While I was never alive until the 1990s, I do get a kick out of the Godzilla movies of old. Sure, they look awful cheesy nowadays as they're either polystyrene monsters or a man in a rubber suit, but I'm able to empathize with the audiences of that age and realize that back then they were the real deal. Ultimately the most highly regarded among fans is the 1984 movie entitled "The Return of Godzilla" (though in Japan originally called Gojira, but later re titled to avoid confusion with the 1954 movie). The film is also set in Japan during the Cold War and attempts to return Godzilla back to his more horrific roots, as a reminder of why nuclear weapons are bad.
There's a lot to love about this movie but there's also just a tad too much to hate about it, which is why I find myself split down the middle on this one. It is no secret that the 1970s/1960s Godzilla movies were truly bad at times but were guilty pleasures- but to see this film try to make Godzilla a terrifying natural disaster again is very refreshing. With the dark atmosphere enhanced by its Cold War setting and obvious allusions to the tensions between the US and Russia, sadly what really squanders this film's potential is the horrible direction. The plot is simple and effective, but there's too much of a dissonance between the writers' script and engaging storyline (the government discovers that Godzilla is attracted to birds calling and sets up a sound signal to lure him to a volcano for him to fall into), and that's a problem. In fact, it's almost as if the director thought he was directing a different film
The attack scenes have tons of potential to be terrifying and sadly they're ruined by threadbare and lazy direction. When Godzilla takes his stroll through Tokyo, we don't get the impression that this event is terrifying mostly because while it's obvious that so much detail went into the suit and the miniature sets, the scene as a whole feels static. In fact, there's also an animatronic Godzilla used for setups and it's easy to tell which scenes use the animatronic Godzilla. Those scenes look oddly too mechanical. And while the finale will jerk some tears from the audience, it's really the only scene that has any impact. Which is a shame because the film could be terrifying. In fact, luckily the goal of making us scared of Godzilla was achieved five years later with Godzilla Vs. Biollante, which is a truly exceptional film.
There's a lot to love about this movie but there's also just a tad too much to hate about it, which is why I find myself split down the middle on this one. It is no secret that the 1970s/1960s Godzilla movies were truly bad at times but were guilty pleasures- but to see this film try to make Godzilla a terrifying natural disaster again is very refreshing. With the dark atmosphere enhanced by its Cold War setting and obvious allusions to the tensions between the US and Russia, sadly what really squanders this film's potential is the horrible direction. The plot is simple and effective, but there's too much of a dissonance between the writers' script and engaging storyline (the government discovers that Godzilla is attracted to birds calling and sets up a sound signal to lure him to a volcano for him to fall into), and that's a problem. In fact, it's almost as if the director thought he was directing a different film
The attack scenes have tons of potential to be terrifying and sadly they're ruined by threadbare and lazy direction. When Godzilla takes his stroll through Tokyo, we don't get the impression that this event is terrifying mostly because while it's obvious that so much detail went into the suit and the miniature sets, the scene as a whole feels static. In fact, there's also an animatronic Godzilla used for setups and it's easy to tell which scenes use the animatronic Godzilla. Those scenes look oddly too mechanical. And while the finale will jerk some tears from the audience, it's really the only scene that has any impact. Which is a shame because the film could be terrifying. In fact, luckily the goal of making us scared of Godzilla was achieved five years later with Godzilla Vs. Biollante, which is a truly exceptional film.