Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Take That You Dinosaur!

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah is the third movie in the Heisei Godzilla series. Big G gets an upgrade and Ghidorah has a new origin story. The gullible humans once again fall for any story people in a spaceship tell them, much to their detriment.

The aliens in this movie turn out to be from Earth's future, called Futurians, because...well, why not? They arrive to tell the people of Japan that Godzilla who up to this time has been a somewhat protector will turn on the them and destroy the island. Back into time the Futurians go with a handful of 1991 characters to try and stop Godzilla from being created. The crew arrives on Lagos island during WWII where a dinosaur helped the Japanese there rout the American fleet because, well, why not? The dinosaur would mutate into Godzilla after nuclear bomb testing in 1954. Godzillasaurus, I kid you not, is transported to the 1991 Bering Strait so that he can't mutate. Of course a Russian nuclear sub starts the whole mutating cycle again. The Futurians turn out to not be the good helpers they originally appeared to be and now have King Ghidorah under their control.

There are plot holes galore in the timey wimey travel stories. Suffice it to say that Godzilla comes back bigger, badder, and madder.

Godzilla's weakness is nearly always the human stories. They weren't all bad in this one and there is a strong female lead who isn't military or a reporter who continually needs rescuing. Miki Saegusa is back as the ESP expert and per usual I am unimpressed with her one facial expression.

I'm never one to criticize guys in rubber suits, I find that to be part of the whimsical fun of these movies. The problem I had with the special effects were the ones unrelated to the monsters. They looked more 1976 than 1991. I was also saddened that they replaced Ghidorah's familiar shriek.

Ifukube Akira's score is a highlight to most Godzilla movies and this one was no exception.

Godzilla Vs Ghidorah was packed with a lot of story. Characters went back and forth in time. There were multiple monster issues and fights. Yet somehow, much of the first hour was dull, the characters were not nearly as compelling as the writers thought they were. Big G didn't stomp onto the scene until the final third of the movie. Godzillasaurus was interesting in his short scenes early on but even he was not what I came to see. It was the battle royale between Godzilla and the King, which turned out to be okay. The battle scenes ramped up as the credits neared making the movie worthwhile to watch. My biggest complaint in the final fight was that the good guys caused a lot of collateral damage and building destroying. It's one thing for monsters to do it, another for humans.

Big G vs The King is entertaining as long as you don't try to make too much sense from the convoluted story.

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