All Monsters Attack( Godzilla's Revenge)

    This film is considered by many to be one of the worst Godzilla films. It tries way too hard to appeal to kids. and what you get is something very bizarre. The film does feature a fair bit of monster action, but most is through stock footage of previous films which has little context in this film. The main thing that makes this movie ridiculous is Minilla in which for this film he's given the ability to change his size and talk sounding like Barney( generic child's voice in Japanese version).

    The story follows a young boy named  Ichiro

whose parents are always working and is bullied at school. He has a toy inventor neighbor named Shinpei who watches over him while his parents are gone. To escape his loneliness, Ichiro imagines himself going to Monster Island, and befriending Minilla. All the monster scenes in this movie take place in Ichiro's head which is why it's random and Minilla can talk and change size. He witnesses godzilla fighting a handful of monsters from previous films then runs into Minilla. He learns that Minilla has a bully as well named Gabara

which is also the name of the head bully in Ichiro's life. Shinpei wakes Ichiro, and he must return to his real life. Meanwhile, bank robbers are hiding out in a nearby warehouse in which Ichiro explores, and picks up one of their wallets.  Ichiro returns home and goes back to Monster Island and witnesses Godzilla fight more monsters( stock footage). Gabara appears and Minilla fights him, but loses.  Godzilla gives Minilla some training emulating the scene from Son of Godzilla.

Ichiro wakes up to the bank robbers kidnapping him and taking him to the warehouse.  To deal with the situation, Ichiro calls for Minilla's help and returns to monster Island where Minilla is fighting Gabara again. Ichiro helps Minilla defeat Gabara. Gabara pissed off, attacks Godzilla who makes short work of him.

  Ichiro wakes as Godzilla approaches him. From him dream. Ichiro musters the courage to fight the bank robbers and leads the outside to where they're arrested.  The next day, Ichiro stands up to his Gabara and beats him in a freeze frame fight. They become friends and everyone is happy.

  The stock footage and premise is what really hurts this film. If you've seen Godzilla vs the Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla, you've already seen most of the fight scenes. This is why the Godzilla suit changes from scene to scene.  Scenes with Gabara are new, but Gabara just looks kind of dumb.

The premise does have some heart to it. Ichiro must learn to stand up to his bullies, and he learns that from his imaginary trips to Monster Island. It's just not what many people want from a Godzilla movie. The American title of Godzilla's Revenge makes no sense. There's nothing in this movie about Godzilla getting revenge. In closing,  this film is a lot like Godzilla vs the Sea Monster. It doesn't do anything to carry the series forward.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!

    "DESTROY ALL MONSTERS" Three words that make up one epic title. Is this the monster showdown that was promised?  Although it came out in the middle of the Showa period, this is actually the grand finally of the showa series taking place in the futuristic year of 1999. This movie brought together most of Toho's monster although many were just cameos or stock footage.

   In the year 1999, all of the world's monsters have been contained on a island called Monsterland. Suddenly all of the monster leave the island and start attacking cities throughout the world. It is discovered that the monsters are being mind controlled by a race of all female aliens called the Kilaaks. The Kilaaks demand the human race surrender to them or be destroyed. The humans eventually  discover the Kilaaks have established a base in Mt Fuji. They raid the base and break the Kilaaks' control of the monsters. The Kilaaks unleash their hidden weapon, King Ghidorah.  A battle between King Ghidorah vs Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, and Kumonga occurs.
.

Ghidorah is eventually killed by the combined might of the monsters. In a last ditch effort, the Kilaaks unleash their secret weapon. A burning  monster they call the fire dragon which ends up just being a spaceship. The spaceship is destroyed and all the monsters return to Monsterland to live in peace.  

 To answer the question of if this is the ultimate monster showdown, unfortunately not quite. The film as a whole focuses on the human's attempt to break the Kilaaks' control of the monsters. The monsters are shown briefly in the beginning, and in quick clips of them attacking various world cities. It's not til the end that the real monster action starts. I don't necessarily demand non-stop monster action. but prefer it if the plot integrated the monsters more. I don't mind the focus on humans if the characters are interesting and the plot compelling. Unfortunately, this film doesn't have any stand out characters and the plot is very basic. The story carries many elements from Monster Zero in the characters from that film's attempt to break the alien's control of the monsters.

