Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
I've always regarded myself as being quite lucky I found the copy of Godzilla 1985 that I did. The copy I got, when visiting a shop on my birthday no less(which I always thought was quite ironic, given that I was born in 1985), was already long out of print, and when the 1998 disaster struck, all the classic Godzilla films previously available in the UK were re-issued...although there was something different about 1985's return to the series.
You see, since Toho decided to end the Godzilla series with Terror of Mechagodzilla back in 1975, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had been trying to bring the King of the Monsters back to the screen, but was only going to do it with a proper budget, and aimed to return Godzilla to his roots as a nuclear menace. In the early 80s, after several failed attempts to bring Godzilla back, including the infamous Fred Dekker/Steve Miner Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3D American production, a petition landed on Toho's doorstep, signed by thousands of fans who wanted the return of the King of the Monsters. Toho eventually obliged, and in 1984, a new Godzilla movie was released for the first time in almost a decade. Titled simply Gojira in Japan, which was a bit silly, the film is actually a direct sequel to the 1954 Gojira, ignoring everything that had happened since then.
When it came to distributing the film in foreign territories, the rights were snapped up by New World Pictures, who decided to craft themselves a sequel to the Americanised version of Gojira, and American insert-star of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Raymond Burr, was brought in to shoot some scenes to help Americanise the movie.
The UK reissue was released as The Return of Godzilla, and it was a straight up translated version of the Japanese film, no Burr or nothing. While it's quite simply a better movie watched that way, which I'll get back to, this still makes this old VHS of mine quite a rarity, and I'm glad I've hung onto it, if only for the quote on the front, from a San Francisco Chronicle review "Godzilla makes Rambo, Eastwood, Bronson and Schwarzenegger look like mere swizzle sticks" which isn't just amusing because it's silly, but also because the reviewer also apparently believes Sylvester Stallone is actually John Rambo. Anyway, for the purpose of this review, I'm going to be looking solely at the Americanised version of the movie, because to be honest, it's impossible to review the two films in the one space. This is the most drastically altered Japanese monster movie since Daikaiju Baran became Varan The Unbelievable in the late 50s/Early 60s.
The film opens as a Japanese fishing vessell witnesses something huge rise out of the sea, and a blinding flash of light engulfs them. The ship is registered as missing, until a young reporter named Goro(Ken Tanaka - The Phoenix) is out sailing and stumbles accross it. Onboard, he only finds one survivor, the other crew members burned beyond recognition, but his search also turns up a giant insect which tries to kill him. After taking the man he finds back to Tokyo, he learns that he is called Hiroshi(Shin Takuma - Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla), and he testifies that what he saw was some kind of monster. Fearing a public panic over the re-emergence of Godzilla, whom the people of Japan believed dead after his 1954 attack, the Japanese Government decide to keep it under wraps for the time being, in case he doesn't descend upon Japan. Goro doesn't want to drop the story, so is sent to see a professor by the name of Hayashida(Yosuke Natsuki - Dogora) who studies Godzilla. It's in the Doc's lab that he meets Hiroshi's cute sister Naoko(Yasuko Sawaguchi - Godzilla Vs. Biollante) and tells her that her brother is alive and well, and the Government are keeping him locked up for fear he tells everyone. He is eventually let out, and joins our Scooby Doo gang of heroes, who basically do nothing until a disaster strikes at sea.
A Russian nuclear submarine patrolling the pacific is inexplicably destroyed. Naturally Russia believes America to be responsible, and the threat of all out nuclear war is looming over the world, with the American forces lead from a Washington bunker by General Goodhue(Warren J.Kemmerling - The Dark) and Major McDonahugh(Travis Swords - Project X). However, the Japanese Prime Minister(Keiju Kobayashi - Sanjuro) displays a photo taken, and reveals to the world that it was actually Godzilla who destroyed the submarine. Now all eyes turn to Japan, as America and Russia put pressure upon them to use nukes on Godzilla. Japan turns this down due to their policy on nuclear weapons, and it isn't long before Godzilla is stomping and destroying his way through the Tokyo of the 1980s, which now boasts buildings taller than he is.
Japan has two hopes, first of all, Dr.Hayashida has a plan to lure Godzilla into the volcano Mount Mihara, using the calls of birds, because he theorises that Godzilla's brain is closely linked to that of a bird, so it will trigger a reaction from him. His plan is to trick the beast into scaling the volcano, before blowing up the edge, sending him plummeting into the lava.
However, Japan has also been secretly developing a super-weapon named the Super-X. This is a high-tech, incredibly heat resistant fighter jet, loaded with cadmium missiles to try and diffuse Godzilla.
However, another problem arises as a gung-ho Russian soldier, dying after Godzilla smashes his boat, manages to launch a nuclear warhead to try and stop Godzilla. Now Japan has to deal with a nuclear monster ravaging it's capital, as well as a nuclear warhead headed straight for it...
Now, Godzilla 1985 was at a bit of a disadvantage from the get-go. You see, while it was still quite entertaining, The Return of Godzilla was still far from a great movie. So the act of taking a decent movie, butchering it with editing and installing some of the most worthless footage ever filmed didn't exactly do wonders for the film's quality.
The plot already had it's share of problems, most notably being that how the humans were going to stop Godzilla was revealed when the movie was still in it's first third. This really kind of cripples any attempt at building tension, and the fact it isn't even all that cool a manner of disposal, and something all of this movie's sequels ignored, doesn't help either.
