Monster Hunter

We've done it. The Year of the Kaiju, 2022, has come to an end. And today we're concluding this blog with one of the most recent kaiju movies made, this one directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Monster Hunter stars his wife, Milla Jovovich, and Thai superstar Tony Jaa. This is the second film we've covered on this blog inspired by/based on a video game, so apparently giant monsters and video game films go together like lamb and tuna fish.

Paul W.S. Anderson apparently developed an interest in making this film after being introduced to the series in 2008. This one was a long time coming, with rumors for development happening as far back as 2012. Amusingly, when the video game Monster Hunter: World was a major success, some studios poked around to get the rights to make a film but were surprised to learn that Anderson had already done it long before. That's about as far as it goes for background info: this movie is the culmination of a man living his dreams and that's cool.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- In a reality called The New World, a ship sails across the desert, and the sailors onboard are attacked by some unseen beast. In our world where we don't have ships that move on sand, Natalie Artemis and her UN security team are consumed by a giant sandstorm and transported into the other world.

- Shortly after arriving in The New World, the team is attacked by the giant Diablos and barely escape with (some of) their lives.

- Regrouping in a nearby cave, the remaining team is attacked by giant spider-like creatures called Nerscylla which capture Artemis and kill the remainder of the team.

- Waking up in the Nerscylla nest, Artemis mounts a daring escape and finds her last remaining squad member before realizing he's infested with Nerscylla eggs and they hatch out of his body.

- Barely making it out alive and now braving the barren desert by herself, Artemis is confronted by The Hunter, a local from the area who is willing to teach her how to survive this New World. After several exchanges where they attempt to kill and also save each other, they make peace and form a fragile alliance.

- Hunter's plan is to use Nerscylla venom to poison the Diablos, allowing them to make it across the desert to the obelisk which seems to be the key to returning Artemis home.

- After a dramatic battle, Hunter is badly injured but Artemis stands victorious. With the path to the obelisk (The Sky Tower) wide open, she instead chooses to carry Hunter back across the desert and resuscitates him.

- Making it to an oasis, Artemis and Hunter manage to relax for a bit before a Rathalos arrives and scares the local animals enough to cause a stampede which endangers them. Hunter's crew from the first scene arrive to help, rescuing them both before taking Artemis captive.

- Making a plea for her case, Hunter is able to convince his captain (The Admiral, who can speak Artemis' language) to free Artemis. He explains that the Sky Tower allows her people to come into the New World, and he believes Artemis' people pose a real danger to his own. If he gets her through the gate again, he can destroy the tower behind her and protect his world from hers.

- They all team up to get Artemis to the Sky Tower, the bad news is they'll have to endure the giant Rathalos to do so.

- Once at the tower, the Rathalos predictably attacks. Everyone puts up a valiant effort and Artemis is thrown from a cliff as the Sky Tower activates and she finds herself back in her homeworld.

- Just after arriving, a rescue team discovers her and brings her back to safety. Just as they take off in a helicopter, the Sky Tower activates once more and the Rathalos flies through and crashes their helicopter.

- The collected military units retaliate, but the Rathalos wreaks havoc upon them. Artemis, remembering the one weakness she was told they have, regroups and collects weapons.

- Confronting the Rathalos, Artemis does a fine job until she's ultimately outclassed by the giant dragon. As it prepares to finish her off, the Rathalos is finished off first by Hunter using explosive arrows.

- The Admiral has followed Hunter (and the Rathalos) into the portal, and explains that the Sky Tower is now wide open and monsters from The New World are coming into Artemis'. 

- They make a plan to shut down the Sky Tower for good, but first they have to fight their way through all the monsters now coming through. The movie ends on a cliffhanger as the 3 attack another dragon looking monster.

Kaiju Notes 

- Diablos is an intimidating beast, some sort of combination of dragon and demon with black coloration in all the right places. It breathes fire, impales with its horns, and has a tail which is useful for whipping any fool who gets in the way. It's basically being a walking disaster for any who cross their path, especially because the guns that the military unit were using against it seemed entirely ineffective, meaning that without using the (largely melee) weapons of the homeland it basically couldn't be harmed.

- The Nerscylla are pretty boring giant spider monsters, but the scene where the eggs hatch out of one of the soldiers is pretty effectively gruesome. They're still spooky because spiders are spooky, but their apparently horrific lifecycle is what really makes 'em gnarly.

- Rathalos is really just a dragon, even down to breathing fire. Dragons are super cool, so it's not like Rathalos lacks coolness, but it's not the most exciting final boss (even if it is the most logical).

There is one notable element of this movie that I wanted to address first: the two main characters can only barely communicate. I actually really like this aspect of the film and it should really be utilized more in mainstream stories. Artemis and Hunter being functionally unable to speak makes the story much leaner than most would be, not spending whole scenes on exposition and nonsense while also building a relationship between two people naturally. In a movie with a distressingly thin plot already, it's an interesting touch that could be used to much greater effect if people filmmakers would just embrace it.

Monster Hunter, is... fine. This movie almost certainly did not change anyone's life and everything about it is pretty standard for the genre. There's very little "meat" on these bones, but everything is competent. As someone not especially familiar with the game series it's based on, I really can't speak on the film from a fan perspective. But like Rampage, which we covered on this blog, it is a relief that we are finally past the point where every video game-based film is total shit. This isn't as fun as Rampage (or even Sonic the Hedgehog, which is also far from amazing), but it's not the nightmare that many video game movies are.

The weapons used in the film are obviously based on the game weapons, but I do appreciate the way that the film embraces the game's "keep what you kill, build on it" concepts. The machine guns that the military characters bring into The New World are basically completely ineffective, outside of the (obviously rare) grenades. But since the weapons and armor of The New World are made from the creatures within it, they're also the most effective manner of fighting back against them. As far as a reason why traditional weapons don't work against the kaiju of the movie, it's a fairly good one. Artemis doesn't learn how to use the weapons and wear the armor because she's in a strange place and decides to assimilate into the culture but because not doing so will get her literally nothing but killed. It is also a relatively graceful way to avoid the "wise native" trope of so many films before it, something that would have been extremely easy to fall into with a plot like this.

That's about it. As far as the final film covered for this blog about The Year of Kaiju (2022), I'd hope that it would be more polarizing, but here we are. The monsters are all quite monster-y and some of the more brutal elements are very effective. Nerscylla actually add an interesting horrific element to the movie in contrast to the "giant, angry, dangerous" vibes that the Diablos and Rathalos give off. If they made a second, I probably wouldn't watch it, but if someone turned it on at a social gathering I'd stick around.

Next: 2023!

Godzilla Trilogy (Netflix)

We're talking anime now, baybee. While Attack on Titan was an adaptation of manga/anime, it was a live action film. So the first time we're talking about anime. In fact, this is our first animated film covered on this entire blog. This one is a bit complex as it is actually a trilogy of films rather than just one, but these are so closely connected that it felt weird giving a different post to each. When learning this existed I found myself confused about why it had never been done before: animation seems like the perfect medium for Godzilla (and all kaiju, really). So we're here to see if animation is indeed a good fit for the main man Big G, with a series of films directed by Kōbun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita. This is going to be an extremely long synopsis since it is 3 films, so let's get to it!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Humanity has been away from planet Earth after being chased away by Godzilla, all of humankind living on a space colony alongside the alien races the Bilusaludo and Exif.

- The Exif are a religious species which worship an unnamed God and have advanced technology which allows them to glimpse the future, while the Bilusaludo are a hyper-logical and pragmatic species who have given up most of their culture and material comfort for the sake of accomplishing their goals.

- Main character Haruo Sakaki (human) desires nothing more than to return to Earth and kill Godzilla.

- With no viable options for another habitable planet, the Coalition decides to return to Earth but know they will have to contend with Godzilla. Upon arriving back on Earth, they discover they've been gone for 10,000 years due to relativity.

- Sakaki has developed a plan to kill Godzilla using EMPs, and it actually appears to work when they kill Godzilla shortly after making it back to Earth. They then realize that the Godzilla they've killed is basically Baby Godzilla, and the real one has no awakened again and kills nearly everyone on the planet.

- Sakaki swears revenge and is rescued by a group of humanoids who now live on Earth: the Houtua. The Houtua worship Mothra, and Sakaki's get involved with the Shobijin twins.

- The Houtua introduce the Coalition to nanometal, an incredibly advanced material created while developing MechaGodzilla and that can be shaped into functionally anything and they believe can be used to kill Godzilla once and for all.

- Despite being warned by the Houtua that the city is poison, the Coalition embraces the nanometal that has consumed a segment of the planet and dub this area MechaGodzilla City. They use the resources of the city to prepare to finish Godzilla.

