Godzilla Raids Again (And an Introduction)

Godzilla Raids Again...like he ever stops.

Before diving into Godzilla Raids Again, a little background about why I’m reviewing kaiju movies.

 

I grew up with the Godzilla films- an interest sparked, I believe, from my neighbors and closest friends in Washington, the Dupeas- sparked in turn, I believe by some of the G-films on MST3K. The origins are far enough past to be lost in hazy memory, but I do recall checking out a mix of Showa and Heisei G-films throughout my childhood. I even remember the few the library didn’t have (especially Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and Godzilla Raids Again) that were therefore my holy grails and last to see. I watched US versions with dubs, owned a number of them on VHS, and have even been fortunate enough to see Godzilla 2000, Godzilla (2014), and Shin Godzilla in theaters.

 

As for why now? Well, my franchises are failing me. Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who- most of the properties I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time devoting my entire life to are just… moving to a place that I can’t follow. They aren’t really the properties I love anymore. And when I received a blu-ray of the Heisei Gamera trilogy through a DVD-swap site I was involved with for a time, it seemed like the perfect ‘nicotine patch’- one franchise I still enjoyed to the fullest that would ease the symptoms of withdrawal. So, my wife and I kicked off what would become a weekly tradition- our Sunday night kaiju movie.

 

In our marriage, we’d already done a Toho marathon; we’ve seen the majority of the sci-fi entries, from Matango to Gorath  (Maguma forever!), as well as all the Gamera films. We’ve got a few small gaps (The Human Vapor,  Legends of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds), but generally we’re pretty well-rounded in the kaiju canon. However, we’d never watched the majority of these films in their uncut Japanese forms.

 

So, a number of months and some obsessive DVD/Blu-ray collecting later, we’ve assembled and have been working our way through the Godzilla series (along with the Heisei Mothra and Gamera trilogies), seeing them, in many ways, ‘for the first time.’ And for my own amusement, I have been writing reviews of them.

 

As for why ‘Raids Again?’ Well, honestly, the original Gojira is an acknowledged and mesmerizing classic, and I honestly don’t feel I have anything original or unique to say about it. It’s one of those films that seems almost… beyond critique. So, we’ll start on the next film in line and proceed from there- all the way to Shin Godzilla. (Skipping the ’98 monstrosity, because I don’t want to watch that thing). Who knows- by the time all’s said and done, maybe the Anime Godzilla film will have come out.

 

So, preamble aside, on to the first review…

 

 

Godzilla Raids Again has a reputation as perhaps the weakest Showa Godzilla film (perhaps barring Godzilla’s

"Did he say weakest!?!?"

Revenge). Well, I’m a little early on in my re-watching to make or challenge a comparative statement like that, but… I didn’t think it was that bad. Certainly, I enjoyed it more than Rodan.

 

Sure, it lacks the epic sweep of the original. The story is less consequential. And it suffers from two major slowdowns… the pre-refinery-fire Godzilla landing, and the ending (more on that later). But otherwise, the characters are likable, and their story is engaging enough; Tsukioka is the guy who has it all, and his friend Kobayashi wishes he did. Their friendship is at the core of the film, with Kobayashi’s loneliness a subtle but persistent theme throughout that really makes you pull for the guy. Both Tsukioka and his fiancé Hidemi are trying to help him- but their lives are complicated by the arrival of Godzilla. Sure, it’s not the deepest story; no one’s going to say this one’s better than Mothra vs. Godzilla or Ghidrah the Three-headed Monster. But it’s engaging enough that I seldom felt impatient, except for the long stretches of rampage. The criminal-escape added a nice bit of action, the dance was effectively romantic (and the interruption effectively mood-breaking, giving at least a hint of the dismay that the characters must be feeling at a much-higher level), the character-building and empathy were really brought by the restaurant scene… and hey, a Dr. Yamane cameo- fun! There were a lot of little moments that really worked, including Kobayashi’s fumbling attempts to find out from Hidemi how best he might woo his crush. (Though a more jaded, genre-savvy audience immediately know he’s going to die at this point…)

 

Okay, so there were some lagging points. The silent film reel of stock footage form Gojira? A bit too long. The evacuation procedural before the criminals mess everything up? A bit too long. And the ending… I understand why they went back to base (so Tsukioka could become a fighter pilot and avenge his friend personally, and to try and set up a major ‘spectacle ending’- however, just like the bombardment in Rodan, a ‘spectacle’ of a lot of subsequent explosions just gets numbing after a while), but the film would have ended a lot stronger if, after Kobayashi crashed, and everyone got the idea, their coordinated attack buried Godzilla. Narrative momentum would have been kept, the key inspiration of Kobayashi’s unintended sacrifice would have resonated a lot stronger- it would have been tight plotting. As it is, the sidetrack and protracted bombardment just kill the pacing a bit.

