TALKBACK #16: The Return of Godzilla

[Mac]

[KaiserGhidorah]

[zekend01]

[Benjamin Haines]

[king_ghidorah]

[Mac]

[MekaGojira3k]

[kpa]

[zekend01]

[Tyler E. Martin]

This movie is terribly mixed for me.

I love the idea of having a film revolve around the effect a crisis like the reappearance of Godzilla would have on an international level, especially in the tense political climate of the Cold War. However, most of those scenes lack the power needed to drive the point home. What's more, they seem to abandon that idea for the most part after about the halfway point in order to focus on a group of bland characters whose situation I have a hard time caring about. While Natsuki isn't terrible as Hayashida, I really wish Akihiko Hirata could have lived to play the role; it would have given the film a little more credibility, in my opinion.

Something I do like about Hayashida's character is that his goal is to simply "send Godzilla home," which I wish they would have played up more during the movie. Then the sympathy we're supposed to feel for Godzilla at the end might have some kind of basis. To be quite honest, my favorite human character in this film, besides maybe the Prime Minister, is the homeless guy. He seems to have more personality than the others, and he makes me laugh.

What the heck is with that song that plays during the end credits? While I generally prefer the Japanese version as a whole, the score medley in the U.S. version was a much better idea. Props also for Burr's ending speech and the "death cry," both of which evoke a much more emotional reaction than in the original cut.

While the visuals are pretty hit-and-miss, I have to give credit to Nakano and Co. for the atmosphere they're able to pull off with the effects sequences. They have a rather satisfyingly gloomy and anxious feel to them, for the most part, particularly Godzilla's initial appearance at the nuclear plant. The Godzilla suit, like most, looks great or not-so-great depending on the angle at which we see it, but I generally like the design. I also think the Super-X is pretty cool.

And this might just be me being a music nerd, but I think the only consistently strong aspect of this movie is Reijiro Koroku's score. It's so epic and brooding, and it helps to give the rest of the film the feeling of dread and tension that it seems to shoot for.

So yeah, this is a very up-and-down movie for me. Possibly moreso than any other in the series.

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

I would also like to put a MAJOR shame on this movie...

this movie started the rather unfortunate trend (that only Biollante would break) of the 'concerned authorities watching Godzilla on video screens with the all-seeing camera'

I think it worked OK for this movie and it's purposes, but when it gets employed in later films it gets to be ridiculous, especially in movies like Godzilla vs. Mothra and Spacegodzilla, where we're never even introduced to the 'concerned authorities' properly

[zekend01]

^^Yeah. It's just a bunch of dudes standing around in suits reacting to said screen with Miki hanging out and looking as though she has a cramp.

On a related note, I wish they had at least been in some kind mobile headquarters, or something, at least once or twice so as to actually be under some kind of threat. Like maybe some kind of hovership that was never supposed to engage Godji, but ended up taking some hits anyway. I dunno... I could have seen this being viable by Spacegodzilla. All the technology was really upped significantly by then.

All in all I was bored with this "bigscreen bunch" post vs. Mothra. It kind of reached its apex with that really emotional old dude.

Vs. Destoryah at least mixed it up with the G summit meeting, but it was "too little, too late" to keep me very interested.

[king_ghidorah]

[planetxleader]

Love the effects and the dreary mood. Love the score (especially Christopher Young's added music, love that guy). I personally dig the Cybot, and the build-up toward's Godzilla's appearance is excellent.

...but, the film is sloppy, the characters are boring, and the film's greatest weakness, as always mentioned, is how the plot resolution is determined. It's as if the screenwriters stuck it in there without succesfully medling it into the story. Lazy.

Still, I've got a soft spot for this film.

[Andrew Nguyen]

First a bit of nostalgia. When I first saw this film on Channel 9 in 1992, I was (to admit well enough) surprised by the nature of this film (as this is the first Heisei film for me).

For me, while this is not as good as Biolantte and to a lesser extent Mecha-Godzilla, over the years, this is a personal favorite film of mine.

It brought back, in a fashion, the dark tone that the original film had and made an honest attempt to updated it up to the present at the time (with the Cold War still going on and all that). I did like a lot the political scenes in the film (particularly in the issue of using nuclear weapons).

The characters that I didn't like were the reporter and the assistant to Professor Hayashida and her brother as well as the homeless guy. Most of the others were fine for me (although they should have gotten somewhat much better for the Russian and particularly the American ambassadors).

There are many scenes that stand out for me in this film. These include Godzilla's march on the Ihama Nuclear Power Plant, the defense of Tokyo Bay (particularly when Godzilla litterally wiped out the ground forces with one shot of his atomic breath) and then his march on Tokyo (though I wish that there had been more destruction and more attempts at resistance by the humans, particularly when Godzilla was marching through Ginza.

The music score for this film is definitely one of the better non-Ifukube ones.

[MouthForWar]

[the_candidate]

Godzilla was a tragic character right from the start. The sad music at the end of Gojira has nothing to do with Serizawa; it has everything to do with humans using a weapon of science to destroy a creature that was mutated and angered by another weapon of science to begin with. It's a vicious cycle; science is inherently destructive.

The same kind of cycle happens in The Return of Godzilla, but instead of Godzilla being a product of science, he's a force of nature. A volcano is what wakes Godzilla from his slumber, and a volcano is what ultimately defeats him in the end. Also of note is how Godzilla is lured away from civilization by birds, another part of the natural world. The Super X and the military all failed to kill Godzilla with their technology and weapons; what ultimately leads to Godzilla's defeat is nature itself.

It was always surprising to me how this theme of nature bringing balance to the Earth (unleashing Godzilla to destroy a nuclear plant and then Tokyo, and then sending him back into the ground when his work was done) was lost on so many people. Maybe it's because most have only seen the American version, but in the Japanese one, the message is pretty well-defined.

[kiryugoji04]

Seems the part where the humans lure Godzilla away from finishing his Tokyo gig by using science to create a fake birdcall in order to drop him into a volcano totally against his will was pretty well lost on you.

Also, the music at the end of the original Godzilla has just as much to do with Serizawa as it has to do with Godzilla. They're both directly tied to the same metaphors and tragedy.

[the_candidate]

[jellydonut25]

Heisei-era reviews have begun



If you're a big fan of the Heisei-era films...the only review you might want to read is Godzilla vs. Biollante...my appraisals of the rest are not very kind.

[Flame of Udin]

Godzilla 1985/Return of Godzilla is probably my favorite Godzilla movie of all time. There I said it.

There is nothing bad about this movie in my eyes. Yes, the Japanese version lags a bit and the Cybot looks different from the suit. But MAN the score is darned near perfect, acting top notch and effects are miles ahead of the rest of the Heisei series.

My biggest compliment to this film though is it's title character. Godzilla is played as the destructive force Tanaka and Honda always envisioned him to be. He is down right evil in this movie and towards the end you get the message that he was made evil by us and we must learn to deal with that fact.

Love it!

[jellydonut25]

its just too much of a bore to be any good for me...

Godzilla spends most of his time LOOKING pretty badazz but not really DOING...anything at all...

[Shonokin]