Godzilla's Revenge
Starring: Tomonori Yazaki, Hideyo Amamoto, Sachio Sakai, Kazuo Suzuki
Directed by: Ishiro Honda
Rating: G
Genre: Science Fiction
1969

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A boy dreams of traveling to Monster Island and befriending Godzilla's son as a way to deal with bullies and his absent parents.

Review:

Tim: This is the worst Godzilla movie ever made. I know that sounds strong, but it's the truth. This is the 10th film in the Godzilla franchise, and while there had been bad movies before, none dropped to this level. This is a shame, because this movie actually tried to do something different. In any franchise ten movies in, things are bound to be a little stale. This film changed things up quite a bit, and it's horribly punished for it. I feel bad, but a poor movie is a poor movie.

The first problem is that this film is aimed directly at children (unfortunately, the adults were really left out). I don't have a problem with kids' movies, but at this point Godzilla is an established franchise audiences knew what to expect. They were always a little immature, but the films were meant for adults and children to both enjoy. This movie focuses on the kids and excludes the adults. Not good.

The second issue I had with this film is that the monster battles all take place in a child's imagination and dreams. One of the big mysteries of this film is the ambiguity about whether the monsters are real at all. I don't know the answer, but I do know this- when I watch two monsters fight in someone's dream, I have zero interest in the outcome. Why would I care who wins? None of it is real, it's all just made up. This took the most exciting aspect of a Godzilla movie (the monster battle) and it made it completely uninteresting. How could anyone think this was a good idea? To make matters even worse, way too much stock footage was used. Watching this film, I kept thinking to myself, "Haven't I already seen this before?" The answer is yes, which further made this movie redundant and pointless.

This is all very unfortunate, because this film actually manages to tell a somewhat sad and dramatic story. The protagonist is a little boy who get bullied by bigger kids and deals with absentee parents. This is actually fairly heartbreaking. This element is the film's strongest. The problem is that no one goes to a Godzilla movie to meditate on how parents' absence in their child's life might affect him emotionally. The producers tried to do two different things. They could have told the boy's story in a drama, or told a monster saga in a science fiction film, but these two elements don't mix very well here.

This film made me long for the very adult, frightening aspects of the original Gojira. The tale of Godzilla has devolved over the last nine films to a twinkle-your-toes kiddie movie. The scenes with Godzilla's son were atrocious, and the voice dubbing was absolutely trash. This is by far the worst movie in a franchise all too familiar with disappointments. Godzilla's Revenge is the Halloween III of this franchise. I sincerely hope that like Halloween, the producers realize their mistake and turn things around. These movies can't get a whole lot worse, but I'm frightened to see if they do. I would much rather forget this movie was ever made.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 3.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Gojira, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Son of Godzilla