Customer Reviews

Godzilla Vs King Ghidora [VHS]

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Godzilla Vs. King Gidorah is the third movie in the Heisei series, the first two being Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla Vs. Biollante, and continues with the higher production values.

Humans from the future have come to Japan to warn that Godzilla will soon recover from the anti-nuclear bacteria and lay waste to Japan. The best way to stop him would be to go back to 1945 and move the godzillasaurus from the Marshal Islands before it can be mutated into Godzilla. They then go back to perform the deed. After that the dinosaur saves a troop of Japanese soldiers from the attacking Americans it is teleported to the Bering Strait. But the future humans leave behind three small bio-engineered creatures called dorats.

Back in our present day Godzilla no longer exists (although there are no real changes). But now a new monster, King Gidorah, has risen. King Gidorah was created when the dorats were exposed to the radiation that originally created Godzilla. That the future humans are actually here to prevent Japan from becoming the number-one world power. With King Gidorah under their control they should be able to destroy Japan. The Japanese government decides to locate the godzillasaurus and expose it to enough radiation to recreate Godzilla. But a sunken nuclear sub has beat them to it. Godzilla lives and is bigger than ever.

At about that time a schism opens among the future humans and two, a Japanese woman and an android, decide to help current Japan. Godzilla manages to defeat King Gidorah and blow off its middle head. But then Godzilla takes up where King Gidorah left off. Now Japans only hope is for the future humans to restore King Gidorah and defeat Godzilla. Back in the future King Gidorah is located and augmented into Mecha-King Gidorah who comes back to drive off Godzilla. In the end the two monsters plummet into the sea.

This is a real fun one. I am glad Tri-Star Pictures was able to finally release this one in America after a long delay (although the portrayal of Americans is not too favorable).

This film, the sequel to GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE, is one of the very best of Toho's series. It begins with a very impressive musical score, and the arrival of people from the future. They say Godzilla will arise and lay waste to Japan, and ultimately the world. So, they go back to remove the Godzillasaur from Lagos Island(which is where he'll become Big-G)in place of the dinosaur, three dorats are placed on the island. The creatures become King Ghidorah. To defend Japan from Ghidorah's wrath, Godzilla is reborn(100 meters!)The monsters fight, and at the end it is MechaKing Ghidorah that delivers the final blow to Godzilla who is attacking Japan. A very good movie! Highly reccommended for Ghidorah and Godzilla fans!

In the beginning of the movie a UFO is spotted over Tokyo. Aircraft had disapeered. What is going on? The people in the UFO are from the year 2024. These people say Godzilla will destroy Japan. So they go back to Febuary, in 1944(During World War II). Godzilla was a dinosaur back then and moved the dinosaurm into the Bering Sea. Then the put the Dorats out. Then the H-Bomb turns the Dorats into a powerful 3-headed monster called King Ghidorah. Next, King Ghidorah destroys a city. Then a nuclear sub uses radioactive weapons to turn the dinosaur back into Godzilla. Godzilla and King Ghidorah fight. Godzilla blasts King Ghidorah's middle head off, and makes a hole in its wing with Godzilla's raidioactivity. Godzilla attacks another city. Meanwhile the people go back to the future and revive King Ghidorah into a cyborg (called Mecha-King Ghidorah) to stop Godzilla. Godzilla and Ghidorah battle in Tokyo. Who wins? Whatch this movie to find out.

G vs KG is an exciting film with many twists and turns. It also marks the return of composer Akira Ifukube, whose presence was sorely missed in previous entries. Director/scripter Kazuki Omori deserves credit for weaving serious themes into his sci-fi films. Though the time travel scenario creates some lapses in logic, the plot still functions in a coherent and believable manner. The spfx are well done, excepting the Muppet-esque Dorats, exciting, and complex. King Ghidorah looks good, though not as good as his classic-era incarnation. His new roar is not as inspired either. The Big G looks simply awesome! This design is understandably a favorite among fans. His new height, though criticized by some, adds immeasurably to his screen presence. This is a Godzilla who looks like he could rip apart any opponent without so much as a second thought. Suitmation actor Ken Satsuma continues to perfect his depiction of a more animalistic Godzilla. His work in the suit, often an underrated part of a kaiju production, is instrumental in creating a Godzilla for a new generation. This is a great film that will thrill both new and old fans of The Big G.

"Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" is, for the most part, the film that represents the Heisei Godzilla series at its apex. The updating of both the "new" Godzilla and his three-headed nemesis King Ghidorah is worthy of the original movies directed by Ishiro Honda...and that's saying a lot. While colder in tone than Honda's films (some of the sense of wonder in the kaiju world was lost in Kazuo Omori's direction), the story about the creation of Godzilla and the plot of subversive terrorists from the future planning to destroy 20th-century Japan via King Ghidorah is overall a good one. Godzilla has been revamped in what I personally consider the best suit of the Heisei series. Kawakita's special effects are for the most part magnificent, even if his King Ghidorah flies a little stiffly at times. Eiji Tsubaraya must have been smiling down on Kawakita for this film. Anna Nakagawa is particularly good as Emmy, the woman from the future who turns against her fellow future bad guys. But the movie really belongs to longtime Godzilla great Yoshio Tsuchiya, who steals the show as the industrialist Shindo, whose life was spared in World War II by Godzilla, only to later see the business empire he built destroyed by the Big G. And if this weren't enough, Godzilla alumni Akira Ifukube returns with a huge, sprawling score that recalls the glorious past of the kaiju eiga. This movie is right up there with "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II"...it's that good. As always, I have a problem with the dubbing, but what else is new? If you can find a Japanese version on this movie, get it. If not, this will do just fine as a substitute.

I actually think this movie deserves 3.5 stars, but oh well. One good thing about this movie is that we get to see what Godzilla looked like before coming Godzilla! It's SO cool!

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah is perhaps the most entertaining and controversial of the Heisei (1989-1995) Godzilla films. It is fast-paced with great monster battles, humor, intentional and otherwise, a great, imposing Godzilla design, a climatic, knock-down, drag-out kaiju battle in Tokyo and one of the best versions of King Ghidorah, the Mecha King Ghidorah.

So, what's the probelm?

Time travel. People from the future (2204, to be exact) who've traveled back to 1992 to prevent Godzilla from destroying Japan by preventing him from being created in the first place by going back to 1944, where on Lagos Island during the Pacific War, the Godzillsaurous...you'll just have to see it.

If you can get past (no pun intended; well, maybe a little) the time travel plot devise, you'll find GvsKG a lot of fun. Just don't look for great themes or moving performances with the exception of Yoshio Tsuchiya as Japanese businessman Yasauki Shindo, whose encounters with the stricken Godzillasaurous on Lagos Island, and then Godzilla in Shinjuku in Tokyo are actually well done and believable.

This is one of the best Godzilla films I have ever seen. Monsters, Robots, UFO's it has everything for a die hard fan.

Take the two greatest monsters of all time: Godzilla and King Ghidorah. Add a UFO, time travelers, an android, and a hot Japanese lady from the future. Throw in all kinds of crazy subplots and alternate history, and you get one monster of a movie. This may be my favorite Godzilla movie of all time. Yes, there are some plot holes big enough for Godzilla himself to fall into, but who really cares that much about plot holes when you're talking about the king of the monsters? Here's some of the story: time-travelers from earth's future arrive in Japan via a UFO to warn the government of Godzilla's imminent return to and total destruction of Japan. But, they say, they have a plan to prevent that from happening. Now we get into the alternate history stuff. It turns out that a regular old dinosaur saved a company of Japanese soldiers from American soldiers in 1944; a nearby island was the site of an H-bomb test a few years later, and that good-hearted dinosaur mutated into Godzilla. The time travelers, with the assistance of a writer, a scientist, and a lady from the Godzilla-detecting ESP Institute, travel back to 1944 and transfer the pre-radiated dinosaur to the bottom of the ocean. The Japanese should already know by now never to trust aliens--this time they secretly leave behind three gremlin-like "pets." They return to the current earth time and discover that the three cute creatures, when subjected to the H-bomb test that would have created Godzilla a few years later, merged and turned into King Ghidorah. Now, Godzilla is nowhere to be found (and should not really even exist--but does--in the minds of anyone except the people who went back in time) and King Ghidorah is attacking Japan. Now, everyone wishes Godzilla were there to protect Japan. The Japanese send a secret nuclear sub to try and turn the dinosaur into Godzilla by irradiating him with nuclear energy, only to find the big guy already awake (luckily, another nuclear sub had sunk in the exact same area some time before). Now, the fight is on between Godzilla and King Ghidorah. If you think the movie ends there, you are quite mistaken. I won't try to describe the rest of the action, but I will say that it has some fantastic twists and turns.

The special effects are really pretty incredible in these modern Godzilla movies. King Ghidorah doesn't have his trademark roar in this one, but he has everything else a fierce three-headed flying monster needs to wreak havoc. The battle scenes between the Americans and Japanese in 1944 are an added treat. By this point in the history of Godzilla, it pays not to think too hard about things. We already knew that none of the movies between the original Godzilla and Godzilla 1985 really happened, and now we get a real twist relating to Godzilla's birth. As if that weren't enough, we get Godzilla created yet again in modern-day Japan. I guess this means none of the movies before this one really happened. Who ever thought watching Godzilla movies would require real thought?

This is a good movie to watch IF you ignore the holes in the storyline. The change in King Ghidorah's origin is a nice touch and the battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah is a far cry from the past battles they fought in the 1970's movies. King Ghidorah seems to be smarter then before and the stranglehold he places in Godzilla was a nice touch. Godzilla's way of breaking the strangle hold was something you never saw in the 1970's movies. The movie is well paced and fast moving. Switching from the distant future to the present then the past and back to the present again. What they do to King Ghidorah's body toward the end is something they would have never considered in the 1970's movies.