(Original Title: "Kaiju Soshingeki" -Monster Total Advancement-)
August 1, 1968
As great as the past few entries may have been, the sad truth was that the Godzilla series was beginning to lose steam. As it went on the budgets kept getting reduced and the tickets sales were dropping due to the rise of popular TV shows like Ultra Q and the ongoing Ultraman series. Ironically, these shows were produced by Toho.
This next movie would be the last collaboration between Director Ishiro Honda, Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Composer Akira Ifukube and Special Effects director Eiji Tsuburaya. As far as they were concerned, this would be the last film in the series and they decided to give it their all.
In the not to distant future (1999), all of the earth's monsters have been gathered up and are kept on an island called "Monsterland" by the United Nations Science Committee. Chaos ensues when a race of alien invaders known as the Kilaaks sabotage Monsterland, take control of all the monsters and make them attack the worlds major cities.
This was the largest gathering of monsters in the series thus far. You have Godzilla, Minilla, Rodan, a Mothra larva (how did the Infant Islanders allow that?), and Anguirus and Kumonga returned from the dead. We even get appearances from other Toho movie monsters like Gorosaurus from 'King Kong Escapes', Manda from 'Atragon', Baragon from 'Frankenstein Conquers the World' and Varan from 'Varan the Unbelievable'. Because the poster gives it away, the movie climaxes with a final battle with King Ghidorah.
This sounds like it should be an all-out nonstop monster mash, but you may be surprised to learn that most of the monsters don't actually appear on screen for long if ever. Kumonga doesn't show up until the end, while Baragon and Varan only make very brief cameos.
In fact, one scene was supposed to have Baragon in it but for whatever reason the suit was unavailable so Gorosaurus was used in his place and news reporter still refers to the monster as Baragon! (This would not be the last time both Baragon and Varan get screwed over.)
Most of the movie centers around our one dimensional cast of UN guys, astronauts, Monsterland personnel and an all-female alien race.
Here's the thing though, I really don't hate them because of that. To me, one dimensional characters do not make a bad movie. Before this, I'd only seen this movie a handful of times and I admit, on my first few times watching this I found the characters boring, I was young, dumb and impatient. All I wanted to see were the monsters. It's a trap that most people fall into when they dive into this series. But during my numerous re-watchings for this review, I wasn't bored. I watched and I was still interested. Yes the characters aren't too deep and the motivations are simple, so what? If you can watch the movie, understand the plot and not be bored, what is there to complain about? I find this to be the case with most of Ishiro Honda's Godilla movies, the human characters are just as interesting to watch as the monsters. You could make the argument that the aliens in this movie feel like a less interesting copy of the Xilians from 'Invasion of Astro-Monster' and I would not disagree with that.
The only time I couldn't stand the human characters was when they were horrendously dubbed with some of the most dumbfoundingly bad lines. (If you want to watch this movie in English, look for the AIP dub)
Despite Eiji Tsuburaya's health taking a turn for the worse, the special effects team pulled out all the stops for this movie, the attack on Tokyo and the final battle at Mount Fuji are spectacular and are what make Destroy All Monsters worth a watch. I do wish we could have seen more than just a few shots of the monsters attacking the cities. I mean, where else are you going to see Godzilla attacking New York City?
...
...
what?
Destroy All Monsters is often looked at as one of if not the best movies of the entire series, I can absolutely see why. I admit it's a bit overrated and I love some of the later movies more than this one, but that got me thinking: Destroy All Monsters was meant to be the last Godzilla movie. What if that was the case? What if the series did stop there? Would Tanaka still push to revive the series in 1984? Would TriStar Pictures have moved forward with their version? Would the MonsterVerse have even been a thought?
The nine movies so far are a great series on their own and most of them hold up incredibly well. Looking at it as a whole, maybe the geniuses at Toho thought it was best to stop while they were on a high note. They put their heart and soul into this entry and it shows, the movie ends with the monsters making their final curtain calls. As far as they were concerned, the series was over.
This next movie would be the last collaboration between Director Ishiro Honda, Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Composer Akira Ifukube and Special Effects director Eiji Tsuburaya. As far as they were concerned, this would be the last film in the series and they decided to give it their all.
In the not to distant future (1999), all of the earth's monsters have been gathered up and are kept on an island called "Monsterland" by the United Nations Science Committee. Chaos ensues when a race of alien invaders known as the Kilaaks sabotage Monsterland, take control of all the monsters and make them attack the worlds major cities.
