Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Welcome to the FUTURE, the year 1999 AD (which oddly enough has a retro look about it, with very 1960's cars and clothing styles. It would seem that fashion DOES come around in cycles!). Mankind has managed to round up all the rampaging monsters and confined them to an island near the Ogasawara Islands called Monsterland. Overseeing the operation is a small team of scientists in a special automated control center.

Of course we know how well this automated control thing works. Nothing can possibly ever go wrong. Just ask the owners and operators of Jurassic Park!

Suddenly a mysterious gas fills the control chamber, and blankets the island. When contact is reestablished from the remote UN center in Tokyo, the island is completely deserted! Even worse - suddenly MONSTERS appear all over the globe and begin attacking human cities. News reports (with some of the most convincing accents this side of Boris Badenov and Inspector Clouseau) come flooding in from Moscow, Beijing, New York, and Paris - as monsters ravage the globe.

Just so you know who is who, lets run down the card for this title match:
* Godzilla - No introduction necessary
* Angilas - The a four-legged beastie that looks similar to an ankylosaurus, with spines on his back. Angilas was the first monster to fight against Godzilla back in Godzilla Raids Again.
* Baragon - Originaly seen in Frankenstein Conquers the World, Baragon was briefly seen in Destroy All Monsters, but most of his scenes were cut. Apparently the the Baragon suit was on loan to the Ultraman shoot and was mostly unavailable. This must have been a last moment change, since the voice over proclains that it was Baragon destroying the Arc de Triumph in Paris when its clearly Gorosaurus that appears.
* Gorosaurus - Appeared briefly in King Kong Escapes. Considering that Gorosaurus is much bigger in Destroy All Monsters than he was in King Kong Escapes, this might be a different monster all together.
* King Ghidorah - Godzilla's arch enemy, and most frequent opponent. Ghidorah is unleashed in the final act by the Kilaaks as their ultimate weapon.
* Kumonga - A giant spider that was first seen in Son of Godzilla.
* Minilla - the son of Godzilla, smaller, more chubby version of his father. His first appearance was in Son of Godzilla.
* Manda - First seens in Atragon, appearing only briefly here. Apparenlty a snake/dragon wouldn’t make that good of a compatant in the final brawl. So sadly, Manda gets a run at Tokyo and falls off the map for the rest of the movie.
* Mothra - Appearing as a single Larval form, Mothra is most frequent of Godzilla's co-star monsters next to Ghidorah.
* Rodan - A flying pteranodon monster, who first appeared in Rodan several years previous.
* Varan - Varan first appeared in Varan the Unbelievable, and is one of the lesser known monsters in the Toho pantheon.

Anyway, the Tokyo branch of the UN puts in a call to the moonbase, asking the astronauts to come investigate the mysterious goings on at Monster Island (What? They didn’t have a team that was closer?) and get to the bottom of things. When Our Rugged Hero and his team arrive, they discover that the base has been overrun by a race called Kilaaks, who look make bold and daring fashion statements like dressing up as a baked potato in silver body suits with cowls. The Kilaaks have come to Earth to use the monsters against us and destroy humanity. Again.

Here the plot takes a turn not to dissimilar to a Doctor Who episode where the four part story has to be padded out to six parts with lots of running up and down corridors. In this case, Our daring Hero captures a mind controlled Monster Island technician, discovers the Kilaak base, discovers another Kilaak at mount Fuji, goes to the moon to confront the Kilaaks there and back to Fuji for the final showdown between the monsters, the humans and the aliens.

Sure it's a lot of back and forth and forth and back, but the (rather nonsensical) plot never drags thanks to lots and lots and LOTS of monster action! When the monsters aren’t destroying cities, the humans are throwing missiles at the monsters. When the monster action lags, there's a gunfight between humans and Killaks. Sure the story doesn’t actually go anywhere, but you have a fun time along the way!

Eventually King Ghidorah arrives, taking the brunt of all the monsters attacks. Powerful Ghidorah might be, but even he might have trouble standing up to 5 and 6 hard core monsters looking to beat something down. So needless to say - Ghidorah takes the fall, and to add insult to injury, it's Minilla that gets the killing blow. Oh the humanity! With the monster threat neutralized, the humans dogfight with the last of the Killak spaceships and peace is restored to the earth. The end.

While the plot is almost meaningless to the movie, Destroy All Monsters is a really good monster film. It really delivers the monster action on nearly all fronts - when Tokyo gets the beatdown, we get an impressive showing of four monsters and the Japanese Self Defense Force as the city is destroyed. And of course the fight at the end is a battle royale second to none. The spectacle for this movie really ramps up from what we've seen before, and the effects really sell the rumble. There are several shots where the human interaction with the rear projection and matte shots really comes together.

Frankly when it's this good, I'm willing to overlook unintelligent plot and goofy dialogue.

AND THE WINNER IS:
You know, with the tag team on Ghidorah, it's hard to call a winner. All the monsters got in good shots, and I refuse to award the kill to Minilla. So, we'll call this one a push.

AND NOW YOU KNOW:
If there's a weakness to this film, it's that there's no undercurrent of a message in the script. But then when you have to cram 8 monsters in on screen, little details like that fall by the wayside.

THE KENNY FACTOR: 0%
There's no need for Kenny like padding when the movie moves along at a lightning pace like this.

THE END. . . .?
This was to be the last Godzilla film, until Toho saw the box office receipts come rolling in. So while the last scene has a feeling of closure about it, the next movie was just around the corner.

THE DVD:
The DVD sports a pretty good looking anamorphic print. There's some damage at the beginning on the Toho logo, but this quickly settles down. As for the extras - this disc is as bare bones as you can get. No trailers, no commentary, no chapter breaks - hell, you don’t even get a menu at the start. Just pop the disc in and away it goes. The story, as I understand it, is that when ADV was prepping to release the disc, Toho did their best to hold them back. They feared reverse importing back to Japan, where Destroy All Monsters had not been released yet. So the Americans have to pay the price in a barest of bare bones disc.

THE BOTTOM LINE:
A vapid plot filled with wall to wall monster action. While there are Godzilla movies that are put together better, you'll find few as entertaining as Destroy All Monsters.

This review is part of my "Thirty Days of Godzilla" review blitz, where I watch every single Godzilla movie made. Check out the rest of the Godzillathon:
* Godzilla: King of the Monsters
* Godzilla Raids Again
* King Kong vs Godzilla
* King Kong Escapes
* Mothra vs Godzilla
* Godzilla vs the Sea Monster
* Godzilla's Revenge
* Destroy All Monsters
* The Terror of MechaGodzilla
* Godzilla: The Animated Series
* Godzilla vs Biollante
* Godzilla vs King Ghidorah
* Godzilla vs Space Godzilla
* Godzilla vs Destroyah
* The American 1998 Godzilla
* Godzilla 2000
* Godzilla vs Megaguirus
* Godzilla: Final Wars


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12