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 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!

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!

Godzilla vs. Biollante

We're firmly in the Heisei era now, with Godzilla having returned just a few years back. Being a direct sequel to that film, this is now considered only the 3rd Godzilla event to have happened in the continuity of the Heisei films, having erased all but the first adventure of Godzilla when the series was rebooted. 

Written and directed by Kazuki Ōmori, Godzilla vs. Biollante was a film nearly five years in the making after the both good and successful The Return of Godzilla. The main man Kenpachiro Satsuma returns as Godzilla, as he will for all the Heisei era films, while the incomparable Biollante is played by Masashi Takegumi. There's not a ton of other interesting background for this one, so let's cut to the chase.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Working in a desert country to use Godzilla cells to turn deserts into fertile land, Dr. Shiragami and his daughter Erika are involved in a terrorist attack on the organization they are working with. Erika dies in one of the explosions.

- Five years later, Godzilla appears active in the volcano he was dropped in in The Return of Godzilla. Preparing for his return, the scientist Kirishima works to use the Godzilla cells to create Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria (ANEB) that can kill Godzilla by eating his nuclear energy. The downside: the cure may be worse than the disease. 

- Shiragmi, the foremost expert on Godzilla cells, is asked to help create the ANEB. He refuses, and in an attempt to keep his daughter alive in some form uses the Godzilla cells on the roses he has spliced with her DNA (keeping her alive in plant form and now regenerating plant form).

- Realizing the Godzilla cells are still in use/circulation, the terrorist organization attacks again and is successful in escaping with the Godzilla cells. Unfortunately for most of them, they are killed by writhing vines int he process.

- This creature, Biollante, makes it to the nearby lake and is a giant rose-like monster. In the meantime, the terrorists free Godzilla from his volcanic prison when a blackmail attempt for the control of the Godzilla cells and the resulting ANEB fails.

- Godzilla, headed to the nearest nuclear plant to replenish, is attacked by the military. He takes a few nasty hits and is diverted by the Super-X2, an evolved version of the superweapon that nearly killed him last time. This time, it's able to reflect his atomic breath back at him and increas its power in the process.

- Hearing Biollante, Godzilla goes to the lake and the two kaiju do battle. Barely putting up a fight, Biollante dies. She fades away into yellow energy that floats into the sky.

- Attacked once more by the Super-X2, Godzilla manages to fend it off just long enough to be lured into a trap, eventually destroying the Super-X2 before being struck by the ANEB.

- The weapon fails, however, as Godzilla is cold-blooded and the bacteria is unable to quickly replicate.

- A plan to heat up Godzilla's body, and therefore his blood, so that the ANEB can take effect is underway. In this midst of this process, Biollante returns but in a much more beastial form than before.

- Biollante and Godzilla do battle, nearly killing each other before Godzilla manages to Atomic Breath through her face before collapsing into the sea.

- Biollante says thank you as she dies, and Godzilla swims away healthily after the seawater manages to lower his temperature enough to recover from the ANEB. Movie over!

Kaiju Notes

- Biollante, in rose form, is unique just because it's such an unusual choice. Without knowing it would transform further, one has to be engaged just because it's such a non-usual design. While not as obviously scary as the evolved form, the rose form features creepy teeth that are unsettling as all hell.

- Biollante in true monster form is fucking awesome. That's it. That's the tweet.

- In more detail, Biollante's monster form is a horrific chimera of awfulness. Writhing vines with teeth and a mouth that's 50% jagged edges and 50% acid, it resembles an incredibly pissed off dinosaur but all the parts were attached randomly. Her design and actions are intended to make it clear how animalistic Godzilla is, and it really comes across in this context.

- Godzilla's teeth have been a little corrected in this film, less jagged/crooked and scary. I guess time in a volcano will straighten out your teeth if you survive. Good to know. He can also now move his snout so he can properly snarl, which is minor but important addition to the suit compared to the previous film.

- The kaiju vs kaiju action is some of the most visceral we've ever seen. Biollante's horrifying composition combined with her 2nd form's viciousness is a sight to behold. Like Gigan before her, Biollante is one of the first foes that matches or exceeds Godzilla's own penchant for violence, and that combination pays off here just as it did in Godzilla vs. Gigan.

