Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[jackzilla]

This one is like GvKG in the Heisei series. The first hour of it is kinda boring and a drag, but the climax makes it all worth it.

[eabaker]

I'd say DAM drags a bit in the middle, but I'd hardly say the whole first hour drags.

And nothing about GvsKG drags for me.

[cmdmstudios]

I feel like the only thing that keeps DAM from being truly great is the Moon Base stuff. That's where everything seems to slow down the most. And I think the Fire Dragon stealing the ending doesn't help either (even though I love that shot of the monsters watching the fight as they're heading home and you see Anguirus sniffing the ground in front of him).

[Godzillian]

While I enjoy this one the characters are an issue. They're so flat and boring and don't really change or grow during the movie

[LamangoKaijura]

Here are some interesting tidbits from the films commentary
-It was released on a double bill with Atragon and it's Japanese title is actually "March of the Monsters" and when it was rereleased at the champion festival in the 70s it was titled "Godzilla! Electric Battle Masterpiece"
-Kaiju films peeked in Japan in 1967 with the 5 major studios of Japan at the time releasing kaiju movies
-Honda originally wanted to show all the monsters in the film in the opening sequence and explain that under sea farming was used to keep the monster fed
-The idea that Gorosaurus was used because the Baragon suit was in too poor shape has never been confirmed by anyone who worked on the scene. The storyboards, set designs, and notes from the film all list Gorosaurus as appearing in the scene so it was a script error
-Nakajima regrets not destroying the construction crane that Godzilla steps over when he appears
-Springs were used on the missile launchers to give the model missiles an extra push during the the Tokyo attack sequence
-The Tokyo attack is one of Nakajimas favorite scenes but said with all the smoke from the military attack made it difficult to see
-The a few people around the table during the Tokyo Attack are actually suit actors that appeared in the film
-The reason Godzillas beam curves in some scenes is due to the mouth of the suit not lining up on screen to allow for a straight beam to be drawn in
-The Moonlight SY-3 got it looks from crossing a fighter jet and rocket
-The SY-3 prop was mostly made of wood and 3 props of different sizes were made and used in the film
-Nasa designs were used for creating the SY-3 and considered by the designer as his most realistic creation
-Part of the reason for kaiju films falling out of style was due to the growth of television, changing tastes by the Japanese public, and the growing interest in foreign films as well as the decline of the Japanese film industry at the end of the 60s
-Special Effects film were some of the first to feel the effects of this
-The small puppets in the film (except for Godzilla, Varan, and Rodan) were made for the film
-When Ghidorah lands a suit actor is inside
-The only new suits created for the film were Godzilla and Anguirus
-Gorosaurus, Minya, and Kumonga were used due to the suits and puppet being still relatively new and in good condition
-The Ghidorah, Rodan, Manda, and Mothra suits and prop that appear were refurbished
-The only reason the adult Mothra doesn't appear due to the prop being in too poor condition at the time
-The Manda prop was given a new paint job along with a new head which is speculated to be due to the horns and whiskers possibly getting in the way of its big bridge destruction scene
-The Baragon suit was given a new head for its cameo but the rest of the suit was too damaged for any use in the film
-The Varan puppet that appears is in fact from the original film just given a new paint job
-Godzillas head was designed to be more expressive and the fins were given a sliver paint job for the first time
-The suit was also made to be more flexible then previously suits
-Most of the suit actors were Toho stunt men but some outside help was brought in
-Nakajima claims he made up the entire final battle but it's likely that this is just an exaggeration
-Nakajima stated the hardest aspect of the finally battle was working on a set with so many wires being used at the same time

Some of these don't seem right. Cause the small puppets of Godzilla was used for two scenes, Rodan's used in one scene. And the Varan puppet is seen when you see the wide shot with Godzilla, Minya, Rodan, Mothra, Anguirus and Gorosaurus. Varan, Manda, and Baragon are seen to the right of Gorosaurus. Only one who isn't present in that scene is Kumonga.

[Rodan]

And nothing about GvsKG drags for me.

Agreed. That's a tidy Godzilla film from start to finish.

As for DAM, I feel like there are only a few scenes in the movie that don't drag. It's still near the bottom of my series ranking, which is too bad, because the highlights are great.

[edgaguirus]

It doesn't have the best pacing, but it's one of the films I love to watch. It doesn't try to be serious; It revels in being a popcorn flick.

[JVM]

Has it ever been explained why a new Anguirus suit was made for this film? It's very fortunate, as Anguirus as we know him wouldn't have existed otherwise, but I always found it curious he would show up again since he seemed relatively forgotten up to this point, especially since so much of the rest of the film was cost-cutting.

