GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH
A film review by Jim Mann
Copyright 1995 Jim Mann
I finally saw GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH, the third of the revisionist Godzilla films. This film is quite a step up from the first two (GODZILLA 1985 and GODZILLA VS. BIOLANTE). Unlike the case in GODZILLA VS. BIOLANTE, for example, the battle scenes are well done. The monsters are threatening. And, unlike the previous two films, after the first twenty minutes or so the film does not drag. The soundtrack is good, and the plot is not awful.
The basic plot of the film is that travellers from the future come to Japan and warn Japan that it will be destroyed by Godzilla. But they give them a way out: travel into the past and stop the creation of Godzilla. It turns out that Godzilla is a dinosaur that was still alive in 1944 on a Pacific Island. A 1954 H-Bomb test mutates the dinosaur into Godzilla. So, back we go, to 1944, where the time travellers move Godzilla to another island. Unfortunately, they really want to destroy Japan (which had, in the early 21st Century, become an even bigger economic power). So they leave behind three little muppets that mutate into Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster.
In one of the silliest "alternate timeline" scenerios yet, Godzilla is no longer part of our timeline, yet everyone remembers him and notes this fact. People walk around saying "Ah, yes, Godzilla no longer exists. Too bad. Maybe he could have handled this King Ghidorah monster."
However, Godzilla does exist. The dinosaur has been exposed to other radioactivity (a nuclear sub, perhaps), so he appears and trashes King Ghidorah, then tries to trash Japan. Finally, the good guy contingent from the future must take Ghidorah back to the future and turn him into Mecha-Ghidorah, so that he can stop an enraged Godzilla.
Nonsense. Sure. But this is nonsense more in the spirit of the original GHIDORAH or DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. It's fun to watch, and at times is a pretty good movie.
It's still a big step down from the two best films in the series--Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Mothra (the original), both of which are good movies. And I miss one of my favorite scenes in the whole series: the birth of the original Ghidorah, from a fireball. But this is certainly the best film in the series in a long time, at least since DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (one of my favorite "guilty pleasures") and probably since the original GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER.
One final note. When this film was first released, there was a bit of a controversy involving the pro-Japanese, anti-American slant. In particular, reviewers (including the WALL STREET JOURNAL) focused on how Godzilla saves a group of Japanese troops from the Americans in World War II. Actually, this scene didn't seem quite as blatant nationalistic flag-waving as the whole reason behind the folks from the future wanting to stop Japan. Japan was so great, and became such an economic power, that it managed to buy most of South America and Africa. This seemed a bit much, but it was only a minor distraction, certainly not worth the space given to the articles written about it.
[One final style note: excuse my spelling of "Ghidorah." I've seen it transliterated several different ways. Most recent copies use, I believe, "Ghidorah." The mid-sixties film used "Ghidra." But I tried to use the same spelling throughout this article.]
Jim Mann jmann@transarc.com
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