- With the showdown with Godzilla impending, the Coalition is running out of time to finish their preparations and Sakaki learns that the Bilusaludo are fusing their bodies with the nanometal to serve as neural processors to increase the speed, efficienct, and power of the living city.

- Despite being told by the Bilusaludon commander that the process was strictly voluntary, when Godzilla wipes out most of their weaponry the commander orders the nanometal to forcibly absorb their remaining troops to make one final offensive and is guaranteed to work.

- Sakaki, having had his injuries treated by the Houtua and therefore immune to the nanometal (if he wants to be), makes the hard decision to destroy MechaGodzilla City rather than kill Godzilla, as the city itself would continue to absorb the rest of the planet after finishing the current task.

- While Sakaki's fate is being considered by his superiors, he is being treated as both hero and villain by the Coalition while he has taken refuge with a group of Exif led by the priest Mephties. 

- The remaining Bilusaludo functionally force the Coalition's hand, and remove their resources from the greater unit to demand that Sakaki is punished or even executed for destroying MechaGodzilla City.

- The Houtua have a philosophy that making life is "winning" and dying or disappearing is "losing," so the Shobijin twins offer to mate with Sakaki (on separate occasions, don't be weird) to ensure that he "wins" by continuing into the future. He eventually accepts one of their offers.

- The God of the Exif is revealed to be Ghidorah, who consumes almost all of the Exif as he manifests through an amulet in Mephties' eye.

- Unbound by the rules of physical reality, Ghidorah lays waste to Godzilla while remaining completely invulnerable to all weapons either human or kaiju.

- Sakaki is told he is key to the Exif's plan, who worship Ghidorah because of his unbridled and unstoppable power: Sakaki's hatred of Godzilla will be an anchor for Ghidorah to take permanent hold in this universe, allowing his destruction to be unimpending and no longer requiring summoning rituals.

- WIth the help of the Shobijin and some others, Sakaki decides to fight back and shatters the amulet in Mephties' eye, now binding Ghidorah to the physics of this universe and allowing Godzilla to fight back.

- Godzilla kills Ghidorah relatively easily and Sakaki, told that Ghidorah would be watching him as long as he lives, decides to provoke Godzilla into killing him so that Ghidorah will not be able to take hold in the world using Sakaki ever again, as he cannot give up his hatred of Godzilla.

- With both the Bilusaludo and Exif now extinct as a result of Ghidorah's actions, Humans and the Houtua live together happily on Earth, with Sakaki's descendants being among them. The difference is that they treat Godzilla as a natural unstoppable force rather than an enemy to be overcome.

Kaiju Notes 

- The baby Godzilla from part one is a chunky monkey in this one. Mah boi has big legs, big thighs, big chest, and big eyes. It looks much like Legendary Godzilla, being a little chonkier than most of the other versions.

- Godzilla's abilities have taken several levels in badass, including sending shockwaves with a flick of his tail and Atomic Breath which has evolved into something more akin to a sound cannon.

- Ghidorah being some sort of out-of-phase-of-time-and-space entity is a very great concept for the creature. Ghidorah has always been established as an alien and powerful entity, but the version we get here takes that aspect to 11 and it really works. The necks are also much longer than they've ever been, which is really only doable when the monster is not made using a suit, but am glad they decided to embrace what they could do.

So, the first thing to be said about this trilogy is that above all else they are truly sci-fi movies. We open in space, with aliens and advanced technology, and the kaiju are honestly minor elements in films that are primarily about exploring science fiction themes. The mystical religion of the Exif counterbalanced against the extreme logic of the Bilusaludo gives us "the two sides," and then we see the dangers in religion and technology in Ghidorah and MechaGodzilla, respectively. Combined with the other themes of nature's advance, the meaning of humanity, legacy, et cetera, this Planet Godzilla trilogy is really more a Future Planet featuring Godzilla trilogy. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but it does make it less interesting as a kaiju movie.

Let's talk about the kaiju in the sci-fi movie. Godzilla (and Ghidorah) is quite honestly just barely a character. Granted, this series is clearly going for the "force of nature" aspect of the character, especially when taking the ending into consideration, but it does become harder to really engage with any of the monsters in a series of movies that is named after one of those same monsters. In truth, MechaGodzilla doesn't even have a face and appears in one movie but is as much a character as Godzilla was throughout all three. Ghidorah gets an entire 5 minutes of screentime, so he too gets represented more as a force of nature. That, combined with how pretty much ever humanoid character dies, means that Sakaki is basically our only chance for emotional connection throughout. It's a bold choice, but honestly doesn't pay off in the end.

Sakaki is not a compelling main character. It really hurts the overall ability to enjoy these, because basically nothing that Sakaki does or says is interesting. He's like Forrest Gump in that every major event seems to revolve around him by some fluke of history, but he lacks the personality of Gump. Once we hit the third film and all of the other humanoid characters except Mephties and Sakaki are around, we basically lose any ability to really connect with anything going on. If one is super invested in Sakaki's genetic lineage, maybe it would work for them but I don't give a shit.

And that's really the conclusion of this series. While some elements are interesting and even fun, at the end of the day I found it really hard to get invested in this trilogy. I just can't really give a shit. I do appreciate some of the choices made (Ghidorah is pretty badass in this) and really embracing the sci-fi aspects of Godzilla movies, but the sci-fi movies they made around the kaiju just aren't awfully good. The 2nd one, City on the Edge of Battle, is the best one, by the way.

Next: Kong: Skull Island!

Pacific Rim

After the end of the Millennium series of Godzilla we have only had a few extra Japanese kaiju movies made. Around this time, American producers seemed to pick up some interest in giant monsters. So the next several movies we cover are primarily going to be American releases! Finally, the Americans have gotten on board with how awesome kaiju are. The first of these films we're going through is Pacific Rim, directed by the legendary Guillermo del Toro. It is also the 21st century, so the era of suit actors for the monsters is functionally completely over. Our monsters (and robots, in this case) are now CGI. We will talk about suit actors in more detail in a later post. But it is something I will miss.

Pacific Rim is a movie about robots fighting Kaiju, so we in lieu of suit actors for the creatures we now have lots of human characters as the pilots of the robots. The most prominent stars of this one are Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket, Rinko Kikuchi is Mako Mori, Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost, and Charlie Day as Dr. Newt Geiszler.

There's no significant background drama to this one. It's a movie that was made by an American studio helmed by a Mexican director taking place primarily in China. Del Toro has claimed that the theme of the movie is empathy and/or togetherness, so if that's not a perfect example of that I don't know what is. Let's go!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Some years ago, giant monsters (called Kaiju in the movie) came out of the ocean and destroyed several cities and killed many people before humanity built giant robots called Jaegers that could fight back.

- Main character Raleigh pilots Gipsy Danger with his brother, as all Jaegers are piloted by 2+ pilots. On a fateful mission fighting a Kaiju, his brother is killed when he's ripped out of the cockpit, but Raleigh somehow manages to survive and even finish off their foe.

- Retired from Kaiju fighting life, Raleigh is brought back to the ranks with the promise of one last mission which will end the Kaiju threat for good.

- The plan is to go to the source of the Breach, the interdimensional portal allowing Kaiju to come to Earth, and blow it up with a giant bomb. This is time critical as the Kaiju attacks are coming faster and faster each time and they are expecting a double event (multiple Kaiju in one day) within a week.

- Still needing a 2nd pilot, Raleigh holds tryouts with everyone before finding a bond with Mako Mori, the adopted daughter of the boss Stacker Pentecost.

- In a training exercise, Mako loses control and nearly destroys the control center with the plasma cannon. Proving Stacker's initial hesitance to let her pilot correct, she and Raleigh are grounded.

- Shortly thereafter, a Kaiju emerges from near Hong Kong. All of the remaining 3 Jaegers are deployed, with Gipsy Danger left behind.

- 2 of the remaining 3 Jaegers (and their pilots) are killed when the Kaiju surprises everyone with an ambush partner (a double event), which also lures the 3rd robot Striker Eureka into the battle, only to be completely disabled with an EMP weapon one of the kaiju has.

- Gipsy Danger, being the last option and completely analog (nuclear), finally joins the battle since no one else is available to stop the 2 remaining kaiju. It pretty handily fucks them up, though does get taken into (and falls out of) the stratosphere in the process.

- Back on the ground, one of the pilots of Striker Eureka has been injured and is unable to continue the fight. But Marshal Stacker Pentecost is going to be the 2nd pilot of Striker Eureka despite knowing that piloting another Jaeger is going to kill him (after a past incident).

- Once under the ocean and approaching the Breach, Gipsy Danger quickly loses an arm and Striker Eureka is almost completely disabled because now there are 3 Kaiju with which to do battle.

- Revising the plan to have Gispy Danger explode it's nuclear core inside the Breach, Striker Eureka lures the monsters in before setting off their own bomb (and, of course, dying) in an explosion so powerful that it literally displaces the ocean.

