Godzilla vs. Destroyer




Released: 1995

MPAA Rating: PG

Genre: Super Monster

Nuts and Bolts: A new breed of monster has erupted from the silt where the first Godzilla was destroyed. Watch as the descendents of Professor Yamane come to terms with a brand NEW version of the fabled Oxygen Destroyer. Will this be Godzilla’s last stand?

Summary: Note: This film follows Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla. The small refuge known as Bas Island suddenly suffers fission of pure uranium due to an underground volcano. The added nuclear energy greatly affects both Godzilla and his child, now known, as Godzilla Jr. Godzilla’s body has become a living nuclear power plant on the verge of overloading. His skin is a mass of glowing red veins and patches.

Godzilla attacks the Chinese province of Hong Kong. His body is so overheated that he actually boils the water he is submerged in. Japanese scientists study his new condition and a great fear overwhelms them. They discover that if Godzilla’s body continues to increase in body temperature, then once he hits 1200 degrees centigrade, he will explode. Like a nuclear reactor, Godzilla’s exploding body will wipe out all life on Earth.

G-Force hires Kenuchi Yamane, the adopted grandson of one of the men responsible for stopping the first Godzilla in 1955. They also get a hold of Doctor Kensaku Ijuin, a scientist who has developed a process that uses micro-oxygen. Ijuin’s micro-oxygen process is very similar to the oxygen destroyer developed by Doctor Serazawa in 1955. It was Serazawa’s oxygen destroyer that killed the first Godzilla.

Meanwhile, the stratum beneath a local Aquarium’s service tunnel begins heating up with nuclear energy. G-Force investigates the phenomenon and Doctor Ijuin takes a soil sample. They later learn that the service tunnel was built over top of the ground where the oxygen destroyer destroyed the first Godzilla. Upon further analysis of the soil, Ijuin discovers that the soil had contained the inert fossilized remains of tiny microorganisms from the pre-Cambrian era. After being exposed to the original oxygen destroyer, the microorganisms activated and actually adapted themselves to the micro-oxygen. Since they came from a time period before the Earth evolved into an oxygen based system, the organisms were not destroyed by the oxygen destroyer as Godzilla I was. 

The following day, the microorganisms from Doctor Ijuin’s samples grow larger and break free of the laboratories. A cross between an insect and a lizard, these ten-foot high creatures leaves the labs and terrorizes a nearby warehouse. Kenuchi Yamane’s sister Yukari is a news reporter and she follows the Special Forces team assigned to combat the life forms attacking the warehouse. The life forms are referred to as Destroyers. The soldiers prove to be virtually ineffective against the destroyers as the life forms generate a blast of fluid that has the same chemical properties as Serazawa’s oxygen destroyer.

Meanwhile, Godzilla is sighted off the coast of the Bungo channel. He is heading towards Tokyo’s nuclear power plants. G-Force decides that it is time to use their new defense fighter craft, the Super X III. They arm the Super X with cadmium missiles and freezing rays designed to cool down Godzilla’s rapidly increasing body temperature.

The Super X flies out to confront the monster. Godzilla is a bit stronger than he was in 1985 and the cadmium missiles barely slow him down now. However, they stun him long enough for the Super X to launch the freezing lasers. Godzilla’s body freezes and he topples over into a state of suspended animation. His body temperature cools down to safe levels, but almost immediately his cells begin to regenerate themselves. G-Force now decides that the freezing rays may also prove effective against the Destroyers in the warehouse district. Along with the Freeze weapons, the soldiers also use Doctor Ijuin’s micro-oxygen weapons. But all these succeed in doing is causing the life forms to merge together into one large super monster.

Now while all this is going on, Godzilla Jr. decides to take a stroll through downtown Tokyo. G-Force realizes that Godzilla is out of commission and that he won’t be able to take on Destroyer. They try to steer Destroyer towards Godzilla Jr. in the hopes that the little one will be able to handle Destroyer. ESP agent Miki Saegusa is completely opposed to this idea as she helped to raise G-Jr. Destroyer rampages through town picking Junior up by the scruff of his neck. Junior doesn’t stand a chance against Destroyer and the larger monster drops Godzilla Jr. atop a pile of broken buildings. Godzilla Jr. dies soon after. . By this point, papa Godzilla has awakened and is furious. Discovering that his son has been killed at the hands of Destroyer, Godzilla emits a small wave of atomic breath overtop of his son. The red energy trails from Godzilla’s mouth into that of Junior’s corpse. There is nothing more he can do. Now Godzilla tears into his larger foe. He finally kills Destroyer but throughout the course of the fight, his body temperature reaches the critical temperature of 1200 degrees. Meltdown! Godzilla’s body begins to overload from all of the energy coursing through his veins. The Super X comes along and tries to keep the monster from exploding, destroying all of Earth. The Super X launches a full volley of freeze missiles at the dying Godzilla and they are enough to contain the nuclear meltdown. However, the pressure is too much for the big dino and Godzilla melts away before the eyes of the nation. Godzilla is finally dead.

From the smoke and clouding debris, a roar is heard. Godzilla Junior is resurrected from the energy of his dead father and is now the size of a fully-grown Godzillasaur.

Acting/Dialogue: The acting is pretty much the same as any other Godzilla flick, but I think the American over-dubs are pretty tight. Everything sounds a lot more natural. The dialogue is definitely superior to prior films and no one really says anything that insults the intelligence of the viewer.

