I remembered this one being good from my childhood, I did not remember this movie being this good. This was a huge surprise to me upon my first rewatch since I was like 13-15 somewhere in that range and I didn’t remember how phenomenal this movie truly is. I always loved the way Godzilla looked in this movie, the pure white eyes with no pupal always made him look truly frightening. What I didn’t notice as a kid and what took me by surprise in this rewatch was how articulate his facial features are in this one. He has a couple of expressions he makes probably budgetary reasons as to why he couldn’t make more but it’s enough to get the point across; this mother fucker is evil. Like do you even understand how evil Godzilla has to be for Ghidorah to be one of the good guys? On the same team as Mothra?!? I love that we actually get to see a lot of destruction from a ground level, Godzilla actually kills people in this movie. The extra details of debris from blown up helicopters falling into houses and at bare minimum severely injuring people who may have been inside is a morbid but necessary touch to amplify just how monstrous Godzilla truly is. Mary troops are caught in the crossfire this entire movie whether of their own doing or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That one poor girl in the hospital always stuck out to me even all these years later. She’s stuck in her bed with a broken leg, Godzilla comes sauntering by, she’s freaking out, he leaves, she’s takes a deep breath because she’s safe, cut to outside and Godzilla swings his tail right through her window and floor of the hospital specifically. Godzilla is taking no prisoners this movie. Baragon the only monster not mentioned in this gigantic title gets absolutely atomized by Godzilla within the first 30 minutes of the film. Mothra is killed in a suicide run to try and hopefully finish Ghidorah’s rebirth to no avail.
Something brushed over in these movies a lot too that I do want to try and be considerate of is the human plot because there has to be some sort of human narrative to ground everything. This is up there with some of the best. The story of a schlock need anchor breaking into real journalism using her crap tv network to broadcast the fight when no other legitimate news service could is endearing enough but the relationship with her father is something special. Her father is the head commander of this entire “stop Godzilla operation” when he learns his daughter is on the frontlines filming everything, putting herself in harms way he demands that she be arrested for her own safety. When it’s his time to put himself in harms way however he acknowledges that this is something only she can do as well as something only he can do, that being put the finishing blow into Godzilla. Both making a promise to each other to make it out of this alive and both managing to fulfill that promise is so sweet and wholesome for a series like this.
I legitimately did not remember this movie being this good, and maybe that’s because I again watched the dub when I was a kid, or maybe the concept of this Godzilla not being a “real monster” but a physical manifestation of the angry souls killed during World War Two was too heady for me to comprehend at that time in my life. Either way after watching the original Japanese cut this has now entered the upper tiers for me as one of the best. Where it’ll sit by the end of all of this I do not know yet but god damn the millennium era just continues to improve with each entry. I’m excited to rewatch the next two for the first time since about that same age range of 13-15 as well as final wars which I have for sure just put on for the hell of it in more recent years.
I remembered this one being good from my childhood, I did not remember this movie being this good. This was a huge surprise to me upon my first rewatch since I was like 13-15 somewhere in that range and I didn’t remember how phenomenal this movie truly is. I always loved the way Godzilla looked in this movie, the pure white eyes with no pupal always made him look truly frightening. What I didn’t notice as a kid and what took me by surprise in this rewatch was how articulate his facial features are in this one. He has a couple of expressions he makes probably budgetary reasons as to why he couldn’t make more but it’s enough to get the point across; this mother fucker is evil. Like do you even understand how evil Godzilla has to be for Ghidorah to be one of the good guys? On the same team as Mothra?!? I love that we actually get to see a lot of destruction from a ground level, Godzilla actually kills people in this movie. The extra details of debris from blown up helicopters falling into houses and at bare minimum severely injuring people who may have been inside is a morbid but necessary touch to amplify just how monstrous Godzilla truly is. Mary troops are caught in the crossfire this entire movie whether of their own doing or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That one poor girl in the hospital always stuck out to me even all these years later. She’s stuck in her bed with a broken leg, Godzilla comes sauntering by, she’s freaking out, he leaves, she’s takes a deep breath because she’s safe, cut to outside and Godzilla swings his tail right through her window and floor of the hospital specifically. Godzilla is taking no prisoners this movie. Baragon the only monster not mentioned in this gigantic title gets absolutely atomized by Godzilla within the first 30 minutes of the film. Mothra is killed in a suicide run to try and hopefully finish Ghidorah’s rebirth to no avail.
Something brushed over in these movies a lot too that I do want to try and be considerate of is the human plot because there has to be some sort of human narrative to ground everything. This is up there with some of the best. The story of a schlock need anchor breaking into real journalism using her crap tv network to broadcast the fight when no other legitimate news service could is endearing enough but the relationship with her father is something special. Her father is the head commander of this entire “stop Godzilla operation” when he learns his daughter is on the frontlines filming everything, putting herself in harms way he demands that she be arrested for her own safety. When it’s his time to put himself in harms way however he acknowledges that this is something only she can do as well as something only he can do, that being put the finishing blow into Godzilla. Both making a promise to each other to make it out of this alive and both managing to fulfill that promise is so sweet and wholesome for a series like this.
I legitimately did not remember this movie being this good, and maybe that’s because I again watched the dub when I was a kid, or maybe the concept of this Godzilla not being a “real monster” but a physical manifestation of the angry souls killed during World War Two was too heady for me to comprehend at that time in my life. Either way after watching the original Japanese cut this has now entered the upper tiers for me as one of the best. Where it’ll sit by the end of all of this I do not know yet but god damn the millennium era just continues to improve with each entry. I’m excited to rewatch the next two for the first time since about that same age range of 13-15 as well as final wars which I have for sure just put on for the hell of it in more recent years.
