Godzilla anyone?

Destroy All Planets (1968 – aka GAMERA VS VIRAS), directed by Noriaki Yuasa. This is the worst man-in-a-monster suit film I have seen. It did not help that the print was terrible, washed out and delivered in pan and scan. The monster here is a very large turtle (reminded us of Pratchett’s Great A’Tuin), that spins through the sky shooting flames from where his four legs are/should be. He can also spew flames from his throat, like Godzilla. He faces several adversaries here, in film footage from earlier films – quite a lot of it, too much of it Yawn. His main adversary, however, is Viras, a meanly tentacled pointy thing. We have the requisite toppling of buildings and crashing into the ocean and rolling about in a free-for-all between these two monsters. Meanwhile, two young Boy Scouts, one Japanese and the other American, find themselves captured by aliens who have come to take over earth. Being Boy Scouts, the young boys prove to be resourceful and with Gamera’s help, they save the world, or at least Tokyo. Hollywood did this kind of thing with the ‘B’ westerns in the 30s and 40s, cobbling together a film with footage from previous films. It was lame on horseback and it is lame with flying monsters.

 

All Monsters Attack (1969), directed by Ishiro Honda. This kaiju film receives a rating of 3.9 on IMDB. Apparently, it is one of the least appreciated Godzilla films by both critics and fans. Too bad. In my humble estimation, this is about as good as it gets. The film actually has a plot – a young boy, Ishiro (Tomonori Yazaki) endures mistreatment by a number of bullies, and he retreats into a fantasy world where he meets animated versions of his toy friends – Godzilla and his ilk. He also meets Godzilla’s son, Minilla, who also suffers from bullying. Real life and fantasy life reflect each other. In real life, Ichiro has parents who work all the time and leave him under the care of a neighbour who is a toy maker. Being left on his own, Ichiro finds himself threatened not only by the bullies, but also by a pair of incompetent thieves. In his fantasy world, Ichiro is under threat of attack by a Kamacuras, a huge mantis thing. He falls into a hole and is rescued by Manilla. Manilla has a father who hangs around and tells him to buck up and meet his bully head on, as it were. Ichiro helps Manilla deal with the creature that bullies him by instructing him to use a catapult. Back in the real world, Ichiro escapes from the thieves and also gets the better of his bullies. The action takes place in a polluted city, Kawasaki, giving us a taste of the environmental theme we will see more forcefully in Godzilla vs Hedorah. Our protagonist, Ishiro, is a lively tyke, and an attractive character played well by young Yazaki. The monsters have character, and perform their bits admirably. As a film about a young boy’s fears and struggles, All Monsters Attack is a refreshing change from the familiar stomping of cars and crushing of buildings and snagging of planes. This is, dare I say, a sweet little film. Thanks again Cole and John.

 

Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971), directed by Yoshimitsu Banno. Sometimes called Godzilla vs the Smog Monster, this film takes on pollution, both our polluted skies and our polluted ocean. The film contains some disgusting shots of both land and sea littered and ruined by pollution of various types. These shots are quite powerful, and we might be mindful that this is 1971. Fast forward to 2021, and we have not progressed in our attempt to clean up the environment. Anyhow, in this film all the sludge that drains into the sea has spawned a sludge monster, Hedorah. This creature grows and grows and partitions and mutates; it can swim, crawl, walk, and fly in its various manifestations. The only human who seems to grasp the situation and know how to deal with it is a young boy. Adult humans are incapable of stopping this creature and its onslaught on the environment, but the nuclear-spawned Godzilla arrives to help out. For a time, Godzilla too seems helpless against an adversary that mutates and grows and hurls acidic sludge. But then this Godzilla is clever, and he figures out how to turn the tables on Hedorah, using a man-made contraption and his impressive breath. The gestures of both monsters are a hoot to behold. Accompanying this confrontation of monsters are a number of animated sequences and a recurring psychedelic scene in which dancers, at one point, have fish heads of various colours and shapes. The accompanying song, calls for the saving of the earth.  Music throughout the film is strange, and I guess this is appropriate for a strange film. Thanks to John and Cole Boivin for sharing this film with us.

 

Godzilla (2014), directed by Gareth Edwards. No more rubber suited monsters. We have CGI Godzilla, and he’s a whopper. He may be big, but he lacks the personality (!) of the rubber-suited guy and his fellow creatures. Having said this, I note that this film tries valiantly to continue the themes and sensibility of the 1954 original Godzilla movie. We have the nuclear backdrop to what happens folded into the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the 2011 Fukushima disaster. We have the human element as we follow, first the American scientist Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) and his wife Sandra (Juliette Binoche), then their son Ford (Aron Taylor-Johnson) and his family, wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Sam (Carson Bolde) as they try to reunite after being separated by various chaotic events initiated by the monsters. And speaking of monsters, we have a couple of new ones called MUTOS (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms), who feed off radiation, even to the rather wacky willingness to swallow nuclear bombs. Our hero, Godzilla, comes along to restore balance (?) by defeating the two MUTOS. And yes, we have lots of buildings crushed, large bridges destroyed, jets tossed from the sly, boats flipped about like toys, and so on. All this adds up to a not uninteresting melange. I forgot to mention the Japanese scientist, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) who wanders about looking dour and trying to be heard above the furor. I’m not sure if any of this makes sense, but it makes for impressive fireworks. 

 

Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019), directed by Michael Dougherty. This entry into the monsterverse picks up from the 2014 film, and several of the characters return: Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe), Dr. Graham (Sally Hawkins), Admiral Stenz (David Strathairn), for example. We also have new characters to play out the human element to the plot, most obviously the Russell family, father (Kyle Chandler), mother (Vera Farmiga), and daughter (Millie Bobby Brown). This family is separated both by choice (the father and mother separated after their son Andrew was stomped on by the Big Guy in the 2014 film) and by circumstances (the monsters have a way of separating people physically while bringing them closer emotionally). Then we have the monsters: Mothra, Rodan, MUTOS, King Ghidorah (Monster Zero), and Godzilla. One nifty trick that is easy to miss is that one of the scientists here is Dr. Chen (Ziyi Zhang) and she apparently has a sister. Those who remember Mothra vs Godzilla (1964) will know that Mothra is accompanied by tiny twin sisters with tiny voices. Anyway, the monsters here are suitably large and suitably destructive and suitably loud. They make a lot of rubble. As for the plot, that has something to do with nuclear power, a monster from outer space, and the balance of nature that depends upon the Titans (the monsters), well do we really care? This is a film in which the lost city of Atlantis can make an appearance without comment, and a teenager can steal a crucial device and escape a well-sealed compound with people, including her mother, all around her and a father’s attempt to open an airplane door from the outside takes precedence over the battle of two behemoths. In other words, this is a film with scrappy bits that hang onto the larger confrontations of the CGI monsters. If you like this sort of thing, then this film is for you. If you are more “meh,” then perhaps you might like a good western!