Godzilla and Destroyer Director and screenwriter of earlier heisei films: Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. King Gidora, as well as the author of the script for the best Godzilla film - Godzilla vs. Motra: Battle for Earth (which "The Return of the Dinosaur"), Kazuki Omori returned to write the final plot of this most outstanding era in the movie about the atomic monster.
The plot of the film turns to its roots - to the very first film, directed by Ishiro Honda in 1954. In the chronicle of the retro frames we will see old friends, including Dr. Serizawa, and his aging assistant was again invited to play Momoko Kochi.
The film again raises the theme of Oxygen-Destroyer, this time turning it not into a weapon, but into a multifaceted monster that has many forms and is able to both divide into a bunch of small ones and assemble into one large one. One of the main characters is a scientist, a researcher of the properties of micro-oxygen, which increases living individuals in size, is interested in the Precambrian era, finding microorganisms in the soil of those times that did not require oxygen for life.
Then everything moves according to the law of a horror movie. Okawara has always supported the true roots of the daikaiju genre in his paintings, when films about giant monsters were an offshoot of horror, and not just an entertaining action movie about a pair of rubber dolls with an Asian helpless army, but “Destroyer” was shot in the spirit of some “Aliens”.
Individuals look specific and scary in a good way. Real scary monsters, besides gradually changing their appearance and size in the course of their development. Crawling like crabs or spiders, armed with claws, some tentacles, in adult form even wings and a grip on the tail, spewing dangerous steam, and energy lightning, and bright rays, with an inner jaw jumping out for a bite, and at the same time able to pump out alien forces, these monsters have become one of the most powerful, impressive and majestic opponents of Godzilla!
The monster king himself has undergone a significant redesign of his appearance here. Godzilla is no longer just a metaphor for an atomic explosion, but a real walking nuclear bomb, a time-lapse reactor with a constant increase in heart temperature, ready to melt and explode, destroying all life on our planet. Perhaps never before has an atomic lizard posed such a strong threat.
The suit has been updated with red streaks, the beam has changed its color to fiery, the eyes are now burning fiercely, and the reactor heart does not even allow you to freeze it alive, simply withstanding any temperature changes, always returning the monster to life. Looking at all the innovations is just great! In addition, Godzilla returned salivation, which made it more natural to look in the frame.
Grew up and Godzilla Jr. He was first Baby Godzilla, then Little Godzilla, now Godzilla Junior, outwardly resembling an adult, except that the muzzle became more elongated. Nevertheless, this is not at all a cute creature, although the chaos and destruction of it on the islands of Japan does not suit, unlike an adult relative.
The younger is still quite smaller than the monster king in size, which is especially felt in rare common scenes. And the new, more formidable, appearance does not prevent the writer from doing much more heartwarming, touching and dramatic plot moves here, making the viewer not just experience, but even cry in several scenes.
Movies about Godzilla rarely can be so touching, sad and catchy emotionally. Usually you admire the quality of monsters, fascinating narrative, the atmosphere of a disaster film about terrible giant creatures instead of some tornado, but there are especially iconic paintings for the genre, and this is just one of them.
Takao Okawara in some places even carries the signature handwriting of Ishiro Honda’s directorship from his iconic Kaiju paintings, making various hommages rather than just arranging a retrospective of flashbacks and framed portraits. But his signature style of the best paintings of the Heisei era, of course, he did not lose. “Godzilla” of the 90s (and films 1984 since 1989, of course) is generally one great celebration of cinematic pleasure of 7 films, and “Godzilla vs. the Destroyer” is perhaps the second best in this impeccable cycle, immediately after the great picture of 1992.
The picture surprisingly manages to keep the plot and character balance. She again, like the past of the movie - "Godzilla and the alien from space" sincerely tries to focus on people, prescribing their characters most competently and interestingly, this time it even succeeds in the smart hands of the masters of his genre, but the monsters here are served as if "deeper" than usual, they are more open, get plenty of screen time and not just ruin the miniature scenery on the set.
Although the action is certainly enough and it is unparalleled! Updated Super-X to the third modification – of course, it’s not even Garuda, but already looks more serious than previous models. Made a redesign of masers (frozen lasers), looking now much more believable and less toy, mashups with real houses and cities added, and the flight episodes are performed so believably and with shadows that the effect of superimposing the creature on the background is not felt at all.
The film of 1995 contains all the necessary elements of a quality and classic Kaiju film. Well, unless you're so used to Haysei that you need Godzilla's final departure into the sea - then, alas, here you will be disappointed. It is also inadmissible to watch the American release - no, no, they did nothing with the film, did not re-mount, did not twist, did not add their actors, as it always happened, but they shot other final credits, and here this retrospective-cutting is simply one of the main catching elements of the picture!
Successfully mixing the horror genre with a disaster film, diluted with an important element of a spectacular action movie, the last picture of the series seems to deliberately present Godzilla with an enemy he cannot cope with, while a new monster threatening humanity must be pitted against an atomic monster to reduce the consequences of nuclear decay. The abundance of plot branches and various kinds of contradictions perfectly creates a plot that you want to review again and again. He is tough, bloody, spectacular and extremely emotionally tense!
The film was far from disposable, and much deeper than most of its predecessors. Having received several awards and nominations along with rave reviews of screams, the film still caused a number of violent dissatisfaction with the fact that you are killing Godzilla! Toho was promised not to end with the monster king, but to return him completely in 2005. Because of one talentless Emerych, it had to be done much earlier, already in 1999, but this is a completely different story. Godzilla always comes back. Whether he was killed or killed, it doesn’t matter. This symbol simply cannot disappear. Always, somewhere out there... in the smoke... in the fog... The King is dead, long live the King!
10 out of 10
Original