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This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'Destroy All Monsters' released by Tokyo Shock in 2014.
KING OF THE MONSTER MOVIES: This movie was the pinnacle of the early era of Godzilla movies. When this movie was made, it was intended to be the last Godzilla movie, at least for awhile. Even if you are like me and aren't enamored with the plot, you still have to give this movie 5 stars for being the 'King of the Monster Movies'.
TIMELINE: This movie is the 9th Godzilla movie overall out of 31 live action movie and the 9th of 15 movies from the 'Showa' era (1954-1975) of Godzilla movies. The Godzilla in this movie should be the second Godzilla, the same one from the 2nd through 8th movies, but there are some questions as to whether this movie should be considered part of a separate universe. The original Godzilla dies in the first movie and a second one emerges in the second movie. That is the same Godzilla that appears in all the movies up till this point.
9TH GODZILLA MOVIE OR 3RD KING GHIDORAH MOVIE?....OR EVEN 4TH MOTHRA MOVIE? It is generally taken for
granted that there are 15 Godzilla movies in the 'Showa' era. I don't necessarily agree with this. Just because someone guest stars in a movie, that doesn't make it his/her movie. The same way you wouldn't call Hulk appearing in the first Avengers movie the 3rd Hulk movie. How do we determine this anyway? For the record I like to use the title of Toho's International version of their movies. Their Japanese titles just don't translate into English all that well and seem odd. The American distributors often changed the names to their liking. So what does this mean?
I don't consider the 5th and 6th Godzilla movies to be Godzilla movies. King Ghidorah was clearly the main monster with the most screen time and the movies were named after him. If Godzilla had shown up in Rodan's, Mothra's or even Varan's movies for a guest appearance, would we be calling them Godzilla movies? Godzilla only appears in about 5 minutes of 'Invasion of the Astro Monster' and yet we call it a Godzilla movie. If nothing else, I would call, 'Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster' a Mothra movie since it is Mothra who is actually the leader of the resistance in that movie. This suggestion of mine can be difficult to answer. For instance, the so called 7th Godzilla movie is 'Ebirah, Horror of the Deep'. Is this the first Ebirah movie or the 7th Godzilla movie? It is named for Ebirah and Ebirah is the feature monster. Godzilla wasn't even supposed to be in this movie (He substituted for King Kong when right's issues cropped up). Godzilla's name appears in only 10 of the 15 titles of Godzilla movies (9 if you don't count Son of Godzilla but that's getting picky). Of course, Godzilla's name not appearing in the title doesn't disqualify it. After all, how many times does James Bond's name appear in the title of his movies?
BLU-RAY & EXTRA'S: The movie is shown in it's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. You can watch the movie with the English dubbing or in Japanese with English subtitles. The picture is almost entirely clear of imperfections. The colors seemed just slightly less vibrant than I've seen on some other Godzilla releases but it's not bad. Most of these early Godzilla movies have very bright colors. Overall, I'll give the picture a 7/10. The early version, that is very expensive, had some extra's. The current version does not.
SYNOPSIS: The movie starts 30 years in the future in the year 1999. The SY-3 is a United Nations rocket ship that is based on the moon. There are daily flights to the United Nations Moon base. The United Nations has also set up base on Monster Land (Monster Island?). All the world's monsters have been collected and brought there. The base is underground and is used to control the monsters. The monsters cannot leave the island. There is a magnetic shield that limits flight for monsters that can fly. Captain Yamabe is in the SY-3 investigating a disturbance on the moon when Monster Land Base is infiltrated with yellow gas. The SY-3 heads for Monster Land. Dr. Yoshido is the head of Monster Land but is away when this happens. Shortly thereafter, reports start coming in from around the world. Monsters are attacking and destroying all of the major cities of the world with the exception of Tokyo. Rodan attacks Moscow, Godzilla attacks New York, Gorosaurus attacks Paris, Manda attacks London and Mothra attacks Beijing.
