Talkback #22: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

[Gman2887]

[jellydonut25]

I find nothing wrong with Odaka's performance in Biollante, and I definitely never got an "overacting" feeling out of it.

[eabaker]

In retrospect, I think my last post came off a little unfair to Okawara, and showed a lack of serious consideration on my part. I think the quality of Okawara's work improved with each of his Godzilla movies, in part because the quality of scripts he was being given was generally increasing, and in part because he was relatively inexperienced at the outset. There are a few places in Destoroyah where I think he makes some very good choices.

It's a tiny thing, but I think in some ways my favorite human moment in the movie comes right after Miki and Meru's argument about luring Junior to fight Destoryah, when Meru has just walked off-screen in the background, and Miki remains facing towards the camera in the foreground, wrestles with it for a second, and then turns and follows. Except I also kinda hate that moment. It's a nice composition, it's a good bit of performance from Odaka, but it's also... the wrong bit of performance. It ends up feeling like a really good cute moment from a much more light-weight movie. The same approach to shooting the scene, but with Miki expressing a much heavier sense of resignation - even agony - could have been pretty fantastic.

Okwara was really cut out to make light action/adventure Godzilla movies, which is part of why I feel he did his best directorial work on Godzilla 2000. He does some good stuff in Destoroyah, but I think the tone of the story would have been much better suited to Omori's sensibilties.

[eabaker]

In retrospect, I think my last post came off a little unfair to Okawara, and showed a lack of serious consideration on my part. I think the quality of Okawara's work improved with each of his Godzilla movies, in part because the quality of scripts he was being given was generally increasing, and in part because he was relatively inexperienced at the outset. There are a few places in Destoroyah where I think he makes some very good choices.

It's a tiny thing, but I think in some ways my favorite human moment in the movie comes right after Miki and Meru's argument about luring Junior to fight Destoryah, when Meru has just walked off-screen in the background, and Miki remains facing towards the camera in the foreground, wrestles with it for a second, and then turns and follows. Except I also kinda hate that moment. It's a nice composition, it's a good bit of performance from Odaka, but it's also... the wrong bit of performance. It ends up feeling like a really good cute moment from a much more light-weight movie. The same approach to shooting the scene, but with Miki expressing a much heavier sense of resignation - even agony - could have been pretty fantastic.

Okwara was really cut out to make light action/adventure Godzilla movies, which is part of why I feel he did his best directorial work on Godzilla 2000. He does some good stuff in Destoroyah, but I think the tone of the story would have been much better suited to Omori's sensibilties.

[william newell]

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

[metal_bryan]

I kind of agree with Jorzilla's sentiments. The movie itself is a mess other than a few select moments. To be honest, I rarely watch Destoroyah because of how little I enjoy the film as a whole. It's not worth sitting through for me.

[eabaker]

[Jorzilla]

That's why I acknowledged that it's entangled, but the quality of the film leading up to that point is really not that great. Particularly the composite shots, miniatures, Bandai Destroyahs and Super X-III "effects."

Those elements are completely neglected in the end in favor of "liek dis if you cry everytiem!"

[eabaker]

[jellydonut25]

So, don't even cut out the Godzilla dies plot point, merely Godzilla dying. Instead of dying, he emits enough radiation during his battle with Destoroyah to get it all back under control and the movie ends with Godzilla walking off to the ocean ready for the next adventure.

The movie outright sucks under this scenario. Without the death scene, the only major positive I can conceive is Godzilla vs. Super XIII, and mostly just the Godzilla freezing stuff. There aren't high enough highs for me to enjoy this movie much...I guess we'll see if I can confirm when I re-watch at some point in the relatively near future, but that's my take on it as of this moment: 90 minutes of suck are forgiven for a few shots of Godzilla's spines melting and then a couple minutes of meltdown.

[Gman2887]

[KingKaiju]

I rewatched this movie the other day, and I have to say, although it's one of the Godzilla movies that sits among my top 5, I feel that most of that has to do with the death of Godzilla. Destroyah is awesome, I believe that he's one of Toho's best creations. He's extremely unique, not just in design, but as a character as well. You blow him up, and the chunks just become other Destroyahs who'll combine back into one big monster, I think that's pretty cool. In my book, he's the ultimate Godzilla villain, kind of like a boss in a game. But when I think about it, had Godzilla not died in this movie, it would've just been another Godzilla movie to me. I personally feel that what makes this movie so great, is that it surrounds the idea of Godzilla dying. I mean, Godzilla dying? As a kid, I would never have thought of that possibility, and when I finally saw it I made up as many excuses as possible. But the way I see it is, this movie focuses on Godzilla's death, and Destroyah just seems to be an awesome new monster thrown into the mix. It's kind of a weird cross between a Godzilla movie, and something of an Alien movie, with all the little Destroyahs running around, then back to a Godzilla movie once the Destroyahs come back to attack tokyo. Overall though, I still really enjoy it. You get an nice opening sequence where things quickly pick up and Godzilla's attacking China, but it makes you question what's going on because he obviously looks different, then as the story continues we start understanding the situation and things seem to get worse and worse, then you have the ending where Godzilla finally dies, and then we get the final scene which I especially love. The way the camera moves through the smoke and we finally catch a glimpse of Junior, who's now fully grown, kind of giving us this "Godzilla live on!" feeling. Just a fun Godzilla movie, and a good way to end the series I think. Plus, that suit!!! The way he's got smoke coming out of him with his red marks and glowing red eyes, giving you the sense of heat and radiation. Easily one of my most favorite Godzilla designs.

[Jorzilla]

[daikaijusaurus]

This is definitely among my favorites of the Hesei series. The story, special effects, and action was definitely an improvement over Space Godzilla. Godzilla's death scene was really emotional for me at the time, it was like a was watching the death of an old childhood friend that was with me for so many years. It was a real pity though that Toho never continued the series with Junior, I think that would've been a marvelous new series with a more friendlier Godzilla that acted as a defender like the Showa series.

But, there is ONE thing that I really LOATH about this movie, and it has nothing to do with the movie itself. I remember when the movie first came it out it was referred to as Godzilla Vs Destroyer. But then all of a sudden it was changed to Godzilla Vs Desutoroyah (or whatever). I imagine they did this for copyright/trademark purposes, but to me the name in English makes no sense at all. I love the name Destroyer, it sounds cool and ties in well with the Oxygen Destroyer. But Desutoroyah, to me, sounds ridiculous as a name and as a movie title.

If they wanted a name they could copyright they shouldve been more creative, like maybe Deathstroyer. Godzilla Vs Deathstroyer, now that sounds cool!

Sorry for the rant, I just had to let it out LOL!

[MekaGojira3k]

I always say Destroyah (I think I just saw it rendered that was a kid and I never bothered to correct myself) especially since the Destroyah spelling seems closer to what everybody is saying than Destoroyah.

[Gman2887]

Even though Toho seems pretty dead set on marketing the monster as "Destroyah" I've always been confused as to why their international dub called him "Destroyer". Me thinks a "-yah" decision was made after the dub or the translators didn't get the memo.

[Jorzilla]

His name was supposed to be Destroyer, but there was a copyright conflict for another movie or character....which one escapes me. That's why they had to use the romanization pronunciation.

[KingKaiju]

[william newell]

[metal_bryan]

Yeah I have always had trouble with the believability of a bunch of arthropods being able to fuse together into one big creature, break apart again, then reform. Hedorah is very believable because of its amorphous single-cell-organism-like nature. That movie establishes very early how Hedorah combines. Destoroyah makes no effort to explain.

[Gman2887]

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]