GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH (1995)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological*


With DESTOROYAH, I've finally got round to reviewing all of the films in the so-called "Heisei Era" (1984-1995) except for the one that initiated the Heisei reboot, 1984's RETURN OF GODZILLA (GODZILLA 1985 in the U.S.)

The Heisei films deserve props for managing a more serious, less looney-tunes version of the Big G than the one who finished up in the 1970s. However, pound for pound I preferred more of the succeeding "Millennium Era" that followed fast on the heels of the godawful "American Godzilla" of 1998. The only Heisei film I rated as good in its mythicity was 1991's GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH, though I had some limited affection for the era's re-invention of Rodan and Baby Godzilla, as well as the "monster whispering" human psychic Miki. DESTOROYAH, however, suffers from too many inconsequential characters distracting from the main action and a very badly designed opponent for the titular King of Monsters.

DESTOROYAH builds on some of the events set up by the preceding GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA, which opposed the monster with a mutated clone of himself. The 1995 film subjects Godzilla to a further mutation, as the nuclear power within his reptillian body begins to enter a meltdown phase. This peril moves Japan's military to consider new methods of destroying or containing the creature. One is another of Japan's many super-ships, this one called "Super X III," which is armed with cold-rays capable of reducing the fury of Godzilla's internal nuclear fission. The other strategy comes from a young scientist who may be able to re-create the "Oxygen Destroyer" with which the 1954 "Gojira" was annihilated.

In the 1954 film, Doctor Serizawa nobly sacrificed his own life to make certain that his weapon would never be duplicated, since it might have as much, or more, power to devastate the human race. The young scientist seems half-willing to re-create the super-weapon for the military, and perhaps there was an unused plot-line in which he did so. But his presence is rendered nugatory when a new monster-- or rather, a new concatenation of interactive monsters-- appears. It's eventually revealed that "Destoroyah" is the result of a mutation brought about by Serizawa's original formula. Thus, even though the current Godzilla is a totally separate creature from the 1954 version, the filmmakers have chosen to create another "anti-Godzilla" like the one in SPACE GODZILLA, but with Destoroyah incarnating the power of the fictional "Oxygen Destroyer" as Godzilla incarnates that of nuclear power.

The one element that redeems the middling slugfest of the two super-monsters is the presence of "Godzilla Junior," now advanced to a near-adult stage by the same forces that caused Godzilla's further mutation. When it appears (temporarily) that Destoroyah has successfully slain Junior, the filmmakers movingly capture the bestial anguish of Godzilla Senior at seeing his final relation assassinated. However, though the film-series was terminated largely because it wasn't making enough money for Toho Studios, DESTOROYAH nevertheless leaves the door open for "Junior" to be reborn as the heir apparent to the city-leveling saurian. That element of the film is the only one that allows me to rate the film as "fair."