DailySkew

Review: The Return of Godzilla (Gojira) Godzilla 1984- Japanese version)

This movie marks the return of Godzilla to the silver screen after 10 years, with an increased budget. It also marks the beginning of a new movie continuity, as all the earlier movies besides the first one in 1954 were erased.

The plot: Volcanic activity has awakened Godzilla, and ships are being attacked. After destroying a Soviet nuclear submarine, the world goes on a brink of World War III, as the Russians think the Americans did it.

The Japanese admit it was Godzilla (they were covering it up to avoid a stock market crash), but the U.S. and U.S.S.R. want to nuke Godzilla. The Japanese Prime Minister doesn’t want nukes to be used anywhere near Japan.

Godzilla’s hungry- he eats nuclear power plant reactors. A scientist figures out that Godzilla has a honing radar mechanism in his brain like birds do, and creates a machine to lure Godzilla back into a volcano, which has been rigged to erupt.

However, the military must get involved, because Godzilla hits mainland and really destroys a lot of real estate, so they send a flying tank fortress called Super X to stop him- they do, Godzilla is defeated.

But the Russians accidentally launch a nuke, and the U.S. intercepts.

Godzilla gets hit with nuclear fallout, and gets recharged. He takes out Super X, and rampages even more. The scientist lures Godzilla to the volcano. In one of the most emotional scenes, the Prime Minister watches (and tears up) as Godzilla is consumed by the eruption and defeated.

Godzilla 1984 does some things right, and some things wrong.

The Good

• It’s 1984 and the Cold War is hot; real geopolitics is used, not the generic “U.N.”
• The practical aspects and methods of stopping Godzilla were explored better than other movies. In fact, I feel the writers were going for a “realistic” take on it, and it worked for the most part.
• This is a dark, serious world (a lot like Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns), with little humor.
• The cast does a pretty good acting job, with no stereotypical Japanese goofiness.
• The costume looks mean and special effects are much better (but not perfect) than the 1950’s to 1970’s versions.
• Pays homage to the original movie, and the themes of the destructiveness of atomic power.
• The violence and destruction was cool.
• Godzilla truly was an animal beast, as opposed to a super-hero or Japan’s protector.
• Reijiro Koroku’s music is haunting and fits the atmosphere.

The Bad

• Unfortunately, Godzilla’s actual screen time is just around 10% of the movie. This is probably the biggest flaw of the movie- too much time is devoted to a sailor, his sister, a reporter, a romance, government officials, and military. It’s enough to cure insomnia because although the action scenes are directed well, too much of the movie takes place in a submarine, naval ship, press conference, collapsed building, hospital bed, or government office.
• Godzilla doesn’t fight any monsters.
• The animatronic head shots (Cybot) are inconsistent. Toho spent a lot of money on that creating lifeflike robot face shots, but it’s too obvious that it doesn’t match the costume actor shots.
• The cities are empty, deserted, and quiet.
• Plot-wise, no explanation was given as to how Godzilla could have survived the oxygen bomb in 1954, where we saw his skeleton, or if it was the same monster or not.
• Ultimately, there was too much hype in Japan and the U.S. with a “Return of Godzilla” fad, and the movie could not live up to it.

Trivia

This movie was released in the U.S. and called Godzilla 1985. You may have seen that version with Raymond Burr. I did when I was a kid. I dragged my mom to take me. The U.S. studios actually made the English version much, much worse.

This movie did put put Godzilla back on the map in Japan, as new movies were created afterward (it turns out Godzilla did not die in the volcano at the end) but since it bombed in the U.S., we had to wait until the controversial 1998 TriStar Godzilla and 2000 for Toho’s Godzilla to return to the U.S.

There was an awesome touching song played at the end of the movie, Goodbye now Godzilla by the Star Sisters, which was cut from the U.S. version. This song should have been played while Godzilla was dying in the volcano for maximum emotional effect.

Interesting thing never to be mentioned again in any other movie: Godzilla’s parasites also mutated into giant killer bugs.

As I mentioned earlier, this movie is not on the same earth as the “funny” Godzilla movies, it marks the first movie in the “VS Series” of Godzilla films, usually called the “Heisei Series“.

Conclusion

There are really great aspects of this movie that could have made it a 1980’s classic, but the focus on the humans instead of Godzilla prevented that. This was a reboot movie, to get the franchise back to basics, and it did work in those respects.

The ending is always sad to me when I watch it, because this version of Godzilla was not evil or good- it was just a hungry animal out of place, and for the Prime Minister (who hunted him) to cry at the end showed how much of a legendary beast Godzilla was.

When everything was said and done, I enjoyed it. Of course, I’m a fanatic.

Similar Posts:

• Godzilla toys, Godzilla movies, Godzilla game, Godzilla DVDs on sale now
• Review: Godzilla GMK 2001 (Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack)
• Review: Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
• Review: Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)
• Review: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

DailySkew RANDOM Posts:

• Are Pot Users Criminals?
• Vegas vacation packages
• Tiles
• Hulk 19 Review Marvel Comics
• An example of an idiot taking credit for someone else’s work

Posted in Review, entertainment, godzilla | 1 Comment »