TALKBACK #10: All Monsters Attack

[jellydonut25]

[eabaker]

[RaymondBurr]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]

What do you get when Toho wants to imitate a Gamera movie? “All Monsters Attack,” that’s what.

There is nothing positive I can say about this movie at all. The opening song the audience has to listen to at the beginning of the movie is god awful and tells us how bad this movie is going to be right from the get go. Its plot is utterly ridiculous as it is about a neglected child with one friend, being bullied, who dreams of going to Monster Island to meet Godzilla. He gets captured by criminals that make Harry and Marv from “Home Alone” look intelligent, and beats them all with the help of his imaginary monster friend Minilla. While it is apparent that Toho was going for something kid friendly, they did it in such a way that this movie insults kids rather than praises them. The worst part is, Ichi is only this way because his parents are terrible people as all they care about is working rather than actually taking care of a child and let other people raise him for them. OH MY GOD, they are modern day Americans!!

Seriously, the characters in this movie are not even remotely likable, the children are annoying, and even the monsters are bad. Worst of all, the movie is pretty much a giant clip show for 90% of its monster battles, which makes it look like they were working on a budget of 1,000 Yen. Godzilla has no identity of his own as his personality is reflected in the clips and costumes shown. Minilla was a terrible idea to begin with two years prior and this just adds more icing to his already rotten cake. However, the worst atrocity is Gabara, who could have been cool, but is as useless and non-threatening as these monsters come. His coloring is unique though, but he can only win fights when he picks on a child and gets his butt beaten by Godzilla with little effort. The effects are non-existent outside of what was already seen in the previous movies, the sets look bad, and the fights are boring.

In fact, the battle with Gabara sums up this movie in a nut shell. A lazy cash grab made as cheaply as possible while insulting the intelligence of a child in the process. Thankfully, the movie is not even 70 minutes, but even then, it drags on forever. I give this movie a 1/10 as it is a waste of celluloid and an insult to the name of Godzilla. If there is one movie I hated a child, and I still hate to this day, it is THIS movie. Only watch it if you feel you must watch every Godzilla movie in existence during your Godzillathons. If you have never seen this movie before, seeing every Godzilla movie is not a priority and you have no reason to bother with this thing.

[DannyBeane]

I love the opening song. It makes good cruising music. I've also developed a soft spot for this movie over the years. I thought it was ridiculous when I first saw it on TNT's Godzilla bash 94 at the ripe old age of 9 but its grown on me. I think Ichiro is a very sympathetic character and if I had kids, this would be one of the first film I would show them.

[Benjamin Haines]

[jellydonut25]

This was one of the first five (maybe) Godzilla movies I ever saw, and I loved it as a kid.

Hated it as a teen.

Have grown to enjoy it for what it is as an adult.

I have few defenses of it, though.

[lhb412]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

^I think it would be right there at the precipice of the top 10.

#10.

[william newell]

I remember going to see this movie back in the early 70's and I HATED it. To be honest, a lot of that hate was due to the very misleading advertising campaign. I remember there being a line in the commercial for it stating "Mankind vs. Monsters for Possession of the Earth", or words to that effect. Over the years my opinion has softened considerably as I now understand what Honda was shooting for. I still don't consider a Godzilla movie, per se, but rather a movie that happens to have Godzilla in it. And as to the use of stock footage, I remember awhile back, someone stated that within the context of the film, the stock footage made sense. Ichiro's imagining himself on Monster Island, so what better scenes would he imagine that those from movies that he's already seen? Made sense to me, anyway...just my two cents.

[jellydonut25]

[ILL GREEN]

I enjoyed the movie for what it was; a boy that daydreams about Godzilla. Who can't relate to that? As a kid this movie sent a message to me about fighting your own battles. The SOG footage really didn't bother me because after all, its a kids imagination reliving Godzilla movies.

Other than that, its still the lesser of G films because it really didn't involve Godzilla as the main character or an epic plot. It was more like Minya inviting a friend to his house and his dad happens to be home. "C'mon lets play some PS4"

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

[Jorzilla]

I watched this again in English and Japanese (within a 3 month gap). Minya sounds like garbage in the Japanese version and sounds way better in the America. Ichiro sounds ridiculous in the American vresion, but actually does a pretty good job acting in the Japanese version even if he's yelling his lines the entire movie.

I really like the music in this film. The American intro is great with the funky music, but the Japanese one of quirky seeing that Ichrio is singing the opening. The battle scene soundtracks are great...actually I can't think of one musical cue that I dislike.

This is a movie about Ichiro, NOT Godzilla. This movie is highly effective in what it's setting out to do. I think it was a great follow-up to Destroy All Monsters considering they went gang-busters on the previous film, but there was still an appetite for Godzilla in a younger audience...it makes business sense. It also served as a benchmark to the audience that said: Okay, Godzilla is now a kids franchise. I don't hate it for that.

Sure this movie is a clip show, and that is annoying. I still don't like Minya as a character.

BUT: This movie is so damn damn fun/uplifting while still having this undercurrent of urban blight Japan. I simply cannot hate this movie. There are certainly other Godzilla movies that try to play it 'straight' and fail to hit the mark or the writing holds it back....I tend to dislike those films a lot more. This film has comparably better writing than say, something like Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla or Godzilla X Megaguirus.

I really think that the majority of fans simply go, "This is a kids movie and clip show!" without properly framing the movie in the era it was made and the audience it was going after. I think it moved up a couple notches in my over-all ranking last night.

As a Godzilla movie it still falls in the bottom 1/3 grouping overall, as an Ichiro movie, it's number 1.

[jellydonut25]

I think you're hitting the nail on the head, Jor...

You can't overlook its flaws in an honest appraisal, but you also can't deny that to its target audience, those flaws don't matter and it's still a fun movie. It might not be GOOD, but I honestly don't think it completely fails at what it sets out to do (unlike other films in the series)

[briizilla]

I really liked this movie when I was younger for the simple fact that it had so much stock footage of monster stuff I'd never seen. It used to play on the local UHF station fairly often and for me it was awesome to see all the fights and monsters from movies I'd never seen yet, keep in mind this was the early 80s so I only knew the few movies I'd seen on TV.

Now I find it unwatchable.

Also, it takes a certain gall for a movie studio to release a film, to theaters no less, that contains so much stock footage. Some of it barely a year old!

[Xenorama]

as a staunch defender of this movie, I have to agree with a lot of what you said about it. good call. I would have wanted to be friends with Ichiro had I known him growing up.

You do know that's not really "Ichiro" singing the opening song, right?

[jellydonut25]

[Jorzilla]

[walshiam]

The film was an excellent story into the mind of a child, a child who was a perfect example of ourselves growing up in a world of monsters and how we dealt with them.

[kiryugoji04]

[jellydonut25]

On my most recent re-watch, the thing that stuck out to me the most was that for some odd reason, the scene from Son of Godzilla where Godzilla teaches Minya to breathe fire was recreated...I wonder if that was something that was done before Tsuburaya got sick or something and if it's indicative that the original plan of the film was not to use stock footage but rather to re-create certain scenes from the series...

IN any event, the film itself certainly isn't good, and might objectively be the worst Godzilla film, but I can't help but give it some credit for:
-being entertaining, because for the most part it's a fun watch
-having a child character who's somewhat relatable and not just a completely unlikable little pissant.
-finding unique ways around the hamstrings of its budget and other behind the scenes problems

All of that, combined with a touch of nostalgia keeps me from putting it in my bottom 5. Also, some of the unintentional humor and stuff just puts a big grin on my face.

Solidly in my bottom-third of Godzilla films, but I'd rather watch it than quite a few films in the series.