- Heading into the Breach, Raleigh evacuates Mako before riding Gipsy Danger through the entire wormhole and making it face to face with their alien invaders. He sets Gipsy Danger to explode before riding his own evac pod back to the surface. Gispy Danger explodes in a fancy light show.

- Barely surviving, and the only Jaeger pilots to survive this entire endeavor, Raleigh and Mako simply touch heads with no words necessary as they have now been in each other's brains for quite some time.

Kaiju Notes 

- The focus in this film is definitely the Jaegers over the Kaiju, quite different from most movies we cover on this blog. That said, the Jaegers are pretty cool. The Kaiju have clear design elements as well, but they tend to be grayish amalgamations of animals. Still clearly well-loved, but the focus is on the robots.

- (Almost) All of the Jaegers have cool shit in their design. Gipsy Danger has a sweetass turbine in its chest, Crimson Typhoon has three arms and is piloted by three brothers with spinning blades on each hand, Cherno Alpha is just a giant hulking beast, and Striker Eureka is... a pretty generic robot, but does have missile launchers hidden beneath it's chest plate.

- The Kaiju on the other hand, are pretty much just amalgamations of animals. There's a shark one, a gorilla looking guy, a fishy one, a crab-ish one. It's hard to make any particular assessments when the Kaiju are not the star of the show. They're more interesting in their abilities than in their appearance, and even those are pretty generic outside of the scene in Hong Kong where the Kaiju brought some interesting weapons to the table.

- The Jaegers, on the other hand, truly seem to use their robotic nature to its full advantage: hidden weapons and design elements that would never be "natural" all in the same creature. Gipsy Danger, for instance, has a rocket in the elbows to extra punching power, a plasma cannon built into each hand, and a kickass sword which can function as either solid blades or whips. It would make zero sense as part of a natural creature, but in robots it's the perfect combination of ingenuity and utility.

I love this movie. You'd think with a focus on robots rather than monsters that that might hurt my interest in the movie because I'm here for monsters not robots. Here's the dirty secret of this blog, don't tell anybody: robots are cooler than monsters. Who's my favorite kaiju? Gigan, a robot. If they made more films about robots (especially giant ones), this would be a blog about robot movies. So, Pacific Rim is great. It's not the most thematically dense or rich film, there's few important themes, it's not complex or leave you questioning. It's a movie about giant robots punching giant monsters in their giant faces, with the directorial excellence of Guillermo del Toro behind it. What more do you really need? It's not going to change the world, and it doesn't need to: it's baller.

That said, there's not a whole lot else to be said about it. I like it, it's nice. What else? ROBOTS COOL. What else?

Okay but I do have two things - the first is the film's biggest weakness. I feel like a we know enough about the pilots of Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka to follow a general character arc for them. And the movie itself is relatively bleak, with only a few people surviving to the end. It seems that part of the message of this movie is truly "war is hell," and we do see that on a resource level but we don't feel it on an emotional one. When 2 of the 4 remaining Jaegers (and their crews) die in Hong Kong, we understand this is bad but we know nothing about the characters so it's difficult if not impossible to sympathize with them. I have seen this movie no less than 5 times in my life and could not even tell you the name of the pilots in either Cherno Alpha or the Crimson Typhoon. I know the Crimson Typhoon pilots are triplet brothers and I think the Cherno Alpha team are father and daughter, but they get absolutely no attention so when they die it really seems more like "aw damn that robot died' and not "aw damn those people died". Some sort of characterization or even knowing their names would potentially go a long way in making their deaths and the loss of more people on this mission to literally save the world hold more weight. Raleigh and Mako could have been avenging their lost compatriots rather than beating up big monsters because Kaiju are dangerous. Just a bit of wasted potential on the character front. It's not as though the robots themselves have any personality outside of the pilots, so it wasn't like there wasn't space for a few more personalities.

The only other significant thing I can think to mention is that Pacific Rim is a great example of subtlety in movie-making. The characters have thoughts and hope and dreams which are implied but largely left untouched, as things might happen in real life. Mako and Stacker being adopted family is basically never officially acknowledged, the grudging respect that the younger of the Striker Eureka pilots develops for Raleigh and Mako goes unmentioned, and Mako and Raleigh's apparent romance is left at apparent. These are just three examples, but all point to the same thing I'm going for here. It's impossible to do a movie like this without exposition, but if anything ever tried to pull it off it's Pacific Rim. This is something I really appreciate because 1) exposition and explaining every thought and feeling your characters have it boring and 2) it leaves room for interpretation. Does drifting with someone really show you every memory someone has? That seems... intense. Does Mako now have the memories of both Raleigh and his dead brother? How does Hercules feel about sending his son on a suicide mission? Why is everyone's name so damn strange? Lack of explanation, but I dig it!

Pacific Rim is dope and it does dope shit. End of. Watch it if you have literally any interest in either kaiju or robots (or both)!

Next: Godzilla (2014 film)!

Godzilla: Final Wars

We're in the endgame now, with the Milliennium series almost concluded. Godzilla is taking another hiatus, and this time Toho decided to throw a party beforehand. Instead of ending with a whimper like 1974's Terror of Mechagodzilla, or advertising the killing off of the main man Big G like 1995's Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla: Final Wars is a celebration of 50 years of Godzilla history while allowing the giant lizard to take a well-deserved break. To add to this celebration of Godzilla in his 50th year, he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just before the premiere of this film.

If you're not aware, this movie features a cavalcade of kaiju from Godzilla's history including at least one whom we've never discussed because it first appeared in a movie we've never covered on this blog (not a Godzilla movie). Tsutomu Kitagawa finishes his role as Millennium era Godzilla, but we've also got Naoko Kamio as both Rodan and Minilla, Kazuhiro Yoshida as Gigan and Hedorah, Toshihiro Ogura as Anguirus and Ebirah, and Motokuni Nakagawa pulling triple duty as Monster X, King Caesar, and Keizer Ghidorah. We've also got Kamacuras, Kumonga, Manda, Mothra, and American Godzilla (officially named Zilla by Toho in this film) to look forward to. I'm possibly forgetting someone, but with all these kaiju in one movie it's an understandable lapse in memory I think. Those other kaiju don't get suit actors listed because they are either CGI creatures or puppets.

Alright, enough build up: Godzilla's awesome we get it. Let's talk about the Final War, and watch Godzilla kick a kaiju-ton of kaiju-ass.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Due to various environmental disasters, kaiju have been arising from the Earth for 60+ years. Humanity has stopped fighting wars with one another and are now united against these monsters as the Earth Defense Force (EDF). Superpowered mutant humans began to appear in the world around the same time as the kaiju, and are part of the EDF as Organization M.

- In the context of this film, most kaiju we've seen throughout Godzilla movies have already appeared and been defeated by the EDF, including Godzilla who was frozen solid in Antartica some time ago.

- The Gotengo, one of the EDFs super weapons which is a flying submarine with a drill on the front which can be used to kill kaiju, is crewed by (among others) mutant Ozaki and normal human Captain Gordon. These are our important human characters.

- Protecting an important biologist (a boring job), Ozaki comes across Gigan, encased in stone. Shortly after this, Rodan destroys some city in the US, and monsters begin to appear all around the world. King Caesar in Japan, Zilla in Australia, Anguirus in Shanghai, and Kamacuras in France.

- The EDF attempts to take the kaiju down, but with so many monster to fight on so many fronts, they are overwhelmed. Ebirah the giant lobster is taken down by Ozaki and his team, however.

- The monsters are captured by a UFO containing the Xiliens, who reveal themselves to humans and pledge their allyship. They warn that a planet is coming to crash into the Earth and will destroy it, but they can help.

- The Xiliens become famous and revered, especially the 2nd in command "X," who appears in various media and is quite popular. There is some controversy over them however and Ozaki agrees, finding it unlikely that right after finding out Gigan is an alien cyborg monster that "different" aliens appear.

- Realizing that several prominent politicians are behaving somewhat suspiciously, Ozaki and his friends publicly reveal that the Xiliens have been impersonating some (all?) of the leaders of Earth.

- Pissed off that the ruse has been exposed, X kills the commander of the Xiliens and assumes control. Having captured the kaiju in their UFO before, X releases them again to assert control over the Earth. Using his Xilien powers, he's also able to assume control of all of the mutants except Ozaki, so now almost all mutants and kaiju are under his command.

- Almost all of the EDF is destroyed by the kaiju, leaving only the Gotengo and it's crew available, and even that ship couldn't possibly take down all these monsters. Fortunately, they come up a plan: Godzilla.

- Being the most powerful of the kaiju according to Captain Douglas, Godzilla is not currently under the control of the Xiliens and can thus be used to fight them. They're going to use his aggressiveness to lure it toward all of the other monsters and take them down. After that, how do they then defeat Godzilla? They'll figure it out later!

