Because of some recent geological events, which also resulted in an island disappearing, Godzilla's (Kenpachiro Satsuma) "radioactive heart" is out of whack, and a nuclear meltdown is threatening--Godzilla could explode, and that would mean that all of life on the Earth would be wiped out, at least according to the computer simulation. Still, the military thinks it's a good idea to attack Godzilla and risk destroying the world, because otherwise Godzilla might ruin a few more blocks of downtown Tokyo. So they employ a number of tactics, including something about micro-oxygen which either infuses things with oxygen or depletes them of oxygen, depending on which page of the script rewrite we're on, some kind of freezing rays, mostly shot from a space-age experimental jet, and a gaggle of alternate monsters that can join together and become a super-monster named Destoroyah, and which shoots out micro-oxygen rays, freezing rays, or, well, something.
My account of the premise on this one should give you a good idea of how confusing the plot is this time around. Out of all of the Toho Godzilla films I've seen so far, and that's nowhere near the majority of them yet, this is the worst. On the other hand, it also has high entertainment value for being so bad. It's guaranteed to keep you laughing as you try to make any sense out of the plot. Thus, Godzilla earns my valuable 5 out of 10 rating, which is solely reserved for films that are "so bad they're good" (which is subtly different from films that are, let's say, very "different" than most standards of film-making and evaluation, but that are good despite their weirdness/ridiculousness, which is a large percentage of the Godzilla films).
Part of the problem is that the plot is very complicated. Most of it hinges on pseudo-scientific gobbledy-gook, and it's not very consistent with itself. Kazuki Omori's script is like an ever-shifting game of Clue. The weapons bounce back and forth between micro-oxygen, freezing rays and Destoroyah (a name that seems to be used both for monsters and a deadly scientific device), the perpetrators bounce back and forth between scientists, various factions of the military and monsters, and the locations bounce back and forth between various Tokyo locales and the ocean. It gets very confusing trying to figure out what's going on--is it the scientists with the freezing rays in the ocean, or the monsters with the micro-oxygen downtown, or the military with the freezing rays at the airport? I suppose I could have kept hitting pause and tried graphing the plot, but that seemed like too much work for watching a Godzilla film. Instead, my attention turned to how ridiculous and funny everything was, and I was extremely entertained.
Like many Godzilla films, the big brawl at the climax of the film mostly consisted of relatively random special effects, which are supposed to be the monsters shooting out rays of stuff from their mouths, eyes, armpits, etc. It's not usually clear what any of the special effects are supposed to do, because there is little consistency in the reactions of the monsters to the different special effects, and they take turns acting like they're hurt and then getting back up as if nothing had happened--something like "professional wrestling".
However, this film is notorious for supposedly being the end of Godzilla, or at least this nth instantiation of Godzilla, and the "nuclear meltdown" scene has some pretty nifty effects.
If you can enjoy it for its absurdity, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is worth a watch. Everyone else should avoid.
My account of the premise on this one should give you a good idea of how confusing the plot is this time around. Out of all of the Toho Godzilla films I've seen so far, and that's nowhere near the majority of them yet, this is the worst. On the other hand, it also has high entertainment value for being so bad. It's guaranteed to keep you laughing as you try to make any sense out of the plot. Thus, Godzilla earns my valuable 5 out of 10 rating, which is solely reserved for films that are "so bad they're good" (which is subtly different from films that are, let's say, very "different" than most standards of film-making and evaluation, but that are good despite their weirdness/ridiculousness, which is a large percentage of the Godzilla films).
Part of the problem is that the plot is very complicated. Most of it hinges on pseudo-scientific gobbledy-gook, and it's not very consistent with itself. Kazuki Omori's script is like an ever-shifting game of Clue. The weapons bounce back and forth between micro-oxygen, freezing rays and Destoroyah (a name that seems to be used both for monsters and a deadly scientific device), the perpetrators bounce back and forth between scientists, various factions of the military and monsters, and the locations bounce back and forth between various Tokyo locales and the ocean. It gets very confusing trying to figure out what's going on--is it the scientists with the freezing rays in the ocean, or the monsters with the micro-oxygen downtown, or the military with the freezing rays at the airport? I suppose I could have kept hitting pause and tried graphing the plot, but that seemed like too much work for watching a Godzilla film. Instead, my attention turned to how ridiculous and funny everything was, and I was extremely entertained.
Like many Godzilla films, the big brawl at the climax of the film mostly consisted of relatively random special effects, which are supposed to be the monsters shooting out rays of stuff from their mouths, eyes, armpits, etc. It's not usually clear what any of the special effects are supposed to do, because there is little consistency in the reactions of the monsters to the different special effects, and they take turns acting like they're hurt and then getting back up as if nothing had happened--something like "professional wrestling".
However, this film is notorious for supposedly being the end of Godzilla, or at least this nth instantiation of Godzilla, and the "nuclear meltdown" scene has some pretty nifty effects.
If you can enjoy it for its absurdity, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is worth a watch. Everyone else should avoid.