The Achilles heal of these filmed has always been the humans who by default can never be as interesting as the monsters. 'Godzilla vs King Ghidorah' makes up for this somewhat with a goofy but sincere look at time travel that tries to delve into the origins of the big green guy. The faults are as one might expect, the monsters are under utilized for a great deal of the film and those wanting to see the film in the US have to suffer through a pretty awful dubbed version. The strengths? This Godzilla film has an interesting look into the past of the monster even in it's diluted time travel plot.
Godzilla films are nothing if not ambitious. So many of these films try their absolute hardest to deliver layers of exposition of how each entry relates to the monster and how the citizens of Japan try to stop it. The problem is that there is so much repetition of the ideas over and over again. 'Godzilla vs King Ghidorah' deserves some level of praise because of it's time travel plot. The time travelers themselves seem like they've come out of 'Plan 9' but I really like the idea of the monster originating in a World War II subplot. It is an ambitious idea that sort of finds that balance of making up for the fact that Godzilla can be a hero amidst his total destruction of Japan. You do get a satisfaction once Godzilla is brought back to life because this film does sort of have a sense of stakes behind it.
Ghidorah on the other hand does not have a character behind him. We don't really get to grasp why Ghidorah is Godzilla's greatest arch nemesis. The creatures Ghidorah spawns from are beyond ridiculous looking and so any sense of menace the character might have had is greatly limited in the long run. The actual time travelers seem to have complete control over him and so Ghidorah is never able to become his own entity. I imagine a great many Godzilla fans might have been disappointed by this characterization.
The monster battles are all golden. The suits look realistic and menacing and a great deal of destruction is thrown on the screen. This thing has an epic quality that the lesser giant monster films sometimes lack.
Unfortunately once we get past the monsters this film is inhabited by goofy humans. Like I said earlier the time travelers remind me so much of characters from 'Plan 9'. It isn't even the disconnect from adapting the film for Americans, these characters have legitimately bizarre dialogue that is meant to sound poignant but comes off as laughable.
Godzilla gets some decent treatment here. He is the main reason to see this film. Ghidorah and his handlers leave a lot to be desired.
Godzilla films are nothing if not ambitious. So many of these films try their absolute hardest to deliver layers of exposition of how each entry relates to the monster and how the citizens of Japan try to stop it. The problem is that there is so much repetition of the ideas over and over again. 'Godzilla vs King Ghidorah' deserves some level of praise because of it's time travel plot. The time travelers themselves seem like they've come out of 'Plan 9' but I really like the idea of the monster originating in a World War II subplot. It is an ambitious idea that sort of finds that balance of making up for the fact that Godzilla can be a hero amidst his total destruction of Japan. You do get a satisfaction once Godzilla is brought back to life because this film does sort of have a sense of stakes behind it.
Ghidorah on the other hand does not have a character behind him. We don't really get to grasp why Ghidorah is Godzilla's greatest arch nemesis. The creatures Ghidorah spawns from are beyond ridiculous looking and so any sense of menace the character might have had is greatly limited in the long run. The actual time travelers seem to have complete control over him and so Ghidorah is never able to become his own entity. I imagine a great many Godzilla fans might have been disappointed by this characterization.
The monster battles are all golden. The suits look realistic and menacing and a great deal of destruction is thrown on the screen. This thing has an epic quality that the lesser giant monster films sometimes lack.
Unfortunately once we get past the monsters this film is inhabited by goofy humans. Like I said earlier the time travelers remind me so much of characters from 'Plan 9'. It isn't even the disconnect from adapting the film for Americans, these characters have legitimately bizarre dialogue that is meant to sound poignant but comes off as laughable.
Godzilla gets some decent treatment here. He is the main reason to see this film. Ghidorah and his handlers leave a lot to be desired.