- Godzilla wakes as the Gotengo is confronted by Gigan, and quickly destroys the cyborg before beginning to chase the ship. Now the drama begins, and punk rock tunes kick in to tell us it's kaiju time.

- For the remainder of this movie, Godzilla kicks the ass of every monster he comes across in relatively short order and it's entirely awesome.

- Having captured the human crew of the Gotengo and lost all of his kaiju weapons, X summons his final attack: a giant meteor from space. Godzilla sees this coming and Atomic Breath's it so hard that it lands in a gigantic explosion but doesn't harm him. From inside launches the dreadful Monster X.

- Mothra, having been awoken a few minutes before, arrives to back up Godzilla as he does have some difficulty with Monster X. X sends the updated Gigan to fight Mothra, to keep things fair.

- Ozaki is revealed to be immune to the Xilien's control because he is a special mutant known as a keizer (just like X). While the kaiju fight it out nearby, Ozaki and X also engage in super-mutant battle onboard the ship.

- Mothra takes down Gigan by using his own weapons against him so that he slices off his own head, and then (having been set on fire by its laser) crashing into him in a final kamikaze attack. Mothra dies as she always does, but Gigan goes down.

- When X dies after being defeated by Ozaki, he causes the Xilien ship to delf-destruct as well. This causes a frantic escape and Ozaki only barely makes it back to the Gotengo before explosion.

- Monster X, defeated by Godzilla, evolves into its strongest form: Keizer Ghidorah. It's head expand to necks and it changes color to the familiar gold of King Ghidorah. He mollywops Godzilla for quite a while before clamping down on Godzilla's neck and beginning to absorb his energy.

- Godzilla losing the battle, Ozaki takes control of the Gotengo and uses his own keizer energy to fuel Godzilla. This causes KG to release Big G, and Godzilla turns the tide as he rips the extra heads off of Keizer Ghidorah before throwing him into the air and Atomic Breathing him into space where he explodes.

- Showing no loyalty, Godzilla turns around and knocks the Gotengo out of the sky. The crew survives, but the ship is out of commission.

- As Godzilla approaches the Gotengo to fully destroy it, the tiny Minilla appears to stop him and stands between the humans and Godzilla. Godzilla concedes the point and heads off to the sea with Minilla behind him. The end of an era. The Millennium era.

Kaiju Notes 

- Gigan has gotten a wild new update, being a new robot built for the 21st century. And while it's definitely more in line with modern aesthetic and looks quite chic, I have to confess to really enjoying the chicken-boy version of the past. I'll take both, though, because Nu-Gigan is badass in a whole OG-Gigan wasn't.

- Some of the other kaiju, even those who appear for only a few moments, have some upgrades. Kamacuras now has camouflage abilities and Anguirus can now roll into a spiked ball and launch himself into his enemies, for instance.

- This movie introduces very little "new" kaiju into it, so most of the kaiju information here is mostly relatively small changes or additions to update the creatures but with so little time to focus on any individual monster these are brief glimpses.

- Godzilla, at one point, throws Ebirah into Hedorah's eye and then Atomic Breaths them both so hard that the crash into a skyscraper and slide it into another, larger skyscraper before everything explodes. what

- Monster X is the closest thing to a new creature we get, and it's really just King Ghidorah but compact and gray instead of gold. It's a very edgy design, much like the upgraded Gigan, but not bad by any means. The three heads being compacted onto one small body makes a lot of sense to me as a more efficient design, and the "triple face" look actually seems more fearsome than the "triple head" of traditional King Ghidorah.

- Keizer Ghidorah's Gravity Beams, which we've always called them, now actually seem to have an effect on gravity. When hit with them, Godzilla actually lifts into the air and KG can manipulate him (and objects around him) by using his gravity beams.

The direction in this movie is a bit strange, but enjoyable. Actions scenes, especially for the humans/mutants, are often quick streaks across the screen punctuated by smaller moments of clarity. It's hard to explain, but it's a very dynamic way to shoot a film. It can be a bit disorienting at times, but it definitely tries to make the action sequences thrilling. That combined with the "very little time for your bullshit exposition" quality the movie has means that if you're here for an action movie you've got plenty to keep you focused. The human action pieces are probably more dynamic than they've ever been, but they're still weirdly distracting yet somehow entertaining in their own campy way. It's a very interesting quality of the film, as I truly can't decide whether I like them or hate them.

The man who plays X is potentially my favorite actor of all time. I love this man's over the top performance and have no other notes. He screams and tantrums with the best of them and his wild mood swings add an element of ridiculousness and entertainment to what could be an entirely flat character. That and actually being an interesting humanoid antagonist for once makes X one of the best Godzilla characters ever, quite honestly. We like X round these parts, he's the best.

So, this movie is overall pretty much exactly what some people want out of a Godzilla movie: monsters action. Rather than spend all of 2 hours having two monsters go back and forth, this is a gauntlet match with Godzilla tearing through his foes in ways we've never seen before. Alongside the human story which is... odd, but definitely not as boring as most, and you've got a movie which is nothing if not entertaining. There's no message, no metaphor, no hidden meanings here. Just Godzilla and mutants versus monsters and aliens. It's as delightful as it is shallow, but mileage is going to vary and whether it works for any particular viewer. Personally, this is one of my favorite Big G movies, but simultaneously not one I would consider "great." I would, however, definitely recommend one watch it, and see how it works for you!

Next: D-War!

Godzilla 2000

It's a new era for Godzilla, the Millennium era. After taking a little break between the death of Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, the giant leezard was put on a brief hiatus and we explored Gamera, Mothra, and American remakes on this blog. But the Millennium era has now come to Godzilla, and we're here until the Final Wars! Takao Okawara, the director for both vs. Destoroyah and vs. MechaGodzilla II returns to usher us into this time, and we welcome Tsutomu Kitagawa to the Godzilla suit after Kenpachiro Satsuma's excellent Heisei era work. The main villain of Godzilla 2000, Orga, is played by Makoto Ito.

Some backstory on this movie: Godzilla's hiatus was initially supposed to last longer than the 4 years between this film and vs. Destoroyah. But after the American remake (simply named Godzilla), Japanese audiences apparently craved a new take on the most famous kaiju in the world. Development of Godzilla 2000 began just two months after Tristar's take on the lizard king and it it not a secret that this is not a coincidence. Another relevant fact about the Millennium era is that every movie follows it's own continuity, acknowledging Gojira and making up its own history of Godzilla since. Godzilla 2000, for instance, doesn't comment much on the exact history of Godzilla but implies that he's been a frequent enough event to require a plan to destroy him and an ability to predict when he will appear next.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A girl and her father have been hunting for Godzilla as part of the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN). They barely escape with their lives as Godzilla destroys a nearby village.

- Elsewhere, an official with Crisis Control Intelligence (CCI) gives an update on "the meteorite." Inside, they discover an ancient UFO, 60 million years old.

- There is conflict between the GPN and CCI because the GPN believes Godzilla should be studied while the CCI just seeks to destroy him. The CCI develops a plan to take out Godzilla at last: a special missile.

- When Godzilla emerges from the sea again, the CCI and JSDF are waiting for him and they unleash everything they can on Big G.

- While this is happening, the meteorite/UFO takes flight and interrupts the battle. After analyzing him, it blasts him with powerful energy that knocks Godzilla off his feet. They exchange fire but the UFO appears to win, Godzilla disappearing. The UFO lands nearby and lies dormant.

- The CCI and GPN join forces to discover that Godzilla's cells contain something they call Regenerator G1, which allows him to regenerate so quickly. They hope to potentially use this to help humans in the future.

- As the sun goes down the UFO awakens again and, despite the military's attempts to contain it, begins to hack Tokyo's supercomputer.

- In an attempt to stop the UFO, the building it is currently atop (housing the supercomputer) is detonated. This (predictably) fails and the UFO begins to change the nearby atmosphere to suit their own conditions.

- The plan is that the UFO wants Godzilla's Regenerator G1 cells so that they can reform their own body, finally taking a shape that's not a UFO.

- Godzilla returns for a rematch and is immediately wrapped in alien tendrils. They have a brief skirmish that ends in Godzilla being smashed underneath several collapsing buildings before the UFO's tentacles reach out and feed on Godzilla.

- Absorbing Regenerator G1, the UFO manifests an alien creature Now it's Godzilla vs. Orga in an epic kaiju duel, with the damaged UFO popping in to help Orga from time to time.

- Orga opens its maw and begins to completely consume Godzilla in an attempt to become a "clone" of Big G, including skin of the same color and dorsal fins which begin to grow. 