First thing first: the most interesting story in the movie isn't actually in the script. While the A-plot mostly entails watching the military fail, the true appeal of this movie is in the subtext: Biollante and Godzilla, as well as the warning against bio-engineering. Biollante is first named when she is a giant rose creature. In this form, she calls out for Godzilla, who appears mostly non-violently. When she attacks, Godzilla destroys her relatively easily and heads back home. When Biollante appears again, she is far more beast than Rose and Godzilla is forced to kill her again. This time she thanks Godzilla. Biollante, incredibly kaiju that she is, doesn't want to be alive. Even in her non-aggressive rose form she calls out for the creature she knows can kill her and only seems to attack him to motivate him to do so. The story of a woman being forced to live in the body of a plant/monster and refusing is a story that could carry the entire film on its own but is instead relegated to reading between the lines while we watch Godzilla fight flying ships and tear down buildings while he just tries to go home. A tragic kaiju forced into existence eventually becoming a dark reflection of the monster it came from could provide an excellent juxtaposition of humanity and the monster that is Godzilla but is instead something we have to tease out ourselves. It's a failure that makes an otherwise entertaining experience remarkably frustrating at the same time.

The human story is... mixed. Shiragami's quest to make his daughter immortal and the consequences of his bio-engineering is a really interesting story that gets almost no time in exchange for a story about the military trying to take down Godzilla using the ANEB. The young man at the central of that story is deeply, deeply incompetent, and we are forced to watch his blunder time and again over the course of the film. I don't even know his name! In his illustrious career in this movie he manages to get the Super-X2 destroyed and a colonel in the JSDF killed all in the name of hitting Godzilla with the ANEB, which doesn't even work! At the end of the movie he receives a promotion, or commendation, and it's clear that the JSDF is well and truly fucked. Given the above paragraph about the tragedy of Biollante, we're stuck instead with a movie about a terribly unskilled military commander.

Final verdict: Godzilla vs. Biollante is good, perhaps even great. But it could've been truly spectacular. It's disappointing because Biollante is a top-tier kaiju ever but is only in about 10 minutes of this film and barely gets characterization while onscreen. Each moment Biollante was directly involved was fantastic, but she gets 10% of the movie to actually shine. Military vs. Godzilla can often work either as the primary plot or the sub-plot to a monster fight, but in this case it really stands out as detracting from the heart of the movie instead of being a necessary supplemental element. While it's still worth seeing overall, I know I am going to remember this film as what it could have been rather than what it really is, and that bums me out.

Next: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah!

War of the Gargantuas

Today we discuss The War of the Gargantuas! A Toho kaiju movie that's not about Godzilla, Ishirō Honda again directs, with Haruo Nakajima starring as the main villain Gaira. For the first time that we've seen so far Gaira is a direct villain! While early appearances of Godzilla could be argued to be villains, I would argue that he was more "force of nature" than evil or villainous. But bad guy Gaira in this movie is a distinctly "bad" character, so it might be fun to see Nakajima be a proper villain.

This movie is extremely popular among film-makers and film-fans. Famous American actor Brad Pitt claims that War of the Gargantuas is the first movie he ever saw and the one that made him want to pursue acting. Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, and Tim Burton (among others) have high praise for it. So hopefully that bodes well for what's coming up!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A ship is attacked by a giant octopus. When all hope seems lost, a giant green monster attacks the octopus. After driving it away, he goes ahead and attacks the ship and eats the people himself.
- Convinced, partially by the single survivor, that Frankenstein attacked the ship, a separate group of people try to convince the world that Frankenstein is a kind and gentle giant monster.

- More reports of Frankenstein to happen as the green monster (Gaira) attacks a beach. But this time there are two simultaneous sightings, one on a beach (Gaira) and another in the mountains of Japan. Both can't be true!

- Gaira attacks again, in the city this time, and eats a woman before being driven away by the sun. The military conclude that green monster Gaira is sensitive to bright lights.

- Interrupting a fancy party featuring a fancy song by a fancy singer, Gaira almost eats her before some bright lights chase him away just in time.

- With the military now hunting Gaira, he defends himself. One scene in particular is awesome because he straight up picks up tanks and throws them into houses, which is a rad idea no one has used before now. Gaira also demonstrates his hops, grabbing two helicopters out of the sky in fiery balls of death.