On the way back to Earth, the crew of the SY-3 sees a UFO and follows it until it disappears. When they get to Monster Land they find the control room deserted. Suddenly Yamabe's girlfriend, Kyoko comes out along with Dr. Otani. They seem distant and emotionless. They tell the crew that the monsters are being controlled. They are introduced to a projected image of a Kilaak. The Kilaak's want to take over Earth and are eliminating any opposition. The SY-3 crew is attacked by the remainder of the Monster Land crew and the Captain Yamabe gets away with Dr. Otani. Shortly, while at a meeting with Dr. Yoshido, Dr. Otani kills himself by jumping out of a window. When they get to the body, Kyoko tries to abduct them with the help of some Kilaak's. The Japanese secret police show up and stop them. Later on, at an autopsy, a metal object is found in Dr. Otani. This was used to control him. Shortly thereafter, it is discovered that an unusual stone from space is being used to control the monsters. These stones are planted all around the world. Checkpoints are set up to search for aliens. The monsters finally reach Tokyo and attack. Yamabe goes hunting for the Kilaak base on Earth. They believe it to be near Mt. Fuji.
Captain Yamabe's tears out the earrings of his girlfriend, Kyoko. The earrings were being used by the Kilaak's to control her. The Kilaak's were sending messages through her and asking Earth to surrender. Unfortunately, she had no memory of the Kilaak's after the earrings were removed. Japan is puts up as strong a resistance as possible but it doesn't do much good. The monsters go about destroying everything in their path. Captain Yamabe finds the Kilaak's inside Mt. Fuji. They get out of there and head toward the moon in the SY-3. It has been discovered that the Kilaak's have a base there. The SY-3 crew gets to the moon and they penetrate the Kilaak base. Once inside, they see the Kilaak's true form. They are worm like creatures. They Kilaak's come from a very warm environment and need a lot of heat to survive. The crew dismantles the control device for the monsters and bring it back to Earth. With the device in hand, Dr. Yoshida is able to improve on it. Mankind now controls the monsters and they send them to Mt. Fuji. They all arrive and the Kilaaks call in King Ghidorah. A battle ensues in which King Ghidorah is pitted against all of Earth's monsters. Since King Ghidorah has been defeated before by just a few of the monsters, this battle goes as would be expected. King Ghidorah is not only defeated, but is killed, with it's heads going down for the count one by one. Even Minilla gets in on the action. Shortly, what appears to be some sort of flying monster on fire attacks Monster Land and destroys the base there. Godzilla finds the Kilaak base in Mount Fuji and starts destroying it. The SY-3 goes after the burning monster which turns out to be a Kilaak space ship. The SY-3 defeats the space ship and the Kilaak's are done for. The monsters all go back to monster island and we wave goodbye.
HAIL, HAIL, THE GANGS ALL HERE...:
-There are five monsters shown on Monster Island at the beginning, Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus and Anguiurus. Later we see Varan and Baragon on video screens. Minilla and Manda are also on the island. Kumonga shows up too.
ABOUT THOSE INCONSISTENCIES:
-A bunch of monsters that were killed are not dead in this movie. Among them are Gorosaurus, Kumonga and Varan.
-This movie is set 30 years in the future from 1969, which is to say it's 1999. So in effect everything that happens in the 10th through 15th movie occurs before this movie.
-Monster Island is called Monster Land.
-In this movie, Mothra is living on Monster Island when in fact Mothra lives on Infant Island. Also the fairy twins are not around in this movie.
WHAT HAPPENED TO VARAN AND BARAGON?
-If you look closely you can see these two on the monitors of Monster Land Base, the first time they show them. In addition, you see them when the battle against Ghidorah starts. The monster suits were no longer available and Toho didn't want to spend the money to make new ones. Instead they use some stock footage and some toys or puppets for the few seconds you see them. I don't really know what happened to Manda at the end. It shows up earlier in the movie to do some damage in a major city but then once we get to the main battle at the end, it hides in the background with Baragon and Varan.
TOO LATE FOR GHIDORAH?
- Why bring in Ghidorah after the aliens already lost control of the other monsters?
- Why bring Ghidorah to fight when he has already been defeated by Godzilla and Rodan (along with Mothra once) on two separate occasions. How would fighting the same monsters plus a bunch more change anything?
