Or as I like to call it, "Godzilla vs. Perry Mason"! Yes, when this movie came over to American soil, the "genius" producers had the "brilliant" idea to add a few scenes of their own, featuring Raymond Burr as American newspaper report Steve Martin (no, not THE JERK, or even THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS, but a reporter) to make the film seem less "forgein" to American audiences. You'll notice these scenes by the clarity of the film, and the absence of the now infamous dubbing, which I call "Godzilla Lip"! I'm actually thinking of starting my own telethon to help find a cure for those with "Godzilla Lip", but we'll talk about that some other time. So anyway, our movie opens the day after Tokyo has been devastated beyond belief. Crawling from the rubble is Steve Martin, on of the "lucky" survivors, who decides to regale us with some flashback footage and bring us up to speed. Not long ago, Japanese ships were getting destroyed at sea, with the few survivors getting radiation burns and close to losing their minds! No one knows what the cause is for these "fires at sea", until islanders witness first hand, an attack on their homes by a large lizard resembling their God: Godzilla (which translates to "Gorilla Whale" haha)! Steve joins a research party sent to the island to check the claims, and they find that, not only is the entire island contaminated by radioactivity, but there's also some REALLY big footprints all over the place! In one such footprint, the team finds a Trilobite! For those of you out there who AREN'T anthropologists, Trilobites are bugs that have been extinct for millions of years. This is about when Godzilla himself makes his appearance known to the group (though not looking nearly as menacing as later incarnations) for a short time, before strolling away again. Thanx to the footprints and some testing, the scientists determine that G is possibly the result of H-Bomb testing! When the big G makes his presence known on the mainland, nothing the army does can stop him! They'd better get used to this though, cuz their military's in for a long trend of getting it's ass kicked by giant beasties! Actually, high tension wires stave the monster off for a while, till he gets smart and melts them. Godzilla ends up thrashing Tokyo for the first time in his illustrious career, in a 25 minute orgy of fire, crushed model buildings, and crushed toy tanks! This now brings us back to where we began, with Steve recovering in a hospital after clawing his way out of the carnage. A scientist by the name of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa unveils his own plan for bringing down the creature: the Oxygen Destroyer! A weapon which will kill all the oxygen in the immediate vicinity, resulting in the demise of anything nearby! Due to some love triangle, which is focused on more in the original Japanese version, Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself when he detonates the bomb in Godzilla's underwater lair, saying that with him gone, no one would be able to reproduce such a destructive weapon, since he was the only one who knew how. A noble sacrifice as the bomb does it's job, turning the giant reptile into a pile of bones and ending our movie! How can he make 22 more movies?! Well, you'll have to check out my reviews of GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN and GODZILLA 1985 for those answers! Despite the presence of Raymond Burr and the fact that Godzilla looked like a hand puppet half the time, there's still no denying this is a classic! It still gets to me, especially with the haunting mood the black & white creates! But, it is pretty ironic that a movie created to chastise the US, for our irresponsible nuke flinging and disregard for human life, instead becomes the love of millions of children and zit farmer fanboys throughout the country it was made to discredit! Ain't reality fucked up?!

Also Known As: GOJIRA

Sequels: Actually, the older series of Godzilla flicks never really connected with each other, so I guess they're technically not sequels...

If You Liked This Flick, Check Out: GAMERA or KING KONG