John Panagopoulos Suddenly finding myself determined to watch a loony Toho kaiju extravaganza from beginning to end, I caught 1991's "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" (hereafter "GVKG")on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 8:15 p.m. on Encore. I am indebted to many of the posters who have already meticulously explained GVKG's contorted "time travel" plot. They probably did a better job than I could. Crazy as it is, that plot at least provides a semi-believable origin for both the atomic-powered lizard and the three-headed electricity spewing dragon. They were both mutated by the fallout of American H-Bomb test blasting during World War II, though not at the same time. Godzilla was originally the dinosaur Godzillasaurus, and King Ghidorah was a giant fusion of three cat-sized flying dragon things call dorats. As usual, it takes more than half the movie for the two behemoths to meet, but meet they do, not once but twice.Until the monsters' cataclysmic clash, we have to endure the usual, somewhat effeminate English dubbing of not only Japanese scientists, military personnel, and corporate CEOs, but also that of futuristic time travelers (including a Terminator-like android called M-11) who arrive in '90s Japan to offer a seemingly magnanimous chance for the nation to get rid of Godzilla forever - go back to the past before the Godzillasaurus was mutated, let the "imperialist" American World War II leave him mortally wounded, and then transport him back to the present to let him die in the ocean. Of course the aliens are not benevolent; fearing the rise of Japan as a conquering superpower, they resurrect and manipulate King Ghidorah to destroy Japan without any interference. The Japanese then decide to mutate the dying Godzillasaurus to help save them, but a nuclear sub explosively beats them to the punch. Godzilla is back but, as they say, the cure is worse than the disease. Now the Japanese must hijack an alien time travel ship to go back to the future to reanimate King Ghidorah, cybernetically fit him out, even give him a human-operated mechanical neck and head to replace the one Godzilla severed in the first battle, and send him back for a rematch. Which monster wins? Does it matter? Is Japan doomed anyway? Oops, I guess I regurgitated the plot again! :S GVKG is goofy typical Toho monster mashing, enhanced somewhat by the nuclear genetic mutation and time-spanning plot, and sometimes remarkable special effects, including a pre-Jurassic Park animation of the Godzillasaurus which "saves" a "noble" Japanese regiment, and especially its deeply grateful commander, from American naval annihilation. Also lurking in the movie is the ambivalent regard Japan has of itself as both a nationalistically and technologically proud but also reckless and potentially destructive (economically and ecologically) Japan. GVKG seems to view America that way as well. Godzilla is the "unfriendly" undying symbol of that country-conquering spirit.

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain Godzilla and time travel fumble around with each other in an enjoyable but confusing entry. It mostly confuses because the time travel plot doesn't make much sense. Why do the aliens just move Godzilla? Who knows. It's great to see a bit more origin, even if it doesn't all add up. There are some excellent comedic scenes, aided by some hammy acting. The scene with a Mr. Spielberg is a great laugh out loud moment. The war scenes are a little something new, and the anti Americanism has been blown out of proportion. One of the characters even says that the dinosaur was just protecting its island. Ghidorah soon makes an appearance, and there's even more fun to be had with Mecha-Ghidorah. This was a jump back into the cheesiness of earlier films, but after the undeserved failure of the previous installment, that was to be expected.

bkoganbing To this day when you speak of the Japanese cinema, most folks won't talk about Rashomon, or the Seven Ronin, or Ran. To the masses the Japanese cinema means all those monsters we've grown to love destroying those Japanese cities over and over again, lots of times in battles with each other. The first and greatest of these is Godzilla who's come back a dozen times or more and in a few films faced the three headed hydra like monster from outer space, Ghidrah.Oddly enough in keeping with the times, the special effects got slightly better. But part of the charm of those old films was seeing those paper mache city sets destroyed, they looked so phony, maybe three steps above Ed Wood.Some visitors from the future have time traveled to Japan to urge that Godzilla be destroyed from when he was first discovered. And in fact he was first discovered as a surviving dinosaur during World War II when he protected the Japanese garrison on a Pacific island from those American troops. But later on with atomic testing on Bikini, Godzilla the friendly dinosaur just like Barney became the mean machine we've grown to know in the cinema.Of course you eliminate Godzilla than you give Ghidrah a clear field to wreck Japan so it does not become the economic colossus it was by 1991 when the film came out. More I won't say, but we all know Japan is doing reasonably well as 2010.Like all the other Japanese monster films, just sit back and enjoy the mayhem.

gigan-92 The third entry in the Heisei Godzilla series, and a great one at that. One reason to love it if you're a fan, as myself, is that King Ghidorah returns!! Just as maniacal and evil as he was in the Showa films. Unfortunately, King Ghidorah would be a 'good guy' the next time him and Godzilla face off, in GMK, in ten years. This film is famous for revealing the Monster King's origin. More on that later...Akira Ifukbe also returns to score the film, bringing back Godzilla and Ghidorah's original themes, which both sound spectacular. The human characters are pretty throughout,but the action sequences sub-par. One major problem with this film is simply that Kazuki Omori's screenplay called for too much human action that the budget was definitely not big enough for. However that wasn't the point in this film, at least most of the time, with its political statements and essentially deep plot, if you look at it in a satirical yet intricate perspective. In fact there are quite a bit of themes in this film if you dig deep enough and don't dismiss the film for Toho's expected budget. Moving away from that, Ghidorah not only has a new look, but a new origin. I could explain it, but you'll get it after seeing it a few times I assume. The King of Darkness looked great and his rampage scenes look awesome. The only thing I didn't like about him was that he wasn't given his original roar ( or shriek, whatever you want to call it) and instead a modified Rodan-cackle. Whatever....Godzilla looks incredible and I love his roar. He doesn't appear till the last 38 minutes but once he does he gets plenty of action scenes that were well done for the most part. The Godzillasaurus was a cool monster and its fight with the Navy vessels was great. It wasn't till later I realized they used Gamera's roar as the creature dies, I guess a bit of a spoof of some sort. I guess Toho had no idea Gamera would return in 1995 with a new series of films that would challenge Godzilla as the Monster King. Mecha-King Ghidorah was a nice edition as well and the final battle was top notch. To me, however, the battle between the two title monsters was the best and one of the best in the Heisei series. I admire it for its creativity and for its physical side. The part where Ghidorah uses his python like necks to strangle Godzilla was my favorite moment.Mr. Shindo and Godzilla's confrontation was actually a bit moving. But when a story involves time travel, there are bound to be flaws. To go into this continuity catastrophe with great detail would be too much for this review. So despite the continuity of the Heisei series now ruined, this film deserves respect for great monsters and its other aspects and I still find it enjoyable to watch. You'll literally rate it two stars lower if you watch the Sony Tristar dub, seeing as it was f*ckin terrible to say the least.