As for monster action, It's great seeing monster's attacking other world cities, although briefly. It helps make the film feel like it's a worldwide crisis rather than just a Japanese problem.  The finale  is still enjoyable, although there are a few monsters there that just do nothing like Varan. It's essentially Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, and Kumonga vs King Ghidorah.

Each uses their special ability against King Ghidorah.  It is kind of strange that King Ghidorah is depicted to be match for all the monsters when just Godzilla and Rodan were able to drive him off. I still recommend the film, but for the final fight.

 This movie was the Avengers of Godzilla films. It was what the films were building up to. The series still continued afterwards but took a more kid friendly approach, mostly.

Son of Godzilla

    By this point, Godzilla had gone from a destructive force of nature to a defender of Earth. This film cements his transition by making him a parent.

    Scientists are doing weather control experiments on an island inhabited by giant praying mantises. An experiment goes wrong which irradiates the island. After radiation levels reduce, the researchers discover the radiation has cause the mantises to grow even bigger.  They discover the mantises cracking open an egg which is revealed to be a baby Godzilla.

  Godzilla arrives and kills two of the mantises and adopts the baby. The baby named Minilla grows to about half of Godzilla's size fairly quickly. Godzilla then instructs him on the important monster skills of roaring and using his atomic ray. At first, Minilla has difficulty producing anything more than atomic smoke rings, but Godzilla discovers that stressful conditions (stomping on his tail) or motivation produces a true radioactive blast.

A giant spider named  Kumonga is awoken on the island and attacks Minilla. Godzilla saves Minilla and they work together to defeat Kumonga by using their atomic rays on the giant spider.

Hoping to keep the monsters from interfering in their attempt to escape the island, the scientists finally use their perfected weather altering device on the island and the once tropical island becomes buried in snow and ice. As the scientists are saved by an American submarine, Godzilla and Minilla begin to hibernate as they wait for the island to become tropical again.

    This is an odd film. It's extremely cheesy,  yet touching in a strange way. It is definitely a huge change from what Godzilla started as. Like Godzilla vs the Sea Monster, this film has no real interesting antagonist for Godzilla. Just a giant spider and 3 praying mantises. This one also has no human antagonist. Strangely, there are cute moments between Godzilla and his son. There's a scene where Minilla plays jump rope with Godzilla's tail as he sleeps. Then the final shot is Godzilla giving his son a hug as they prepare to hibernate. There's also some typical parenting moments like when Minilla doesn't get his way. He just lays on the ground, and throws a fit making donkey sounds. Godzilla just grabs him by the tail and drags his ass. Minilla looks kind of ridiculous and too cute especially for being the adopted son of the king of the monsters.

One major complaint is the Godzilla suit which is probably the worst of the series. They tried to make him look more human, but ends up looking like garbage.

    Overall, this is a film that I don't  really care for. I prefer Godzilla as a antihero or a villain with some exceptions. This film essentially made Godzilla a full hero so people could get behind him for the next entry.  

Godzilla vs the Sea Monster

    While Monster Zero took the franchise into space and had the antagonist be aliens controlling King Ghidorah, This film keeps things on an island and the antagonists are terrorist with a giant lobster.

    The film is about a man whose brother goes missing. He sets sail with three others and is attacked by a giant lobster named Ebirah. Their boat washes ashore on an island which is inhabited by a terrorist organization manufacturing heavy water, and using abducted natives from

Infant Island( Mothra's island) to slave for them. The terrorists use a special compound to keep Ebirah from attacking them. The three men run into an escaped native who aids them in avoiding capture.They devise a plan to defeat the terrorists. Eventually, they discover Godzilla sleeping in a cave, and harness lightning to wake him up. Thought that was Kong's thing. He wakes up,fights with Ebirah, but Ebirah escapes. The native girl runs into Godzilla, and he takes an interest in her. He protects her from a giant condor. Also Kong's thing. The terrorists send planes to attack him, but they're no match. The protagonists free the natives and sabotage the terrorists' formula that protects them from Ebirah which results in Ebirah stopping their escape. Godzillla has a rematch with Ebirah in which he defeats him.

