Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
scientist: "So the UFO is..."
alien: "Men of your time would call our ship a time machine. But not us, we call it our mother ship."
scientist: "So this ship is a time machine?"
release year: 1991
genre: Godzilla
viewing setting: home Bluray, 7/26/19
synopsis: People from the future fly their UFO to 1992 to cause trouble.
impressions: This was the third Godzilla movie of the Heisei, or second, era (1984-1995) and the 18th overall. Notable elements included: a scene from 2204 A.D. to open the movie...the main action taking place in 1992...a UFO...a crazy old pro-dinosaur guy...another old guy who saw Godzilla in 1944...Miki from the last movie now being part of "the Godzilla team"...Godzilla lying dormant since last time...an early attempt at videoconferencing...a Godzilla origin theory...the UFO landing...a big-ass tank cannon...a meeting with aliens...these aliens are also time travelers!...and have holograms and teleporters...and an evil plot...and also an android model M-11...some American actors...three little winged gold dragons...time warpback to 1944...psychedelic time travel effects...a clever Steven Spielberg reference...the M-11's bionic moves...a dinosaur...a very confusing explanation of why the 1992 people had to go on the trip back to 1944...Emmy turns the three Dorats loose in 1944 before the group leaves...King Ghidorah takes Godzilla's place in 1992...and much destruction follows...the realization that just because some people show up in a UFO and have technology, that doesn't mean you should just believe everything they say...one of the time-travelers rebels against her fellows for no apparent reason...a car chase and fight featuring M-11 in Terminator mode...Emmy reprograms the M-11...an ill-fated submarine mission...the plot gets confusing again with the time travel aspect...an ill-fated dogfight with King Ghidorah...Godzilla's back and bigger than ever...the colorful wardrobe choices of the bad guys.
On to the giant monster battle. There's an initial skirmish that lasts about ten minutes, with just a bit of intercutting to human action, and is noteworthy for: the CEO magically having the battle showing on the big TV in his office...this fight seemed more serious than ones from past movies...computer sabotage!...King Ghidorah uses Godzilla as a trampoline...then King Ghidorah face-plants into the ground, allowing Godzilla to grab him by the tail and repeatedly slam him into the ground some more...Godzilla severing a head and ruining a wing with his breath.
At this point, King Ghidorah falls into the water, and Godzilla decides to go on a rampage of his own. This portion of the movie features, among other things: a fight with laser guns...the good guys teleporting the bad guys' UFO right next to Godzilla, so instead of escaping, they get a heavy dose of atomic breath...some good rousing musical scores...Godzilla not being a good guy anymore, with the appropriate levels of mass destruction...Godzilla falling into a subway because the road is too weak to hold him when he steps there...a really wacky plan to go to the 23rd century and get/rebuild King Ghidorah from there to bring back to 1992 to stop Godzilla, and there are no details or scenes of it happening, it just happens...Mecha-King Ghidorah !!!.
Now it's time for the second and final battle, which lasts about five minutes and features: Emmy and the now-built-into-the-computer M-11 piloting Mecha-King Ghidorah...lots of skyscraper destruction...Godzilla looking mean..."capture mode"...Mecha-King Ghidorah flies away with the captured Godzilla...both of them falling into the ocean and the battle suddenly being over...no explained reason why Emmy has to return to the future...Godzilla waking up underwater at the very end.
number in Godzilla series: 18
previous Godzilla movie in series: Godzilla vs Biollante
next Godzilla movie in series: Godzilla vs Mothra
other giant monsters appearing in this one: King Ghidorah, who later becomes Mecha-King Ghidorah
total giant monster battle time: about 15 minutes
acting: Main characters: Terasawa, a young hotshot writer who seems to live a life of luxury in a swank bachelor pad, from which he takes calls from the editor on his blocky cordless phone and chooses which assignments he will and won't take...Miki, the ESP girl from last time...Mazaki, a dinosaur expert...Emmy, a girl from the future who randomly turns against her fellow futurians, knows karate, knows computers, and at one point randomly changes into a miniskirt...the M-11, a robot who does some very Terminator-like things and smiles a lot...Mr. Shindo, the CEO who encountered Godzilla in 1944 and acts weird whenever it comes up in conversation...Dorkon #1 and Dorkon #2, two smirking, overconfident colorfully-dressed hostiles from the future.
final word: Odd and confusing plot, but entertaining with great special effects.
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