- The military eventually manages to use Gaira aggression him to lure him into a trap, destroying an entire forest in the process. Seeing a forest get bisected by lasers as a giant monster jumps around it is honestly a very cool effect.

- Just as Gaira is nearly killed, a yellow monster springs from out of nowhere and protects Gaira from the lasers. It harms no one but does carry Gaira off to safety. This is Sanda, harkening back to the sighting of the "Frankenstein" in the mountains.

- Sanda proves himself to be a good guy when he saves a woman from falling off a cliff to her doom, at moderate cost to himself.

- Apparently unaware of Gaira's habit of eating people, Sanda finds Gaira's stash of human snacks and attacks him. This he cannot abide. Gaira runs away.

The city is evacuated as Gaira returns to attack, either looking for food or wanting to finish off his brother (or both). His previous hatred of bright light is gone now, as he knows bright lights are where he can find delicious people.

- Eventually, Sanda appears to save the city from Gaira's fury. He initially tries to talk sense to Gaira, in monster language, but it predictably devolves into a city-shattering melee.

- As they take the fight into the sea, both monsters appear to die in an underwater volcano explosion.

Kaiju Notes

- The giant octopus from the first scene actually looks very good. If I didn't know better I would assume they actually just filmed an octopus playing with a model ship. Hell, they might have, I don't really know better.

- Gaira is horrible. It's a good look for a kaiju! With just the right amount of humanity with a mix of monster, Gaira's design makes him seem deliberately villainous because he appears to have a thinking brain that he uses to eat people. The teeth in particular are a good, inhuman touch that make him seem both more dangerous and more animalistic than his otherwise humanoid form.

- Sanda, on the other hand, is boring. Perhaps because he's really just "yellow Gaira," he also lacks the distinct teeth and some of the inhumanity of Gaira. While this does make him more sympathetic and relatable looking it also makes him dull, especially by comparison to his counterpart.

- Neither seem to have any powers beyond "big, strong, tough, and occasionally pissed." In their defense, this will usually get you quite far, but most other kaiju would probably beat the brakes off these boys.

- The suit acting is actually quite good in this film, especially compared to most. While we know when Godzilla or the others are triumphant and they've even communicated on screen before, we rarely get a chance to get in their heads. Sanda is clearly a gentle soul who doesn't want to fight at all and this is communicated even through his fighting style. Gaira on the other hand is all id and anger, communicating his intent to harm everything that stands in his way through his grunting and gesturing, and his fighting style is significantly more aggressive (and effective). Were it not for the military helping, Sanda would almost certainly have lost. His ability to be a clear kaiju communicator probably saved him!

Anyone who is an avid reader of this extremely well-read and far-reaching blog will know that I did not care of Frankenstein Conquers the World. BUT this movie is actually pretty enjoyable. Gaira being a mean green machine with Sanda being a relatively boring but generally benevolent lil guy is a tried and true dynamic, and they pull it off relatively well. The human story manages to be supplemental and not too much of the focus, as is often frustrating in kaiju movies. And as mentioned above, the suit acting is actually some of the best that I've seen in the genre so far. Perhaps they leaned into it because the two main monsters were supposed to be human-oid like Frankenstein, but when I see it it really just makes me wish that the suit acting was this good in all of the movies. A great example is the conversation between Rodan, Mothra, and Godzilla in an earlier movie. While the general tenor was clear from the body of each beast in that example, it did leave some confusion about the motivation or intent of the monsters until it was explained by the human characters. In War of the Gargantuas, however, the humans have to explain relatively little. Even Sanda growing enraged on finding the leftovers of Gaira's human feast was done without any aid, and without paying attention to the nearly silent acting of the kaiju in this film you would have no clear idea why the two turned on each other. Sanda's first appearance is similar, he protects Gaira out of what seems like obligation, and the human characters seem both caught off-guard and understanding of this.

Like many of these movies, War of the Gargantuas is not some deep flick about human nature of the consequences of violence or anything, but it is a pretty good time. While I am not yet understanding of why it is such a popular choice among film-makers and actors, the previous paragraph might provide some insight. The conflict is reasonable and understandable, the conclusion relatively satisfying, and the human and monster sides of the plot mesh relatively well. As far as kaiju movies go this is definitely an example of it functionally firing on all cylinders, and especially given it's progeny I was surprised to enjoy this one as much as I did.

Next: Destroy All Monsters!