Another Thanksgiving Turkey: Godzilla vs Megaguirus

With Godzilla 2000 a success, and Godzilla 1998 fading in the rear view mirror, Toho decided to embark on a third distinct Godzilla series. In the Milennium series, each film inhabited its own continuity, although each one refers back to the 1954 Godzilla. In fact, Godzilla vs Megaguirus goes so far as to replicate several of the rampage scenes with the new suit, apparently to let the viewer know that Godzilla 1954 happened, but at the same time, apparently Dr. Serizawa didn't manage to kill the monster with his oxygen destroyer. And so the monster returned in 1966 to destroy Japan's first nuclear power plant. So while this film, like Godzilla 2000 acknowledges the original source, it differs in that it doesn't acknowledge the entire film.



Despite this, the antagonist monster comes from Rodan. Did Rodan happen in this continuity? It's possible, since both Rodans die in the volcanic eruption. When discussing Godzilla and continuity, it's really best not to look too deeply for consistency.

In a secondary piece of back story, the Godzilla attack on Osaka in 1996 is shown. Again, the military is valorized, brave men and women who stand between Godzilla and ordinary society. In 1996, they are ineffective, but by 2001, they have created the G-Grasper unit, again an elite unit that the rest of the military aspires to be part of. And they have cool jackets, aviator glasses, a baseball caps.



G-Grasper also has a version of the Super X, the Griffon, a large vector-thrust aircraft. Unlike previous Super X versions, it is not designed to take on Godzilla directly. It has no fire mirror or armor, relying on agility. It does have some pretty potent photon guns, however, certainly enough to get Godzilla's attention.



But the military still does best with civilian contractors. And the military needs an inventor, who also serves as the audience's intermediary so the military can explain what it's doing. This Godzilla, for example, is predictable. It only comes when there's a radioactive energy source. Japan has been surviving on clean solar, wind, and other clean energies.



The weapon to take care of Godzilla this time around is the Dimensional Tide, a teeny-weenie black hole designed to be deployed by a satellite. On a test shot, it opens a dimensional hole to the past. A meganulon flies through the hole, deposits its egg, and then chucks off back into the past.



Later, a huge collection of the smaller dragonflies molt on a vertical surface as soldiers shoot at them. Wait, a mass of human-sized insectoid monsters and a larger, primary monster? Where have I seen this before? Oh yes, Gamera: Attack of the Legion.



When they reach Godzilla, they attack, and begin to drain him of vital energy. At the same time, the cloud of giant insects prevents the Dimensional tide from locking onto Godzilla. But they take the shot, and Godzilla takes a small black hole to the face. And then gets back up.



When the giant Megaguirus finally shows up, it's an interesting monster. A huge, spike-covered dragonfly. It can vibrate its wings and create cutting waves, and like the smaller versions of itself, it can take energy from a target with its stinger. The cry is uninspired, and the combat with Godzilla is dull. Kaiju fighting draws heavily on sumo wrestling. Without this, the combat is often very unsatisfying. Even Ishiro Honda didn't do particularly well in Godzilla vs Mothra, although he brought in some innovations, such as Mothra dragging Godzilla along the ground. Here we have no such creative spirit.





After surprisingly uninspiring fight, Godzilla destroys Megaguirus the way we want him to--a blast of his atomic heat ray. The Big G then goes on a rampage across Tokyo, heading for the Science Institute. It turns out Government minister/industrialist kept the plasma energy secret, even after it was banned in 1996. They fire the Dimension Tide again, and Godzilla seems to get annihilated by the black hole, and Tokyo has a gigantic crater in its center. Which is kind of odd. Godzilla had headed straight for one building to destroy the Plasma generator. Clearly the Dimensional Tide leveled a lot more than Godzilla already had, and possibly more than he would have. So the military, as with Godzilla 1998, causes more damage than Godzilla does.



Despite some interesting ideas, the film plods. Until the frenetic pointlessness of Godzilla: Final Wars, this will be a low point, financially and artistically, of the Millennium series. Often, when Godzilla's on screen, he's in close-up as if it were an actor, rather than far shots that make the monster feel large and powerful. There isn't a lot of Godzilla smashing stuff, and the fight with Megaguirus, as noted, is uninspired. These factors, combined with the uninteresting human plotline, lead to a weak film.



It does have one enormously redeeming feature, however. Godzilla has long been in the shadow of Ikiru Ifukube's iconic music. Films of the franchise that have tried other styles and have usually come off as weak, or quickly dated. Michiru Ôshima is the first composer to successfully strike out on her own, creating a drum-heavy, ominous heart-beat like, followed by somber brass, a sufficiently resonant theme for Godzilla. While her music here is good, her scores for Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla III and Tokyo SOS are excellent.

