Review: Godzilla in Destroy All Monsters (1968)
This movie takes place in the far future: the year is 1999, and all of earth’s Toho Studio monsters live peacefully (yet are secured by the U.N. for study) in Monsterland, an island the Ogasawara chain.
The monsters escape after a mysterious gas engulfs the island, and they attack the major world cities (except Tokyo- which gets attacked later on).
It is revealed that the U.N. team in charge of the monsters were being mind-controlled by the alien race (whose planet is in-between Mars and Jupiter) Kilaaks. The monsters were also being radio-controlled by these aliens who set up base under Mt. Fuji.
These aliens want to control the earth, and use its resources.
Japanese astronaut heroes, led by Captain Yamabe under orders from Dr. Yoshida, get to the bottom of the mystery. They stop the aliens under Mt. Fuji, by destroying the mind-control device, but the aliens had already summoned their secret weapon to “destroy all monsters” (who got their senses back): King Ghidorah, the three-headed dragon from outer space, and arch-nemesis of Godzilla. The battle royal takes place at Mt. Fuji.
All the monsters gang up and finally kill Ghidorah! The monsters and astronauts also stop a fire monster to end the movie.
This is the last in-story chronological appearance of the old Godzilla continuity time-line (Showa Era- 1954 to 1975).
The cinematography is cool for 1968- the monsters always seem big, and the illusion is kept, even when toy cars and model buildings are destroyed.
The music, of course, is outstanding: Akira Ifukube is an icon.
It’s obviously a 0-star B-Movie, and although some of the human plot and aliens is drawn out, it’s still entertaining. Overall, it is a great monster-fest from Toho Studious. Probably a little too much focus on the humans (as usual) but the fights and rampages were great, and the “human stuff” isn’t as bad as other Godzilla movies.
The following monsters appear (all are “good guys” except Gihdra):
- Godzilla – He shares time with the other monsters, but it still the true King, as he delivers the death blow to Ghidrah.
- Anguirus – Had the distinction of being Godzilla’s first opponent, and now teams with him in his final adventure.
- Rodan – Had a weird scene where this the bird-like dinosaur was fishing for porpoises or dolphins!
- Ghidorah – Got whipped!
- Manda – Giant snake makes some cool scenes.
- Mothra – In caterpillar form, he (or she) teams up with the giant spider to put webbing on Ghidorah!
- Gorosaurus – Made a famous lethal jump kick to KO Ghidorah.
- Minya- The Son of Godzilla still hadn’t aged in 25 years! Had a few fantastic comic relief scenes.
- Baragon-The famous burrowing creature has a few cameos.
- Kumonga- The giant spider loves to web.
- Varan- He flies around.
- – Along for the ride, though I believe Baragon did assist in the destruction of Paris. Either that or whoever did the American dub just did not care.
Future technology: In 1999, we see TV telephones, super-fast rocket ships, planet-rovers, mind-control devices, moon-bases, UFO’s, magnetic fields, and laser pistols. Oh, and with all the futuristic army missiles, they didn’t “destroy all monsters” (thankfully).
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A+++ for monster fans.
how come all the monsters were friends in 1999?
somewhere right now, that famous Godzilla suit his hanging up in some japanese guys closet, and that suit is smiling as he senses he is being remembered fondly on somebody’s blog.
the clip you put up makes me wanna put on some kind of homemade rubber monster suit,build a city with a bunch of legos,stomp all over it and film it with a webcam put it all up on youtube.
its important to slow down the film in editing so everything looks “big”, and the human actors voices would have to be dubbed over to make it look right, even if they spoke english.
I think it would be the next big thing on youtube.
hahahah!! It takes a lot of skill to do it right!
English dubbing over English!! hehehe
Hey I remember that movie when I was a kid! Can you do more Godzilla reviews? I love him..