Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[Lain Of The Wired]

My question is, the Kamacuras marionette was still in good condition (as shown in All Monsters Attack) so why wasn't it used the film?

We can only guess, but I'd say Kamakuras wasn't a very powerful or impressive monster by itself, and there were already so many wires going for Ghidorah, Kumonga, Manda and Mothra that another marionette wasn't wanted.
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well, it didn't even have to battle against King Ghidorah at Mt. Fuji, Kamicuras could appear in the beginning during the monster island role call, or at the very end during the monster goodbye like Varan, Baragon, and Manda

[Tokage]

^ Yeah, they could have even used stock footage for a Kamakuras cameo like that. Who knows what the real reason was.

[Monster Zero]

I like this movie. It has some good parts, but sometimes the talking gets old.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Considering in universe Godzilla was more or less his 75 version I think Ghidorah was screwed the moment Godzilla appeared on screen.

I still wish Toho would make an exact DAM remake with modern tech and have all the monsters fight King Ghidorah.

No.Thank.You.


It's hardly the best in terms of either story or monster action.

^ Yeah, they could have even used stock footage for a Kamakuras cameo like that. Who knows what the real reason was.

My guess it was just a matter of shoving too much in-so they just left it out.

I mean they left Ebirah out right?

well, you gotta remember, we don't know what condition the Ebirah suit was in, after sea monster, we never saw it again.

[Tokage]

It's hardly the best in terms of either story or monster action.

Honestly, I spent most of my childhood and young adult years convinced that DAM was the best of the 1960s Showa series, and although I see its flaws more clearly now, I still debate about it. It is indeed slow and redundant in parts (I still have to fight to avoid fast-forwarding during the interminable blow-torching of the Kilak power-source scene), and it recycles concepts and monsters from previous movies without offering much new, other than seeing all these monsters together in one place (which is undeniably awesome). Plus it has Minya, which is never a good thing.

Godzilla scholars have always said Mothra vs Godzilla 1964 is the best, and I see the validity of that argument in the fact that Tsuburaya was at the top of his game and was more involved in the FX for MvG'64 than with DAM in '68. The storyline and characters are strong in MvG, and there are lots of iconic scenes and beautiful shots. But there are weak points here too. There isn't as much city destruction as in other 1960s G-films (including DAM, I might add), the Godzilla suit (while featuring an all-time great design) has the bouncy upper lip issue, which is distracting at times. Most controversially perhaps, I feel that the fact that Godzilla is battling nothing but puppets this time, both in the form of adult Mothra and the two larvae, keeps MvG from being the ultimate of all Godzilla battles. The FX are great, and Mothra has never looked better, but it's still...just Mothra, you know?

I actually feel that Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster has more elements that could set it apart as the best of the 1960s - it introduces a new villainous monster, it has fantastic city destruction scenes and it features a much more physical monster battle. On the down-side, it also introduces the heroic Godzilla, even though he starts out as a lovable villain, and gives us the cringe-worthy "monsters talking to each other" scene with the shobijin translating, and Princess Salno's tiresome "I'm a Venusian/Martian" routine. So the story doesn't quite compare to Mothra vs Godzilla, but the monster action is a bit more exemplary of the best of the 1960s Godzilla.

But all that being said, I still will always have a special love for DAM and the '68 Godzilla that no other movie can replace.

[Spuro]

well, you gotta remember, we don't know what condition the Ebirah suit was in, after sea monster, we never saw it again.

It was in the water nearly 100% of its screen time. I doubt that helped the condition of the suit.

[UltramanGoji]

My DVD copy of this movie only has the American dub (ADV DVD for those who want to know), so I don't really like the human element of this movie.

The monster scenes are spectacularly done, however and make up for the dull human story.

If I ever get Media Blasters' DAM DVD, I hope my thoughts about this movie will change when I watch the Japanese version.

[Tokage]

My DVD copy of this movie only has the American dub (ADV DVD for those who want to know), so I don't really like the human element of this movie.

The AIP English dub is a lot better than the international dub version used in the ADV DVD. Smog Monster and DAM are the two Godzilla movies that really make the biggest difference with the AIP versions in my opinion.

[Lain Of The Wired]

well, you gotta remember, we don't know what condition the Ebirah suit was in, after sea monster, we never saw it again.

It was in the water nearly 100% of its screen time. I doubt that helped the condition of the suit.

That's what I just said, After Sea Monster, we never saw Ebirah again, so the argument on why Ebirah wasn't in DAM could be ended due to the suit being ruined, but we saw Kamicuras the following year in All Monsters Attack, so we know it was still very usable

[Godzillian]

Showa Ghidorah just isn't tough enough to handle that many kaiju at once especially heavy hitters like Godzilla, Gorosaurus, and Rodan. Grand King Ghidorah maybe has a chance.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Showa Ghidorah just isn't tough enough to handle that many kaiju at once especially heavy hitters like Godzilla, Gorosaurus, and Rodan. Grand King Ghidorah maybe has a chance.

King Ghidorah couldn't handle Godzilla, Rodan, or Mothra Larva

[Tokage]

Showa Ghidorah just isn't tough enough to handle that many kaiju at once especially heavy hitters like Godzilla, Gorosaurus, and Rodan. Grand King Ghidorah maybe has a chance.