[Godzillian]

Has it ever been explained why a new Anguirus suit was made for this film? It's very fortunate, as Anguirus as we know him wouldn't have existed otherwise, but I always found it curious he would show up again since he seemed relatively forgotten up to this point, especially since so much of the rest of the film was cost-cutting.

The old suit was unusable for the film. Toho wanted to bring back as many kaiju as possible so Anguirus was added in.

[Goji]

The budget only allowed for a couple of new monster suits, so while Godzilla was obviously prioritized, I guess the team decided on Anguirus. It easily could have been Baragon, Varan, or Rodan; who all were in need of new suits, but I guess Anguirus was a shoe-in for the movie at that point, and since the original suit had obviously fallen apart by then, he was picked over everyone else.

Obviously there were some touch ups to the other monsters (Manda's make over, Ghidorah's new wings, Kumonga's new eyes), but only those two got brand new suits.

[JVM]

I'm very aware that the old suit was unavailable, that much is obvious, but Toho could have saved the money by excluding the character, and we know from the main site that Toho did not include him in early drafts. This points to the fact a conscious decision was made to include the character, and consequently, to spend meager resources on a new suit for a monster that most audiences seemed to have forgotten. I suspect they felt it was important to focus on monsters who had appeared in Godzilla films at that point - save Ebirah and Condor, every Godzilla monster was present in the final film - but it's never been confirmed.

I was basically just curious if one of Toho's obscure books or an interview with so-and-so, had provided an answer.

Just to clarify, I'm thankful, Anguirus is a great monster and his resurrection in DAM opened the door for his memorable appearances in the seventies.

The budget only allowed for a couple of new monster suits, so while Godzilla was obviously prioritized, I guess the team decided on Anguirus. It easily could have been Baragon, Varan, or Rodan; who all were in need of new suits, but I guess Anguirus was a shoe-in for the movie at that point, and since the original suit had obviously fallen apart by then, he was picked over everyone else.

Obviously there were some touch ups to the other monsters (Manda's make over, Ghidorah's new wings, Kumonga's new eyes), but only those two got brand new suits.

You tend to be one of the better informed members of this board in my experience, so I'm going to take this as a sign the issue simply hasn't come up in any accessible material.

[LamangoKaijura]

The budget only allowed for a couple of new monster suits, so while Godzilla was obviously prioritized, I guess the team decided on Anguirus. It easily could have been Baragon, Varan, or Rodan; who all were in need of new suits, but I guess Anguirus was a shoe-in for the movie at that point, and since the original suit had obviously fallen apart by then, he was picked over everyone else.

Obviously there were some touch ups to the other monsters (Manda's make over, Ghidorah's new wings, Kumonga's new eyes), but only those two got brand new suits.

I think Minya's suit was slightly altered too. And Ghidorah's heads. But yeah, Anguirus was a last minute addition, if we go by the All Monster Attack Directive, stole Ebirah and Maguma's screen time.

[Shobijin]

This film is the ultimate battle royal, but the space/moon/aliens stuff is a huge drag which prevents me from ranking it higher. It really is at the lower end of the Showa Era when watching Godzilla films in order.

It should have been a dream movie where we finally spend time seeing all the monsters destroying the world's capitals, UFOs, and then each other on Monster Island. We get some of that scattered, and of course the final battle vs King Ghidorah. But most of it is human/alien scenes, which are poor retreads of Astro Monster. The final reveal of Fire Dragon being the UFO was a let down.

This film is a poor man's Astro Monster but the bonus points of having such a huge lineup of monsters keeps its legend alive. One of those movies in which the trailer is better than the actual flick.

All that said, the battles and monsters looked great, as did the many locations. We get some great scenes with the monsters. However, it is torture to watch the yellow spacesuits and lifeless human and alien characters.

[eabaker]

The major thing that differentiates this from Monster Zero, for me, really comes down to the differences between a Sekizawa script and a Kimura script. In Monster Zero, humans are exploring space out of scientific curiosity, and the first reaction of the main characters - and the majority of humanity - is to trust the aliens. In DAM, the emphasis is on the military applications of space travel, and the Kilaaks and humans are never anything but eager to wipe each other out. It is a superficaially similar (though much simplified) plot, but the aggressive and paranoid tone is so different that... well, you could never confuse a scene from one movie with a scene from the other.

