Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah

And yes I do pronounce it the Cinemassacre way.

Well crap, this is the end. It's such a strange thing to see this series end, I think it has the most definitive ending of all the era's and to think it ended not too long after I was born. It was Godzilla's 40th anniversary and Toho decided to let the king of the monsters end seemingly for good. Needless to say this was a huge deal, even here in the States where we weren't even getting any of these movies until a bit later Godzilla's end made world news. The impact of the film is certainly monumental, but how's the actual movie? Very very good, it's not my absolute favorite of this era probably cause it just puts me in a downer mood but I can't deny the quality. I've heard tale that the production for this movie specifically for the special effects side, which was rushed and had to be completed quite quickly yet I hardly glimpsed any faults. The suits, animatronics, miniatures, all that good jazz looked pretty great. But onto the story, a massive nuclear test has occured making Godzilla become oversaturated with nuclear energy and his body is basically on it's way to meltdown, now you know why the burning Godzilla was such a show stopper in King Of The Monsters, and he only has a few days before he literally Death Stars the entire planet. Meanwhile an organism mutated from the actual oxygen destroyer from the original film starts running amok, now you know why I had to point that out in Biollante, and I find it appropriate that Godzilla has to face a creature born from the weapon that killed the first Godzilla. We get waaaay more than that though to tie it in, Emiko is back for a brief bit once again played by Momoko Koichi who sadly passed away 3 months after the film was released, we see the son of Koichi the boy who was adopted by Professor Yamane and wow what a trip to see a picture of Takashi Shimura in this, they flat out show footage from the 54' movie and spoiler alert it's great. So really this is the book end for the entire Godzilla series, further hammering the point that it truly is the end. And it does strike that hard and true, the ending is amazing and when credits roll it showcases footage from other Godzilla movies, practically pulling an Endgame about 20 years before Endgame. I can't even fathom how much this would affect a Godzilla fan, in Japan, in the year 1995 watching the hero you've seen since you were a wee child end with no possible way to know if it would continue at all. That is the only good thing the 1998 film did, it shit the bed so hard that Toho immediately took back the rights and got a new Godzilla series started up in 1999. Thank God things are better now, not only in terms of american produced Godzilla movies but just the ability to watch these movies. Exactly two Godzilla movies got a theatrical release in my lifetime, Godzilla 2000 and Shin Godzilla. The only way you could see these movies was on TV, either cable or if you were lucky like me satellite, or if by the grace of the cosmos you could find tapes of the various movies only two of which I know of in this series, 1985 and Biollante. Beyond that you were screwed. Granted I had a decent collection of Godzilla movies on both VHS and DVD, but my lord man the fact you can get all the Showa movies on one incredible collection by the Criterion Collection shows how far we've come. And I genuinely have not seen many of the Showa movies so if I have the opportunity and get that collection, we may have a month of Godzilla movies. Christ I should probably get it cause it would include King Kong Vs. Godzilla, which I have to review before the new movie, so be on the lookout. The hero from the land of the rising sun might just be on the horizon. I give this movie 4 stars, another 8/10, great ending to a series and you know what's coming next.

Godzilla Vs. Space Godzilla

That was mighty good I must admit.