King Ghidorah couldn't handle Godzilla, Rodan, or Mothra Larva

Towards the end, poor old Showa Ghidorah couldn't even handle Godzilla by himself, even with Gigan as backup. Not to mention being embarrassed by Zone Fighter.

But with the right script, KG could still come out on top.

[Lain Of The Wired]

^ Hell, with the right script, Minilla could become the King Of The Monsters

[kamilleblu]

I wonder what happened between Terror of MechaGodzilla and DAM. Yes I'm aware most of these characters didn't exist when DAM was released. This is just hypothetical.

Did the second victory against the Black Hole Aliens discourage other aliens from attempting an invasion?

Monsters

Why is Mothra on Monsterland and what happened to the Shobijin?

Megalon: Is the Seatopian Kingdom unreachable to those on the surface?

Titanosaurus: It looked like Godzilla killed him with the final beam attack.

King Kong: Much like the second Mothra, he might have succumbed to his wounds following his fight against Godzilla.

Kamacuras: Most likely driven extinct by Godzilla, Kumonga, and the unfavorable weather conditions of Solgell Island.

King Caesar: Why was he left alone when Mothra was relocated to Monsterland?

Gigan: Killed by the titular character of Zone Fighter sometime after the events of vs. Megalon.

[JAGzilla]

Just rewatched this for the first time in eight or nine years. It bored me then, and I expected the same this time, especially since general consensus lately seems to be that it's mostly dull outside of the final battle. I can definitely see where that criticism comes from, too; the human characters were as cardboard as everyone says, and some scenes here and there dragged needlessly. If you watched it often, I imagine it could get tiresome. I never felt that way about it on this viewing, though. It probably helped that I watched it with my little brother, who had never seen it before. So that added an extra level of excitement to the movie, y'know, imagining what it must be like from a kid's perspective. He was too tired to enjoy it much, unfortunately, and fell asleep during the Fire Dragon sequence. Wish I'd known he was tired before putting the movie on; I'd have waited until tomorrow. He still seemed to be having fun with it, though.

Building off of the kid perspective thing, this seems like pretty much the ideal Godzilla movie (except maybe Revenge) to introduce kids to the franchise with. Besides the draw of featuring eleven monsters, it's pretty much wall-to-wall action. There's a lot of monster stuff spread evenly throughout the movie, of course, but it never even gets bogged down for long with the 'boring people scenes'. The astronauts are the main characters, and they spend most of their time in gunfights, investigating alien bases, chasing flying saucers around in a damn rocket ship, and generally doing cool, attention-holding things. Their lack of personality might bore adults, but I doubt most kids would notice or care. It's definitely one of the most fun entries in the series, if fun is all you want from it.

[edgaguirus]

I wonder what happened between Terror of MechaGodzilla and DAM. Yes I'm aware most of these characters didn't exist when DAM was released. This is just hypothetical.





King Caesar: Why was he left alone when Mothra was relocated to Monsterland?
[/i].

King Caesar only comes out when needed. With him peacefully sleeping, there's not much sense in disturbing him.

[Godzillian]

I wonder what happened between Terror of MechaGodzilla and DAM. Yes I'm aware most of these characters didn't exist when DAM was released. This is just hypothetical.





King Caesar: Why was he left alone when Mothra was relocated to Monsterland?
[/i].

King Caesar only comes out when needed. With him peacefully sleeping, there's not much sense in disturbing him.

plus he never went on a rampage

[Pkmatrix]

It's possible that no one knows about King Caesar at all. Remember, the only witnesses to the finale of GvMG are pretty much just the movie's cast. Maybe the Interpol agents reported it and the whole thing was deemed classified? Technically, the public wouldn't have known about the Simians or Mechagodzilla until the events of ToMG. There's no reason to demand the capture of a monster only the military knows exists.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Quick question, for anyone who bought DaM on Bluray, is there any difference in quality compared to the DvD variant?

[Tek]

Mods, if you want to merge this with an existing DAM topic, feel free to.

So, when my best friend and I were kids, we were huge Godzilla fans. I'm still a moderate fan to this day. I find I don't have time to rewatch G films as much as I'd like, but in my heart of hearts I'm a pretty big G-Fan. We had heard about DAM back in the '90s being an all-star monster cast. It was the one G film we never saw. I remember we borrowed a book from the library and the author slammed the movie, and my friend I was like "WTF NO WAY OMG" etc. "How can a movie with all Toho monsters in it possibly suck?!" It felt like Toho's version of WWF's Royal Rumble.

I finally caught it in 1999 or so when DAM was first released on DVD. And I thought it blew!

Fast forward 15 years. I bought DAM at Target in September 2014 after G2014 came out and they sold other G films to capitalize on Godzilla's new found popularity. I finally rewatched DAM this past weekend and it took me two 45 minute stints... I couldn't bear to get through it in one viewing. I was hoping that maybe being older I'd appreciate it more but I found myself HATING it. Like, I don't even feel it's "so bad it's good" like I do with Godzilla's Revenge (yeah, I said it). I feel DAM build you up for something epic and just flops so hard it can't recover. It fell way short of its potential.

I doubt I'll ever watch DAM again in my life. So many things about it frustrates me, and I usually love the human actors that appeared in this film. I loved their roles elsewhere, but in this movie, they were so boring. Ghidorah shows up in the last 12 minutes of the film and basically acts like a throwaway. Movie was just a mess.

Does anyone here actually like DAM? Or are people more in my boat? It actually might be my least favorite G-film.