Gore: Godzilla himself is fairly horrific looking with orange glowing tail spines and patches of red skin. Then of course is his ultimate demise wherein we see his body literally melt away before our very eyes. It’s not a very gory spectacle, but it does make for some grim footage.

Guilty Pleasures: The reborn Godzilla. We always knew the little guy would someday fill in big papa’s shoes. It’s a shame that we won’t ever see him again though.

The Good: They saved the best for last. Of all the 1990 era Godzilla films, this one is without a doubt the most entertaining. I even like this one more than Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, although my love for the big three headed pecker ranks that particular film a wee bit higher than it probably actually deserves. However, they pull out all the stops with this one. Godzilla is bigger and nastier looking than ever. Even baby Godzilla is a bit more grown and doesn’t look like the cute little Godzuki critter the way he did in earlier films.

The most enticing part of this film is the connection between this and the original movie from 1956. Here we have the descendents of Doctor Yamane as well as the legacy of Professor Serazawa’s oxygen destroyer. I loved the fact that Destroyer was culled from the after-effects of the oxygen destroyer’s initial use. Once again, the Japanese are faced with a moral slap down. Humanity’s own lust for power once created Godzilla and now even humanity’s solution to their own problem has bred monsters.

This is a visually epic film with a lot of great sequences sewn throughout. It immediately grabs your attention as we see the over-heating Godzilla stomping through Hong Kong (of all places). The water from the bay is boiling and sizzling off of Godzilla’s skin. I thought it was great to see that Godzilla is willing to trash pretty much anybody’s hometown. For a while there, we were led to believe that he had a personal grudge against the Japanese.

This is one of the few Godzilla films where the plot becomes the primary motivator for the story rather than the highly anticipated super monster smack-down. It is an intelligently written story that doesn’t try to ‘Star Trek’ you with bizarre bullshit theories and techno-babble. The pacing is very nicely done and I think the director Takeo Okawara generates respectable screen time to the back-story as well as to Destroyer and Godzilla. Each segment keeps your interest and Okawara knows when it is time to cut to a random monster fight.

I really liked the origin of Destroyer. I was glad to see the ten-foot versions giving the Special Forces guys a hard way to go. There are some really nice effects put to use here especially when the mini-Destroyers use their oxygen weapons against the soldiers. Fans of films like Aliens or Starship Troopers will probably enjoy this sequence. The visual impact of the mini-Destroyers culminates nicely when we see an entire throng of the little fuckers swarming all over Godzilla. I thought this was a nice break from the super monster baddie that Godzilla typically encounters.

Now of course, the minis converge together to form the big-ass Destroyer. (They’re like Transformers that way!) Big Destroyer is even taller than the suped-up Godzilla! The final battle is a little short, but Okawara moves us about the scene nicely focusing on each element singularly. (Godzilla, Destroyer, the Super X III and Godzilla Jr.)

I think all will agree that Toho’s swan song Godzilla feature is probably one of the most well thought out and evocative films to ever come out of the series.

The Bad: Godzilla DIES! Godzilla versus Destroyer marks the final film in a string of continuity that began with Godzilla, King of Monsters and continued through with Godzilla 1985, Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla vs. Mothra 2, Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla 2, and Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla. (All of the other 1960-1975 era films are ignored by this continuity.) But on top of that, this film creates schisms even within its own separated continuity. In Godzilla 1985, it is heavily inferred that the creature featured there is the same one that was in Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Raymond Burr’s character Steve Martin supports this by his quote. “Oh and General, if I may…thirty years ago, they never found a body.” However, Godzilla vs. Destroyer stipulates that the creature from Godzilla 1985 onward is NOT the same monster from Godzilla King of the Monsters.

Another continuity hiccup that we encounter involves the ambiguous nature of the film Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. In that film, time travelers manipulate history so that Godzilla never appeared until the year 1992. This effectively eradicated all previous films. However in Godzilla vs. Destroyer, we see flashbacks to the original film as well as numerous references to Doctors Yamane and Serazawa and the oxygen destroyer. So this film basically throws the time altering effects of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah into question.

This doesn’t really take away from the enjoyment of either film, and in truth I’m kind of glad that they preserved the original history. But continuity cops will probably spin themselves into a straight jacket trying to make sense of the mess.

As mentioned above, Godzilla vs. Destroyer is the LAST film in this particular strain of continuity. Everything produced after 1995, is considered to take place in an alternate reality and no references to earlier films are made. This is rather disheartening since the film really sets you up for a changing of the guard. The King is dead. Long live the King. Now we can explore the further adventures of Godzilla’s son, now that that he’s all grown up. Alas, that is not to be.

The only other nitpick I really have with this film concerns the Destroyer life forms. The special effects used are decent enough I suppose, but the creature is very obviously a rip off of both the Predator and the Xenomorph creatures of Alien fame. Destroyer even has a double jaw much like the Aliens. I really wish Toho could have taken extra precautions here and come up with something a bit more creative. Maybe this was simply done as a tip of the hat to Ridley Scott and James Cameron, but it really just comes off as someone who is bankrupt of ideas and needs to rip off American films to come up with a passable monster.

Great Lines:

“We can’t allow sentimentalism to interfere with the growth of scientific knowledge.  –Doctor Kensaku Ijuin.

“Our job is done now Godzilla.”  --Miki Saegusa

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10 severed heads.
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