by Benjamin Haines » Sat Mar 05, 2016 9:53 pm
Godzilla vs. Biollante is a worthy contender but Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster is superior.
I agree that Ghidorah is a quintessential Godzilla film and I'd say that Biollante fits that bill too. Like King Ghidorah in 1964, Biollante showcases how dynamic and imaginative the original monsters introduced in Godzilla movies can be. We see Godzilla fight his opponent in the water and on land, both with dazzling ranged attacks and up-close and gnarly. There are terrific sequences of the JSDF doing battle with Godzilla which span the Sea of Japan, the city of Osaka, and the Japanese countryside. They throw everything they've got at Godzilla: warships. planes, foot soldiers, biological weaponry, a psychic girl, and a big electricity-based weapons array to top it all off. The movie sports a great ensemble cast of scientists, psychics, and government/military types, and all three camps are balanced well with the monster action.
All due credit to Godzilla vs. Biollante for being the best movie of the Heisei Series, but my vote definitely goes to Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster here. I think it's interesting that three of these four semifinalists are Ishiro Honda films with Akira Ifukube scores.