- Unfortunately for Orga, putting Godzilla in its mouth really just means Godzilla has perfect aim into its soft tissues, and the dorsal fins light up red before Orga explodes from being Atomic Breath'd from the inside.

- Godzilla approaches our human characters, specifically killing the leader of CCI (who behaves defiantly) while letting the GPN personnel live (who behave deferentially).

- Godzilla wrecks some more shit on his way out of town, but leaves. Ironically, the GPN people claim that Godzilla "keeps protecting us" despite them watching him completely raze the city with Atomic Breath. Literally, the final shot of the movie is Godzilla needlessly destroying several city blocks right after they claim Godzilla keeps protecting humanity. What the fuck?

Kaiju Notes 

- Millennium Godzilla is a bit smaller than the Heisei era, but the jagged teeth of the Heisei era are even more pronounced so this design retains the animalistic aspects of the previous. It also appears that his dorsal fins are larger and more uneven, giving an added sense of asymmetry (instability? unpredictability?) to the big guy.

- Orga, in its fully developed form, is ugly and a bit overdesigned. It's not by any means a "bad" design, and Destoroyah (who I love) could be argued to be overdesigned as well. The difference, I think, is that Destoroyah had a theme (demon) while Orga seems more "Godzilla clone but make it complicated."

- Orga's abilities are relatively few and far between, mostly seeming focused on trying to turn itself into Godzilla rather than being able to truly fight him on even ground. The expandable jaw is an awesome addition and should be seen in more kaiju, but was an obviously terrible idea and Orga otherwise had very little to really fight back with. The UFO version was possibly stronger than the monster.

The first thing to note about this movie is that an over-reliance on CGI plagues it visually. Suit action Godzilla (and Orga) looks cool, but CGI shots are often awkward. The most notable of these shots is when the military attacks Godzilla near the beginning of the film and Godzilla is pursuing a helicopter. The crutch of CGI also harms the special effects and there are several notable instances where practical effects would have looked much better but instead we get cheap VFX. When Orga first manifests its "alien" form is just an ugly CGI squid looking thing which really could have been left out of the film entirely (and should have been). It's only about 20 seconds, but it's really ugly and unnecessary CGI when just letting us see Orga (suit) would have been more effective and saved money in the budget.

Another note that distinguishes this film is that the script is super weird. Everyone is hyper aggressive with each other, with one of the characters constantly being called an imbecile with relatively little reason other than every other human just hating her for no reason. She's not the only one, of course, as the main father/daughter pair is primarily characterized by the pre-teen age daughter consistently implying her father is incompetent in everything except Godzilla tracking matters, and still seeming to believe she's better at that than him anyway. Bosses hate workers, workers hate bosses, coworkers hate coworkers, executives hate their fellow executives, and families hate each other. It's just a really strange social dynamic that doesn't get enough exploration or explanation, especially given how common it is.

This last bit is really only a commentary on the dubbed version that I was initially watching, but there's an especially terrible choice in the final 60 seconds where we watch Godzilla intentionally Atomic Breath the city but one of the characters comments on Godzilla's constant "protection" of Earth. While I typically prefer subtitled versions of my kaiju movies, I already owned the dubbed version so just rolled with it. That was a mistake! In the original version, this is simply a comment that humans created Godzilla, and followed up by "Godzilla living in the hearts of all of us." But a genuine question is why the dubbers decided to completely change this line and make all of the characters look like idiots rather than embrace the message they seem to be trying to send which is that Godzilla's destructive tendencies originate with humans.

That last sentence does seem to be the idea behind this film: humanity's insistence on destruction. Perhaps that is why this movie is so thoroughly contentious with all of the characters? The humans all hate each other and the various forces antagonize one another as a message about the nature of Godzilla and why he is such a devastating force of nature? It's not 100% clear, but if I could draw anything out of the script that would probably be it. The bit near the end where the leader of CCI is killed by Godzilla (specifically) because of his refusal to be harmonious with the big guy. Combined with the fact that the human element of the story is resolved by GPN and CCI deciding to actually work together rather than against each other, I'd say the lesson of Godzilla 2000 is a little underdeveloped, but likely about cooperation and unity as the solution to the naturally destructive and antagonistic nature of humanity.

At the end of the day, Godzilla 2000 is a mixed bag. It does not earn a place as the most boring or worse kaiju film by far, but without knowing what to expect from the others I would not be surprised to find this one to be the worst of the era. The buildup to Orga was long and slow, and the creature itself actually stood very little chance against Godzilla so all of the time spent building up to it was kind of meaningless. On the other hand, the human story is functional and complementary of the kaiju bits. The worst visual are often due to the usage of CGI, but the suits and other special effects (even some of the CGI, I'm sure) work very well. It's a truly mixed bag, which leads to this very mixed review. If I had to choose a "yes" or "no" on this one being worth it? No.

Next: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus!

Yonggary (Reptilian)

Yonggarry is a remake of a 1967 movie named Yongary, Monster from the Deep, directed by Shim Hyung-rae. Interestingly, despite being a Korean produced movie by Korean creators, the cast is primarily western actors and the movie seems to have been filmed in English and take place in a western country (probably the US). I'm not an expert on Korean cinema by any means so I have no idea if this is particularly significant, but definitely seemed worth noting. Like the previous film we covered, the titular monster does not have a (credited) suit actor, being a full CGI creation. Though suits were used in the production of the film, there's no trace of this in the final product. While I'm sure there was an actor inside said suit, I haven't been able to find their name.

The only really interesting background fact of this movie is why we're covering the 1999 remake instead of the 1967 classic and it's simple: the original is a lost film. While a short cut/version has been found in the years since it was initially thought lost to time, it's still not the complete film. Rather than do that film a disservice in speaking on an incomplete cut of it, I decided to watch the remake instead so I could get a full Yonggary experience. Hopefully it pays off.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A group of archaeologists are exploring a cave. Coming across some creepy shit, they get exploded and a bunch of people die.

- A photojournalist, Bud, goes to the dig site and meets one of the only survivors from the previous party and the new leader, Campbell, as well as his assistant Holly. The giant bones they are uncovering is said to be "the most important discovery in human history."

- Mysterious incidents begin to happen to the camp, with men from the dig site dying in "accidents" which are very clearly not accidents. Campbell doesn't care at all, simply telling the workers to dispose of the body and continue working, at one point threatening to turn them in for being undocumented.

- The former leader of the archaeologists, Hughes, appears again, warning of a horrible fate to befall the Earth if the dig continues. He is ignored and taken away by the workers but inspires Holly to quit.

- When the bones are finally unearthed, they are revived by an alien spaceship which has been established to exist in the movie already. The creature, giant and angry, kills many of the workers, including Campbell.

- As Yonggary, the giant monster, is snatched away by the aliens, Hughes and Holly are taken into military custody. They are eventually confronted by Yonggary again. A helicopter squadron attacks it but is predictably destroyed, but gives Holly and Hughes enough time to escape.

- A showdown between the military and Yonggary ensues, revealing that Yonggary is a weapon for the aliens to weaken Earth and allow them conquest.

- Hughes and Holly eventually figure out that Yonggary is being controlled by the aliens using a node in its forehead.

- The node destroyed, Yonggary becomes a bit of a hero, trying to help people rather than harm them.

- The aliens, as predicted by H&H, send another monster (Cykor) to destroy Yonggary.

- Cykor is eventually destroyed by Yonggary after initially getting the upper hand, and Yonggary is safely transported to a remote island where it can live peacefully.

Kaiju Notes

- Yonggary looks... terrible. Not just due to the bad CGI, though it is quite bad, but also because it's just a very generic design for a very generic monster. It's vaguely reptilian but lacks any real defining features or weight. Pretty disappointing for the star of your monster movie.

- Cykor is actually better than Yonggary, being some sort of chimera which is at least interesting if still 90s-CGI-ugly. Though it lacks a face, it at least has a distinct shape and purpose: a weapon. With wrapping tentacles, many claws, at least four legs, and a thick tail that can be used for leverage, this is the only creature that adds some character to a movie that otherwise lacks any.

- Cykor also gets up after being fully decapitated by Yonggary. It raises the question of why the aliens waited for Yonggary to be revived. While the titular Y-man did eventually win the fight, Cykor seems plenty able to wipe out all militaries all by its lonesome. The aliens would have plenty of time to dig up Yonggary themselves and then have 2 monsters under their control.

This movie absolutely sucks.

Next: Godzilla 2000!

Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

I really enjoyed the last Gamera film (Guardian of the Universe) but did mention that this trilogy may be hard to write much about unless they made something a little more substantial than raw entertainment about a giant flame breathing turtle. With the same director, Shusuke Kaneko, at the helm for the entire trilogy, this seems more possible than in most circumstances, but who can really be sure until we watch the movie? So rather than waste a lot of preamble talking about the production, let's get to the meat. Gamera is played by Akira Ohashi while the titular Legion is Mizuho Yoshida. Let's get it on!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A meteor strikes Japan and in the title sequence a cross explodes before becoming part of the title card? It was... very weird.

