Despite my liking of this movie, this is the first film of the era to really showcase the weak story trait of most Godzilla films. We get an opening recap of the previous movie of Godzilla rampaging in Tokyo, before we get a monotone, and uninteresting recap of it in the style of an American news broadcast, before we see three characters which I guess are American soldiers? Stealing Godzilla skin samples, gunning down Japanese military (no doubt putting tons of offscreen diplomatic tensions between the two nations) before they're just gunned down by...token Japanese badass gunner, who's only literal lines in this movie revolve around "Damn...it's Godzilla!". I just described the first few minutes of this movie. Who are these English Speaking soldiers? What were they gonna do with the skin samples? Who cares? Certainly not the movie. Actually while I'm on the subject, the depiction of America in this film...and of other films in this era for that matter is absolutely laughable. This can be attributed to some economical tension between the two nations at the time I guess. There's a scene in the beginning of the film, in which two American...spies? Thieves? I have no idea... But these two obviously American characters (one of which looks like a Japanese actor), are wearing two baseball hats with blatant American flag designs, in which they're focused on nothing but the looks of a woman. I find this kind of political message absolutely laughable at how bad it is. This is the equivalent of me creating a political character for a movie, and blatantly labeling them with a parody name tag of who they are so obviously supposed to represent, while having them behave like a five year old. Did the director of this film REALLY think that was how Americans dressed? They're from America. They must wear American flag attire! And be easily distracted by a female character. Why are we depicting America like this? Because America sucks. We don't like the current economical situation we have with them. And I guess America bombed Japan. Take that America! That'll teach you...I guess? Seriously, the grudge that Japan had against America at this time is so obvious in these films, that it's kinda...mind-numbingly annoying. It seems that it's only there to serve as a blatant "We don't like America" message for ten year olds. It contributes nothing to the story. At all! The two thieves we're introduced to are killed, and though we get a brief glimpse into who they are and whatnot, they literally serve no other purpose than to just be the forced Political message for the movie. A message that is nowhere near as strong as the film's predecessor mind you.
I will give credit to this movie, it's one of the few out there that actually attempts to have characters that are in any way memorable or likable and easy to connect with. Particularly when it comes to Dr. Shiragami. He has very believable motivations and goals in this film, even if they are a bit far fetched. The whole "talking plants" thing in order to preserve the spirit of his deceased daughter was a bit silly. Especially since it was kinda just thrown out the window when a psychic character out of the blue just pretty much said, "There's no sign of your daughter anymore, it's just a monster like Godzilla!" Despite the weaker story there, he remains one of the more connectable characters of the film. And while there are other likable traits by other characters, he is easily the strongest. And even some of the more minor characters are pretty fun. I had a good laugh at a soldier who gave a one liner, "Medicine is ways best when taken orally.", before firing a bazooka of bacteria into Godzilla's mouth, before getting killed. Moments like that are in this movie. Which is a pity because like other Godzilla films, there are a LOT of characters in this movie that straight up suck. Like token Japanese badass gunner who has two lines in this entire movie. You can say "Oh but he wasn't Japanese, he worked for that foreign nation in this film." I don't care. It's obviously a Japanese actor. He's wearing shades more than to look like a token badass. His accent is noticeable. He has zero personality in this movie and is just there to serve as a plot device to axe off characters you actually kinda like. Like Dr. Shiragami. The "bad guys" of this film have very little motivation in this entire film. In fact, I'm still unsure who the bad guys even are. Is it the Americans? Is it some unnamed Middle Eastern country? I mean it's a possibility, they were talking about plant genetics to help plant growth in the global deserts.Yet they serve little purpose other than to just be there, and be evil. I laughed when they heard that they'd lost a valuable anti-nuclear eating Bacteria organism, and their first resort was to just...axe Dr. Shiragami. Our plan failed. Guess there's nothing to do but see if we can steal back the organism, or get some Godzilla Skin samples of our own...nah, let's just kill the guy who made the discovery.
I gotta ask this...what is with the almost impossible to understand English language in this movie? I'm not trying to sound flat-out racist here, but I gotta bring up the previous Godzilla film I watched, in which some characters spoke English, yet were not easily understandable. The DVD...which is an unofficial copy mind you, gave subtitles for what they spoke. And even without them, I likely could have understood better than what I heard here. Here? On an actual official release, some characters speak English, with a HEAVY accent. Yet there's no subtitle options for them. I gotta go from the hip on what I think I hear. Another note on the DVD subtitles, I can tell that a few of the translations are either way too literal, or just straight up wrong. I had a good laugh at the translation "We are looking for a stuff." Nice one there guys.
Honestly, I know I'm being a little harsh at the moment, but I don't hate this film. It's actually a very satisfying film. I thought the idea of a bacteria that could eat away Nuclear Material was very very fun. A clever idea indeed, even if executed a little sloppy. It's up there among other fun ways to stop Godzilla such as the infamous Oxygen Destroyer of the original film. I also like how this is one of the first films in this era to really cling to the science-fiction aspect of this franchise in more ways than one. Even if we got terrible characters, some characters of this film are psychic, and gifted with limited communication with Godzilla and Biollante. It kinda serves as a plot device, but a likable one. I also love the military technology, which undoubtedly throws any Post WWII military restrictions right out the window with the Super-X2, and these tanks that fire lasers and whatnot. It leads to some of the funnest concepts of the era, and undoubtedly some of the coolest action.
Speaking of which, the action in this movie is absolutely GLORIOUS. The monster fights between Godzilla and Biollante are easily some of the most graphic and brutal fights of the entire franchise. We see Biollante bleeding sap all over the place, we see Godzilla's hand and skin get pierced by the vines, we see Biollante spraying acid all over Godzilla's face, we see Godzilla burning Biollante alive with his radioactive heat. It's all glorious. But despite this...I can't help but feel it to be very underwhelming. Mainly because of how glorious it is. Biollante is a plant. A plant is fighting a giant radioactive death breathing dinosaur. Who do you think is gonna win? Despite the action being fun to watch, there's really not that big a payoff in the whole combat. Especially when you start to realize that all Godzilla is doing is standing there, unleashing radioactive death. Yeah they grapple and whatnot after on, but a lot of the time, it's very stiff and that's when you get feelings of it being underwhelming. And since the conclusion of this fight really just confuses me more than anything...I really can't say it's flawless. Biollante just kinda dies, and Godzilla just kinda wanders into the water after the bacteria affects him...only to rise again completely fine. I don't buy their water temperature theory either.
All in all, it's a nice way to followup the wonderful 1984 return of Godzilla, but I can't help but feel this film was rushed in more ways than one, and therefore, suffers. Despite being a roller coaster of good and bad, there's not too much oomf in this film to make me really consider it one of the best. It's certainly not bad, it's good, I like it, but from what I remember, most of the other Hensei films had a stronger approach. But we'll see as we get to those. I'm giving Godzilla VS Biollante a two and a half star rating out of four. It's a lot of fun, it'll make you laugh, whether it's actually funny, or laughably bad in areas. It's got some of the coolest action of the franchise, even if a bit underwhelming, and honestly, one of the coolest monsters the franchise ever created. I think Biollante is terrifying! Yeah, it has its weaknesses, but that alligator plant beak and those vines make for one very cool monster. I give this film a thumbs up, despite the flaws it can have.
Please feel free to request any film's you'd like me to look at. Leave a comment down below expressing your own thoughts and opinions of the film, and as always, thanks for reading.
See you next week when we review...(sigh)...Godzilla VS King Ghidorah.
Final Verdict: 2.5/4
No comments:
Post a Comment