Godzilla Vs Biollante (1989)

Plot Outline: Godzilla remerges from the volcano where everyone thought he died and starts to destroy Tokyo, only this time he looks to be unstoppable. Meanwhile a scientist has created a new plant/human hybrid called Biollante using DNA from his dead daughter mixed in with that of a plant. This grows to enormous size and eventually becomes big enough to do battle with Godzilla.

The Review: The long-awaited follow up to The Return of Godzilla sees the return of Godzilla to more familiar territory - instead of taking on just the Japanese army, he's also fighting ludicrously thought-of monsters who want to kill him. Biollante, by far the biggest ever opponent for Godzilla, doesn't do that much although the make-up and special effects for it are interesting to say the least. It's the most unique of Godzilla's opponents and to say it's a big, killer flower, certainly poses quite a menacing sight. Godzilla is also given a meaner, more aggressive look in this one - a far cry from the feeble robot-like monster from the previous film or the superhero version from the late 70s. I'd have preferred to have seen Biollante battle Godzilla a little more but obviously the budget wouldn't extend to too many fights, especially given the complexity of shooting with Biollante's multiple tentacles. The military also get another ass-kicking by Godzilla as miniature tanks, helicopters and other vehicles are dispatched by the almighty monster. Toho has managed to work military stock footage in with the miniatures to create good illusions of the monsters fighting toe-to-toe with the armed forces. The film has an underlying theme of "don't do genetic engineering" which wasn't really explored much and thus introduced the human plots to which the majority of the film is based. The dubbing for the human actors isn't great either but not many Toho films are. Koichi Sugiyama's score lacks the passion and likeability that Akira Ifukube's scores had. The battle scene just aren't the same without one of Ifukube's rousing scores to go alongside the carnage. On the positive side it's quite violent for a Godzilla film as not only the monsters exchange bloody thrusts but human actor get electrocuted on screen too!

Final Verdict: I'll give it credit for trying to be a little different but one of the reasons why Godzilla has become so popular is the repetition factor - people like me watch his films knowing what to expect. And when they don't deliver the requisite monster battles and little miniature cities in abundance, there is outcry. Just like here.

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