- With no evidence of a meteor able to be found (except a very cool looking crash site), investigators conclude it may have just been ice that crashed to Earth (thereby being destroyed upon landing).

- At a Kirin beer warehouse, two guards see a crab or insect like creature destroy 10,000 cases before staring at them with its spooky eye.

- A subway is stopped by the spooky eye monster and the first person to see it is exploded in a gush of blood. The passengers seem to be victims next, as the area is cordoned off by police. The police go under to find the alien species Legion, who swarm and kill or injure the police as well.

- A giant plant/egg-looking thing manifests in the middle of the city. Simulations determine that it is set to launch itself into space toward a new planet, destroying at least a 6 kilometer radius around it. Green energy gathers into the object, causing an Aurora Borealis effect in the middle of Japan. Turns out this is all oxygen, making it risky to attack the plant/egg because of the resultant explosion, but when the object launches itself into space the resultant explosion will also be devastating.

- Gamera reappears, flying out of the ocean and toward the Legion hive. Being able to breathe fire, Gamera can also suck in the oxygen surrounding the hive. He damages it with one massive fireball before bashing it to death.

- The remaining Legion climb onto Gamera and engulf him while they seem to shock, bite, and stab him.

- Gamera takes off using his rocket legs, shaking off the Legion on his body as his furiously spins (and killing many). Having been wounded, he also splatters his green blood across the city.

- Following this, a giant Legion Queen bursts from the hive and flies away. Two direct hits by missiles don't stop it, and a new hive is set up in Sendai.

- Gamera appears again to destroy the hive, but the Legion Queen intercepts him and they do battle. She wins after stabbing and laser beaming him, but has to leave him for dead. Gamera uses the last of his strength to keep the hive/seed from making it into space, but it still explodes, destroying Sendai and Gamera with it.

- With Legion still active and Gamera dead, humanity prepares to make its final stand.  While hopeful, there seems to be little expectation that the JSDF can handle Legion on their own.

- Asagi, the girl with whom Gamera forged a bond in the previous film, goes to the body of Gamera with the expectation that he will rise again. As she does this, Legion and the JSDF begin their battle.

- Just as Asagi stated, Gamera is revived and immediately takes flight toward Legion. Apparently, now the military realizes Gamera is trying to stop Legion and decides to cooperate with him.

- Gamera and the JSDF work together to destroy both the Legion Queen and Legion Swarm. After Legion unveils a new trick, Gamera is nearly defeated before being saved in the nick of time by air support.

- Badly wounded and still not fully recovered from his near death experience, Gamera unleashes his final weapon: absorbing...the sun?... and the plates on his chest opening up to release a tremendous beam of fire/plasma. Legion is completely destroyed in the blast and Gamera is clearly exhausted.

- Gamera takes a final look at the JSDF troops below him before flying away on his rocket legs. The military is relieved, not only to have survived the battle with Legion but also that the obviously incredibly powerful Gamera appears to be on their side (for now).

- This final point is emphasized by the last line of the movie, with the main woman of the cast saying that Gamera is not the defender of humanity but of Earth, and if we keep killing the other life on the planet... "We wouldn't want Gamera against us, would we?"

Kaiju Notes 

- Baby Legion is just... crabs but with giant eyes. Baby Legion kinda sucks, though I do find their blue hues quite comforting despite their unimpressiveness.

- The Legion Queen, on the other hand, is a cool design. Retaining the crab like look but escalating it into a single scary beast, the arc of spikes/claws/legs surrounding it makes a dominating silhouette and an effective weapon. The giant horn on its head that can shoot lasers keep the Legion Queen threatening at distance.

- After confronting Legion in the third act, Gamera lands and seems to "skate" around at great speed across the city. It's actually incredibly cool to see, as very few kaiju move as quickly at any point. While the fireballs Gamera launches don't seem to have much effect, the novelty of the shot is notable (and badass).

- Gamera's final attack is clearly one of the most powerful we've seen in any kaiju movie thus far, but it goes almost entirely unexplained and is confusing. I am hoping or expecting it to be further touched on in the future, but I'm not sure I agree with the choice to have something so "deus ex machina" happen right when your hero seems to be defeated.

Right away, I want to touch on a strange direction choice made when the military/police were going into the train tunnel to rescue survivors: a brief photomontage begins right when they rush to the scene. The beginning and end of the montage is abrupt, making it look like a DVD skipping rather than an artistic choice. Because I literally watched it on DVD, I had to check a few times to assure myself that it wasn't just skipping through a scene (confirmed by finding a digital source). Though the dialogue and music maintain through the montage indicating that it's an intentional choice, the abrupt beginning, end, and briefness of the segment is quite jarring. Just a really strange directorial decision. On the other end of choices, there is the above mentioned scene near the end of the film where Gamera seems to floating through a city while he confronts Legion, either using his rocket legs to stay extra mobile or the sheer momentum with which he arrived on the scene, but either way it's an incredible sequence. So... the direction has definite pluses and minuses. The montage for the rescue will stand out as a strange choice, but Gamera basically roller-blading through the streets of Ashikaga is going to stand out even more because it rocks.

The destruction of Sendai is an affecting sequence, seeming to intentionally mimic the nuclear bombs that hit Japan 50 years before this movie. The screen goes completely white outside of seeing buildings be torn apart by the force of the explosion, and the blast radius grows before leaving a massive crater where Sendai used to be. If not for Gamera's body encased in stone, it would be indistinguishable from a devastated city as a result of war. It's an excellent example of how the series has evolved even being just 2 films into the Heisei era trilogy: using both new technology and a new lease on the life of Gamera to do things that are truly worth writing about. Whether it's just cool effects and fun monster fights or using the movie to speak on the horrors of violence, the destruction of Sendai is the most evocative but not the only example of this film using everything it has at it's disposal to make some of this feel like it matters.

The period of time where Gamera is believed to be dead is another example of the above, less reliant on special effects to send the message. After spending incalculable time and expense in trying to destroy both Gamera and Legion, they are eventually left to realize that they've possibly doomed the world by hampering Gamera's clear goal of fighting against Legion. The hopelessness they feel without Gamera seems to be the only time they appreciate him, but it makes a degree of sense in the context of the film. Gamera continues to destroy cities and landmarks while he fights these monsters, and while he clearly intends to stop Legion it can't be argued that the collateral damage doesn't have its own incredible cost (in human lives). It's a situation where there's no good choices but the military makes the worse one, and the end of the movie reflects this. When they go to hopefully stop Legion the general tone is one of hopelessness, but with Gamera dead there's nothing else to do but try. And when Gamera awakens humanity cheers but remains fearful of him (because of course they should be).

The question at the very end of the movie is truly the theme here: "we wouldn't want Gamera against us, would we?" Especially after channeling some sort of energy at the end of the movie and launching a spectacular beam of energy, humanity has to confront the fact that Gamera is here to help and if he were not there would be very little hope for them. But he remains a force of destruction, even if he only appears when there's an even larger threat looming.  It seems to me to be an exploration of power and the appropriate use of it, ultimately unable to make a definitive statement but acknowledging both the necessity and terribleness that is power. Whether it be military or kaiju, Attack of Legion seems to lament that any of it is necessary at all, while making a truly entertaining giant monster movie at the same time. It's incredibly impressive.

Next: Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris!

Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla

We're approaching the end of the Heisei era of Godzilla movies, this time we're discussing the evil clone of Godzilla in the appropriately titled Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. And unlike my way of writing MechaGodzilla, there actually isn't supposed to be a space between the space and the Godzilla! Newcomer (to the series) Kensho Yamashita directs, and the main man is played by Kenpachiro Satsuma. The kaiju cast is rounded out by Ryō Haritani as SpaceGodzilla, and the same man who played MechaGodzilla II, Wataru Fukuda, is back as the machine M.O.G.U.E.R.A.

There's not a ton of interesting background information to share for this one, so let's get to the point and talk about the movie!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A giant crystal flies through space before landing on Earth.

- The psychic woman from the previous films, Miki Saegusa, is asked to assist the Godzilla destroying task force, G-Force, with one of their two new plans.

- The first plan is to build another Godzilla fighting robot called M.O.G.U.E.R.A., and the second is Project T: a plan to attach a telepathic conductor to Godzilla's head and use psychic power to keep Godzilla away. Miki thinks Project T is both immoral and impossible.

- Seeking guidance, Miki comes across Mothra's voice: the Cosmos, and is told that a terrible space monster is approaching Earth to kill Godzilla and that if Godzilla dies then Earth can be easily conquered. She is given the task of protecting Godzilla so that Earth does not fall as consequence. Miki joins Project T because of the proximity it will give her to Godzilla.

