GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (2001)
Tagline: Who will be the last monster standing?
(Action, Adventure, Drama) [PG]
Good luck everyone,…you’re gonna die!
This movie wasn’t given a rating, so once again, I just rated it what I thought it probably would have gotten if whoever is in charge of rating stuff, wasn’t just blowing off doing that.
First off this movie has a really long freakin name for no reason. They could have just left Mothra and Ghidorah out of the title, we already know at least one of them is extremely likely to show up anyway.
In this one, we get yet another re-set of the Godzilla story (what the heck?). This movie only recognizes that Godzilla attacked Tokyo in 1954 and has now resurfaced. I am not sure exactly why we got another continuation of the story branching off of the first one especially after how incredibly epic GODZILLA 2000 looked. We also get a new suit design. Warnings to better prepare for a new Godzilla attack are dismissed by the Japanese government, so he pretty much lays to waste everything in sight as per freakin usual. It’s Godzilla. He’s pretty much unstoppable. The Godzilla in this one is apparently the manifestation of vengeful souls both Japanese and other peoples who were abandoned to die in the Pacific War. Yep. That’s what’s going on in this damn thing. The good news for Japan is that there are 3 guardian monsters that are foretold to protect Japan from Godzilla. Mothra, Baragon, and Ghidorah.
In spite of the odd origin given to this Godzilla, the design is by far one of the most menacing ever done. This Godzilla is really intense and he’s clearly not on the side of the people. There are some really cool scenes in this one destruction-wise. Mothra is also given some cool abilities that I don’t recall ever seeing before. Regarding Ghidorah I can’t stand Ghidorah’s origin story in this movie, it’s just totally out of left field, and wow. It’s almost insulting and this is coming from a dude that is not easily insulted. Baragon is played by suit actress Rie Ôta. She is the first female suit actor in the Godzilla series. Unfortunately, Baragon is underutilized in the film which may be why he’s the only monster in the film to not be in the title.
The human story I would put in the not terrible category. Basically, a TV studio that produces mostly low-budget garbage gains some insight into a Japanese legend and is able to finally get a story that is something better than their usual. I did like the crew that works at the TV station, they were all pretty likable characters
The acting out of the main cast is pretty hokey at times and we even get a “drunk” scene that seemed out of place, but Chiharu Niiyama who plays Yuri is pretty solid in this and almost carries the human side of the film by herself. There are also some pretty freakin hilarious lines that kind of caught me off guard because the tone overall is mostly serious.
Overall I didn’t exactly hate this movie, it is oddly pretty solid even with all of the changes to the lore. Personally, I also prefer “good” Godzilla over the “let’s kill everything” Godzilla but I can recognize when a film accomplished what it set out to do. I do wish they had gone with Anguirus and Varan in this movie rather than taking the approach they did with Ghidorah. The design work there is rough as hell and ultimately Ghidorah just looks like a goofy Muppet with zero contrasts in the scales or facial features in this.
For me, this is a 4 out of 7 Godzilla movie. Pretty solid, but too many changes that didn’t work to say it was close to being epic. When it comes to Godzilla flicks you can do a lot worse.
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