Godzilla VS Biolante (1989) directed and written by Kazuki Ōmori

 

I recently caught this on a cable network just as it was starting and decided to watch. I swore I had not seen it but I think I did. I did remember it being one of the later Godzilla films people thought were good and above the earlier sillier films from the 70s but... I have to disagree. 

The film has some interesting elements, like the giant plant monster is at first OK except for the giant flower on top which makes it a bit silly but it transforms into a pretty awesome looking creature at the end. It doesn't move all the well I thought but it was pretty complicated and I give credit where it's due. 

The story which got such praise was simply ridiculous, complicated and with the same characters we have seen in other lesser Godzilla films. People we really couldn't care less about other what their stories are. There is an international spy thriller part that just made me laugh out loud and a "touching" story about a scientist father who loses his daughter in a terrorist attack and does what any loving father would do. He takes her DNA and misses it with a plant and Godzilla cells and turns her into a giant plant monster. For some reason she is conscious in the creature for a bout 5 minutes then she seems to fade away, probably so  no one will root for the plant monster over Godzilla during the fights. At the end her face appears in the sparkly remains of the monster and flies into space where the particles reform into a giant flower in orbit. 

The crazy earlier films from the 60s and 70s had a charm this one was missing as it tried to be a lot more than it was.