Godzilla versus King Ghidorah




Released: 1992

MPAA Rating: PG

Genre: Super Monster

Nuts and Bolts: Time travelers from the 23rd century embark upon a plan to manipulate the time stream so that Godzilla never existed! But there’s a bigger threat awaiting the citizens of Tokyo than merely Godzilla. Learn the startling secret origin behind Godzilla’s most infamous nemesis, King Ghidorah!

Summary: An organization from the year 2204 known as the Equal Environment Earth Union conspire on a plan to gain control of Japan. After discovering the two hundred year old remains of the nuclear dragon King Ghidorah, they embark on a journey that takes them back through time to July of the year 1992. 

Arriving in Tokyo, the time travelers immediately consult with the Japanese Prime Minister and warn them that the super monster Godzilla will one day attack Tokyo’s nuclear power plants destroying the entire island. Thanks to the aid of writer Kenichiro Terasawa and Japan’s favorite citizen Yasuaki Shindo, the government learns that Godzilla was once just a normal dinosaur known as a Plesiosaur.

*Cue flashback music.  Notice the blurry lines? Ooooh. Aaaaah. History lesson time kids*

In February of 1944, American ground troops had been attacking Japanese soldiers on Lagos Island near Bikini atoll. The battle was disrupted when a large Plesiosaur rampaged through the jungle. The American soldiers directed their attention towards the dinosaur and the creature was shot nearly to death. This interaction possibly saved the lives of the last Japanese garrison under the command of Major Shindo. Shindo immediately developed an immense respect for this creature and would later build his life around the lessons learned on Lagos Island.

In 1954, the Japanese government conducts atomic H-bomb testing on Bikini atoll. The waves of ambient atomic radiation carry over to Lagos Island and mutate the dinosaur into Godzilla. A year later, Godzilla will attack Tokyo Bay for the first time. 

*Cut the flashback music. Return to normal movie. Get rid of the blurry lines*

The time travelers propose that if they go back to the year 1944 and capture the Plesiosaur, bringing him back to the year 1992, then history will have been changed and Godzilla will have never existed.

The time travelers gather up Terasawa, a psychic named Miki Saegusa and a scientist named Masaki and go back to Lagos Island in 1944. Along the journey, the group is introduced to another time traveler named Emmy Kano and an android known as M-11. There are also three small creatures known as Dorats on the ship. Emmy explains that the Dorats are biogenetically created animals that will cheer people up if they should become lost. (Ughh!)

They arrive on Lagos Island and witness the entire battle between American and Japanese forces. The dinosaur arrives and as mandated by history, takes a hail of bullets in order to protect Major Shindo’s garrison. (He likely wasn’t protecting the garrison, but Shindo believes that he was.) After everyone leaves the island, the time travelers attend to the fallen creature. They use their teleportation technology to take the unconscious dinosaur back to the year 1992. The logic being: Since two of the exact same creature cannot exist in the same place at the same time, then one of them has to disappear. Removing the Plesiosaur from history retroactively erases the existence of Godzilla. Now comes the sneaky part.

We begin to discover that the time travelers are not all they’re cracked up to be. Emmy Kano surreptitiously leaves the three Dorats behind as the rest of the group returns to the year 1992.

In the new time line, the Dorats apparently were exposed to the same H-bomb radiation that originally made Godzilla. This time however, the mutative effects fused the three Dorats into one creature known as King Ghidorah. However, unlike Godzilla, since the Dorats were biogenetically created, then that means Ghidorah is under the command of the time travelers. It is now revealed that the time travelers had lied to the Japanese Prime Minister. In the future Godzilla did not destroy Japan, but rather Japan became a world dominating super power controlling most of the Western hemisphere. It was the goal of the Equal Environment Earth Union to cripple the corrupt country by use of King Ghidorah. Since nuclear energy wasn’t available to them in the 23rd century, they had to travel back in time in order to resurrect the three-headed monster.

At this point, the time travelers send Ghidorah on a rampage through Tokyo. Japan now realizes that the time travelers are evil and are lost as to how to stop Ghidorah’s rampage. Emmy Kano however, never realized that her colleagues had planned on destroying Japan in the past. She betrays the group and re-programs the android M-11 to serve her.

