I found myself counting seconds, to see if ANY SHOT in the whole movie would make it to ten.

On repeated viewings, though, I felt the movie held together better than most of the others in the 'new' Godzilla series. As usual, the human characters seem simply to be along for the ride (the exception is G. vs. Mechagodzilla (II), where I found myself actually caring what went on between the humans). In this case, it's only natural that the Big G. takes center stage.

The final moments are absolutely amazing. Akira Ifukube's classic "the-army-mobilizes-against-Godzilla" theme is heard for probably the last time: not as the usual march, but in a slow choral arrangement that will tear the heart out of any Godzilla fan...

Godzilla may be back in the form of the new, improved Little Godzilla, but PLEASE someone reassure me that we've finally seen the last of that psychic Miki Saegusa. By the time the Heisei series was over, I knew more about Godzilla's inner life than I did about hers. IMHO the whole Psychic thing added nothing to the continuing story... give her a 900 number and an infomercial and keep her out of Godzilla Millennium!

22nd installment and still kicking. This is the climax to the Heisei series. It's quite a beautiful climax, and rather poetic in its relation to the rest of the series. It's the first film with strong connections to the original. It brings back talk of the Oxygen Destroyah, which inadvertently created a new breed of monster. Meanwhile, Godzilla goes on a dramatic journey of character for such a big monster. First of all, he is getting close to meltdown, having absorbed too much nuclear radiation, he may be about to explode. This leaves him with a rather interesting glowing look, Also, he may be about to become a responsible father, as he tracks down his presumably dead son. Toho put a lot of faith into a big rubbery character, but he pulls it off. This is the most emotional since the original, and it still has time for awesome action sequences. Part of me wishes I had watched these years ago, as the city destruction scenes must have seemed even more impressive. Still, it's engaging stuff, and the perfect end to this series.

So this is the end? No, meanwhile they found a way to revive Godzilla. But 1995, it was supposed to be. In order to close the circle, "Godzilla vs Destoroyah' referred directly to the first Godzilla movie from 1954. The monster Destroyah is a result of the `oxygen destroyer' used back then to fight Godzilla. Toho Studios really managed to tie up the loose strings here, giving us a rather dark action adventure, picking up the environmentally hazardous theme from `Godzilla vs Hedora', but at the same time have Godzilla junior return without becoming as childish as in `Son of Godzilla' 1967. If you see Godzilla glowing red with radioactivity (i.e. throughout the entire movie!), you almost feel the pain. Great flick, shouldn't miss in anyone's monster movie collection.