Next up, if you can't beat them, recruit them.

Flying Destruction: Rodan

I'm playing a little clean-up, plugging the gaps in my history of giant monster movies. Rodan, from 1956, is the first Toho kaiju film in color, and the first Toho kaiju to to star in a film that wasn't Godzilla. Rodan would go on to be a popular costar with Godzilla, teaming up with Godzilla to defeat Ghidorah in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and Destroy all Monsters. Rodan appears also appears in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II 1993, and of course Godzilla Final Wars.



Like the original Godzilla, Rodan is a vehicle for social criticism. The film begins with coal miners. They have a dangerous job, yet they are the foundation on which civilization depends. Some of the hazards of mining are shown early in the film, and the Meganulons can be seen as a metaphor for the dangers of mining. Screenwriter Takashi Kimura often had a more somber tone than the other long-term writer of kaiju film Sekizawa. Mining is shown to be a dangerous task.



Further, Rodan, like Godzilla, begins with an element of mystery. But this one is much more human. After a mine disaster, a miner is discovered slashed to death. Is the man he was always fighting with, Goro, responsible? This is early in the Kaiju film, and they were still treated as serious dramas. The miner's wife weeps for her dead husband. Two rescue workers are pulled under water before our eyes. This is kaiju film as horror, not kids entertainment, as ripples of the deaths spread throughout the small community. We see the women of the community weeping as their husbands vanish or die.



More than any previouas film, the monsters in Rodan kill people. The Meganulon, which is really more of a standard monster than a kaiju, since it fits in a house. We are shown the bloody bodies of the two miners who are killed by the crawling meganulon.





Once the monster is established, the response is swift. The miners bring a machine gun down into the mine. The meganulon is, like so many other monsters, immune to bullets. But the Meganulons are not the major problem. They get a mining cart full of coal dropped on them. Everyone thinks the problem is solved, about half-way through the film, it's merely a precursor to the real threat, which eats meganulons; a giant pterosaurs. Rodan don't show up until thirty-six minues into the film.



And again, people are killed. The first pilot to track the monster is killed, and a discuassion held over his bloody helmet. A couple taking pictures vanish, the only clues of their fate the last pictures taken from their camera.



After than, through t's another fifteen minutes before we get a good look at Rodan. Because this is an Ishiro Honda film, Rodan is destructive because of its very existence. It flies so fast that it creates a wake that destroys what it passes over. This is a first movie for Rodan, so it is not presented with another monster to fight.



Honda tries out a couple of new ideas. One is we see Rodan from the point of view of the pilots attempting to take it down, rather than steadfastly watching the miniatures spitting fire. The flying chase of Rodan over Fukuoka is like a traditional car chase. There are tracking shots behind the jet formations.



Rodan smashes a bridge, which is successful and dramatic. Godzilla gets tossed into a bridge in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.



As much as the original Godzilla, Rodan also can be seen as a callback to World War II. With Rodan approaching Fukuoka, the air-raid sirens wail, and people batten down their stores and find places of safety. At the same time, Rodan evokes the Japanese familiarity with destructive earthquakes. Rodan comes from under the ground, and sets off minor earthquakes as it awakens.



Although the scenes of Rodan's destruction are brief, they are excellent. The shot of tiles being stripped off a roof by Rodan's hurricane-force wake is exquisitely well done. For the first time, tanks roll over small obstacles, like fences, to get a better shot at the monster.



This is also the only Showa film to show Rodan with a breath weapon. It is shown expelling some sort of mist from its mouth, but there doesn't seem to have a direct effect. Rodan's breath doesn't show up again until 1993's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.

One of the big twists in Rodan is that there are two of them. As Rodan is smashing Fukuoka, another one approaches. The military can't do anything to a single giant monster, what's it going to do against two of them?



The ending is unexpectedly sad. The Rodans nest in Mount Aso, and during a military bombardment meant to bury the creatures, the volcano erupts. The Rodans cannot seem to fight the instinctive need to return to the next. Ifukube plays a slow, mournful tune, and the end of the pair is sad, rather than the defeat of an enemy. Kiyo hides her face, as one monster burns. A second settles next it it, then ascends briefly, on fire, only to fall back into the lava. Consumed by fire, it still struggles as it burns. This is not a triumphant ending.





The King Brothers bought Rodan and brought it to American and English audiences. This proved such a success that they would later go on to bankroll thier own kaiju film, Gorgo.

Rodan s an early Kaiju film, and it shows. The tone is darker than the more lighthearted 60's and 70's films. The moral ambiguity, wondering which side is sympathetic, is creates a depth and shows the freedom that the creators had. Rodan's late entry into the film and the concentration of the plight of the miners feels fresh. Rodan is a classic of the ouvre, and rightly so.

Next, something unbelievable.