What’s one element of sci fi missing from the Godzilla movies? Time travel, of course! Just don’t overthink things. It will make your head hurt.
By the way, this movie has one of the coolest posters ever.
This movie reintroduces Godzilla’s arch enemy, King Ghidorah. His origin is changed, though. Instead of some mysterious alien origin, he was created by time traveling criminals from the future who want to use him to destroy Japan before it becomes the most powerful nation in the world.
So, I guess in the 22nd century, Japan has taken over pretty much the entire world. Some American criminals steal a time machine to go back to the year 1991 to destroy Japan before any of these events happen. They trick the Japanese people by telling them Godzilla will eradicate them all. The only way to stop him is to erase him from history, so they go back to 1944 during World War 2, on an island in the Pacific where a Japanese garrison is saved by a dinosaur, which would later be mutated into Godzilla. They teleport the dinosaur to somewhere in the ocean away from where all the nuclear tests will take place. Being the bad guys, they secretly leave 3 cute little creatures called Dorats behind, and the radiation mutated the 3 of them together into one huge kaiju we know as King Ghidorah. Basically, they replaced Godzilla with their own kaiju so they can kill everything.
Obviously, the military can’t hurt King Ghidorah, so now people get the idea to use nuclear energy to mutate the dinosaur at the bottom of the ocean into Godzilla again so he can fight the 3 headed dragon. This is where things really get confusing, because of all the time travel B.S.
When they send a nuclear submarine to blast the dinosaur, it turns out that Godzilla is already there! He sinks the sub and absorbs all its energy. How was he there?!? How did he get mutated?!? A better question is how do people still remember Godzilla ever existed if he was erased from history? I don’t claim to be a time travel expert, but I don’t think this is how it all works. Wouldn’t all their memories be changed to King Ghidorah? Wouldn’t he be the one who attacked Tokyo in 1954? Wouldn’t he be the one destroying Japan throughout the decades? Or did the bad guys just take him back to the year 1991 after the mutation process was over? So many questions, but no answers. I’ll try to explain at least why Godzilla is back, though.
Tohokingdom.com, a website that focuses on everything Toho related, and it seems very official, says that Godzilla was never erased from time to begin with! They say that the Godzilla from the last two films is the same one we see in this film! To clarify, the nuclear waste that was a given explanation in the movie, mutated the dinosaur, which was still moved to a different location, into Godzilla. The mutation must have been complete by 1985, and that’s when he made his appearance. That’s why he was there when the sub arrived, and he took its energy. The future guys still moved the dinosaur, but they did not change anything else. Just the location. So Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla vs Biollante were already part of the altered timeline. If you can wrap your head around that, you deserve a cookie.
But there’s still one plot hole here. If this current Godzilla counts as the first, then what the heck happened in 1954? That movie is still part of the continuity. I do have an explanation… but it’s the stupidest explanation ever. Raymond Burr was right when he said “They never found the corpse” in 1985. Godzilla regenerated from being disintegrated by the Oxygen Destroyer, and it took 30 years to happen. I guess Burr did know what he was talking about after all.
Anyway, Godzilla meets King Ghidorah in a valley, and the kaiju beat the crap out of each other before Godzilla blasts Ghidorah’s middle head off, and sends him to the bottom of the ocean. He then proceeds to obliterate the antagonists.
Good thing Godzilla took care of all the bad guys, so now the only thing Japan has to worry about is Godzilla…. wait a minute…
Basically, they just screwed themselves over. Good job!
After a few cities get destroyed, a chick from the future takes King Ghidorah’s remains, and makes Mecha-King Ghidorah to fight Godzilla! She grabs him and drops him and the new mech in the ocean. I don’t know how effective they expected it to be, because he just gets back up a few seconds after he hit the bottom. It didn’t phase him at all! It’s only a minor inconvenience that he had to fight something. So… that last battle didn’t really mean anything important. They lost a really helpful mech in that fight. Good job again, guys!
Despite the time traveling confusion, plot holes, and a meaningless climactic battle, this is actually one of the best movies of the whole franchise. The special effects are good, yet there are several instances where the strings holding King Ghidorah and a few of the other props are quite visible. The miniatures are once again great. The people are okay. The dubbing could be a lot better, but it’s not atrocious. My favorite character had to be either the android M-11, or the guy with the purple suit. He’s one of the few people who aren’t the Joker that can look cool and intimidating while wearing purple. Both he and M-11 are played by American actors, but they still speak Japanese and need to be dubbed over. There are a handful of other Americans in this movie, mostly in the World War 2 segment, and they’re some of the best worst actors ever. This is where I laughed the most. Here are two of their best quotes.
“Looks like that island needs scientists more than it needs American military people.”
-“It did look like it was from another planet, but… shall we report it, sir?”
-“What, that we’re being invaded by little green men from outer space? Let’s just keep it as our secret. You can tell your son about it when he’s born, Major Spielberg.”
Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I love the updated look and roar of Ghidorah, and I really liked his mechanized form. Too bad they lost him in the ocean. But, that’s not the last we’ll see of Mecha-King Ghidorah. He will come into play in a later movie, but we got another film in the way before we get there. This needs to be on your list of Godzilla movies to watch before the new one comes out. I highly recommend it.
FINAL RATING: 41 / 50
STORY: 4 / 5
ACTING: 3 / 5
CHARACTERS: 4 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 4 / 5
ACTION: 4 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 4 / 5
TONE: 3 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
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