Yet another entry of the Heisei series I never watched much. However I think this is one of the best of this series, both the monster story and human story are done great, with the military still on a giant robot binge as they craft Mogera a classic kaiju from the 60s in The Mysterians with a great updated look, while somehow Godzilla's cells somehow traveled into space where they mutated into a space monster. Now full truth, Space Godzilla looks super rad! I think he has an awesome design and the way the effects are handled are sometimes jaw dropping. This film showcases Miki the most out of all the Heisei series so far, I mean before she was always a witness to the destruction but after her stand in the climax of the last movie they give her more attention. And I am all for that, I think she's class and I love what she did with her hair. Plus the baby is back, and somehow I don't know how he is 1000% cuter than he was before. I didn't think it was possible for me to love him more but here we are. The poor kid gets kidnapped too which you better believe sent me over the edge, I emmited a very dramatic and moderately loud "Nooooo!!" when he was taken. You do not touch the baby and if you do then I will marshall all the forces of darkness to hound you to an assisted suicide. Not my wee boy. So you bet your ass I was strapped into this plot something fierce when Godzilla and Mogera go to beat Space Godzilla and rescue the baby. And maybe I just never noticed before but when the climax kicks off there's like roughly 45 minutes left of film and the movie is close to 2 hours, so you get a truly spectacular boss battle. I'm telling you the final fights for each subsequent movie from this series has only kept improving each time. The effects they do with the crystal spires, Mogera, the explosions are a feast to the eyes and easily made my jaw drop. I have zero clue how they pulled this off so well. What a great movie. It kind of breaks my heart we only have one left and it no doubt will put me in a mood but it must be done. 4 stars, 8/10, fantastic work by all those involved! See you tomorrow for the end.

Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II

Don't worry about the 2, it's not really a sequel.

Full disclosure, I have never seen this Godzilla movie before, the closest I got was when I was probably 11 or 10 and I happened to catch it on satellite late one night but I was a lightweight then just as much now and fell asleep before I even got 20 minutes in, so that means I had to find a copy so once more we have an english dub. And I find that a shame as I consider this one of the strongest entries for the Heisei series. Sure the plot isn't too involved, the government salvages the head of Mecha-King Ghidorah and uses it as a template to craft Mechagodzilla to protect Japan from the big G, and meanwhile an egg is discovered after a sighting of Rodan which leads to a much needed update for Godzilla's son. And that's pretty much all you need to know, it's so straightforward and yet has enough action and personality to the humans to keep you fully engaged all the way. The effects are pretty spectacular in terms of the miniatures and the creature suit for Godzilla Jr. or as everyone affectionately calls him Baby, and sweet heavenly snow....I want him. The internet has failed me for the last time, you had this precious little one in your midst for decades but little Grogu was the first on your radar. Get off my planet. I love him. I'd destroy worlds for this wee babe, he means more to me than you will ever know. Pretty much all the designs are really really damn good. Rodan looks pretty good, Godzilla looks awesome as usual, and Mechagodzilla while I do like this design it couldn't top the 70s one for me. But that's okay, he gets a lot of action screen time in this, hell it's easily the most action packed entry of the entire series thus far, you really get your money's worth. I have no real idea why it took me so long to finally sit down and watch it but I am thrilled that I did. One of the best finales in the Heisei series, decent human characters, easy yet enjoyable plot, excellent effects, you really can't go wrong with this. One bit I want to throw out before we wrap this up is even though this is an english dub, they pronounce Rodan the japanese way not the american way, they call him Radon and I'm not sure why but I very much like that. It's just not often you get real japanese in international dubs. But moving on, 4 stars, 7.5/10, a very strong entry but we only have two left. And I sense great sadness in the future.

Godzilla Vs. Mothra (1992)

Surprisingly the second most succesful film of this series.