[GodzillaFanatic2001]

Here are some crazy looking lobby cards I found on this website. http://monsters4ever.com/page/592

[Zarm]

Destroy All Monsters, as a kaiju movie, contains many of the same flaws the Invasion of Astro-Monster did; namely, trying to be a (somewhat slow-paced) sci-fi thrilled with the kaiju action incidental for most of it. Thankfully, Destroy All Monsters, as a film overall, has a lot more going for it than that prior attempt did. It is still a treatise on how not to make a kaiju film- keep your sci-fi rocketship stories and your kaiju tales separate, as there’s just not room in the film for both- but at least the ‘failure’ is far more watchable this time around. Which is not to say that it’s good… but that it does have some redeeming value.

The protagonist this time, Katsuo is a touch more charismatic than Astro-Monster’s. That still means he’d not the most noteworthy hero we've encountered. He gets some interesting spy games to play with the various hypnotized characters, but beyond that, doesn't have much to do except giving intense looks to the camera and shaking his sister around. (The scene in which the earrings are ripped out is particularly brutal- and, in fact, this whole film seems needlessly gory and blood-filled. It was rather unpleasant.)

I don't understand why any of that content was deemed necessary; but one can hope that while alien invasion and spy game shenanigans are not through with the showa era, these You Only Live Twice-style hijinks with major shootouts and armies infiltrating lairs will be left behind. Once again, they edged out the Kaiju too much, and that's what we're all here for.

A good, engaging story is needed in order to make the shared screen time worthwhile- and while this one has its moments (The doctor’s suicide and subsequent shootout, the invasion of the Kilaak base on the moon- and as much as my wife mocked it, the maser-to-the-pedestal scene)… a lot of moments of exposition in command centers and scientists taking a long time to discuss next steps just do not make for engaging storytelling.

Our villain has a nice, creepy reveal with the dolly-in camera and sliding platform- and the sinister grin she gives as the hypnotized crew members come in to attack is quite effective.

The hypnotized crew members put up a much poorer showing, even before they are hypnotized- for instance, noticing a toxic gas leaking out from underneath the door, their response is to run over and throw the door wide open. Even if they just thought it was a fire, I am pretty sure you do not do this.

I also found it very funny that the news reports- on futuristic TV-radios, which was unintentionally hilarious- we're shown the various crew members while talking about their ‘countries of origin,’ at which point they showed three Japanese crew members… then the camera cuts away as they started naming members of other nationalities, so that the filmmakers wouldn't even have to scrounge up some not-native headshots. It looks like cost-cutting of the worst kind; ironic to such a high-budget film.

Less-than-stellar supporting cast aside, we do also have Dr. Otani, who is teamed with Katsuo in a nice double-act. He gets some good speeches to reporters, some good tense moments… and the whimsical montage describing the various locations that the Kilaak control devices are found in is a highlight. Still, he doesn't evidence much more personality than the brainwashed individuals, nor does the scaredy-cat crew of the moon base, or Kyoko, who spends a bit too much of her time hypnotized… and is honestly a little more interesting while she is.

The film is notable for its near-future setting, though the lack of differing technologies or styles in clothing and architecture do little to reinforce the notion of a future-setting, especially after we saw the high technology of the island installation in a contemporary setting in the last film. The movie does accurately predict mobile tablets, but as mentioned before, hilariously puts them into radio cases. Like the tape-reel-era computers evidenced in mission control, it’s a bit of a failure of imagination; clinging to the very-outmoded trappings of the modern day in extrapolating the future (though that is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, and probably every era’s sci-fi is guilty of this to some degree or another).

Perhaps the most interesting technology is the SY-3, a rocket ship with magical retros (actually, just a very poor portrayal of rocket-physics that is inconsistent with its own rules from scene to scene), and an amazing ability to withstand a direct hit from Godzilla’s atomic breath with no visible damage! That's pretty impressive. A little strange, then, that a series of flamethrowers could then threaten it, especially as it is theoretically shielded against the heat of reentry. In fact both times that it is significantly threatened, it is by fire.

I can buy that- heck, NASA vehicles are not fire-impervious, they’re designed to withstand the heat-friction only from a specific angle- but if they wanted to make that vulnerability realistic, having the ship withstand the full force of Godzilla's ray for several seconds and then just be able to take off again was probably not the best way of doing so. It again feels inconsistent.

And another complaint? They keep teasing us with those landing tank treads on the bottom- but the SY-3 never rolls around like a mobile tower, which would have just been fun! Oh, well.

The scenes of flight and combat with the SY-3 are not as fascinating as I think the producers thought they would be. Indeed, very often it just takes too long to do something, killing the pacing dead. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good space-procedural now and then (I'm one of the world's only fans of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.) But, there is a time and place for that, and when it feels like it's slowing down the pace of the film, rather than appropriate to a film whose overall pace is deliberate to match, then it just feels out of place. (Regardless, the aerial dogfight scene with the fire dragon was not bad… just superfluous and anticlimactic).