 

The effects are… actually quite good. Okay, the scout planes have visible wires far too often… but the miniatures look pretty great, the demise of the criminals in the subway is clever and effective miniature/live set overlaying, and the ending locale is well-realized. Those chunks of ice look a bit plastic, but other than that, the production values are high. A similar panning-through-the-ruins aftermath shot as the original is appreciated (and highlights nicely the terrain differences between Tokyoi and Osaka), the ‘centerpiece’ castle destruction is nicely achieved, with the shot of roof-tiles tumbling adding an extra ‘oomph’ to what would have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill miniature destruction, giving it a little extra scope and impact, and the choice to establish a (slightly fake-looking rear-screen projection, but we can forgive that) balcony view of the cityscape, then revisit it as ruins, was an excellent choice. The location was memorable enough the first time to stick, and really drive home the before-and-after nature of the destruction.

 

The music, meanwhile, is a bit repetitive, but still stirring and quite appropriate to the musical style created by the original film. I just wish the soundtrack had far fewer announcements preceded by grating buzzer-noises in the middle section.

 

A completely casual non-awkward picture.

Godzilla was a slightly more brutish, animal-type presence in this film, lacking his usual cunning and intelligence… but overall, he looked pretty good. The slimmer suit looked good. The puppet head was a bit lifeless, but he was well-articulated. The overcranked motion (accidental, and then decided to go with it) is a strange look for a kaiju that we’re used to seeing move slowly; I was reminded of the CGI Godzilla in Shin Godzilla, who likewise had some much faster movements than the lumbering slow-mo we’re traditionally used to. It does work against the sense of scale, unfortunately… but not too distractingly-so.

 

Anguirus doesn’t look quite as good here as he later would, with a larger, goofier crown of horns and much longer limbs keeping him higher off the ground. He looks much more like… well, a man in a suit, than later incarnations would. And the tradition of getting bit on the neck and soaked in his own blood comes right at the start, I see. Poor Anguirus. His resistance to the atomic ray is notable, at least- for as long as he was living.

 

A scrappy little fellow, but his end was FAR more decisive than I remembered. All the early Kaiju come in pairs, it seems, with at least one very clearly and definitively dying, and the second appearing with little explanation later on. Just as this is a second Godzilla, and we’ll see a later apparent survival of a second (or, if they both perished in the volcano, third) Rodan, we clearly have an inexplicable second Anguirus in later films. Perhaps ancient dinosaurs operated by Star Wars’ Rule of Two? (‘No more, no less- a master, and an apprentice…’)

 

My wife suggested that Godzilla and Mrs. Anguirus (the 70s Anguirus) were having an affair, and this was Godzilla

Definitely the face of a spurned lover.

taking out Mr. Anguirus so that the two of them could be together. That’s certainly a new way of looking at their relationship…!

 

Overall, Godzilla Raids Again was not nearly so flawed as its reputation led me to expect. Certainly, it lacks that ‘special something’ to make it great… but it also lacks any major flaws or irritants to make it unwatchable. It is solid, middle-of-the-line, average daikaiju fare- with only the occasional pacing problems, especially at the end, keeping it from nosing up to ‘pretty good’ status. (That sounds like ‘damning with faint praise,’ but that is not my intent.) Still, it’s watchable, I found the character drama and interplay engaging, and I was invested in the human storyline, which is more than I can say for a number of Showa entries (like, sorry to pick on it again, Rodan. We’ll get there soon, but I ended up watching it before GRA, so it was fresh in my head for this review… and even 70% of the way through the Showa era, at time of writing this note, Rodan still remains a low-light). 

So if it’s not as good as its peers, that’s a testament to their exceeding quality, not to any inherent shabbiness of Godzilla Raids Again. It does not transcend as some of the more classic entries do, and for that, it often gets dumped-on by comparison. But standing on its own, it’s a perfectly enjoyable little flick that satisfies nearly all the requirements of a classic, and falls short only on lacking a ‘spark’ or quality to elevate it to that level.

 

In a world where some kaiju films are actively hated (SpaceGodzilla, Final Wars, Megaguirus (if-you’re-like-me)), this film should definitely not get any flack, because while ‘innocuous’ may sound again like faint praise, it is definitely on the positive side of neutral, and that automatically puts it head-and-shoulders among some of the G-films that have actual issues. It’s fun, it’s watchable, I care about the characters; that’s really all you can ask of a movie. With some of the momentum-snags edited out and slightly broader imagination to its scope, it could well have been remembered as fondly as many of the entries that surround it.