Godzilla vs. Destroyah

[Great Sage]

After reading the “Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla” thread, I decided to see “Godzilla vs. Destroyah.”  I had originally decided to stay away from this movie, since the demise of our favorite walking rubber suit, didn’t sit well with me.  But, I gave in again and here’s my review.

The movie begins with a volcanic island that has sunk beneath the waves...  Godzilla officionados understand this to be home to Godzilla and Baby Godzilla.  Their whereabouts are uncertain at this point.  In fact, the reason behind the sinking island and volcanic activity isn’t made known at all.

We no sooner learn that Godzilla’s heart is equivalent to a nuclear reactor and is experiencing meltdown.  The creature Godzilla is flaming hot and goes on a rampage looking for relief.  Even his radioactive breath ray sports a fiery orange.  I’ve heard of heart burn, but this really pushing that idea.  Again, there’s no explanation of Godzilla’s sudden change except that he has somehow been affected by the sinking island â€" another great explanation (sarcasm).

It seems Godzilla’s temperature is reaching critcal levels.  The result â€" a catastrophic explosion ending all life.  Logic would point to International consultation and a world effort.  That doesn’t happen here. Instead, Japan’s leading men resort to reading high school essays on Godzilla, one of which catches their eye.  Throw out all logic at this point.

Enter the geek...  It turns out this high school kid is the son of a well-known Godzilla scientist.  He’s brought aboard as an advisor and pretty much calls all the shots.  The most disturbing element of this movie is that the supposed Leaders of Japan are reverted to asking this kid for advice at every turn.  Where’s the rest of the world?  Don’t they care that Godzilla is going to blow up the world?

Simultaneously, we also learn that a creature was mutated by the original oxygen destroyer that killed the original Godzilla.  This new creature conveniently grows into a monster proportionate to Godzilla.  Another useless and illogical scene is where the entire police squad (or so it seems) is dispatched  to take out the new monster, or monsters in this case.  All this for the creature, but only a high school kid for Godzilla?

Then we have Godzilla Junior who has grown some and looks more like a dinosaur.  He’s made to lure Godzilla to fight Destroyah (the new monster).  Destroyah kills Junior and the monster mayhem begins.  The fight scenes are pretty ridiculous and pointless.  Destroyah is made out to be such a force, but has no real powers.  Other Godzilla adversaries had better luck.

Godzilla makes quick work of Destroyah aided by the NEW and improved Super-X 3 then goes into meltdown.  He’s given a snow bath by Japan’s military and crumbles into nuclear oblivion.  However, the radiation is absorbed by Junior’s lifeless body and Godzilla is reborn, again...  A truly pointless effort if the aim was to kill Godzilla in the first place.

A very boring movie with too much dialogue and outrageous logic, if any.  About the only interesting thing is Godzilla’s new look.  You sort of just want to see how much of the world he can destroy with his new atomic ray.

[Chadzilla]

This is one of my personal favorites in the series.  I loved loved loved it.

[Fearless Freep]

I've been sorta amused by people trying to apply terms like "logic" and "sense" to Godzilla movies...

If you can suspend disbelief long enough for a 80 foot tall lizard with atomic ray breath...

[Ash]

The name Destroyah sounds like a wannabe gangsta monster!

I can imagine it wearing one of those visors...upside down and backwards on it's head!  A big one!

Yo yo yo G.  What up dawg!??

I'm here to kick yo ass Zilla!

[Fearless Freep]

A 100 foot tall green scaly rapper named "Big Stompy G"...great

[Haze]

I actually was always amused by the same thing, especially in the newer movies when everything was as surreal and impractical as possible. The movies are fun because they are not bound by reality and are able to exaggerate so why spoil it?

Plus, you are watching a movie about a fig bucking mutated dinosaur spitting thermonuclear breath at space clones, gaint insects with fairy twin side kicks, gaint megazords, mutated crab monsters from the hood, and a plant with corrosive acid for blood and you  are whining that the logic is impractical?!?!?!?!

[Flangepart]

Yeah! And what about scarecrows brain?
Godzilla is all attitude and style, not logic. Big kick ass lizards knockin' over loveingly detailed reproductions of major metropolitan citys.....do what i do, get some pizza, some beer, good friends, and pretend to be Joel and the bots.
That...is livin'!

[Gerry]

Chadzilla wrote:

> This is one of my personal favorites in the series.  I loved
> loved loved it.

I'm with you, Chad.  This one is a lot of fun and one of the few to actually maintain some kind of internal consistency with the original 1954 movie.

[Brother Ragnarok]

To join the resounding support of Destroyer (that's what he's called in my copy, so eat it gansta!), the movie rocked.  By far the best of the Heisei G flicks since Biollante.  The ending, with the fog and silence and Godzilla's roar cutting in at the last minute, absolute kaiju poetry.

Brother R