- On the island Godzilla appears to treat as some sort of home (or base), 3 soldiers come across Baby Godzilla, here called Little Godzilla, and set a trap for Godzilla.

- Godzilla appears on the island and falls into the trap set by the soldiers. While one was hoping to kill Godzilla and fails, the other two succeed in attaching Project T's telepathic probe to the back of Godzilla's head.

- Project T fails after Godzilla reasserts control of his mind.

- In space, Moguera meets SpaceGodzilla and they have a flying battle through space. Moguera loses and heads back to Earth with SpaceGodzilla giving chase.

- Back on the island, the soldiers prepare to kill Godzilla. Miki stops the soldiers from killing Big G just as SpaceGodzilla arrives.

- Baby/Little Godzilla is SpaceGodzilla's first target, being pelted with space lightning as he tries to escape. Fortunately for Baby Godzilla, his father arrives protects him from the space lightning attacks.

- Both monsters retreat, but Godzilla is weakened. G-Force dubs Project T a failure, leaving them with only Project M (Moguera).

- SpaceGodzilla begins to attack various cities, just as predicted by G-Force. Moguera arrives first to fight, with Godzilla cutting through several cities to confront SG as well.

- Moguera gets absolutely rolled, but Godzilla arrives in time to save the crew from death. While initially overwhelmed, Godzilla begins to destroy SpaceGodzilla's crystals which makes the fight more even. Moguera joins in to help, which allows the two to finally fight against SpaceGodzilla.

- After evening the odds Moguera is disabled, but SpaceGodzilla has been weakened enough that Godzilla is able to destroy him (and make him explode). In the process, the Moguera robot is completely destroyed.

- Godzilla leaves, going to spend time with Baby/Little Godzilla. The end.

Kaiju Notes

- Baby Godzilla is less cute than in his previous appearance. He is, however, still not as horrific as the original Minilla so we're still calling this a vast improvement. Also, intentionally designed to have been growing, it makes a degree of sense that Baby/Little Godzilla is a little more Godzilla like. His big soulful eyes still help balance out any more "monstrous" characteristics.

- M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is a cooler principle than design. Being able to split into different forms for different functions is clearly the brainchild of Super MechaGodzilla, but the design is underwhelming in comparison to that same MechaGodzilla. The design seems more juvenile than either MechaGodzilla.

- SpaceGodzilla is really just "edgy Godzilla" but I like it nonetheless. It's not the most creative, but his creepy cheek teeth and the giant crystals on his back do certainly create a distinct look, and that's one of the keys to good kaiju design.

- SpaceGodzilla's Space Lightning is apparently called Corona Beams. It is SG's version of Atomic Breath, so it's not really blowing any minds when it comes to SpaceGodzilla's abilities. His best ability is to create crystals, which he launch into the air or keep as traps on the ground and use as weapons. He seems to empowered by them, making them a crucial element of his battles. The crystals are awesome, and some real anime-type shit that works very well. SpaceGodzilla can also fly, making him probably one of the strongest Godzilla foes of all time.

One particular direction note, and one that I've always enjoyed: several shots establish Godzilla's scale, including a beautiful one showing Godzilla beside the island coast. This movie does a better job than many kaiju films in establishing the sheer scale of the problem. It's also a good example of how the balance of human/monster elements interplay in this movie: complementary, the best way to do it. The human elements are not overbearing or too frequent, and play into the kaiju story nicely. Whether it's the giant robot Moguera or the psychic Miki Saegusa, the two sides merge nicely in a manner which is actually rare for the series to pull off. Though on the aggregate the Heisei era has been better at balancing the two sides.

It's time to talk about Miki, the most prominent human character in Godzilla movies period. Due to her psychic abilities she is often used to provide insight into the various monsters mentalities, and this time is no different. Having been used as a weapon to target Godzilla's 2nd brain in vs MechaGodzilla II, Miki is back but with the explicit purpose of trying to help and even protect Godzilla. She's one of very few people in the series to acknowledge that Godzilla might have feelings that aren't just "destroy all humans" and work to help him (and therefore humanity) rather than just kill him and call it a day. She's also one of the few intelligent people in the series because there have now been several instances of Godzilla being necessary for the survival of Japan/the entire Earth but G-Force keeps coming up with plans to kill him rather than control.

SpaceGodzilla's origin is a hilarious bit of unnecessary explanation: When Biollante died and became particles, those particles were pushed into space by either force or attached to Mothra when she went into space. Those cells got into a black hole and absorbed cosmic rays from exploding stars before being pushed out as a white hole that is also SpaceGodzilla. I like the idea of SpaceGodzilla being all the evil parts of Biollante combined with a clone body of Godzilla, but that is...convoluted, to say the least. Which is a great description for this movie entirely: convoluted. So many elements are introduced, seemingly discarded, touched on, then concluded that it seems almost impossible to explain them all. Mothra is both in this movie and not, Project T is super important, then not. Miki's psychic powers have been a constant on-again off-again relationship through the last four movies and is primarily used to develop the human side of the story despite her being involved in some of the most important Godzilla plots as well. It's just very confusing, overall. Not so much in understanding what is happening but why.

In the end, given everything, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is a mixed but entertaining bag. As noted above, it's strangely convoluted throughout, but the kaiju action is some of the best we've seen so far if not only because SpaceGodzilla is a real force to be reckoned with and the battle has a genuine sense of strategy that has only truly come up a few times through the series. This isn't going to win any awards on basically any level, but for raw entertainment value and kaiju action it's certainly worth seeing.

Next: Godilla vs. Destoroyah!

Terror of MechaGodzilla

Terror of MechaGodzilla marks a major turning point for the series of Godzilla movies: Ishirō Honda returns to the director chair after years away from the series. While Nakajima is away from the titular role, it's still a bit of a return of the pioneers because Honda is back after Nakajima's apparent retirement. The only person known to have played both Godzilla and Gamera, Toru Kawai plays Godzilla for this film, which is an interesting fact but nothing else. Rather than talk about the background of the movie, let's get to the details and see how this Terror of a movie holds up.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Searching for MechaGodzilla's head/remains, a group of scientists are attacked by the giant dinosaur Titanosaurus. The scientists disappear and a search begins.

- Realizing a mad scientist named Mafune has a connection to Titanosaurus, Interpol investigates and is told by his daughter Katsura that he is dead. This is a lie, and he conspires with the alien Simeons to rebuild MechaGodzilla (and take over the world).

- Lots of human plot happens next, with the only truly important bit being that Katsura is actually a cyborg, having nearly died from one of his experiments.

- Underwater, the humans manage to distress/harm Titanosaurus with supersonic waves while the Simeons watch on with great annoyance. Now they know Titanosaurus' weakness.

- Proving he doesn't take orders from aliens, Mafune unleashes the Titanosaurus unexpectedly.

- Godzilla vs Titanosaurus begins, finally giving the main character of the series something to do. Katsura gets shot in the neck and falls into a ravine, but she's part robot so I doubt she's dead yet.

- Katsura does get turned into... more of a robot? I'm unclear. But she's alive, and now controls the rebuilt MechaGodzilla.

- The three kaiju do battle, Godzilla having no backup this time. Godzilla is temporarily defeated by the combined forces of the two.

- Helping Godzilla, the human armed forces attach a supersonic antenna to Titanosaurus, which incapacitates him and allows Godzilla to recover. He's back, baby!

- As Godzilla tries (and mostly fails) to defeat MechaGodzilla, Katsura's new boyfriend convinces her to help him save the world. She shoots herself to destroy the MechaG controller inside her.

- MechaGodilla helpless, Organic Godzilla destroys it easily before turning his sights on the equally helpless Titanosaurus. He kills that too, ending the movie.

Kaiju Notes

- Titanosaurus is... uninspired. Of the two dinosaur kaiju, Gorosaurus is far superior if for no other reason than his beautiful blue back. On an aesthetic level there is little to say about Titanosaurus, it's a very boring creature. Even his abilities are underwhelming, and his weakness to supersonic weaponry means even the humans are able to do damage to him. All three kaiju together make an impressive sight, but it's mostly the two monsters with Godzilla in their names that makes it a sight worth seeing.

This movies marks the end of an era. This is the last film of the Showa period, as well as the last Godzilla movie ever directed by Ishiro Honda. With Haruo Nakajima retiring as Big G a few films ago, Godzilla (for better or for worse) will never be the same as the last twenty years of film. While I'm excited to see what the future of Godzilla holds (I have not yet seen any of the Heisei era films), I want to take time to respect the hell out of Honda and Nakajima's work, and all of their collaborators. Honda isn't even my favorite of the Showa-era directors, but the man must be given his due for the incredible work he put out. Sometimes ridiculous and sometimes unrelentingly somber, Honda had incredible range. Nakajima brought the one and only Godzilla, and the evolution of his portrayal from unstoppable rage monster to cocky, even arrogant hero was interesting to behold. He brought a certain improvisation to the part, making Godzilla seem simultaneously more real and more fake. With the Showa era behind us, I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate the originators.

