Talkback #22: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

[mr.negativity]

[Benjamin Haines]

[mr.negativity]

Time travel always screws me up.

[jrichreturns]

Hmm is Gdzilla's breath throughout the film as powerful as the red spiral breath? Cause that would mean Destroyah is super powerful to withstand all those blasts.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I've been on a Heisei kick. I've managed to watch every Heisei film in about a month or so.

Tonight, I watched GvsDes.

I've said it before in this thread - there are so many cool ideas in this film. Introducing characters who directly relate to the original Gojira's cast (and even having a cameo by Momoko Kochi, who played Emiko Yamane) is a nice touch. Creating a monster from the Oxygen Destroyer that killed the original Godzilla and then using it as the main antagonist in the final Heisei Godzilla film is brilliant. It brings everything full circle and certainly adds an overwhelming sense of closure to the series. Killing off Junior? Awesome, saddening, and such a good idea for the film (especially considering the ending). The scene where Godzilla tries to revive Junior is rather touching, and throughout the last part of the film I really felt Satsuma delivered an excellent performance as Godzilla. You can see G's pain and anger, and you're rooting for him to obliterate Destoroyah at the climax (well, I would anyway, but his killing of Junior certainly adds to the fire). I've never liked the idea of Godzilla having offspring, but at least Junior isn't bad in this film. His connection with Miki and Godzilla hits you in "the feels" so to speak, and for once I wasn't against the idea of Godzilla's "kid" being in the movie.

It's impossible to talk about this film without mentioning the ending - Godzilla dies, and it's truly sad. I admit I teared up this time. The older I get, the more sentimental I have become (I suppose being a new father of a 9 month old will do that to you). While I didn't love portions of Ikfukube's score, the majority was spot on and the ending theme was probably the perfect theme to set Godzilla's final moments to. Of course, we know that the end is the new beginning - as one Godzilla dies another is reborn. All of these ideas really work together, and I really enjoyed this movie much more than in previous viewings.

However, this film is far from perfect. The "Bandai Destoroyah" scenes are nauseatingly bad. The blatant Aliens rip off scenes are pathetic. Godzilla Junior on wheels (as he's interacting with Godzilla at the Airport) is very noticeable. The matte shots go from pretty good to really lazy - Tokyo is supposed to be evacuated, but there is traffic everywhere as Godzilla approaches. As much as I LOVE Destoroyah's design, the suit is so bulky that it made the close combat sequences difficult. And while I didn't hate his roar, I really wish Toho could have been more creative with it. The Showa era roars always had a flair to them and were very unique. The Heisei era, at least for the most part, lacked this ingenuity and rehashed several Showa era monster cries.

I do think the story in this film has a strong foundation, but Jelly's critique earlier in the thread was accurate - a student who flunked out of college is now the smartest guy in G Force. That premise isn't great, but throughout the film he's the only guy offering any solutions and answering questions. It's also true that his interest in Miki (and the reason he decides to join G Force in the first place) is basically forgotten immediately after he joins the team. No flirting, no real sense of grief when her helicopter goes missing, nothing. Miki is far more interested in Jr and Godzilla than she is anything else - at least she remains true to character in this film when they use the little guy as bait to lure Godzilla into the city so he can fight Des by reluctantly agreeing to the plan. They also introduce a new psychic, though I'm not sure it was necessary. This was Miki's show since Biollante - they should have let it end that way.

Overall, I think this film is probably better than I gave it credit for previously. While the charm of the early Showa films isn't there, the emotional weight certainly is. I can overlook a lot of the bad in this movie because there are enough good moments to make it worth watching. I'd say this film is probably the second or third best Heisei era film behind Biollante (and maybe G84). It certainly handles Godzilla's death with more feeling than GvsMGII did and I enjoyed the fight sequences much more.

[Geno]

This film is the exact definition of "wasted potential". It's shame, since we could have gotten characters that expressed so many emotions with having to deal with stopping Godzilla from destroying the world. The Oxygen Destroyer spawning a monster could have been explored so much more.

[Benjamin Haines]

I watched this again earlier today. It's pretty surreal that Godzilla vs. Destroyer is 20 years old now.

The writing in this movie is really sloppy and contrived, and it's loaded with little technical flaws from beginning to end, but the rapid pacing keeps the story moving well enough that it still works. I think the first 43 minutes are the iffiest, with a lot of meandering through plot threads that go nowhere, but once the Aliens ripoff sequence is over the last hour of the movie just cruises forward at full steam.

[Gman2887]

[Gentleman]

[lhb412]

Just thinking about Godzilla vs. Ghost Godzilla being made instead of Destoroyah, and a weird alternate universe where the entire back half of the Heisei series is Godzilla fighting versions of himself.

... then again, all the Heisei opponents save for Mothra, Battra, and Rodan are somehow related to Godzilla: clones or copies or otherwise created because of Godzilla.

[Gman2887]

[Gwangi]

In re-watching this 90s series on blu-ray, I wanted to see if any of my attitudes had change. Perhaps I may have mellowed in my old age, etc. As it stands, I ended up liking this film a little more than when I last saw it years ago. However, there are so many good ideas that I still feel weren’t as executed as brilliantly as they could have been.

I for one, thought it would have been a much more interesting story arc if the Yamane children belonged to Emiko and Ogata. Instead they were Shinkichi’s (where was Mrs. Shinkichi?). Shinkichi, I always thought was a bit of an odd character. Yes, we felt for his plight in the first half of the 1954 movie, but in the second half, he was just there, which really made it harder (for me) to feel any sympathy for him.

I liked Destroyer’s crustacean design (though, its scenes were clearly inspired by the Alien movies), but did not care for his final outcome, which was another big stiff creation, and thus, we got another big, stiff monster battle. I thought it would have been better if Junior, himself would have killed Destroyer, but also dying himself in the process, and leaving Burning Godzilla to its own dilemma.

Special effects were hot and cold. I liked the designs of Junior and Burning Godzilla. And I got a kick out of those Destoyers in stop-motion form. But, of course, you also have that infamous scene where they look nothing but toys, when the military is blasting them.

I did like the return of Momoko Kochi, after all of these years. though she did look quite fragile (and I believe this ended up being her last movie). And it was nice to see Masahiro Takashima again, who is always likeable in everything I’ve seen him do.

Akira Ifkube’s Melting Godzilla death is simply poetic. No other words to describe it. And I did like its end result, with the birth of a new Godzilla.

Clearly not the best of this series, but as already stated, I seemed to have enjoyed it a little more this time around.