Godzilla, Motra, Hydora, Baragon: Monsters Attack! Curiously, the reinterpretation of the Godzilla myth reached the Millennium era in the middle, not the beginning of a new era. “MMK” stands out from the rest of the paintings of the cycle (except for “Final Wars”) not only by the fact that a completely new design of Godzilla is used here, unlike the four other paintings of Shinsei Period, but also by its structure with a radical change in the approach to the monsters shown.
In general, when Kaneko was commissioned to make a film about Godzilla, his idea was simpler - a fight with the mutated Kamukars - a giant mantis from Godzilla's Son, but the idea was abandoned because of the same concept in Megagirus. His second idea was to show the world of the future, where Godzilla fights another alien monster, the concept was too gloomy and expensive to reproduce. Then the idea of a mystical approach to the plot was born - about the Guardian Monsters.
The script featured Angirus, Varan and Baragon. In the film, only the last, not even included in the title, and the parties of others were replaced by more popular monsters: Motra and Hydoru. Moreover, the latter has always been an antagonist, alien and invader, and then suddenly became the guardian of our planet since ancient times.
But this metamorphosis has undergone literally all creatures. Godzilla is no longer even the result of a nuclear bomb, no longer the creation of an atomic bomb, but the embodiment of the rage and pain of all the Asians who died during the Pacific conflict. The souls of the dead sufferers who want revenge on all mankind. Never before, even in his most formidable incarnations, has Godzilla appeared so cruel and at the same time intelligent and cunning as here. The image of the insidious invincible villain became elevated to the absolute.
According to the plot of the film, the Japanese authorities have hidden the feat of Dr. Serizawa from the public, and the world lives confident that the monster was destroyed by the military. The second Godzilla appears fifty years later, bringing terror to the whole country, and in parallel there are other Kaju, too, wreaking havoc and destruction.
Baragon digs underground tunnels, filling the gang of bikers alive with debris, Motra eats people on the coast who robbed the store and wanted to drown the dog, in general, the murders in the picture are more than enough, and if the victims of other monsters are not particularly sorry, then Godzilla seems to deliberately choose very sophisticated ways of dealing with most of the secondary characters shown in the frame.
But with the main characters of the film very lucky. All the central characters are incredibly spectacular. Reporter Yuriko from the channel of second-rate fiction, her father is an admiral of the Japanese Navy, her two friends, between whom you can catch even an easy love triangle, how much both are worried about her and try to help. Even her boss, who cares only about his long hair, turned out to be a spectacular and memorable character, let alone a mysterious old man who predicts the return of monsters.
According to legend, monsters should sleep for ten thousand years, but only two millennia have passed from this period. Accordingly, Motra, Baragon, and Hydora are awakened with a great lack of strength, reduced from their usual size and with a lack of certain abilities. Kaneko deliberately wanted to show Godzilla the biggest and most powerful in this fight. Special effects creator Fuyuki Shinada has done a tremendous job of redesigning all the creations.
Godzilla here has misty ashy white eyes like a ghost. He is cruel and agile, not just destroying cities, but literally snatching people out on the streets, in hospitals, on bridges, burning them all alive. The king of monsters appears to be a real punishment to humanity not so much for nuclear tests, but for wars in general. Revenge on behalf of all killed, dead, injured... He is so evil that even in the end he dies of his own malice, but does he die?
The red underground lizard Baragon has been updated to a more modern appearance. Judging by the fact that from the title of the picture, he was thrown out, he is supposed to be a surprise in the film, appears first and first fights with Godzilla. Curiously, all guardian monsters are not just monsters, but even endowed with their own characters. Baragon, for example, is arrogant and self-confident, always climbing on the horn, until the others have not even woken up for battle.
Received its re-design and Motra, which is especially felt in the structure of her paws and the back, now bent like a bee sting and releasing a hail of arrows. Unfortunately, the rays and pollen here Motra lost, but she is still the most courageous and ready to sacrifice for others. But there is no fairy duet in the picture, there is a kind of cameo reincarnation with twins from "Gamera 3", admiring a giant butterfly flying over them.
In general, the director, who shot the Heisei-trilogy about Gamer for a competitor studio, perfectly understood what needs to be unfolded on the screen, providing the film with a tooth-grabbing action (here still as much as 4 Kaiju and everyone is allowed to turn around in all its glory), and a wonderful human drama.
The main characters are presented interesting, somewhat contradictory, and therefore even more alive, deserving of empathy. Especially in the picture, where you first present the characters, and then they are regularly brutally killed, not to worry about the main protagonists is simply impossible.
With him from the films about the turtle Gamer in the Toho universe Kaneko brought not only part of the actors, but even the composer. Moreover, Ko Ohtani managed to write new, but simply stunning melodies for the film with a particularly memorable and spectacular main theme, and under the credits he reserved a special surprise, so using the title theme of Akira Ifukube. At the same time, Kaneko filled the film with a variety of cameos, including even all the actors in monster costumes brought to the film small episodes in their usual form.
Godzilla’s design finally brought back the dorsal fins, which are called here, instead of the crystalline spines of the last interpretation, and the monster again emits a blue atomic ray, as if by canon, while he also added a visually spectacular breath with distortion before directly firing from the mouth.
The authors did not forget about the radiation emitted by the monster, even for the sake of plausibility, slowing down in the emotional intensity of the final meeting. And at the same time, even the computer CGI model of the monster in a couple of underwater scenes looks decent and does not cut your eyes with poor graphics.
Thanks to the large number of monsters, they all appear in different parts of Japan and the plot develops dynamically in several areas at once. In addition, shown before the appearance of Godzilla, these monsters do not let the viewer get bored. Well, and then the beautiful action captures a variety of space - from wooded terrain to Tokyo, again turned into ruins (the best joke of the film is devoted to the constant attacks of Godzilla on Japan).
Shusuke Kaneko made one of the most outstanding films about Godzilla! Harsh, cruel and serious, while departing far from the early concepts and laws of the genre, introducing more mysticism and anti-war sentiment into the film, taking the atomic theme somewhere in the background. It turned out a really powerful anti-militarist statement with the embodiment of all the horrors of human conflicts in the form of huge monsters endowed with not only instincts.
10 out of 10
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