[Dr Kain]

After Godzilla’s return in the 80’s, Toho decided to follow up the phenomenal “Godzilla vs. Biollante” with an update to one of Godzilla’s most fan favorite villain, King Ghidorah. Ghidorah thus turned from an “out of this world” type of monster and into an “out of this time” one. Wait… WHAT?!

The plot to “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” is a very oddball one. It replaced the space aliens plot found in the Showa era, but did so with time travelers from two hundred years in the future. As I said, it is odd. On one hand, it was nice to get rid of the alien stuff to keep everything more grounded. On the other, does it really make that big of a difference? Nevertheless, there are people from the year 2204 and they have come to save Japan from Godzilla by dumping his body into the sea before he became Godzilla. Instead of going from the year 2204 to the year 1944 though, they for some reason need to go to 1992 to bring people that live during that era to 1944. I’m not really sure why that is, but at this point, you might as well just roll with it. They go back in time, transfer the Godzillasaurus back to 1992 but leave these three creatures known as Dorats behind that end up becoming King Ghidorah. Godzilla still manages to be born (not that any of his past events are eradicated from history), only this time, it created a bigger meaner monster than ever before. The two monster fight, Godzilla wins, King Ghidorah is brought back from the future as Mecha King Ghidorah, and is destroyed while temporarily stopping Godzilla’s rampage. Oh yeah, and Terasawa finds out that the girl he had a love interest with in this movie for a little while is actually a descendant of his before she goes back to the future. Oh those Japanese and their incessant need to make things creepy.

Regardless, who the heck came up with this plot? It just does not make sense no matter how you look at it. If they are from the future, you would think they would know that the Godzilla in 1992 is a completely different Godzilla from the one that rampaged Japan in 1954. Or maybe it was forgotten that there were two different monsters by that point in time, as it could be that revelation was lost in time. Also, how is it that M11 is able to be reprogrammed so easily by Emmy? Both Wilson and Grenchko already know they cannot trust her, so why would they even allow her to do maintenance on him? Why would M11 even let her do maintenance on him when he knew what was going on? Also, does Shindo have a fountain of youth in his office? He looks the exact same age in 1944 that he does in 1992.

Of course, ignoring some of what I said above, this could also be the most intelligent Godzilla movie since the original. Could it really be that the Godzillasaurus they sent into the sea in 1944 was not the original, but in fact, was the reason Godzilla returned in 1984? When you think about it that way, Toho put everything they needed in order right from the get go without the viewer even realizing it.

The characters of the movie are decent, but nothing memorable outside of the poor acting from Wilson, M11, and Grenchko. It is like they wanted to find the worst American actors they could just so they were believable scumbags (in fact, if I recall, they had the worst voices in the English dub of the movie). It is interesting to have a guy that wants to write a book about Godzilla as a lead, but isn’t giving him a copy of his own book from the future cheating? He no longer has to think of what to write as it is right there in front of him. Fortunately, there is Miki, who brings on the continuity factor of the movie and we are starting to learn about the established Godzilla Team, or as they will soon be known as, the Godzilla Force. In fact, taken as a standalone movie, this movie is pretty bad from a story telling point of view. However, once you take it as the middle to the story, it is a vast improvement as this movie pretty much leads into the last three films of the Heisei era. Finally, I just state at how hilariously bad it is to have that entire conversation between the US officer and “Commander Spielberg.”

The costume used for Godzilla is the same one we had in his previous entry, and it still looks as menacing now as it did back then. There are no complaints to be had. I also love that they even had hi blink a few times during the movie. The costume budget easily went to the updates to Ghidorah. First, we have a nice updated design from the Showa one. He is big, bulky, and his heads no longer appear as if they are going to get tangled up with each other. On the other hand, they also do not feel as organic as they did during the Showa era, so it is a win-lose situation every time. Mecha Ghidorah looks good though, especially since the movie showed up the battle damage Ghidorah had received in his battle with Godzilla. It gives the use of Ghidorah some originality from what was seen throughout the Showa era. In fact, despite the convoluted origins, I do like this version of Ghidorah a lot. He might not be my favorite incarnation of him (honestly, I cannot say which version is, as that changes with my mood), but to get an update of this magnitude is nicely done. The effects during the movie are a mixed bag though. The battle damage to Ghidorah is nice to see, as stated moments ago, but the M11 and other android effects are just so laughably bad. There is just nothing positive that can really be said between the M11 running and jet pack flying scenes. They are all terrible.

There is a lot that can be said about this movie, as it is one that is convoluted, but at the same time, might not be so depending on how your thinking of overly complex time traveling plot lines are. I still have no idea why the Futurians needed to go back to 1992 just to go back to 1944, but what we do get is a fairly entertaining movie with some great monster battles in it. For that, I am giving “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” a 7/10. Lastly, it is so nice to hear updates to Ifukube’s themes, especially the Ghidorah one and the piano one.

[Battlizer]

This was one of the three Godzilla movies I actually owned on VHS as a kid instead of renting. I've watched it every now and then, since, but one thing's always sort of baffled me...

How smart is Godzilla supposed to be in this movie. I ask because of the scene where he faces down Shindo in his office building and pauses, looking reluctant, like he randomly remembered the soldier he had inadvertently saved fifty years ago and didn't seem to blast him until Shindo said it was okay to.

On a later viewing I wrote it off thinking that couldn't possibly be the case, but when I saw it recently I started to wonder again..

[ZeoRangerV]

I'm very biased because this was the first Godzilla film I ever saw but I love it to death. I'm a big fan of time travelling so the story won points with me, but not only that like you say it all fits together nicely. The main fight is so wonderfully ferocious - first we have Godzilla foaming at the mouth from being strangled, then he responds by blasting one of Ghidorah's heads off.

M11 running is hysterical though

[Dr Kain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Battlizer

This was one of the three Godzilla movies I actually owned on VHS as a kid instead of renting. I've watched it every now and then, since, but one thing's always sort of baffled me...

How smart is Godzilla supposed to be in this movie. I ask because of the scene where he faces down Shindo in his office building and pauses, looking reluctant, like he randomly remembered the soldier he had inadvertently saved fifty years ago and didn't seem to blast him until Shindo said it was okay to.

On a later viewing I wrote it off thinking that couldn't possibly be the case, but when I saw it recently I started to wonder again..

That is one of my favorite scenes in the movie, if not my favorite. I actually don't see it like you do. I see it as Shindo is looking at him, thinking Godzilla is recognizing him and he is nodding to get Godzilla to stop when WHAM! there goes the building with Shindo in it.

[Battlizer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

That is one of my favorite scenes in the movie, if not my favorite. I actually don't see it like you do. I see it as Shindo is looking at him, thinking Godzilla is recognizing him and he is nodding to get Godzilla to stop when WHAM! there goes the building with Shindo in it.

If Godzilla didn't pause a moment, I'd think the same thing. And if he did, it honestly wouldn't' be the goofiest thing in the movie. Either way, yeah that's one of the best scenes in it. That and when Godzilla and King Ghidorah faced down for the first time.

[Guyver Spawn]

I always thought the time travel in this movie was confusing. Either way, it's a decent movie IMO.

[Dr Kain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guyver Spawn

I always thought the time travel in this movie was confusing. Either way, it's a decent movie IMO.

So basically when they go back to 1944, the Godzillasaurus is not the 1954 Godzilla but in fact the 1984 one. Terasawa finds an article about a Russian nuclear sub that sunk in the same location that they had transferred the Godzillasaurus to during the 70s, which is what turned him into Godzilla. So in essence, it was the Futurians own plan that actually brought about the second Godzilla's coming in 1984.