The Messterpiece that is Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

The film which is to be the end of the 90's Versus series, aka Heisei series, so Hollywood could make the next Godzilla as a summer blockbuster. They decided to go all the way back the original to create a foe based on the one thing that killed him in the past the oxygen destroyer, and turning it into a new kaiju to kill Godzilla. The film ends up being a complete mess, full of half thought out ideas, and rush execution.

The movie starts with a big reveal.

G Force managed to get Godzilla to stay on Birth Island for a while with the young little Godzilla. They didn’t have anyone stationed on the island to keep an eye on things, just sending a helicopter to check on him from time to time I guess.

Godzilla shows up and attacks Hong Kong. Finally, Godzilla shows up someplace other than Japan or uninhabited island. Also, something is wrong with Godzilla, although that and the rampage pretty much goes unnoticed by the people of Hong Kong. 

The effects actually work well, if it isn’t for most of the traffic and people not seeming to react to the mass destruction going on.

Godzilla has turned into Burning Godzilla; his nuclear furnace is overloading. The look of Burning Godzilla is pretty well done, the smoke, the glowing orange, and Godzilla looks like he is in great pain, you get the fact that there is something very wrong.

Eventually he is going to go critical exploding, possibly igniting the entire atmosphere (Spoilers he doesn’t). While this is an interesting take, maybe this would have been a more interesting film with no opponent to face, just the humans trying to figure out how to save the world from Godzilla blowing up.

The cast of the movie is just around to explain what is going on to the viewers with technobabble. They pretty much stumble through the narrative only accomplishing things by accident.

The cast includes:

Miki Saegusa: Long running reoccurring character in every Heisei film since Godzilla Vs. Biollante (1989). She is worried about Godzilla Junior and losing her ESP. Helps lure Junior into a fight with Destoroyah. She also cries a lot when Junior dies temporally.

Professor Fukazawa: Returning from Godzilla Vs Mothra (1992), recruits Kenkichi and then stand around and look concerned.

Kenkichi Yamane: The grandson of Dr Kyohei Yamane from the original Godzilla (1954), he is a young smart kid that just there to explain about Burning Godzilla. He has a crush on Miki which is the only reason he joined G Force, and then has very few actual conversations with her. Wants a new Oxygen Destroyer to kill Godzilla, and then is happy Destoroyah shows up even through realistically he is a big threat then Godzilla ever was. 

Yujari Yamane: The granddaughter of Dr Kyohei Yamane, she is there to report on things. She introduces the audience to Dr. Ijuin, visits her aunt Emiko Yamane from the original Godzilla (1954), get menaced by a Destroyer so she can be rescued.

Dr. Kensaku Ijuin: Introduced as the Micro-Oxygen / Oxygen Destroyer expert, seems to have a thing for Yujari but pretty much just there to explain Destoroyah.

Meru Ozawa: Just wants to be a normal girl, report what the Americans are saying. Helps lure Junior into a fight with Destoroyah.

Commander Takaki Aso: A returning character since Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993). He is there to look worried that he can’t attack Godzilla.

Major Sho Kuroki: The Major was also in Godzilla Vs. Biollante (1989) as the pilot of the Super X II, but was played by a completely different actor. This time played by the actor that was in Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) as the goofy pteranodon enthusiast Kazuma Aoki. He is there to fly around the Super X III, actually stops Burning Godzilla, then does not show up to fight Destoroyah or Godzilla again till the climax. 

The Super X III manages to stop burning Godzilla from exploding. However, G Force command seems to have forgotten all about the Super X III until it launches. Professor Fukazawa and Commander Aso are at G Center all worried because Godzilla is headed to a nuclear power plant and if they attack he could explode, destroying the world. Then they get news the Super X III is launching, and the Commander starts talking about all the cryolasers and cadmium missiles.

The Super X III is actually very effective at stopping Burning Godzilla, basically freezing him in two passes.

Turns out the Super X III cryo-weapons have actually helped, and Burning Godzilla is no longer going to explode.

Funny how they show the 6-hour time lapse with a simple wipe, they couldn’t put in a scene updating us on Destoroyah, or the characters making plans, or discoveries.

So, the Super X III has stopped Burning Godzilla from exploding, completely by accident. However, it is not all good news, seems Burning Godzilla internal temperature is still rising and now going to meltdown instead. When he does he will release a lot of radiation and possibly burrow to the center of the Earth (Spoilers he doesn’t).

At the same time, G Center is trying to deal with Burning Godzilla, Dr Ijuin and the JSDF is dealing with a new threat. Dr Ijuin is the world’s expert on micro oxygen, a discovery close to what Dr Serizawa was working on when he invented the oxygen destroyer. Which he used to kill the original Godzilla but destroyed all his notes and himself so it could never be used again.