Godzilla won zero fights in this movie. Without the help of the human (and occasional cyborg) characters, he would have been killed extremely easily. I'm not saying Godzilla has to be some unstoppable killing machine, but the King of the Monsters isn't very kingly here, mostly getting his ass kicked until other people step in and take down his foes for him. For the end of an era, it's a pretty major letdown. I'm not sure they were planning on this one being the end for a while, but it's an underwhelming conclusion to the era. To think it would be ten years before the return of the Big G and this is how it ended is both disappointing and expected. Why else would there be such long break between films?

This is a much more human focused movie than many kaiju films. Not only in regards of screentime but also influence. As said in the above paragraph, the humans do most of the real work here. Katsura's cyborg body is the closest thing to the central "monster" of the movie, even straddling the border between hero and villain and shifting as the movie continues. It's not terribly compelling, but it's the closest we get to the sympathetic kaiju of Mothra or King Kong. It's an oddly rushed story, especially the choice to give her the MechaGodzilla controller after her second go-round of robotic upgrades, when a more obvious choice would have been having it implanted at the early stages of the mad scientists collaboration with the Simeon aliens, but whatever. Regardless, Katsura makes a poor kaiju, but a better one than Titanosaurus, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Terror of MechaGodzilla.

Alas, there's not a whole lot to say about this one. It's not good, which is especially upsetting given how enjoyable the previous film was. It's too bad, but there isn't much to really comment on here. It's neither aggressively bad nor interesting, so it's really just... there. So, to the end of the Showa era of Godzilla movies we say: see ya later!

Next: Pulgasari!

Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla

Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla is one of my favorite Godzilla movies, period. While this blog was functionally began as an excuse to watch all of them, I have seen this movie several times and enjoy it quite a bit. That's what I know going in. It has been a few years since I last watched, however, so it is entirely possibly something has changed. Especially in the context of a "history of kaiju" movies which prompted me to start this entire project, it will be interesting to see how I continue to feel about this movie (though I expect to enjoy it). 

Jun Fukuda is back in the director's chair, but the one and only person to play Godzilla so far, Haruo Nakajima, finished his tenure as Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Gigan. I did not realize this at the time of watching that movie, so I did not manage to give the legend a proper sendoff. I did, however, enjoy it, and isn't that the hope of every actor on any project? Either way, I respect and appreciate Haruo's legendary work, it will be interesting to see how Godzilla's suit acting evolves as other people take on the role. 

Newcomer Isao Zushi fills the Godzilla role while other newbie (to the series) Kin'ichi Kusumi fills out the titular characters as MechaGodzilla.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A priestess predicts/has a vision that a monster is going to attack and destroy a bunch of stuff. Most people write it off, but some take her seriously.

- In a nearby cave, archaeologists discover artifacts regarding a protective monster named King Caesar. An apparent prophecy from the cave also claims that when a black cloud appears in the sky, a giant monster will appear to destroy the world but that two monsters will appear to save the world.

- As the explorers head home, they see a giant, thick black cloud in the sky. Ominous.

- A man attacks and attempts to steal the statue of King Caesar. He is disarmed and defeated, but not without some trouble. He escapes before he can be questioned.

- Godzilla emerges, going on a rampage despite Godzilla having been recently working together with humans in the past several years (since about 1965 according to our records). His roar is terrible, nothing like the classic, good roar.

- Anguirus, Godzilla's friend, appears and fights with him. He gets his jaw split in two for his trouble and nearly dies before escaping. He does manage to do a bit of damage to Godzilla, however, revealing shiny metal underneath his skin. An evolution?

- Of course not! Another Godzilla appears, this one with the correct roar. He fights the 1st Godzilla, who is damaged enough to reveal he's MechaGodzilla, a robot. The ruse discovered, ape like aliens called Simians are revealed to be behind the superweapon MechaGodzilla. 

- MechaGodzilla wins this first battle, Godzilla barely escaping with his life. The robot is damaged as well, however, so all three kaiju seen so far are currently out of commission.

- Contradicting previously established facts about Godzilla, he is empowered after being struck by lightning, healing and ready for another fight.

- The King Caesar statue thief reappears, having another showdown and losing but falling off the boat and taking the statue with him. But this is a trick by the human, having replaced the statue with a fake to throw off his enemies. Clever!

- After a series of adventures and trouble with Simians, the humans manage to find King Caesar's resting place, just in time for the Simians to attack with MechaGodzilla. King Caesar still needs to be woken up, but fortunately there's an Azumi priestess available to sing an unusually long song on the beach.

- The lion/shisa like creature King Caesar finally wakes, battling MechaGodzilla to protect the Earth.

- He loses.

- Godzilla returns for a rematch, turning the tide and allowing he and King Caesar to finally defeat MechaGodzilla.

Kaiju Notes

- A note on Anguirus: he has never won a fight once in his entire life. He's a brave little guy, but he gets his ass kicked almost every time. He has won when part of a team, but once again we watch Anguirus get his ass kicked. The breaking of his jaw seems particularly vicious in this movie because we know he and Godzilla are supposed to get along. Of course it was all just a clever ruse by aliens.

- MechaGodzilla is a fun but simple design. I love a good mecha. He lacks the dedication to the absurd that is Gigan, but makes up for it by at least being intentionally modeled after Godzilla (to explain the simplistic design) and having powerful lasers and missiles.

- King Caesar has a genuinely good design that is wasted by not getting enough screen time. His resting form is intimidating, and while in motion he maintains a little bit of menace even while presented as a heroic figure. His ability to absorb and redirect energy is also a cool concept, and I enjoy his general focus on mobility and skill in a fight. It's ultimately all wasted, however, by his role being dwarfed by Godzilla. It could have been a great opportunity to introduce a heroic monster in the same vein but more explicit than Godzilla, but the G-Man required top billing so no one else can save the day I guess.

- The fights of this film are significantly more believable than some of the other recent ones have been. Godzilla does not waste as much time being a braggart, getting down to business. This may be because he lost or tied his first conflict with MechaGodzilla, though, and needs to team up with King Caesar to even the odds. As an example, when MechaGodzilla has his enemies on one side of him he simply unloads every laser and missile he has at them in an attempt to kill them entirely, rather than any tricks or resorting to hand-to-hand.

- To further the previous point, Godzilla gets a spurting neck wound in the final fight which, for a second, appears to kill him. While he's vulnerable, MechaG throws literal spikes into his body. The violence of this film is maximized on all levels. Bloodier, a bit more realistic, and truly gives you the feeling that these kaiju want to kill each other.

There is a legitimately cool fight between humanoid characters when the aliens are revealed to be ape-like. The human gets his hand cut with a hidden knife, does some slick dodging, and then shoots the alien in the face. The alien doesn't die, but does reveal his true visage. In a genre that is (and should be) focused on monster action, it's not a bad thing to have decent human action as well (so long as it doesn't takeover the focus on monsters). This is an example of such a scene, a good balance to the rest of the story and punctuating all of the humans talk to each other sequences with something fun.

There is a shit ton of murder in this movie. Simians, humans, kaiju, everyone in this thing dies or nearly dies. The humans and aliens are no holds-barred mercing each other while the kaiju are more deadly than usual to each other as well. I'm not sure if it's Fukuda's style or just a unique feature of this script, but we have people being shot in the face, killed by strangulation, thrown in the ocean, stabbing, jaws forcibly split in half, multiple deaths by bullets, multiple spurting neck wounds (one of which ends in death) and (robot) decapitation. Shit's wild, son.

Choosing to make King Caesar mostly useless in the end is hilarious. A full hour of this movie is dedicated to waking up KC so he can save the world, and in the end he gets beat pretty soundly by MechaGodzilla and is barely useful once Godzilla shows up. This is an indication of a weak script, it can't be denied, but it is endlessly funny. At least when we get to watch a full-length song about awakening Mothra, she wakes up and actually accomplishes anything. As usual for this genre, things that absolutely wouldn't work in another movie just somehow manages to not be terrible. It can't be explained, but it can be enjoyed.

At the end of the day, this movie has very little on its mind except violence. Despite this typically negative quality, it is quite simply one of my favorite Godzilla movies. It's awesome. It could be dethroned from my "top 3 kaiju" movie list, to be sure, but I enjoyed it just as much this time as I expected. It is not complex, it is not deep, it's barely competent when you consider King Caesar's central yet pointless role, but it's somehow, nonetheless, fun.

Next: Terror of MechaGodzilla!