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Godzilla seems to be slowly disintegrating, and despite all of the
scientists sitting in G-Force, only highschool kid Kenichi (Yasufumi
Hayashi) knows why: Because Godzilla's heart functions like a nuclear
powerplant, and now it has experienced some kind of overload and starts to
melt down.So G-Force tries everything to keep him cool, they even change
their traditional heatray guns to freezeray guns, because should Godzilla
explode, it would mean the end of the world.
Kenichi and his sister Yukari (Yoko Ishino) meanwhile try to persuade
scientist Ijuin (Takuro Tatsumi) to make them an oxygen destroyer, just
like the one that disintegrated the first Godzilla in the 1954 movie (click
here) ... but then the unexpected happens: residues of the oxygen
destruction that disintegrated Godzilla I are now developing into monsters
of their own, first pretty small, then growing bigger and bigger until
they can wipe out squads sent in to fight them, then they assemble and
transform into a giant monster, Destroyer, that once again destroys Tokyo.
What Japan needs now is Godzilla, but Godzilla is on the way to the
Bering Sea to reunite with his son, so G-Force turns to psychic girl Miki
(Megumi Odaka, annoying as usual) to bring little Godzilla (who has grown
into quite a big monster in his own right) to Tokyo to lure the Big G here
too.
Soon enough, Godzilla jr takes up the fight with Destroyer ... but he
proves too young and inexperienced for an opponent as strong and cunning
as Destroyer and is eventually killed in fight. Then big Godzilla arrives,
already glowing due to the meltdown taking place in his body, and he gives
Destroyer one hell of a fight ... and ultimately, Destroyer can put up
nothing that Godzilla can't beat, neither in his assembled nor in his
disassembled form, and Godzilla annihilates Destroyer, just before his
time is up. But before he dies, Godzilla breathes life back into his son,
and when he finally explodes, G-Force is at the scene to control the
explosion and make sure the earth is not blown up with Godzilla ... and
you know what, they succeed.
In the end, earth is saved, Godzilla jr has proven himself a worthy
successor to his father and everybody is happy ...
Godzilla vs Destoroyah was to have been not only the last film
of the second Godzilla-series but also the last Godzilla-film
ever to be produced in Japan, before the franchise was to have been
exported to Hollywood to be infused with new life starting with Roland
Emmerich's Godzilla from 1998. As you might know, this ultimately
failed when Emmerich's film failed at the box office as well as with
critics and die-hard Godzilla fans, simply because his film,
a mediocre desaster movie with a dinosaur put into the mix, pretty much
sucked and his creature had nothing whatsoever to do with Godzilla, and
before the millenium was over, Toho was back to producing more Godzilla-movies
... but all of this is a story best left for another day.
Fact is, Godzilla vs Destoroyah was to be Godzilla's
farewell-film and at least should have been something special, something
big - but the finished film doesn't quite live up to its promises: The
whole thing is carried by very weak human characters, many subplots seem
to lead to nowhere, much of the scientific gobbledegook alienates rather
than explains anything, and the way too many references to the original Gojira,
the film that started the whole franchise, are little more than annoying
(unless maybe if you are a real die-hard fan, I don't know).
That all said, the film isn't all bad, there are some cool scenes of
destruction and monster fights to keep things going, plus a bit of this
inventive but ridiculous futuristic weaponry I'm rather fond of, which
makes Godzilla vs Destoroyah an ok entry into the series ... it's
just nothing special and by no means the send-off the series would have
deserved - which is a bit of a pity ...
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