When digging a tunnel under Tokyo bay, across the area where the oxygen destroyer was used to kill original Godzilla, and there are a lot of fossils, the tunnel mysteriously melts. Dr Ijuin takes some soil samples back to his lab, where there are signs of life and something escapes.



Later at an aquarium something attacks a bunch of fish leaving just bones.

This of course is the other kaiju Destoroyah from the title. Soon more show up causing destruction and the police bring in some SWAT straight out of Aliens with motion trackers and flamethrowers that look like smart guns.

At first the SWAT guys aren’t doing too good as the Juvenile Destoroyah bust through walls like Kamen Rider Black and gets the drop on them.

But once they bring out the flame throwers, rocket launchers, and grenades they start killing the Juvenile Destoroyah left and right.

Dr Ijuin, after taking time to help rescue Yujari from a Juvenile Destoroyah because everyone else leaves her there to be bait while they get to safety, figures out the cold will work just as well if not better against Destoroyah. The JSDF sends out a bunch of cryo tanks to the area to clean up the threat.

These are the same maser tanks from the previous Heisei films that use to fire lightning/laser blast, that now have cryolasers instead. This goes well until the Juvenile Destoroyah retreat, and then turn into the larger Aggregate Destoroyah form and the weapons have no effect anymore.

Destoroyah then changes again into a flying form and circles Tokyo where stuff seems to blow up underneath him a lot.

Do they send the Super X III to deal with this new threat? No that might actually be smart. Instead G Force comes up with a plan to lure Junior into combat with Destoroyah in the middle of Tokyo, the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the world with a population of nearly 17 million people. That way Burning Godzilla will follow Junior and Destoroyah will kill Burning Godzilla and end the threat of him melting down to the center of the Earth. What could go wrong?

(Spoilers it is not)

Conveniently Junior is close by Tokyo when Destoroyah is flying around. Junior is able to take out the flying Destoroyah.

Destoroyah changes back into the Aggregate form to fight Junior and gives him a few bumps. 

But in the end Junior is able to damage the Aggregate Destoroyah.

Then send him crashing into a building seeming to be defeated long before Burning Godzilla reaches Tokyo.

 

It takes Burning Godzilla a long time to meet up with Junior, it is completely dark by the time Burning Godzilla shows up. Here he is walking through Tokyo and cars are happy that there isn’t too much traffic on the road.

Of course, Destoroyah shows up bigger and uglier, kills Junior and fights Godzilla.

Destoroyah gives Burning Godzilla a few bumps even dragging him around the airport as people slowly board airplanes and they taxi for take-off.

Once Burning Godzilla gets tired of being pushed around he kicks Destoroyah ass.

Destoroyah breaks down into a bunch of Aggregate Destoroyah's and start to attack Godzilla.

But Burning Godzilla doesn’t even need his breath to deal with these Aggregate Destoroyah's, they start to fall apart just being tossed through the air.

And then a stop, drop and roll takes care of the rest.

Burning Godzilla goes to see Junior one last time, says his good bye and is ready to meltdown.

Then Destoroyah shows up again because he is game for a rematch.

Destoroyah does his tail drag again, his only attack that seems to work. But Godzilla is already melting down and unleashes a massive attack on Destoroyah.

Destoroyah realizes that attacking Burning Godzilla again was a mistake and tries to flee. However, the same cryo tanks that couldn’t harm him in his Aggregate form are back and now are able to take him down.

Destoroyah falls blows up and is never seen again, because the plot is done with him.

Fandom likes to talk about how Destoroyah was Godzilla’s toughest foe, but really, he gets his ass handed to him a lot. Humans dealt with the Juvenile Destoroyah pretty handily once they brought out the heavy weapons. The Aggregate and Flying Destoroyah are taken out by Junior. The final form of Destoroyah has size going for him but once Godzilla starts releasing his beam, Destoroyah starts to spurt green blood all over. That is the same beam that pretty much has no effect on the Super X III.

Finally Burning Godzilla reaches his meltdown temperature and starts to meltdown. The JSDF and Super X III turn their cryo-weapons on him and stop him from burrowing down to the center of the Earth.

It is a good thing Dr Ijuin called and told G Force to send Super X III and the cryo tanks, even though he never really talks to them about Burning Godzilla, he was always busy with the Destoroyah problem.

Even though Godzilla didn’t burrow towards the center of the Earth, it looks like Tokyo is going to be uninhabitable due to all the radiation. But then....

Junior absorbs all the radiation and becomes the new Godzilla, so by complete accident the world is saved again.

So, the humans accomplish everything by accident. The Super X III stopped Godzilla from blowing up, even though they had no idea it would happen. Godzilla took care of the Destoroyah threat even though their plan was to have it go the other way around. Junior absorbed the radiation so Tokyo is habitable, however everyone exposed before that probably received a lethal dose.