Review : Godzilla Vs Destroyah, Takao Okawara, 1995

GODZILLA VS DESTROYAH

Original Title : Gojira Vs Desutoroia

Directed by Takao Okawara

Written by Kazuki Omori

With Ryu Hariken, Yasuko Hayashi, Yoko Ishino, Momoko Kouchi, Megumi Odaka

Year : 1995

Country : Japan

Length : 101 min

Rating : 4 / 10

SYNOPSIS

Godzilla appears again flamboyant and reddening. It attacks Hong Kong, destroying everything on its way...

REVIEW

After working on "KAGEMUSHA" and "THE RETURN OF GODZILLA" in 1985, Takao Okawara would direct himself two other opuses in the Godzilla series ("GODZILLA AND MOTHRA : THE BATTLE FOR EARTH" and "GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II") before getting to work on "GODZILLA VS DESTROYAH" in 1995, the last episode of the second series.
The story of this last starts fast with the assaults of a Godzilla more radioactive than ever on the island of Hong Kong. Then intervene the intellectual student (with glasses of course) who guides the experts toward the thesis that the heart of the monster is a kind of boiling nuclear reactor which dangerously rises the heat of the water and which is about to explode, threatening the future of the entire planet. In parallel to that, we can see the apparition of a new monster, Destroyah, the oxygen destroyer, resulting from experiments to destroy Godzilla in the original movie of 1954, a creature in mutation which looks very much like a kind of giant spider with a half Alien half Predator face (indeed disconcerting!) and which have the ability to split into divide itself into dozens of mini Destroyah! Of course, some resulting battles would follow between the two protagonists, destroying everything on their way...
At once, you can notice that the movie tries to imitate the US blockbusters, exploiting spectacular special effects more than a bit light scenario which get lost in pseudo-scientific theories... The result of that mix is chaotic, even if it remains entertaining, but as a whole "GODZILLA VS DESTROYAH" is a bit insipid as the fight between the monsters remain quite rare, and let note that the end seems to contain some mistakes of perspective about the size of these last...
However, some interesting ideas would spice a bit this sometimes boring long running movie, particularly the “spooky” scene of fishes into decomposition in the aquarium, the one where Godzilla is temporarily neutralized by freezing lasers but also the one of the death of Godzilla Junior (sniff!) and of course the sad disappearance of our atomic dragon... which would be back some years later for other adventures!

To sum up, a movie averagely interesting...

Note from Lan : 4 on 10

Published on 2005-01-17