Just the Ticket #228: Godzilla vs Destoroyah
a.k.a. The Ticketmaster.
Today, the Heisei Era of Goj-Year-ra comes to an end. And one question that had been going through my mind since Godzilla vs Mothra is "what's going to happen with the meteor?" It wasn't mentioned in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, and even though the plot of Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla could have easily been altered so that SpaceGodzilla was the meteor, perhaps sent by an opportunistic alien race (or by the evil alternate future Japan from Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, or by the kaiju ruler of a supermassive sister planet to Earth that hid in Saturn's shadow or something) to kill Godzilla and conquer Earth, that wasn't the case, either. Nor, as I now understand, does Godzilla vs Destoroyah have anything to do with it. So again, what happened with the meteor? Well, apparently, some time between Godzilla vs Mothra and Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla, Mothra just...took care of it offscreen, I guess.
But as disappointing as that answer is, it also has no impact (puns!) on whether or not Godzilla vs Destoroyah is good. Which it is.
After Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla met with diminishing returns compared to Godzilla vs Mothra, it was decided that the next film would be the last, and that Godzilla would die definitively for the first time since the original Gojira. The initial concept was to have Heisei Godzilla fight the ghost of that first Godzilla (something that would kind of get used later in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, but I'll get there when I get there), but that was scrapped in favor of tying Heisei Godzilla's death to the device that killed the OG, and thus, we got Godzilla vs Destoroyah (Hepburned as Gojira tai Desutoroia, following the Heisei practice of using the English VS in the kanji title, and giving away the ghost in the subtitles, as it were, by calling the monster Destroyer).
As was the case then, the emerging threat in Godzilla vs Destoroyah is Godzilla himself. After being revived from cadmium poisoning by nuclear fallout, microwaved while infected by radiation-eating bacteria, surviving a badly written time-travel paradox and getting mutated twice by nuclear radiation, tanking an extinction-level celestial object impacting in his face, being magically sealed at the bottom of the ocean with an evil moth-dragon (that he probably absorbed into his body to escape the following year), having his spinal brain destroyed and replaced with the soul of a plant-goddess-powered pteranodon phoenix, and a deathmatch with his evil clone from space, plus all of the nuclear power plants he huffed and chugged over the previous six years, and a recent eruption of volcanic Uranium, Godzilla (by virtue of the suit being damaged by CO2 in the making of the previous films and altered with some sick embedded lighting effects) has overheated into his Burning form, and if something isn't done to cool him down or kill him outright, his nuclear heart could meltdown into a China Syndrome situation and destroy the Earth (and even if that doesn't happen, the fallout of his body exploding would be akin to every armed nation on the planet nuking each other simultaneously). As he should, Burning Godzilla looks awesome, pained, and terrifying all at once as he rampages like a dying animal trying to expel his own finality, show his remaining strength is still a thing to be feared, and die in a place of his choosing, and it makes for both incredible spectacle and a sympathetic piece of dramatic filmmaking.
But that isn't the end of the kaiju action, and the human plots may be the best the Era has ever had (even if I really want to dunk on how the "let's use Godzilla-related science to make food sources bigger" plan has blown up in Japan's face three times now and they haven't learned their lesson yet). With Birth Island wiped out by Godzilla's transformation and Little Godzilla (now further grown into Godzilla Junior) missing and presumed dead, Miki Saegusa and a younger psychic from the American branch of the UNGCC (Meru Ozawa, played by Sayaka Osawa) attempt to sense his presence and intentions. Meanwhile, the UNGCC enlists Emiko's adopted son, Kenkichi Yamane (Yasufumi Hayashi, Karin) for his young genius expertise on Godzilla's condition (because scientists in Godzilla films are either pridefully incompetent or precognitively masterful at the stupid, wild-ass guess), Emiko recalls the horrors she witnessed in Gojira, and she and Kenkichi ask his reporter sister, Yukari (Yōko Ishino, the King Of Minami film series) to keep an eye on the subject of the third and final human plot point of the film. So, meanwhile to that (and I'm not entirely sure if I remembered correctly what these two have to do with each other, partly because Wikipedia and wikizilla just ignore the details of one of them), Professor Fukazawa (played by Shinoda, mentioned above) is doing the "make fish big with pseudoscience" thing based on "micro-oxygen" that he discovered during a dig related to the development of the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line (the dig site for which is in the same location as the death of the first Godzilla, hence the Yamane family's interest in Fukuzawa's research). However, along with the micro-oxygen, Fukuzawa's lab in the Tokyo Bay planning HQ (which looks a bit like a live-action version of UA High School)
also discovered Precambrian microorganisms (probably because Heisei writer Kazuki Ōmori and effects director and creature designer Kōichi Kawakita were Tremors fans, but that's just speculation on my part) that resemble mutated trilobites, feed on micro-oxygen (producing a familiar, effervescent erosion effect when they're exposed to the enlarged fish, inspiring their designation by Kenkichi as Destoroyah), and merge and evolve into larger and larger forms similar to how Hedorah transformed.