This sounds like it should be an all-out nonstop monster mash, but you may be surprised to learn that most of the monsters don't actually appear on screen for long if ever. Kumonga doesn't show up until the end, while Baragon and Varan only make very brief cameos.
In fact, one scene was supposed to have Baragon in it but for whatever reason the suit was unavailable so Gorosaurus was used in his place and news reporter still refers to the monster as Baragon! (This would not be the last time both Baragon and Varan get screwed over.)
Here's the thing though, I really don't hate them because of that. To me, one dimensional characters do not make a bad movie. Before this, I'd only seen this movie a handful of times and I admit, on my first few times watching this I found the characters boring, I was young, dumb and impatient. All I wanted to see were the monsters. It's a trap that most people fall into when they dive into this series. But during my numerous re-watchings for this review, I wasn't bored. I watched and I was still interested. Yes the characters aren't too deep and the motivations are simple, so what? If you can watch the movie, understand the plot and not be bored, what is there to complain about? I find this to be the case with most of Ishiro Honda's Godilla movies, the human characters are just as interesting to watch as the monsters. You could make the argument that the aliens in this movie feel like a less interesting copy of the Xilians from 'Invasion of Astro-Monster' and I would not disagree with that.
The only time I couldn't stand the human characters was when they were horrendously dubbed with some of the most dumbfoundingly bad lines. (If you want to watch this movie in English, look for the AIP dub)
Despite Eiji Tsuburaya's health taking a turn for the worse, the special effects team pulled out all the stops for this movie, the attack on Tokyo and the final battle at Mount Fuji are spectacular and are what make Destroy All Monsters worth a watch. I do wish we could have seen more than just a few shots of the monsters attacking the cities. I mean, where else are you going to see Godzilla attacking New York City?
...
...
what?
 |
| left to right: Akira Ifukube, Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya & Tomoyuki Tanaka |
Destroy All Monsters is often looked at as one of if not the best movies of the entire series, I can absolutely see why. I admit it's a bit overrated and I love some of the later movies more than this one, but that got me thinking: Destroy All Monsters was meant to be the last Godzilla movie. What if that was the case? What if the series did stop there? Would Tanaka still push to revive the series in 1984? Would TriStar Pictures have moved forward with their version? Would the MonsterVerse have even been a thought?
The nine movies so far are a great series on their own and most of them hold up incredibly well. Looking at it as a whole, maybe the geniuses at Toho thought it was best to stop while they were on a high note. They put their heart and soul into this entry and it shows, the movie ends with the monsters making their final curtain calls. As far as they were concerned, the series was over.
However, the series did not end there...
ALL MONSTERS ATTACK
(Original Title: "Gojira, Minira, Gabara: Oru Kaiju Daishingeki" -Godzilla, Minilla, Gabara: All Monsters Attack-)
AKA: Godzilla's Revenge
AKA: Godzilla's Revenge
December 20, 1969
As Eiji Tsuburaya's health got worse and worse, he was forced to step down from working on All Monsters Attack.
Despite it's continued failing at the box office, Toho would reluctantly return to the Godzilla series.
Imagine if you will, the Showa series is a happy little flock and All Monsters Attack is the black sheep.
In this film, a young boy named Ichiro (Tomonori Yazaki) wanting to escape his life of absent parents and relentless bullies, imagines himself on Monster Island and befriends Minilla who is dealing with a bully monster of his own.
Why is this movie so reviled? Well, with a name like 'All Monsters Attack' you'd expect an amount of monster action akin to 'Destroy All Monsters'. Problem is, most of the monster scenes in this movie are comprised of stock footage from past Toho films, mostly from Ebirah Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla. It's not like they took a few shots here and there, they literally ripped entire fight scenes from them. I guess it would make sense seeing that it is all in the kids mind and he's basically pretending he's there in the moment. It's still extremely jarring to see Godzilla's appearance shift between three different suits.
 |
On January 25th, 1970, Tsuburaya died of a heart attack.
The Special effects crew fell under the leadership of Teruyoshi Nakano for the rest of the Showa series.