Yeah after the fan favorite with King Ghidorah, this and one other later on were the most succesful at the box office of the Heisei series. Which I find kind of surprising, now I've heard one story that the movie going audience of that time was predominantly female hence why there's emphasis on the fairies, the first and only human plot to my knowledge in the whole series to focus on an estranged couple, heck even Mothra was the most popular monster with women. I obviously can't speak for that myself considering I wasn't even a gleam in my mother's eye in 1992, but it does make for one of the more unique plots. When the opening credits rolled I genuinely expected almost a full remake of the 1964 classic with a typhoon uncovering Mothra's egg, and while several elements pop up along the way it is entirely it's own thing. The story involves a divorced husband and wife who discover an ancient civilization on Infant Island where they were told to investigate, where they meet the iconic fairy duo who want to keep Mothra safe while she is still yet to be born, and meanwhile a new monster named Battra appears who takes on a malevolent opposite side of Mothra and starts to wreak destruction on the humans for harming the Earth. Yeah it's one of those environmentally aware movies, which I can appreciate. It's strange because Godzilla while undoubtedly a part of the movie doesn't have much stake plot wise, you still get a few monster fights, good ones too, but he is certainly more on the back burner. You think I would hate that, but I very much enjoy the plot focusing on Mothra. The effects could be argued are even better than King Ghidorah to the point where I have no idea how they accomplished some of it with the larva stage of Mothra, and attempted ambitious effects with the fairies and while some of it is obvious how they pulled it off they were commited to bring their A-game, the miniatures look outstanding, and Battra has such an awesome design. No joke this was the most succesful Godzilla movie until Shin Gojira, that is such an impressive achievement and while it may not be one of my favorites from this series, I have a lot of admiration for it and respect for the effects. The film just looks nice and it has one of the most beautiful pieces of music like ever. I'm so not kidding, words cannot express the beauty of The Birth Of Adult Mothra, it is done to perfection. Really I only could gripe about two things in the entire movie which full disclosure are absolute nitpicks. Battra's roar is straight up Rodan's which was slightly distracting cause I expected constantly he was about to swoop in and change the game. Second is the dub, now I try my hardest to review the japanese cut, I did it for Biollante, but some of the DVD's I own have strictly an english dub done by Tristar. And I swear on my life it was like they had the dub cast for King Ghidorah do both films, I almost dare even say they had half the cast of Ghidorah cause I heard Emi's voice actor at least 4 times throught the movie voicing different characters. It was so damn bizzare. So I apologize for reviewing inconsistent versions but that's just the way my movie collection is, an absolute mixed bag of different languages, countries, and actors. But I digress, this is a fine entry to the Godzilla series and no doubt has it's big fans out there. I give it 3 stars, 7/10, and one more classic adversary will be joining us tomorrow.

Godzilla 2000 (1999)

Boy that's a paradoxical title isn't it?

The first in the Millenium series, over 16 years old, how is it? Pretty great. The plot isn't spectacular, but what comes out of it is highly entertaining. The Japanese government searches the depths of the ocean to discover a new source of energy, then soon find an alien craft that rises from the depths and is strangely focused on Godzilla. That is one of the major high points for this movie, it has an excellent sense of mystery around the monster, named Orga and you never know what it really looks like or why it is focused on Godzilla until near the end. Orga mutates several times throughout the movie, similar to Shin Gojira and I love the originality with the monster. But then again Toho has always had such genius designs for it's monsters, and this design of Godzilla might actually be my most favorite of all the designs. In fact, the whole movie looks great, the models are so highly detailed they look real, I am floored by the sets in this movie. We get many good shots of Tokyo at night, and the more I thought about it I realized the fact that I have probably seen more movies set in Tokyo than New York City, Japan has always been present in my life since I was real little in some form or another, and will continue to until I die. Japan is in the heart, wherever I go she is with me. And now, time for backstory! In 1994 Toho planned on making the final Godzilla film after 40 long years, killing the King Of The Monsters once and for all. They did just that, giving the rights to TriStar to make future American Godzilla films. They failed. Horribly. To the point where Toho was so outraged they released this movie less than a year later in 1999, titled Godzilla Millenium. Then it got a theatrical release here in the States in 2000, which hasn't been done since Godzilla 1984 and never again until Shin Gojira, but sadly it bombed. Yes this film actually failed, which is why we don't get many Godzilla films here until it gets on home video. It's very sad but very true. But you can never keep the big guy down, he has died at least three times, four if you count the TriStar movie, but Goonies never say die or something, so he always comes back. It was one of the first Godzilla movies I ever saw, I still love it, I think you would enjoy it, but we got one more to go before the week is out. Tune in tomorrow for a GOOD American Godzilla movie.