Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)


A major problem with many of the Godzilla films from any era is, though the series may begin strong, it quickly devolves into trying to walk a fine line of presenting a cool monster story while still keeping it family friendly.  The modern-day versions have worked best when the stories went into darker territory and allowed the terror that permeated the original Godzilla to come through.  

Surprisingly the Millenium Era of Godzilla understood this.  There was no grand plan except for a few of the movies made to have multiple chapters.  Instead, each entry presented Godzilla in a different manner, and both Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus were partially successful.  The issue was often that Toho didn't give the directors and special effects crews decent budgets, thus resulting in some impressive miniature work but often horrible CGI.  Because of that the feeling of watching an epic monster movie didn't surface until Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack.

It is 2004, 50 years after the original Godzilla (Mizuho Yoshida) attack on Tokyo, and the big monster has become a myth to those who didn't live through it.  SDF Adm. Taizô Tachibana (Ryudo Uzaki) still remembers as he was orphaned as a child.  His daughter Yuri (Chiharu Niiyama) works for a low-rent broadcasting company that does fake paranormal stories, often working closely with her colleague Teruaka Takeda (Mashario Kobayashi).  Admiral Tachibana is always concerned about Godzilla's return, something that Prof. Hirotoshi Isayama (Hideyo Amamoto) assures everyone will come.  When Yuri interviews him she is told that Godzilla is now possessed by the spirits of those who died due to Japan's aggression in World War II and that the only way to defeat the monster is by awakening the three guardian monsters: Baragon (Rie Ôta), Mothra and King Ghidorah (Akira Ohashi).  

Baragon is the first to arise, causing earthquakes as he makes his way toward Godzilla as he once again makes landfall.  He is defeated after a brief battle, with Mothra cocooning herself in a lake and emerging to take Baragon's place.  King Ghidorah is the last, awakened by Prof. Isayama using an ancient rite.  Mothra and King Ghidorah soon take on Godzilla, with Admiral Tachibana looking for his chance to strike as well as Yuri and Takeda finding that they have a chance to get the story of their life.  However, that may all be for nought if Godzilla cannot be defeated. 

The first thing I noticed about this film is that it dwells more on the consequences of a giant monster rampage through a major city as well as rural areas.  It doesn't pull any punches through most of the film, showing Godzilla wantonly murdering people.  The guardians are no better, and it is made clear they are there to protect the land itself and could care less about the silly humans that are occupying it.  Even Mothra, often portrayed as friendly in most of the films she appears in, has no qualms with killing some annoying kids while in caterpillar form. 

The big change is King Ghidorah.  In almost every other film he is the villain.  Here, rather than being a space monster that shoots "gravity lightning" and is often more than a match for Godzilla, he is the strongest of the guardians.  He still has no qualms of destroying human cities and buildings in order to take down what he considers a threat to his islands. 

Although this is one of the more serious entries there are still some of the usual silly moments one expects from the series, and there are several throwbacks to other movies, such as the actresses who play the twins in the Mothra films appearing as bystanders when she attacks (with the Mothra theme music playing) to play-by-play from a news helicopter of the battle between Godzilla and Baragon.  

The effects have greatly improved and the fully CGI Mothra looks great.  Other times the computer graphics look less impressive, but still better than the preceding films.  They still can't really get the underwater stuff right at this point, which is a shame because a good part of the final battle takes place between Godzilla and King Ghidorah in the ocean.  

Despite that this is still the best entry in the series since Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, and one of the more interesting takes on Godzilla and why he hates Japan so much.

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Time: 105 minutes
Starring: Chiharu Niiyama, Ryudo Uzaki, Masahiro Kobayashi, Mizuho Yoshida
Director: Shusuke Kaneko





 

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