Supposedly taking place after the original 1954 film and ignoring everything that came after it, Godzilla has returned and a reporter, her military dad and a bunch of other people including the ghost of some old guy awaken three other monsters as guardians to protect the world. There seems to be a "spiritual" to some of these later Godzilla films, Biolante had the spirit of a girl murdered by terrorists in it and Godzilla has the souls from the war in this film. The spirits of Baragon and Mothra join with the spirit of Ghidorah to fight Godzilla. It's doesn't work in either film if you ask me.
The effects in this film are a mixed bag. Godzilla is very mean looking with white eyes with no pupils and a lot more puppetry added to the face for more expression. The other monsters have none of that and Ghidorah has an underwhelming toy like design. Mothra is... fine. She starts in a pupil state which last all of 5 minutes before entering her cocoon which looks a sack of balls floating in a lake. There is an attempt to add CGI throughout but it doesn't work for the most part. The model work and destruction effects are the usual high quality, Toho Studios always hire talented model makers.
Another thing to mention is the lead character, a female reporter who as just as idiotic... I mean heroic as male heroes are. I mean she chases GODZILLA on a bike to film it's rampage while her assistant turned love interest by the end of the film helps her but never takes her role as the hero away.
So dumb as it is the human characters are better than in most giant monster movies and it does move along and kept me entertained.
2 comments:
Never heard of this one and that sounds like a good thing. "Godzilla -1" I really liked, and I liked the first two American ones. There's probably a lot I've missed but I have the Slammer to tell me which ones not to bother watching. :D
Blogger rescinded my "warning label" on this one. Not sure what triggered it to begin with now and, of course, they don't tell you. There far too many Japanese "direct sequels" to the first Godzilla film. Minis 1 is a rare one that really gets it right.
Post a Comment