Like the protagonist, and indeed a lot of the human action, I’ve seen duller and less interesting before. This plot is better and more watchable than some of the distractions in other kaiju films- but it is simply not as interesting as it needs to be. It all depends on the expectations, I think. If you're expecting a boring film- as I was after the first fifteen minutes- then it surprises with moments of astounding brilliance and interest. If you're expecting an interesting, well-paced film, on the other hand, then it will disappoint as a snooze-fest. It stands head-and-shoulders above some of the duller entries in the canon, (like Invasion of Astro-Monster and Rodan), but it's still only knee-high to true classics or well-paced films.


But, enough prevarication. The movie’s called ‘Destroy All Monsters,’ it's clearly all about the Kaiju- and so are we. So how did they fare?

Well... Pretty disappointing for 95% of the movie's runtime. As with Astro-Monster before it, the kaiju are little-used, almost a plot device or McGuffin for the human plot for the majority of the film's runtime- and during their extremely-brief rampages, not even under their own control. It's almost like this film is a ‘Second try’ on the Astro-Monster formula, in much the way that Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla is a second try on the basic formula of Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.

Like that example, this movie is an improvement on the original- but unlike that case, the improvement is only slight. The ending battle, at least, is far more impressive- as my wife put it, ‘The most kaiju assembled before Final Wars… but even if Final Wars had more kaiju, this once feels more epic, as they all have a role.’

Well… not quite. Actually, Varan, Manda, and Baragon sit the final fight out. It's a little unfortunate, but a necessity of the production limitations- to the best of my knowledge, they didn't have full suits, but only built miniature puppets for brief shots of Varan and Baragon- although I suppose it does feel appropriate, as it’s mainstays of the Godzilla films (plus Gorosaurus) who get to participate in the final battle, rather than the cameos from other films. It does make Gorosaurus’ prominence feel a little bizarre, as he's the only non-mainstay to really take center-stage here. At least Baragon would later get his due in the Millennium era, as would Manda. Poor Varan is still waiting...


First up on the list is Godzilla. He's sporting a much better look this time around, probably one of my favorites to-date in the showa era- and certainly one of the best since Godzilla vs Mothra. He seems to have a strange and particularly-frustrating disorder in this film, however, as his atomic ray has developed an acute curvature, never firing straight, but instead looping upward to strike its target. (Presumably, this suit actor just didn't quite get the need to point the suit’s mouth at the intended target, always pointing it down at the ground instead, and the animators had to compensate.) It's strangely distracting, and a bit of a special effects failure, unfortunately. At the same time, this film helped me to identify why I don’t connect to showa Godzilla as much as his counterparts in any other era; my major barrier-to-entry for the era. Partly, the thinner guy-in-a-suit look doesn’t work for me as well as the bulkier, more-saurian look of later Kings of the Monsters… but the main alienation for me is his excess movement. Showa Godzilla in constantly flapping his arms around, like he’s trying to swat at a swarm of mosquitoes or telling his football partner to go deeper for the pass or shadow-boxing his karate moves, and I don’t understand what it means. For something large and powerful, he seems to move too quickly and too often, with no definable purpose behind his flailing. I’m sure it tells you something about his character, gives him more personality than any of his successors- but I can’t interpret the meaning, so to me, he just looks hyperactive and drunk. Are those gestures of encouragement? Of challenge? Of confusion? Heck if I know! He’s a cypher to me- a cipher that spends too much of his time doing bizarre things with his hands.

Anyhow, that’s just me.

It’s nice to see Minilla again, to see that Godzilla remains a good parent. The little tyke doesn’t have much to do, but it’s a fun touch that he delivers the coup-de-grace, and stands triumphantly atop the vanquished foe; the first ‘victory’ of the next generation.

Rodan gets a large portion of the city-destruction, but not much to do during the final battle. He swoops down to eat some unconvincing cetacean take-out at the beginning, so there’s that, I guess? Only slightly more than a glorified cameo.

It’s funny to think that without this film, Godzilla’s best pal, Anguirus, would have languished in obscurity as ‘that one thing he fought in the black-and-white sequel.’ But here, he makes his triumphant re-appearance, and gets some of the best battle bits with King Ghidorah. The highlight has to be the unintentional airlift; I just love the body-language as he hangs off of Ghidorah- ‘Uh, guys? Guys? I think I’m in over my head, here…’ The subsequent drop looks pretty brutal; glad to see he’s all right!

