December 16th: The Return of Godzilla (1984)

And a new era begins with The Return of Godzilla (1984). And if you thought soft reboots were a new phenomenon, then you would be very mistaken. This film acts as a direct sequel to the original Godzilla (1954), completely ignoring all other sequels that came after it. And personally, for the tone and direction this film takes that was probably the best direction to take. Thirty years after Godzilla terrorised Tokyo, he has returned. Initially the Japanese government wish to keep this a secret from the public so not as to cause a panic. However, when Godzilla attacks and destroys a USSR submarine, raising tensions between the USSR and USA, they have to concede and let the public know that Godzilla has returned. This leads the USSR and USA to request that they are allowed to use their nuclear weapons to attack and kill Godzilla. Japan initially refuses, but then it becomes a race against time to find a solution before the pressure to use these weapons becomes too much.

As you can probably tell from the synopsis, this film has very much returned to its thematic routes of being anti-nuclear weapons. And now, it doesn’t have to be even remotely subtle about its opinion on the matter, with lines of dialogue such as “It was man that created that ‘monster’. Mankind is far more monstrous” and “Godzilla is a sign of the end times for humanity”. I’m all for this return to a much more serious tone. It is the kind of Godzilla film that really clicks with me, much more than the very silly tone of a lot of the Showa era. I also enjoy the whole political debate that takes up a lot of the runtime of this film. The human aspect of this film is often times people sat at desks discussing how to deal with the problem at hand, and it is pretty enthralling, at least for me. And the best part of it? No aliens to be seen!

But alas, this is a Godzilla film, so you are probably wondering if the scenes including Godzilla are any good. The short and sweet answer is, yes, they are great. Godzilla himself looks brilliant. It is still a man in a suit, but the contrast in quality from the last film to this one is stark. He is an angry looking Godzilla as well, which works well with his actions throughout the film and the tone of the film. It has also been reverted back to being more animalistic and acting on instinct rather than having a personality. And this means that the actions scenes also go back to being much more death and destruction, and they all have a real weight to them. Along with the improvement in the Godzilla suit, the miniature work is also much improved and believable and it allows for all the action scenes to feel consequential, while also just being super fun. The first time Godzilla uses his sonic breath kicks so much ass that it is hard to put it into words.

This film was exactly what it needed to be for me. It feels fresh after so many silly films in the series, while also being a really solid return to its routes. I obviously recommend it and it is going very high in my current rankings of these films. If this is an indication of where the Heisei era is heading, than I’m completely bought in.