December 18th: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Well, it only took three films for this era to go completely mad. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) takes the silly aspects of the prior film and turns that up to 11 (rest in piece Rob Reiner). And while I have been critical of how silly the Showa films got towards the end, the fact that this film takes those aspects seriously makes it kind of work for me. The film sees a UFO land on earth. However, these are not aliens, these are humans from the 23^rd century who have travelled back in time (yes, really). They warn of a future where Japan has been destroyed by nuclear fallout cause by Godzilla, and they wish to stop this from happening by travelling further back in time and destroying Godzilla before he can wreak havoc. However, it turns out their intentions may not be so pure…

So yeah, this film brings in time travel. It is utterly ridiculous and made even more so because I don’t think it works in terms of time travel law, whatever that may be. Obviously, you can find loopholes in all films involving time travel, but in this one they go back in time, kill Godzilla which would completely change the course of history, but when they return back to Japan everyone who was aware of this plan remembers that the entire plan and everything that happened in the timeline where Godzilla existed. But, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I don’t have a problem with it. Is it really silly? Sure. But the film treats it fairly seriously, and it is a new direction for the series which means that it works for me. And it also works as a little bit of a throwback to those Showa era films. And while I wish these series of films remained a little more grounded a bit longer than it did, as long as it remains serious within its own universe and rules I can buy into it.

That being said, this is the weakest of the three Heisei era films so far, and not just with the narrative. The action remains solid and fun, but it doesn’t quite have the heft of the previous two films. That even with the introduction of Godzilla’s mortal enemy, King Ghidorah. He looks as cool as ever, even though the design of him has barely changed. Unlike Godzilla the filmmakers must see him as pretty much flawless. Although, he does get turned into Mechaghidorah towards the end of this film, and that design I’m not entirely sold on. I think it may be because I think his general design is so good, but there is something about it that doesn’t quite sit with me. Its not bad, just not great. The action is also solid but with nothing I particular remember standing out as being exceptional or new.

Looking back at this film and writing about it now I think I have come to a terrible realisation. Despite the very silly narrative that is stupidly over the top and has so many holes in it, it is actually the thing that I enjoy most about this film, which can’t be said for a lot of these films. And I actually really enjoy this film despite its many flaws. And even more confusingly I’m not sure I can recommend it because of its problems. A bit of an anomaly this one.