The one thing that always annoyed me about the movies, in both incarnations, but it's implied more in the US print, is that this is the same Godzilla that ravaged Japan in the 50s. Now, while the Japanese version does remain quite ambiguous to the prospect it's a new monster, I still feel that trying to claim it's the same beast, which audiences clearly saw disintegrated to a skeleton, is not only stupid, but it also kind of insults the first film, which made a lot of Dr.Serizawa's sacrifice to stop the monster. A scrifice, which, if this is the same beast, was for nowt.
Possibly the most hilarious change made between the versions is the launching of the Russian nuke. In the Japanese version, Godzilla's attack on the boat with the launch controls caused a fault that starts the launch process. One dieing sailor does everything in his power to try and stop it launching. Through some nice editing, Godzilla 1985 hilariously panders to the Cold War American audience by making him maliciously launch the nuke at Japan! I actually find this hilarious that American producers had to alter a movie to make America's rivals evil, even when they weren't portrayed that way. I mean, does every foreign movie shipped to the Japanese market recieve editing to make the Koreans look evil?
Possibly the only good scene of added US footage, is where Martin's grandson plays with a Zoids toy of Zoidzilla. It actually kind of adds a nice touch to the film. Sadly any good it does gets lost in the hilarious Dr.Pepper product placement.
I also love the fact the US army bring in Steve Martin, played by Burr, reprising the role he played in the 50s, as a Godzilla expert. So what if the guy witnessed it's initial rampage, it doesn't make him some sort of expert on it, come to think about it, he never even done very much. What's also hilarious is the way the character is now written. He's now a properly twisted and bitter old bastard, who at times actually seems to want Godzilla to destroy the world, and serves no purpose other than to moan and be moody. Granted his company would put even the happiest guy in a mood. McDonahugh is easily the most irritating character in any Godzilla film. Period. Seriously, this guy will make you cry for the return of Rok-Chan. He flies out with horrendous attempts at humorous dialoge ("wonder-lizard is down for the count!"") and will fill the viewer with enough rage to go on a Godzilla style rampage.
Speaking of the dialogue, the dubbing is terrible. Japanese pilots, apparently, shout "sayonara sucker" at any given chance, and Hayashida is quite possibly the most unlikeable and moany hero ever to grace the silver screen. He scolds Goro for stopping as he tries to drill through a locked door to save their life, completely unsympathetic to the fact Goro stopped because the drill-head flew off and into his arm. It's hard to like such people.
Gauging the acting of the Japanese cast would be a bit harsh given the dubbing has them saying ridiculous things all the time, but for the most part they seem ok, and don't over-act at any points. Sadly, the legendary Akihiko Hirata never got to appear in the movie, despite doing promotional work for it, due to his demise from throat cancer. He was pencilled in to play Hayashida, which makes sense when you take into account his role in the first movie, but in his absense, the only series vet on offer is Hiroshi Koizumi, whose role is absolutely murdered in the US version of the movie anyway.
What I am completely willing to do, is tell you how bad the American actors are. Burr is clearly bitter about something in life, and it translates into his performance, which is quite probably one of the most unlikeable portrayals of a heroic character I've ever seen. Swords is quite possibly the worst actor even to disgrace a Godzilla film, with his, already banal, dialogue delivered in this sort of "ha ha look, I'm funny!" tone. The General is actually portrayed quite respectabley mind.
Special effects are both a pro and a con in this movie. As well as featuring the most fearsome looking Godzilla costume to that point, with a more dinosaurian face, and darker, more ridged skin, Toho's effects team created the 'Cybot', a ten foot tall robotic godzilla, used for close ups of the head, which could be remote controlled. While the suit looks great, although naturally later movies improved upon it, the Cybot is a bit iffy. While it's movement's are nice enough and it's skin realistic, it's eyes are too wide and cartoony, and it also features a different nose, meaning Godzilla looks different from scene-to-scene. Personally I prefer the suit, and this would be the only time the Cybot was used for anything but promotional purposes. This film once again had effects direction from Teruyoshi Nakano, who worked on some of the latter movies in the original series, and his miniatures of Tokyo are very well crafted, with only one scene standing out as looking obviously like miniatures.
Godzilla's attacks on Japan and his battles with the military, including fighters, maser tanks and the Super-X are all well shot, and exciting. Granted it was a bit weird not seeing him fighting another monster for the first time since the original movie.
The music is another factor American producers tampered with. As well as featuring some nice sad, menacing and moody music from Reijiro Koroku, which tries to aid a somber mood the film seemed to be aiming for, the American production team also used some stock music from Def-Con 4 for the military scenes, which sticks out like a sore thumb it has to be said.
At the end of the day, while it isn't a complete disaster, there really isn't much to recommend the American version of this movie upon, other than maybe laughing at how poor the American footage really is. Ironically, given the movies I've been watching lately, the US footage was written and produced by Tony Randel, who in 1995, ten years after proving he couldn't do Kaiju movies, proved he couldn't do martial arts with Fist of the North Star, maybe he should stick to Hellraiser sequels.
If you can find the Japanese version of the movie, or at least the UK VHS of The Return of Godzilla, don't expect great things, but it's a lot better than the US version of the film. This would be the King of the Monsters last foray into Western cinemas until the Tristar debacle, which then lead to Godzilla 2000 getting a limited theatrical release. Possibly the most complimentary thing I can say about the movie, is that it does at least provide a competant set-up for the Heisei movies that followed, starting with 1989's Godzilla Vs. Biollante. Come to think of it, Godzilla 1985 actually kind of makes a mockery of classifying the Godzilla series by reigning emperor of the time, because while every other movie made in this series(dubbed 'The Vs. Series' by Japanese fans) was realeased in the Heisei era, this was actually the last film made in the Showa era, yet is often classified as a Heisei era movie.
Year: 1984/5
Titles: Godzilla 1985
Godzilla: The Legend is Reborn
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