Mothra shows up and saves the natives while Godzilla destroys the facility on the island.


     This film has a very interesting production history. The film was originally conceived as a King Kong film. This is why lightning is used to wake Godzilla. Also why there is a scene where Godzilla takes an interest in a native girl, and protects her from a giant condor

just like Kong.

    The film is definitely a weaker entry in the series. It doesn't progress the overall story.  It Feels just like a side story. In fact there's a quick bout between Mothra and Godzilla which contradicts them being friends now. The movie does contain some underwater fights, but they really don't look the best. The fight above water is made up of mainly rock throwing ( another aspect of Kong).The Godzilla series has something in common with Bond films in that the films are only as good as the villain, and this one does not feature a very interesting adversary. I do feel it would have been better as a Kong film.
     
    

Invasion of Astro-Monster/ Monster Zero/ Godzilla vs. Monster zero

    Invasion of Astro-monster is a unique entry in the series because it was a co production between TOHO and the American distributor United Productions of America(UPA). The film featured American Actor Nick Adams in both versions. Adams would record his dialog in English and for the Japanese version his lines would be dubbed over.  Both versions are identical except for the title change and some alternate music is used. 

     Two Astronauts investigate the newly discovered planet X. They run into aliens who say their planet has been made inhabitable by Monster Zero which turns out to be Ghidorah.

They ask to Borrow Godzilla and Rodan to fight the monster. The humans agree in exchange for the secret to cure all disease. The Aliens transport Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X where they fight Ghidorah. Ghidorah flees again, and Godzilla does a victory dance.

When the humans play a record with the secret to cure disease, it turns out to be a demand that they turn over control of the Earth to Planet X. The aliens unleash Godzilla, Rodan, and Ghidorah upon the Earth by controlling them with electromagnetic waves. The humans develop a device to disrupt the alien's control. They also discover the aliens have a weakness to sound, and exploit it. Godzilla and Rodan take on Ghidorah again. All three fall into the ocean and Ghidorah runs away to space. Yes I know he's a bit of a coward.

    The film is very much a Science Fiction film.

The beginning doesn't even feel like a Godzilla film, but a sci fi film of the 60s. It is only time that Godzilla has left earth. It also marks the first time in the series aliens have tried to conquered the earth. The astronauts Fuji and Glenn played by Akira Takarada and Nick Adams have some great chemistry together.

They're the first to become suspicious of the aliens. There's a whole subplot involving Fuji's sister and how he treats her like a child. He dislikes her boyfriend who is an inventor, but he actually invents the device that defeats the aliens. This leads to some humorous moments between Glenn and Fuji when discussing the situation. Glenn has a romance with one of the aliens who was sent to spy on him, but she falls for him which leads to her death. Whether you call in Invasion of Astro-Monster or Monster Zero, this is a great entry in the series that took it to new heights.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

    Ghidorah. the Three Headed Monster marked the start of Godzilla's hero phase. The film takes place after Mothra vs Godzilla, and brings back Mothra. This time it's back to one stating one of the twins died.  The film also brings in Rodan , a giant Pteranodon, who had its own movie in 1956. The big introduction is that of Ghidorah ( Ghidrah in US edit), a flying three headed dragon that spits electricity. Ghidorah went on to become Godzilla arch enemy, and appeared in 6 films spanning all 3 eras. Some of the cast from the last movie also returns, but playing different characters which was common for these films.

  The plot is Police Detective Shindo is assigned to protect princess Selina Salno of Selgina. Her plane is destroyed by political assassins who want control of her country before it reaches Japan. 

 Meanwhile, a meteor shower occurs which gets the attention of the scientific community. The princess turns up proclaiming to be a prophetess from Venus( Mars in the English dub).

