Entry 078: "Destroy All Monsters" (1968)

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.

Entry 030: "Son of Godzilla" (1967)

Dear Internet,

                With a title like "Son of Godzilla," it is not a mystery what the focus of the film will be.  For the quick plot summary, a group of scientists set up a research facility on a tropical island.  While they are there, a reporter decides to parachute onto the island to uncover the reason for their seclusion.  The scientists are there to conduct weather changing experiments in the form of exploding balloons and yellow liquid spray that seems oddly familiar from "Godzilla and the Sea Monster."  Maybe that is because "Son" is the next Godzilla film in production order.  There must have been a lot of that yellow spray left over from that movie.  Oh, I did not mention that in my review?  Then either ignore it or go watch it.  Anyway, things do not work out well for the scientists, and they mutate already giant praying mantis into colossal sizes.  The titanic bugs go to town tearing up a mountain and reveal a giant egg that they crack open.  Out pops a premature baby Godzilla.  Later on there is a giant spider, but I will get to that or not.

                There are a few things that I take problems with this movie.  For starters is the fact that there is a baby Godzilla.  Where did this giant egg come from?  Where is the mate for Godzilla?  Did Godzilla pop out the egg on his own?  Does this make Godzilla a female?  None of this matters because none of these questions go answered.  I am not even sure if they get asked.  All of this highlights the 1998 version that Hollywood made.  While it has some merit as an action movie and as a big budget visual spectacle, the 1998 version went plenty far away from being a Godzilla film to the point of the monster only taking on the name as a pseudonym.  I will not go into details, but the reason I bring it up is that the 1998 version's second half dealt heavily with the concept of Godzilla having offspring.  The 1998 film did this poorly my making it as generic as possible and so does "Son of Godzilla."  "Son" inserts the tyke terror as a nuisance but attempts to prey upon the audience's love of the cute and adorable.  If only the son was.  The interaction of Godzilla with the kid eventually develops to the point where the giant lizard shows how to breath fire.  I suspect that a sequel would include Godzilla teaching his (adopted?) son how to ride a bicycle.  The only time that I have seen a possible child of Godzilla done well was in the animated series, episode "End of the Line."  There it was admitted that Godzilla could not have children but was engaged in a foster parent role, albeit a much more animalistic role than in "Son."  The reason I cite that episode was that it dealt heavily with the themes of parenthood, marriage in the case of the human characters, and also great loss of the other two, and did it well.

Was the other parent Kermit the frog?

                Another thing that I did not care for was Godzilla, himself.  With "Godzilla and the Sea Monster" being the direct predecessor in production history, it makes that suit as the closest comparison.  In "Son," the suit is a bit more thick, which is good because it bulks up Godzilla much more than in "Sea Monster."  However, Godzilla is still moving a bit too fast in my opinion, but that is because this movie was meant to be more lively.  Then there is the attitude that pops up again in this movie.  Godzilla here is not a terror to mankind brought about from a desire to play god but a middle aged father figure that is being told to spend quality time with his soft headed son.  It is not to say that Godzilla is a bad father.  He is amazingly patient when his son has a tantrum like a spoiled five year old, but therein lies the problem.  The lizards act like humans way too much, to the point that they might as well be anthropomorphic with having this much personality.  Is the idea of tailoring a movie series to a young audience synonymous with trying to dumb down the well established monsters?  Does Godzilla need to made into a relatable character?

"Quiet, kid.  I spent all day destroying Tokyo.  Let me nap."

Godzilla needs to get some corrective laser surgery for those cataracts.

                There are a few things that I do care for in this film, specifically the human characters and associated plot.  Like "Sea Monster," "Son" features a female native or pseudo-native in this case making their way into the plot amongst a group of male characters.  What I do like about the way these two films handle this situation is by not forcing some romantic sub-plot whilst everything else is occurring.  The men of this film are too busy with science to have a romantic liaison while trying to determine small scale weather modification.  SCIENCE!  Also, the female character acts as more than just eye candy in the film.  She actively plays a role in showing one of the characters around the island and coming to the rescue of the men when they become sick.  There is also the return of a cautionary theme that is inherent to monster and horror films.  The same modifications mentioned are the direct reason that the man-size praying mantis grow into mountain destroying bugs.  This occurs because of the use of radioactive material to increase the temperature of the surrounding area.  It is reasonable to assume that the reason that the mantis grew to man sized because of a previous experiment that occurred before the film began.  

                "Son of Godzilla" has only a few problems as a film, but all of them stem from the titular character, who is actually called Minilla, apparently.  I do not remember them naming him during the movie, but alas.  The rest of the film is actually done well.  The climactic battle features one of the most unique effects that I have seen in a Godzilla film so far, due mainly to the climate technology that the scientists develop.  I enjoyed the real monster of the film and wanted to see more of him, which seems to be a pattern with this era Godzilla films, specifically having a few small time monsters act as warm-up matches.  The characters are likeable and have a wide range of individual desires that are illustrated well rather than making them generic.  One character comes down with a terrible case of cabin fever whose condition is never mentioned directly by name.  The biggest problem, and it is a big one, is with young Godzilla that will leave you scratching your head as to how in the world he came about.  I guess there was a giant Godzilla stork that brought him here.  

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Next is "Full Metal Panic" the anime.