Dear Internet,
Well, I
made a bit of a mistake yesterday. The
title of the film today does not have Godzilla in the name, but it is called
"Destroy All Monsters."
Godzilla plays a part in the story, but there is more to it than
that. The film marks the 20th Toho Kaiju
film, which is remarkable considering that this film came out only after 14
years from their first giant monster film "Godzilla." That means the company exceeded a single
Kaiju film per year during that time. On
top of that is the wide variety of monsters that the company created. A majority of those creatures come back or
make appearances for this film. Eleven
of these colossal terrors come together for this smorgasbord movie that
celebrates the series of science fiction monsters.
Of
course, having all these monsters come together requires a workable plot or
reason for why they share a similar story.
Enter the hypothetical future of the year 1999. Here, the monsters have been gathered to live
peaceably, far from civilization on tropical islands. The different monsters are kept from leaving
the islands through the use of specialized equipment tailored to each monster's
weakness. From smoke screens to magnetic
fields, there is no danger of these creatures escaping to destroy any more
cities. After this 20 yearlong effort, a
select number of scientists are allowed to study the creatures in a research
facility on the islands. One day, a
mysterious yellow smoke appears and knocks both the scientists and the monsters
out. Afterwards, a crew is sent into to
investigate the disturbance which has also caused all the monsters to leave the
island. When they get there, the crew
finds a few scientists that are under the control of the Kilaaks, an alien race
that now controls the monsters and scientists through radio transmission and
other advanced technologies. The demands
of the aliens are simple: either be ruled under the Kilaaks or face the
destruction of civilization by the hands of the controlled monsters. Will the humans be able to fight against the
combined might of numerous titanic abominations and the power of a more sophisticated
type of alien technology?
Thus is
the basic plot of "Destroy All Monsters." It is obvious that to put all the monsters
together in one film required something more than just a simple premise of just
having them together and making a few stock characters run in terror. No, by making all the monsters already
rounded up and waiting for things to go wrong, the film is able to skip a lot
of useless la-de-da and just straight into the good parts--the destruction of
cities and them fighting one another.
There is one specific thing that I want to point out that somehow makes
the film prophetic. When Godzilla is
sent to destroy a city, he is sent to New York City. The film is supposed to be occurring in 1999. It is somewhat humorous considering the 1998
"American made film "Godzilla" that had the giant destroy that
same city.
 |
| The scene only lasted about two minutes in total. |
The
visuals are classic Toho. The miniatures
are fun and work well. I am still
impressed every time the ground opens up to swallow a hill or mountain into a
sinkhole. The buildings are more than
just boxes with only the outer shell being constructed. They include interior floors that also fall apart
when a Kaiju rips through them. The
monsters themselves include a variety of suits that run the gamut of being
either very intimidating to being downright laughable. This is coming right after "Son ofGodzilla" and Minilla makes a repeat appearance. At least his importance and influence in this
film is minor compared to that of the previous film. The set elements probably take the cake for
the level of corn thrown into the veggie salad that is this movie. From laser guns that look like derringers to
mind controlling pearls inserted behind the ear, the film pulls out all the
stops in trying to make the story come alive while still retaining a self aware
level of how campy the plot really is.
For example, the aliens place radio transmitters across the globe,
hidden in various places including coconuts and giant clam shells. They are not even hidden very well, which is
evident when an elderly man stumbles upon one and brings it to the local police
station for identification. You would
think that an advance group of extra-terrestrial beings could think of hiding
their devices in better places. The
costumes are even more outlandish with their design. The Kilaaks are dressed in silver caped
outfits that are covered in sequins, but the best has got to be the spacesuits
for the main human cast.
 |
| The look like Lego people wearing their birthday suit. |
The music
is wonderfully orchestrated and pulls from the various previous films that the
various monsters come from. Although I
did not hear the original Godzilla theme song in a standalone format, numerous
other iconic songs seem to weave themselves into the soundtrack as well as some
well done original pieces.
There
is not much I can say against "Destroy All Monsters." This is not because it is a perfect film. The characters are rather forgettable and some
even seemed to merge together in my mind.
There are really only two memorable characters but they are reduced to
"the guy" and "the girl."
Beyond those two, everyone is playing their part in a typical monster
film. There are the generals, the
reporters, the other scientists, and the fleeing crowds of people. One thing that has always struck me as being weird
is how willing the press is able to sympathize with the military officials and
obey what they are told to do. The
general will say something along the lines of "We do not have any
information, so please try not to create a panic." The journalists comply constantly and do not
question the lack of ability of the Japanese military. If this was taking place anywhere else, the
journalists would be trying to break down the doors with questions, yelling
over one another, and then print reports about how the military is incompetent and
unable to protect the nation. It must be
a Japanese thing. There are a few non-Japanese
actors who deliver Japanese lines and at least do not feel out of place, but I
cannot say at how well they deliver those lines. The length is pretty good considering that
even at 90 minutes it felt like much longer but not in a bad way.
The
film mostly is just trying to be an entertaining mash-up of different monsters. In this way, it succeeds. However, it does not try to be anything
greater than a Kaiju fan's dream film, putting all the various monsters
together in the same scene. It is not
trying to talk about some greater moral, deep philosophical point about the nature
of man, or something like that, which is actually good to not try to do for
such a premise. "Destroy All
Monsters" is a good film for the kid in all of us that likes to see a
house of cards tumble apart or watch a line of dominoes fall against one
another.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Tomorrow is the "Godfather" trilogy, which I
will spread over three days.
No comments:
Post a Comment