Godzilla vs. Biollante Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka nearly closed the Godzilla series again, despite a successful reboot in 1984. His interest was greatly decimated by the failure of the Hollywood film “King Kong is alive!”, and the great creator of the kaiju decided that the world simply is no longer interested in stories about giant monsters. However, by the end of the eighties, a new film about the King of Monsters was made.
The original script involved a dentist who became obsessed with biotechnology to keep the soul of his deceased assistant daughter inside the plant. Also featured in the plot was a monster, which is a hybrid of rat and fish for action in the first half of the film, but most of the original ideas were remade.
All that remained was a general concept: a scientist, a dead daughter, and a monster plant inspired by Little Horror Shop. From a dentist, Dr. Shirigami retrained to a botanist, not recognized in his country and therefore looking for ground for his research and experiments on the side.
Instead of a journalist character, an extremely important plot role was now played by Miki Saigus, a young talent, a sixteen-year-old girl with strong psychic abilities. Perhaps the best character in Godzilla films in their history, it is not for nothing that her story stretches over all subsequent films of the Haysay era.
Dr. Shirigami also turned out to be a superbly spelled and brilliantly played strong character, comparable quite to Serizawa from the first Godzilla. The daughter was played by the main character of the last film - Yasuko Sawaguchi. She, along with Megumi Odaka, the performer of the role of Saigusa, has already played in “Moon Princess”. Toho is again in the lead role.
Omori introduces industrial espionage into the plot. At first, a lot of parties dream of stealing Godzilla cells, followed by a bacteria already invented from them that absorbs radiation. World powers and various companies are eager to get such weapons, radically changing the balance of power in building up nuclear potential.
The film became more action movie than horror, although the overall atmosphere and severity of the monsters did not go away. Moreover, Biollante in his final form and completely plugs the belt most of the various movie monsters, representing something toothy and incredibly creepy.
Instead of an abundance of political meetings from the past film, the action focuses on a variety of points from the military headquarters to the research center, passing through laboratories, restaurants, a helipad and business meeting rooms for important corporate executives.
From the theme of a nuclear disaster, the mood of the film shifted towards harmful scientific research. The cruel and inhuman experiments of scientists who consider themselves unacknowledged geniuses produce monsters, although the real monsters here are the people themselves, their nature and thirst for buildings.
Crossing the cells of Godzilla and Rose, Dr. Shirigawa creates a giant plant - Biorante, inside which still warms the soul of his deceased daughter. The creature grows and becomes more dangerous, while the villains blow up the volcano, waking Godzilla from sleep.
The Monster King is still formidable, toothy and harsh. The redesigned suit finally fixes the eye problem, and now Godzilla looks absolutely alive and real on the screen! Everything in his appearance is great, and on the screen he appears quite a lot. Koichi Kawakita replaced Teriyoshi Nakano as a master of special effects and did a great job with the visual tape.
And for diversity, this time it's headed to Osaka, not Tokyo. However, this time the city's destruction is still less attention than the "Sunday battle of two yakozunas". Biollante calls on Godzilla for a duel, but during the film, they even clash several times. The creature changes shape, while Godzilla looks like an invincible titan.
The Super X weapon has been upgraded here, now it not only flies and shoots, but also dives underwater, really like a submarine. At the same time, he was equipped with a special reflective gun capable of returning Godzilla his own atomic beam with increased power.
The special effects are even better! Godzilla's ray passed the most stunning, here it is both blue and pink-lilac in a couple of scenes. There are fewer lasers, but there are all sorts of thunderstorm effects.
A hybrid of Godzilla cells with a plant, a kind of Rosesaurus, opens its toothy bud and a lot of tentacles in the middle of the lake. The creature combines a variety of features, however, all these vines with mouths do not cope very successfully with an atomic lizard.
Biollante, perhaps the coolest in terms of appearance, but also the weakest opponent of Godzilla. Both of the central battles, which are the culmination of the film, end with just one exhaust of a nuclear beam into the core of creation, in whatever form it appears on the screen.
The monster and punches through the skin of the lizard, which is beyond the power of most weapons of mankind, and spits acid, showers pollen, bites, entangles, but in addition to the successful appearance does not give the impression of a serious rival. Such a creature would look better in a battle with an abundance of technology than against Godzilla.
But still in its toothy final form, this creation is literally amazing! An elongated crocodile mouth, dotted with teeth even from the inside, a shapeless body with many processes, such a monster would be suitable for the most stunning old-school horror films.
However, Godzilla in the picture is represented by a literally unkillable almighty creature. It cannot be stopped and tamed, which is clearly demonstrated in the attempt of young Saigusa to save Osaka and move the lizard from the chosen course. Godzilla is a typhoon, a tornado, a horror of the depths, revenge for nuclear tests and atomic bombing.
He is the embodiment of horror, a punishment for humanity, and even the most impressive monsters can not stop him. Perhaps before Godzilla so openly and victoriously dominated only in "Godzilla attacks again", where the battles with Angirus also did not cause a sense of equal strength.
Godzilla got his title theme back. The opening credits, briefly retelling the events of the past picture, are already set up in a successful manner. The image of the monster has improved, the eyes have also received internal eyelids, moving quite like a living creature. All mashups with people and cities look perfect, you can not stick to the visual component.
But the new composer, Koichi Sugiyama, in his personal music for the film, now and then resembles either some circus march or the theme of John Williams for Superman. From time to time, symphonic melodies are replaced by an electronic beat and even a rock treatment of the tune of Akira Ifukube, which made the great composer himself just furious.
Worked out in detail crumbling buildings and bridges, blown up helicopters, blazing and smoking ruins of a modern metropolis – masters of special effects tried to glory, and the movements of monsters came out very natural.
The film is very well staged. Omori not only follows all the developments of the past picture, showing direct plans and successful angles from below, alternating the whole pathosy view of Godzilla with the magnificent facial expressions of head animatronics on close-ups, but also often chooses to show the frame at an angle for greater dynamics and diversity.
Even though it is the weakest of all Haysay-era films, it still has both an important message and a soul. Made with love and creativity, and the general vote of fans and film critics in 2014, this film was named the best film about Godzilla in history.
10 out of 10
Original