Minilla plays a bigger role in this movie as Ichiro's friend on Monster Island. He talks and can shrink down to human size. As weird as that sounds his voice sounds nowhere near as bad as it does in the English dub. He also has to fight off a bully of his own, a monster named Gabara. Godzilla tries to teach Minilla to fend for himself and fight his own battles. At first it's comically unfair watching Gabara beat up Minilla but eventually he comes around and with Ichiro's help is able to overpower Gabara, in a pretty humorous way that begs for an edit incorporating the Goofy holler.
The best part of this movie by far is when Gabara gets the idea to attack Godzilla and Godzilla ain't having any of that and pretty much beats the hell out of him.
Now admittedly, it's hard to see this as a true Godzilla movie because technically Godzilla is not really in it. He exists as he does now, a fictional character. So we can assume that the previous films exist in this universe and Ichiro has seen them and is a fan. Actually, this movie seems to take inspiration from another Japanese monster movie series, Gamera. Those movies were made almost exclusively for children and had child actors in the lead role and even the monsters behaved less seriously. The only difference is that Ichiro is nowhere near as annoying as any of the Gamera kids. It's still guilty of overusing stock footage and making adult characters look like idiots.
You wanna know more about Gamera? Don't worry...I'll get to him later...
There's also another plot line in the movie regarding these two bank robbers hiding out in an abandoned warehouse. In the second act, Ichiro enters the warehouse, finds one of the robbers drivers license and takes it. The robbers then kidnap Ichiro and hold him hostage. Eventually after being inspired by his "experience" on Monster Island, he is able to outsmart and escape the robbers. It's then that this starts to feel more like Home Alone.
Later on he's able to stand up to the leader of the bullies, also named Gabara (go figure), actually fights him and wins. At least I assume that's what happens, the scene is shot and edited with constant freeze frames and it's very jarring.
Ichiro then completes his story by causing a sign painter to fall off his ladder and get paint all over him.
Kinda sending mixed messages there.
Looking at this movie through adult eyes, I'm willing to accept that this movie may not be the dumpster fire the fanbase makes it out to be, though the English version might be a different story. It's not a fantastic movie by any stretch, but it's not exactly Batman & Robin or Fant4stic bad.
That being said, as a Godzilla movie it does disappoint and there are far better entries to spend your time on. This might actually be a good movie to show children to get them started on the series before moving them on to the more serious stuff.
The fact that this movie is now in the Criterion Collection alongside other treasured classics like Seven Samurai, Brazil, Eraserhead, Bicycle Thieves and Armageddon is hilarious to me.
(I love Armageddon for the record and you will NEVER convince me that it is a bad movie)
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
The best part of this movie by far is when Gabara gets the idea to attack Godzilla and Godzilla ain't having any of that and pretty much beats the hell out of him.
Now admittedly, it's hard to see this as a true Godzilla movie because technically Godzilla is not really in it. He exists as he does now, a fictional character. So we can assume that the previous films exist in this universe and Ichiro has seen them and is a fan. Actually, this movie seems to take inspiration from another Japanese monster movie series, Gamera. Those movies were made almost exclusively for children and had child actors in the lead role and even the monsters behaved less seriously. The only difference is that Ichiro is nowhere near as annoying as any of the Gamera kids. It's still guilty of overusing stock footage and making adult characters look like idiots.
You wanna know more about Gamera? Don't worry...I'll get to him later...
There's also another plot line in the movie regarding these two bank robbers hiding out in an abandoned warehouse. In the second act, Ichiro enters the warehouse, finds one of the robbers drivers license and takes it. The robbers then kidnap Ichiro and hold him hostage. Eventually after being inspired by his "experience" on Monster Island, he is able to outsmart and escape the robbers. It's then that this starts to feel more like Home Alone.
Later on he's able to stand up to the leader of the bullies, also named Gabara (go figure), actually fights him and wins. At least I assume that's what happens, the scene is shot and edited with constant freeze frames and it's very jarring.
Ichiro then completes his story by causing a sign painter to fall off his ladder and get paint all over him.
Kinda sending mixed messages there.
That being said, as a Godzilla movie it does disappoint and there are far better entries to spend your time on. This might actually be a good movie to show children to get them started on the series before moving them on to the more serious stuff.
The fact that this movie is now in the Criterion Collection alongside other treasured classics like Seven Samurai, Brazil, Eraserhead, Bicycle Thieves and Armageddon is hilarious to me.
(I love Armageddon for the record and you will NEVER convince me that it is a bad movie)
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
No comments:
Post a Comment