What ensues is a rather natural integration and transition between the human and kaiju elements of the film, with the smaller Destoroyahs being formidable fodder for a solid Aliens reference as they wipe out a G-Force SWAT team in the Bay planning building, but larger versions (and especially the massive final form of Destoroyah that puts Biollante's second form to shame) being a credible threat to the two Godzillas. Seriously, the forced perspective work that puts Burning Godzilla, Junior, and Final Destoroyah onscreen together is the best such effect in the franchise's history (and yes, I'll risk the Burning Take: better than Lord Of the Rings). The screen shakes with his every landing and footfall, adding to the intimidation factor. His horn is a lightsaber (which he uses to deliver two fatal blows to Junior, and our resident Burning badass does not take it well). Destoroyah is peak kaiju fiction, and his design is literally on demon time. How anyone thought using Destoroyah to kill Godzilla was a good idea (except that Heisei characters have always been the wrong mix of stupidly desperate and desperately stupid when it comes to the "Godzilla must die" mindset) is beyond comprehension. The new Super-X (armed with cadmium ammunition and a freeze ray, and looking like the Batwing and the Blackbird had a baby) was really cool and almost effective, though.
As for Godzilla's part in the kaiju action, I was pleasantly surprised to see a rare sight in Heisei continuity: the big guy throwing hands and elbows in addition to his breath blasts. Yes, when Godzilla inevitably melts down, it's an energy effects spectacle (basically his feedback pulse with the dial cranked up until it snaps off at the Dragon Ball Z setting), but there isn't a single beam struggle in this movie because Godzilla and Junior see Destoroyah as the living wall that he is: something that needs to be bashed through and knocked down, and with the stakes clear for all parties involved, Godzilla vs Destoroyah has the most personal, palpable, visceral finale since Return Of Godzilla, culminating in a heartfelt farewell and Junior being revived by absorbing Godzilla's radiation, a literal passing of the torch (just in case a hack German director pisses on the Toho legacy by making him a fish-addicted Xenomorph iguana and the franchise has to be rebooted again in a new Era, hypothetically speaking...).
Of course, because this is a Heisei film, it has to end with a heavy-handed and undercooked, "I wonder if this thing that happened with Godzilla is humanity's punishment for X?" moral, this time being how harnessing nuclear energy to power our stuff is bad maybe. It's a small blight on an otherwise perfectly executed Godzilla finale, but a recurring blight on the Era as a whole.
And yet, the near perfection isn't done with us, because the end credits are a masterpiece on their own. Much like with the "Godzilla Love Theme" from Return, Godzilla vs Destoroyah's end credits sequence brought me to tears. Simple but powerful, it's a montage of Heisei Era highlights for fans to absorb the radioactive nostalgia, backed by Ifukube's iconic Godzilla theme, ending the franchise (at the time) as it began.
A-
I am way behind on Fire Force Season Three, but please Stay Tuned for that update because it is coming, and continue to support me and what I do by Becoming A Ticketholder (you haven't already), leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read so my franchise can continue, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.
34
Ticketmaster,
Out.
Comments
Post a Comment