heeeehhhhh GODZILLA's REVENGE

(aka Attack of the Monsters (more appropriate title imo)
This one raises too many questions, mostly bad ones. the biggest one is why oh why make a godzilla film (esp one aimed at children) if nearly 85% of the monster scenes is just going to be recycled stock footage???
Before I get into that though, another backstory. This was definitely "the hardest" film to locate. I knew it existed from the trailer after the Godzilla vs Mothra 64 VHS advertising it. I searched for this film for almost 2 years until I finally found a copy at a local Toys R Us back in the day. The fact that I had to really search for alot of these films in a scavenger hunt fashion was really frustrating but at the same time, made my experiences as a godzilla fan fun in a way

.
As a kid I def enjoyed the film but was expecting more from it. And whats funny is I saw the trailer for this film first, but later I would see all the scenes from the trailer in the respective films they belong to before I got my hands on Revenge. "And all the while I'm wondering, whats the footage from Revenge doing in this film??".
Now, its just a film I'll pop in for the occasional laugh cuz thats all its really good for. All in all the film wouldn't have been soo bad if they just took the time/money to invest more in the monster side/fights. This is monster island after all. We want to see more of all the monsters (including Gorosaurus/Varan). The human story I will say is far more entertaining than the monster side of things. The opening sequence is def awesome with that music. It sounds so psychedelic 60's esqu but bad @$$ at the same time while playing along to Godzilla's destruction from DAM. And thats another thing. When I saw these "DAM" shots as a kid, I was like "where are these scenes from?? and I would never find out until 1999 when it was finally released on VHS. huh only in japan.
only in japan
This is surprisingly Honda's favorite Godzilla film. This is due to the fact that alot of the kid/bullying scenes were things he could relate to from his childhood so it had that kind of effect on him while making this film.
The kid character is def interesting in a weird fashion. Just the typical nerd kid who loves godzilla, gets made fun of for it (i can really relate with that

) and collects dirty broken gadgets. But still he plays his part well. Kenji Sahara has a brief but memorable roll as the father, the "Kumaiyama" guy (GvM64) returns as the police chief, and (i didnt realize this til I listened to the commentary) but the main villian from King Kong Escapes plays the toy inventor here. Probably the most interesting character there providing an extra touch of light comedy. The kidnappers play some interesting but funny villians here.
The fact that they use the kids "dream world" to convey the monster action is a lil out there, but different in an ok light. Again all they needed to do was GET NEW MONSTER FOOTAGE. The fact that Minya can change to human and monster size really threw me off haha. His japanese dub is creepy, and his US dub makes him sound like a mascot guy with a cowboy accent (i need not say more haha).
One redeemable quality is that the new monster footage that is filmed features a new (and probably the weirdest monster in the godzilla series) GABARA. Definitely an interesting monster that can zap whatever he touches with electricity. The bully vs underdog fight concept works ok but gets old/childish after a while. Its not til Godzilla fights Gabara that things really get interesting. There's some good fight choreography there from Nakajima, but it only lasts a few minutes.
I think I've said all I'm going to say about this. I don't hate but it remains on the lower rank of all the G-films. Bottom line, I'll sum it up with the Angry Nintendo Nerds classic point on this film. " . . And who did Godzilla get "revenge" on, thats what I wanna know!!!"
