Zilla Watch

Godzilla Raids Again. I’m not sure I have a whole lot to say about this one. Ultimately, I found it kind of boring. I’m honestly not sure if that is a hot take or not. Well, lets dig in.

This movie is kind of weird. Its like two movies that were merged into one. In the first half (two-thirds?) of the movie, we are introduced to a new kaiju. Anguirus, a spiky boi with a bad temper. I love him. In this iteration, he moves around like a dog. I big, spiky, dopey dog. The kaiju seems like he falls more than walks and just has a grand ol’ time bumping around the scenery. We are also introduced to Godzilla again. But this is not the same Godzilla as the 1954 movie. This is in fact a second one that also happened to be awakened by nukes. A nice hand wave explanation as to how Godzilla is back despite being killed by the oxygen destroyer in the first film.

The first hour or so of the movie focuses on our human POV characters watching Godzilla and Anguirus smack each other around in Osaka. The fight is kind of exciting. Its the first big kaiju fight of the series and works well for what it is. You can clearly tell it is two people in rubber suits flailing their limbs at each other in the middle of a model set. Its silly…..but also got me to care. I don’t think Godzilla Raids Again is a better film than Godzilla (1954) but I did feel a similar sadness watching the two beings fight as I did watching Tokyo be destroyed. I think what did it was the Osaka Castle getting destroyed. I dunno, I really liked the fight and it got me invested in the movie.

The last bit of the movie focuses on the human characters trying to figure out just what to do with Godzilla now that Anguirus is dead. The solution? Bury the lizard in a bunch of snow and ice. Not quite an eloquent solution, but its not like they have another oxygen destroyer around with Dr. Serizawa dying in the previous film. This part of the film lost me a little bit. I think the film could have ended with Godzilla just going back into the sea after beating Anguirus. Instead we got another 30-45 mins of Godzilla being chased by planes and a heroic sacrifice to seal the beast away. It was fine, but I found it forgettable.

I also found the human characters forgettable. It was nice they didn’t try to redo the relationship from the previous film, but we still got a love story at the center with a big lizard side quest. I dunno. I really like the human story in the 1954 film, this one though…. I don’t know if it was too similar or the film just didn’t blend them in well enough. Either way they were, like the rest of the film ok. I didn’t hate them. But they were not as good or stick out as much as the human characters from the 1954 film.

Overall, I this film was fine. It, in my opinion is definitely weaker than the first film. Honestly, Godzilla Raids Again has me looking back on Godzilla (1954) a lot more favorably than my first impressions.

In any case, I’m excited to move on to the next movie: Godzilla, King of Monsters.