Sunday, December 15, 2019

Five Films from the "Godzilla-verse"

Godzilla first stomped his way into theaters in 1954, and recently returned to the big-screen in Godzilla, King of The Monsters, the latest entry in Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse series. The giant monster with the radioactive breath began life as an allegory for the dangers of the nuclear age, but he’s gone through a lot of changes over the years, going from city stomping villain to world-protecting hero. If you grew up watching the 1960s and 1970s (or even some of the 1980s and 1990s) films produced in Japan by Toho Studios, either in theaters or on television, you probably realize that long before Marvel and DC had shared cinematic universes, Godzilla and his friends (and sometime enemies) shared the screen together a number of times. Here’s a brief look back at a few of the best kaiju (aka giant monster) team-ups.

5Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (2001) 
Shusuke Kaneko, who also helmed a trilogy of films that re-imagined Godzilla’s rival monster Gamera, directed this 2001 entry, which pits Godzilla against Mothra, Barugon and Ghidorah, who’s a hero this time. In an offbeat touch, which probably helped inspire this past summers American kaiju entry, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Mothra, Ghidorah and Barugon are portrayed as ancient protective spirits of the earth. This film ignores all of the sequels up to that time, acting as a follow-up to Gojira, the 1954 original, and returning Godzilla to his villainous roots. Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack is one of the more creative and interesting Godzilla films of this later period, and is definitely worth a look.

4. Destroy All Monsters (1968)  This movie is often cited as a favorite by kaiju fans, mostly for the sheer number of monsters depicted onscreen. An evil group of aliens called the Kilaaks take control of all of Earth’s monsters and order them to wreak havoc on humanity and help them take over the planet. When a group of scientists are able to break the aliens’ hold over the monsters, the Kilaaks bring in Ghidorah, the dragon-like monster, to duke it out with all of the others. This leads to an all-out battle in the latter part of the film. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan and a bunch of other kaiju team up to save the world from Ghidorah and the Kilaaks. Directed by Ishiro Honda, who helmed many genre films for Toho, Destroy All Monsters was remade (sort of) in 2004 as Godzilla: Final Wars, in order to celebrate the Big G’s 50th anniversary.

3. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) – Ghidorah first showed up in this entry, in which Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan join forces to defeat the powerful space monster. The colorful story has elements of gangster films, sci-fi movies and monster flicks all rolled into one. Ghidorah has a pretty cool entrance here, a sequence which was re-used in later films. The dragon-like monster would go on to become Godzilla’s archenemy, appearing in a number of sequels right up through the 1990s. This is also the film where the pair of tiny fairies from Mothra act as interpreters for the monsters when the human heroes of the film ask them to plead with the kaiju to help us defeat Ghidorah.

2. Invasion of Astro-Monster, aka Monster Zero (1965) – This one features Godzilla and Rodan squaring off against “Monster Zero” at the behest of aliens from Planet X. These seemingly benign aliens offer Earth a cure for all diseases if we’ll let them “borrow” Godzilla and Rodan to defeat Monster Zero. But Monster Zero turns out to be Ghidorah and the aliens want to use all three monsters to conquer Earth. It’s up to a pair of heroic astronauts (played by Toho veteran Akira Takarada and American star Nick Adams) to stop the aliens. Invasion of Astro-Monster features giant monsters, spaceships, aliens, and Godzilla doing a victory dance after beating Ghidorah! The film wasn’t released in the United States until 1970, but like many of the other Godzilla movies of this era, became a television staple in the 1970s.

1. Mothra vs. Godzilla, aka Godzilla vs. The Thing (1964) – In the 1960s series, this film was the last time Godzilla appeared as a villain. After battling King Kong in the previous entry, King Kong vs. Godzilla, here the Big G battles Mothra, who had made a successful debut in a solo film in 1961. The American version of this movie features a scene in which Godzilla battles the military, which was not included in the Japanese release. Mothra vs. Godzilla is well-directed by Ishiro Honda, and also features the iconic music of Akira Ifukube and the special effects mastery of Eiji Tsuburaya. These three men were probably most responsible for the success of the series in the 1960s. One of the best among the first group of sequels, with the script by Shinichi Sekizawa weaving some deft satire on commercialism into the story.

All of these films are available on DVD and Blu-ray in various editions, and for online streaming. If you’re a life-long kaiju fan or just getting into these movies for the first time, these are some of the most enjoyable entries in this long-running series. Here’s a trailer for the recent Criterion Collection box set, Godzilla, The Showa Era Films, 1954-1975, which includes the films numbered 1-4 from this list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg-jDhwLH10Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack is available separately on DVD and Blu-rayHere’s the trailer for that movie; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl9Xh7DtiTo. Fire up the popcorn and settle in, and have yourself a Godzilla-verse fest with these fantastic monster flicks!

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