Part of my series of reviews of the Heisei era Godzilla movies. Spoilers within, but we’re talking 80’s Godzilla movies here.

Spoiler alert: Godzilla is back, baby! Again.

Godzilla is back again for the first time and everyone is freaking out. This is a very good Godzilla movie. Watching it at the end of the Heisei series is interesting, because while it very deliberately takes a more serious approach than the late-Showa movies, it also has the same effect when compared to the rest of the Heisei series. That’s not to say that the Heisei series gets even a fraction as ridiculous as the older movies, but no matter where you slice it or where it falls one’s Godzilla viewing chronology, this is a serious, somber, and in some ways smaller movie than most others, and all of those things work very well in this context.

It’s weird calling a Godzilla move “small” and weirder still meaning it as a compliment. But this movie, while having very high stakes is still tightly focused and zeroes-in on very specific moments and interactions. On the monster front, one of the most striking scenes was Godzilla destroying the nuclear plant. Not a whole city, or an entire army of troops and vehicles, but one compound. We see the whole razing from beginning to end, and it really conveys the terror and destruction of Godzilla. He doesn’t need a whole country to destroy to feel like an unstoppable, god-like force.

One the human side, we spend a lot of time on the geopolitical drama of Godzilla’s impending return. I loved all the scenes with the prime minister trying to navigate an impossible situation made more complicated by the Americans and Soviets waving their nuclear dicks around. These scenes work because they are “small”. The prime minister conveys so much just by listening to everything going on around him, taking it all in while holding up to the massive stakes around him. It takes the Godzilla movie trope of the bureaucratic response to Godzilla and grounds it and nails it.

The rest of the human characters aren’t bad either. I wish we could have got a little more of a romantic relationship developed between Naoko Okumura and the reporter, Goro Maki. As is my custom, I loved the older, slightly jaded scientist character, Dr. Hayashida most of all.

Godzilla feels appropriately menacing in this one, but the suit itself is a little stiff and eyes don’t quite work. But the overall silhouette is great; this suit sets the new template. By the next film, they’ve addressed the minor issues I mentioned and we have one of the best and most consistent designs for Godzilla that is then used for the rest of the Heisei movies.

Also, there is just something about the look of this one (and vs Biollante) that none of the other Heisei movies quite ever capture. I can’t describe it very well, but it’s a graininess or filter or something that I just really, really like in those two movies and that none of the other movies seem to have.

A great re-introduction to Godzilla, and a good time no matter where it falls in your viewing chronology.

Rating: 3+/5
Watched: 12 March 2024