COULDN'T THEY JUST HAVE ASKED?: Why do the Kilaak's go through all this trouble. Why didn't they just ask if they could live here? This seems to be a trend in all these 'alien attack Earth' movies. They easily established an underground base. Why wasn't this good enough? It is determined that they need extreme heat to survive so it's not like they would have interfered with most of Earth. This would pretty much limit them to living inside active volcanoes.
PRODUCTION: 'Destroy All Monsters' was released by Toho in Japan in 1968. It was released in the United States in 1969.
-For me, this soundtrack was the best of the 'Showa' era.
-Baragon was supposed to attack Paris. Instead it's Gorosaurs, a last minute substitute. Baragon's costume was used in the movie but only briefly. It was in terrible shape.
-Monster Island was created in this film. It is called Monster Land but that is changed in future films.
-The special effects budget was increased because this was expected to be the finale of the Godzilla series and they wanted to send it off on a grand scale.
GUESS WHO ISN'T COMING TO DINNER?: Not everyone from the Toho universe made it. Even though this was only the 9th Godzilla movie. There were still quite a few 'kaiju' left out. Kamacuras from 'Son of Godzilla' isn't here. Ebirah and King Kong didn't find their way. The giant walrus from 'Gorath' was originally supposed to be a guardian of the Kilaak base. Frankenstein nor did the Giant Octopus show up. Also, the Giant Condor from, 'Ebirah, Horror of the Deep' missed out. Finally, the last two that I can think of are the two Gargantua's. I don't know if we count Moguera from 'The Mysterians'. Does Atragon count?
COMMENTS:
-The monsters use dolphins for food! This would go over well in today's environmental crazy world!
-I think they got a bit carried away with the SY-3. Being a versatile rocket ship is good. Turning it into an underground drilling rig is too 'over the top'.
-I thought the scene with Captain Yamabe pulling the earrings out of his girlfriends ears was pretty gruesome, especially for the time period. I think he could have been nicer and taken them off normally.
-Today, we consider all monsters in the Toho universe to be part of the same universe but originally they were not. Several of the monsters that appear in this movie exist in a different universe. Baragon exists in a world with Frankenstein. Varan was in a different universe, as was Manda.
CONCLUSIONS: It is well known that this movie was supposed to be the 9th and last Godzilla movie, at least for the 'Showa' era, as admissions were steadily declining in Japan. The previous movie, 'Son of Godzilla' badly under performed at the box office. Toho raised the budget and brought in as many monsters as they reasonably could (many of the monster suits had been destroyed over the years). It didn't turn out that way. They changed their minds. Some would say for the worse, since the remaining movies were by and large not good (my opinion differs quite a bit here, since 'Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster' is my favorite movie of the 'Showa' era but that is a story for another day). The 10th to 15th movies did produce two iconic monsters in Gigan and Mechagodzilla. The final movie of the era, 'Terror of Mechagodzilla', was too little too late for the franchise at this time. Anyway, Toho went all out to make an entertaining and fun movie to send off Godzilla and the rest of the Toho monsters and they succeeded in doing what they set out to do.
RATINGS:
PICTURE:7/10
PLOT: 6/10
THE BATTLE: 7/10
MONSTERS: 10/10 - They are all here. How can I not give a 10?
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 7/10
OVERALL: My scores in the RATINGS just above this line don't reflect a 5 star movie but nevertheless that is what I am giving this release. Truthfully, this isn't one of my favorite Godzilla movies. That doesn't matter. To a Godzilla fan, this is the apex of the 'Showa' era and that means it deserves 5 stars. Even if the plot was weak, Toho went all out to give the fans a fun movie. If this movie wasn't the iconic movie that it is, I would probably give it 3 1/2 stars and round it out to 4. That aside, this movie is the 'King' of the monster movies of the early Godzilla era.
| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
|
DVD
July 22, 2014 "Please retry" | Widescreen, Remastered! | 1 | $18.99 | $14.05 |
|
DVD
October 25, 2011 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $26.99 | $19.98 |
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