The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Plot Outline: The destruction of a Russian submarine at the height of the Cold War leads the Soviet Union to believe that the United States is responsible. The Japanese reveals that it is in fact the return of Japan's old nemesis, Godzilla.

The Review: After nearly a 10 year absence from the screen, Godzilla made his wildly anticipated return. Toho decided (wisely) to ignore every other Godzilla film barring the first one and start more or less from scratch to rewrite his legacy. Considering the silly jaunts of the early 70s, this is a good idea. It's is basically an attempted remake of the original and for the most, it fails to impress. There is a lot of talking for the majority and it's only when Godzilla finally shows up in Japan to destroy miniature sets does the film really take off. But this comes quite a long way into the film and by that point you're already pretty bored. There's a couple of weird moments earlier on with some mutant insects which are devouring sailors and this is explained to be causes of the radiation emitted by Godzilla. It seems to take an eternity for him to reach Tokyo and with a running time of only 87 minutes, it drags like hell. Godzilla doesn't look particularly convincing at times, especially close ups of his head which was really a 20ft tall 'cybot.' Think back to the big head used in the 1933 King Kong for close-ups and you get the picture of how silly this looks. Scenes with Godzilla walking through Tokyo and past massive skyscrapers are reasonably effective, as are moments when he destroys trains. But his damage isn't as deadly as it was in the original. The music doesn't build up much suspense or entertainment either which is a result of Toho failing to bring back Akira Ifukube, who injected the earlier films with an extra dimension with his exciting soundtracks. It's only coincidental that the worst Godzilla films are the ones without an Ifukube score. The acting is some of the lamest that you'll see in a Godzilla film including Russian actors on board their submarine but once again, bad dubbing is to blame for the most. But when you have dozens of Matchbox tanks firing caps at a man in a suit, who cares?

Final Verdict: At least this was good for one thing: it did bring Godzilla back into popular mainstream culture in Japan and spawned a whole new series of films which got a whole lot better. As far as this instalment goes, it's poor to say the least.

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