She predicts that Rodan will rise from Mount Aso and warns that a ship must not sail because it will be destroyed. Sure enough, Rodan rises from Mount Aso and Godzilla destroys the ship.  The Princess says her planet was made uninhabited by a Giant Monster called Ghidorah and that monster is coming to Earth. During this time Godzilla and Rodan just continuously duke it out. Ghidorah comes out of one of the meteors. The government decides to ask Mothra for help who plans to attempt to get Godzilla and Rodan to team up. Mothra attempts to convince Rodan and Godzilla to put their differences aside. At first they refuse to cooperate. Mothra decides to take on Ghidorah himself, but is no match.

Godzilla and Rodan show up and they take on Ghidorah together. There is an epic fight highlighting all of their abilities.

In the end, Ghidorah flees. Regarding the princess, the assassins make another attempt, but Shindo stops them and the princess returns to normal.  

       The fight is very well choreographed. Each monster uses its strength, and they even use team tactics. Such as Mothra riding on Rodan's back.

   This film marks when the monsters started to gain human characteristics. When Mothra confronts Godzilla and Rodan, He sprays them with his silk to get their attention. When Godzilla gets sprayed, Rodan has a chuckle. When Rodan gets sprayed, Godzilla laughs his ass off. During this scene they have a conversation in monster language translated by the Shobijin( Mothra's tiny fairies) We learn that them attacking humans is not just instinct, but bitterness towards  humans for what they have done to them and the earth.   

  The film has some engaging human characters. Shindo has a sister ,Naoko, played by Yuriko Hoshi from the last movie. This time playing a full fledged reporter.

There is actually some great sibling moments between the two. She also serves as a caretaker for the princess giving her shelter and helping spread her message.

        This is the film where the monster brawl was born. While the plot may be bizarre, the ending definitely pays off. 

       

      

Mothra vs Godzilla

 Mothra vs Godzilla is considered by many ,including myself, to be one of the best of the series. The film matches Godzilla up against Mothra who had its own movie in 1961. While the films feature the same monster, they don't seem to follow the same continuity. This film marked the last time Godzilla was presented as a villain until the reboot in 1984.

 The plot is Mothra's egg washes up on the shore of a village.

A evil businessman buys the egg from the villagers so he can exploit it. Mothra wants the egg back, and of course he wont give it up. Godzilla show up in a grand entrance,
and wrecks havoc the whole movie. The military tries everything including electricity again. Mothra fights Godzilla,

but dies.

Her egg hatches,Which turns out to be twins, and her offspring takes down Godzilla by encasing him silk as he falls into the sea.

 What makes this film great is it has a faster pace then most of the series. Godzilla shows up sooner in the film and he just goes on a rampage throughout. The military throws everything at him including some creative tactics, but he just keeps going. This perfectly displays his invulnerable attribute. At the end of the film, Godzilla heads to an island where there are schoolchildren ,therefore, there are actually stakes in the scene which has been missing since the original. This film also feature memorable characters that you care about. The leads are News reporter Ichiro  and photographer Junko. There is some romantic tension between them, but nothing comes out of it. They both have very distinct  personalities. 

The villains are two businessmen who are fun to hate. They both get what's coming to them.  The film does have an important message in it. The island that Mothra comes from has been almost entirely destroyed due to nuclear testing, and the natives are very bitter. Ichiro, Junko, and a scientist go to the island to ask the natives to send Mothra to fight Godzilla. They first refuse, but junko convinces them by telling them not all people are responsible for what has become of their island, that the innocent are being killed. Ichiro continues on by stating humans must help one another. Therefor the film does contain a message of unity. The compositing effect are a lot better than that last entry especially when people and Godzilla are blended in the same shot. This film is definitely one that hold the attention throughout.

 The American version was titled Godzilla vs The Thing and some releases just switched the title to Godzilla vs Mothra.

Very little was actually changed for this version. Except for the dubbing, the only real difference is the scene when the American Navy fires special missiles at Godzilla. This was actually filmed by TOHO, but was cut due to it possibly being uncomfortable for the Japanese to see Americans firing upon Japanese soil less than 20 years after WW2. Overall, it is very faithful to the original version.

 Mothra vs Godzilla is definitely a high point for the series and is highly recommended to newcomers and fans alike.