Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:22 am
I was compelled to revisit Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah today, which meant I had to dig out my old, widescreen, English sub-titled vhs from storage. As of today, it is my only quality print of this movie, and saying that Sony really phoned in their dvd release from a few years back is a tremendous understatement. They did a completely lackluster job with these movies, and I can only hope that one day the entire Heisei Godzilla series is released properly, with pristine quality, widescreen editions and atleast some competent sub-titles, because the dubs are truly atrocious. On a side-note, I feel that despite the aspect of being somewhat dated and decidedly not of the caliber of some of the Showa Godzilla movies, the Heisei films (atleast a few of them) are worthy editions to the Godzilla legacy. I still enjoy them, and I have grown up considerably over the last few years (in response to a post that somebody made earlier in this thread, I don't recall who at the moment, I think it's a little unfair to say such a thing. Respectfully, of course to whomever I'm responding to, for I don't wish to instigate an argument, I just feel differently is all).
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, on to the movie. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah has always been one of my all-time favorite Godzilla movies, partly out of nostalgia, but also in appreciation of what it has to offer. I can happily report that, despite it's many plot flaws and a few minor embarassments (minor, atleast to my eyes), my position has not changed much. Kazuki Omori's film is still at the top of the heap for, for a number of reasons. First off, I've always liked the basic structure of this movie. It sort of reminds me of the way Godzilla versus The Sea Monster is framed with most of the first half dedicated to establishing characters on plot devices, while the last half is non-stop monster action and mayhem. I think that Omori atleast succeeds in creating a certain mood that works, even though the story admittedly has a few glaring holes and some of the character motivations aren't all that clear (for example, if Emi was so concerned with Japan's future, why does she go along with the plan of creating King Ghidorah to basically hold the entire country for ransom?). If this film didn't have a good cast, I would agree with everyone that these scripting inconsistencies would sink the entire story. But the principle players all give good performances here. Isao Toyahara, Anna Nakagawa, Katsuhiko Sasaki and especially Yoshio Tsuchiya all make this thing work for me, and I also feel that Kazuki Omori does a fine job of establishing a believable basis in reality in which his science fiction comfortably operates.
The special effects and the music are also top-notch, in my opinion (notice, I'm doing my best to maintain a subjective position here; in as long as I've been posting at online message boards, it has been my goal to avoid starting unnecessary flame wars; we're all here for the same reasons, and there's really no point in getting nasty). Bringing Akira Ifukube back was a wise decision, because somehow it just doesn't feel genuine without his iconic compositions. Much has been said about his Heisei work being predominantly recycled themes from many of his classic scores. Let me ask you this; given the man's age at the time, and the fact that Ifukube was never really a traditional film composer anyway, and also that there has to be only so many ways to write music for a monster movie, much less multiple movies with Godzilla, can you really blame him for being repetitious? Many great artists have re-used some of their best material. Hey, if it worked before, why not? His score for Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is loud, it's muscular, it evokes a sense of tragedy where the action requires, it creates mystery for the scenes establishing the Futurians and it adds tensions and urgency to the battle scenes. I especially like the revamped battle theme that was first composed for King Kong vs. Godzilla. I personally love hearing Ifukube's classic Godzilla music performed by modern orchestras, and recorded with new technology.
If you ask me, Koichi Kawakita gets a bad rap these days, and while there is plenty in his overall body of work that is simply unforgivable, he has still given the world of Godzilla fandom much to salivate over. He was an old pro who worked under Tsuburaya in the sixties, and while he may not have had the progressive, artistic mastery of his mentor, he still possessed a solid understanding of his craft. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, minus a few warts, Kawakita staged some of the best effects work in the entire Godzilla series. I must be the only damn person that I know of who actually likes his King Ghidorah design. No, it is not the masterpiece that is Tsuburaya's creation, but it is clearly the most remeniscent. One has to admit that they stuck pretty close to the original design, from the golden scales, to the majestic wings. One look at this design, and you can tell without question who it is supposed to be. The only differences are in the mace-like, spiked tail-ends and the faces and horns of each head. It's regrettable that they didn't retain his original roar, but I saw this movie at such a young age, it never bothered me then, and it certainly doesn't now. Atleast the lightning rays he fires are accurate, though a bit beefed up which works fine. At the very least, the Kawakita Ghidorah looks infinitely better in action than the one in GMK, and atleast as impressive as the one in Mothra 3. Personally, I've never gotten what was so "grand" about that one, or why everyone likes it so much. I mean, the skin is all wrong, the necks are too thick and the horns look like deer antlers!
There is much more that I like about this movie, such as the fact that Godzilla looks bad-ass and Mecha King Ghidorah is one of the most inspired creations of the post-Showa era of Godzilla movies, but I feel I've gone on for long enough. The fact of the matter is this, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is not only one of my all-time favorite entries in the Godzilla series, and easily my pick for the best of the Heisei series, it is also one that i would make a case for as being one of the best in the entire twenty-eight film series. Yes, there is a difference between what one personally likes and what is perceived as a quality production, and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah succeeds on both fronts, atleast from my point of view. It's not perfect by any means, and I understand why many don't like it, but I just think it has alot more going for it, and the good truly out-weighs the bad.
One thing I cannot defend though, are those damn Dorats lol! I mean, seriously?!!