The Japanese decide that the only thing capable of stopping King Ghidorah is Godzilla. However since Godzilla doesn’t exist, this presents a problem. Professor Mazaki offers forth the idea of bombarding the existing Plesiosaur with radiation from a nuclear sub. He assumes that the effects will be the same as that of the 1954 H-Bomb testing and that Godzilla will be reborn. Given little choice but to concede to the idea, the Prime Minister authorizes the operation.

What the Japanese government did not know however was that the dinosaur was already being slowly mutated by living in atomically radiated waters. (I guess they dropped him near one of the island testing centers.) They subsequently ram him with the nuclear sub releasing the full radiation upon him. This in turn transforms him into an even bigger Godzilla than had existed before.

Now comes the big beat down. Godzilla in one corner weighing in at 2400 hundred metric tons, and in the other corner…the master of disaster…King Ghidorah! A brutal fight ensues and Godzilla pretty much whoops the shit out of Ghidorah.

While all this is going on, Terasawa and Emmy find a way to screw the time travelers over big time. They steal their teleportation technology and take off in a small shuttle. They then turn the teleportation ray on the time travelers’ space ship and teleport it into the middle of the super monster smackdown. Godzilla merely views the ship as something in his way and promptly roasts it to a crisp.  Then he returns to the steel-cage match with Ghidorah.  He burns one of his heads off with his atomic breath and destroys one of Ghidorah’s wings.

Ghidorah is down for the count. But now the Japanese are faced with another problem. A big ole pissed off Godzilla! (I guess they thought Godzilla would be thankful to them or something.) Godzilla does his normal citywide rampage thing and even comes upon the Taio Corporation, which is owned by Yasuaki Shindo. The two exchange a series of glances between one another and for a moment Godzilla seems to remember Shindo back when he was a major in World War II. But Godzilla is not the sentimental type and quickly fries Shindo on the spot.

Once again, the Japanese forces are clueless as to how to stop Godzilla. It is up to Emmy Kano and her trusty android M-11 to save the day. Emmy travels back to the year 2204, where she knows the location of the Ghidorah remains. Using biotechnology, she resurrects the creature and outfits him with cybernetic parts. She also installs the shuttle’s power pod into Ghidorah’s chest-plate so that she can actually pilot the monster herself. (Crafty ole girl.) She then arrives back in the year 1992 sporting the new state of the art 2204 model Mecha-King Ghidorah! No exchanges, substitutions or refunds.

It’s Slamboree time again and Godzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah go down for the rematch. Godzilla pretty much whoops the shit out of this one too, but Emmy is pretty smart. She releases a series of grappling hooks from Ghidorah’s cybernetics and entangles Godzilla. Then she takes off and carries the ensnared Godzilla out to sea. Godzilla doesn’t take kindly to being dino-handled in such an intimate fashion, so he quickly burns away the metal coils with his atomic breath. The two creatures smash down into the ocean. However, Emmy manages to disengage the power pod and flies off to safety. Ghidorah is destroyed and Godzilla is far far away from Tokyo.

Emmy returns to Tokyo and explains to Terasawa that she is his descendent from the 23rd century. The two say their goodbyes and Emmy and her trusty robot chum M-11 return to the year 2204.

Note: This film effectively erases all pre-existing Godzilla films due to the nature of the time travel elements.

Note #2: I apologize that this review is so long. But there really is a lot of stuff happening in this movie, and it is easy to get it all confused.

Note #3: This movie follows Godzilla versus Biollante.

Acting/Dialogue: As much as I love this film, the dialogue is God-awful. They really portray the citizens of Japan as being a bunch of inept nose-pickers. I’m hoping that it’s just a reflection of the American translation. I’d be interested in seeing what this film is like in its original Japanese version. At least eight times throughout the course of this film someone needs to explain to somebody else that the Plesiosaur becomes Godzilla. These people just aren’t getting it! I swear you want to smack the shit out of some of these limp dicks. The time travelers have some pretty annoying dialogue as well. They are really arrogant and suffer from some of the worst voice dubbing I have seen yet. Although admittedly I found it amusing that all the AMERICAN looking time travelers were villains whereas the ONE oriental time traveler becomes a good guy. Acting wise, the film is decent. I think the characters of Terasawa and Shindo really shined in this. Emmy was pretty cool to, but only after she broke ties with those thieving bastard Americans.

Gore: This film is not bloody or gory really, but its kind of cool to see the way Godzilla burns Ghidorah’s head off and blasts holes through his wings.

Guilty Pleasures: During the 1944 flashback, one of the American soldiers is really impressed by the thought of a living dinosaur on an island in the 20th century. His name? Major Spielberg.

The Good: Despite its obvious plot holes, I really love this story. Time travel stories are always entertaining and I really liked the fact that they gave both Godzilla and Ghidorah an origin of sorts. (Although the Ghidora origin is kind of corny)

Godzilla looks very cool in this. With the exception of Godzilla 1985, this is probably the most menacing looking version of the big green fucker. Long sweeping camera angles and clever close ups always keep our pal in the best perspective. In some scenes you can even detect a sense of emotion on Godzilla’s face. This really came through in a scene where Godzilla is staring down Yasuaki Shindo. Shindo reveres Godzilla because he believes he saved his life back on Lagos Island in 1944. Godzilla appears to recognize Shindo and stares an unspoken communication seems to take place between the two. But Godzilla is a force of nature, and being a force of nature it is his duty to destroy all in his path. Bye bye Shindo. No hard feelings. This is probably my favorite scene in the movie.

King Ghidorah has always been one of my favorite classic super monsters. He looks bad-ass in this with large golden scales and fully articulating heads. He launches his death rays in every direction blowing shit up without discretion.

During the battle between Godzilla and Ghidorah we are treated to a cliché from the cheesy days of Toho films. Godzilla pulls his ever-classic WWF finishing move and lifts Ghidorah up by his twin tails smashing him down upon the ground. A nice little nod to the old-school fans.

Now, what can be better than a fight between Godzilla and King Ghidorah? Why not a throw-down between Godzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah! Both fight scenes are relatively short, but they are immensely entertaining and we get to see our hero whooping ass just like the good ole days.

It was also neat to see Megumi Odaka reprising her role as the psychic Miki Saegusa. She first played a critical part in 1989’s Godzilla versus Biollante and will become a feature character in many of the later films.

The Bad: As with any time travel story, there are bound to be glowering plot holes, and this film is no different. As I’m watching it, I’m finding all of the little things that I would have done differently had I been in their shoes. For starters, why did the time travelers need to make a pit stop in 1992? Wouldn’t it have been just as easy for them to go straight from 2204 to 1944 and handle the situation? Plus why go through all the trouble of teleporting the Plesiosaur? Why not just shoot him in the head with a .38? He was already down for the count and was bleeding all over the ground. They could have easily killed him in 1944 and achieved the same results!

There are many other unanswered questions. Obviously the time travelers wanted to destroy Tokyo with an instrument that they could control. Since they couldn’t control Godzilla they needed to use King Ghidorah. Fine. But what eventually happens to Godzilla in the 23rd century? In the year 2204, we see Ghidorah’s remains, but they never mention whatever became of Godzilla himself.

Then there’s the matter of the fixed timeline. Since they negated Godzilla’s existence in 1992, how come people in that time period still knew of him? How did they know what he even was if he had never existed? Mazaki decides that they must bombard Godzilla with energy from a nuclear submarine. How did Mazaki even know what the fuck a Godzilla even was? Ya see where I’m going with this.

Obviously the plot became a bit more advanced than the writers’ own capability to understand it. This sort of thing happens from time to time. A movie just gets away from you.

There were some other irksome issues I had with this, but they were mostly trivial ones. First, the Dorats: I really hate the idea that these stupid little Fraggles will one day become King Ghidorah.  King Ghidorah is the baddest of the bad, but now I have to resign myself to the knowledge that he was once three cute little pussy Muppets.

The other thing I hated was M-11. What a smug piece of shit. He looked so goofy too. He always had this perpetually stoned looking grin on his face and the scenes where he uses his robot super-speed were painfully laughable.

And last but not least…the time travelers. These guys are the ultimate fashion victims. Only Austin Powers would be impressed by these pastel-colored velour-wearing losers. I swear I thought one of them was going to shout, “It’s King Ghidorah baby, YEAH!”

Great Lines:

“I am perfect. I can do anything.” –Android M-11.  This is more comical than it is great.

“You mean…the dinosaur will become Godzilla?”  --Anonymous Japanese person.  Again, not a great line, but noteworthy because its so over-used and so stupid.

“They will cheer us up if we become lost.”  –Emmy Kano speaking in reference to the Dorats. Yeah, right. As if a group of flying fucking sofa cushions will ease my troubled mind if I get lost in a time machine!

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10 severed heads. Despite its various flaws, this is a really fun film, and is probably the best Godzilla movie out there barring the original. It ranks high on the re-watchability scale.
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