Gorosaurus seems like the strangest pick here- whether just in retrospect, because other kaiju have at least been re-used (or intended to be reused) in the main Godzilla series and he hasn’t, or else because he comes from another kaiju’s film, making him feel almost like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine showing up in the next Avengers film (they’re from the same overall makers, but a different branch of the genre), I’m not sure. But hey, he’s here with his kangaroo-kick intact, and seeing him in a ‘dinosaur’ team-up with Godzilla brings a smile.

Manda is the best. Seriously, you guys. Like, not quite to Maguma levels (oh, Maguma and Ebirah- if only you’d made it into this film as planned!), but still pretty awesome. I just love those little arms… I wish he had more to do in the film, but he’s just fun to watch. You make those overpasses pay for their crimes, Manda!

Baragon is another oddball, in that he’s also from another kaiju’s film- but one I am less familiar with (I think I watched it once…), and has been subsequently folded into the Godzilla franchise again, so he feels retroactively more appropriate to the franchise. In the epilogue sequence (a great way to end the film, incidentally, like each kaiju is taking a bow), he looks strangely cross-eyed. Earlier on, it is nice to hear him get some dialogue references and come up under the Arc-De-Triumph with his signature burrowing, but I must say that the costume refurbishment makes him look oddly like Gorosaurus… (In reality, of course, they probably filmed the dialogue scenes that mention him being the one destroying the arch, wrote him into the script, then discovered the suit unusable and created the puppet-version, which couldn’t perform the required actions, hence they decided to sub in Gorosaurus for that scene. It’s just strange that they didn’t re-dub the dialogue, or change the signature burrowing-entrance, giving Gorosaurus a trait that really doesn’t fit him at all; it’s strange to see this smooth-headed dinosaur just rising out of the ground for no reason).

Varan is probably the least-served in the film. Another no-costume-so-let’s-build-a-puppet (sad, because Anguirus got a new costume build), the puppet is posed in flying mode, so we literally just see him landing in two shots. (Admittedly, that’s about all we got of the real Baragon, but at least he got dialogue to indicate where he was supposed to have been!) I am least familiar with- and therefore most fascinated by- Varan. Having only two brief shots of a non-articulated, posed puppet is a definite letdown. I appreciate the effort of including them, but I wish the puppet-characters had at least gotten some role in the final battle.

Kumonga makes a return appearance, at least partially as stock-footage; sadly, a lot of her cool creepiness is lost when she is reduced to a stationary string-thrower with pretty much no other role in the rest of the film, like Minilla.

Mothra fares little better; it is hard to see her into captivity, away from her people on Infant Island (in my head, that’s why she’s trying to leave at the start; she does this often, and is very sad); Mothra doesn’t deserve to be treated like the other kaiju.Likewise, it’s sad that we never see her imago form. (Presumably, that would’ve been FAR too many wires in the already-complex final battle). We get to see her a bit throughout- bursting out of a ‘subway’ station (which is actually an elevated train labeled ‘subway’; am I missing something here…?)- in a lot of ways, she gets the most personality and screen time other than Godzilla for the body of the film, but also gets sidelined to a silk-sprayer at the end.


And lastly, we have King Ghidorah. Introduced out of nowhere by the plot, and via the bountiful use of stock footage, the ‘King of Terror’ (ugh!) looks pretty great, here. And it works wonderfully to wrap up the ‘middle’ period of the showa era having him finally not flee, but be defeated. It serves as a nice end-cap to the tonally-different period of the showa series that began with Astro-Monster; also fitting to bookend it with another sci-fi. Thus does the silver age draw to a close, and the 70s bronze age- with an extremely different feel- get ready to commence. It would’ve been much better if this had been Ghidorah’s last appearance, tying everything up nicely in a bow… but alas, it was not to be. Still, it makes a great chronological wrap-up to Ghidorah’s story… after numerous team-ups, beat-downs, and cowardly escapes, he’s finally taken down by an alliance of monsters, ending his recurring menace for good.

In that way, Destroy All Monsters really does feel like the end of an era; a grand-finale to the showa era… which then had the temerity to continue anyway. (which is… pretty much exactly what it is. Ah, well… all great franchises seem to last beyond their perfect ending point, be it Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones… or Godzilla.) On the other hand, it also feels strongly like a remake of Invasion of Astro-Monster (which can work as a book-end, as mentioned before, and has precedent in the Millennium series, too). The remote-control monster plot, the alien invaders, the use of the military theme from the original as the main theme, the ending freed-from-control-but-have-to-fight-King-Ghidorah… it feels less than original, a bit stale. (That said, two pieces of music did stand out for me- the orchestration of the military theme as the SY-3 comes down through the clouds toward Monster Island, and the ‘intense’ music of the maser-cutting scene at the pedestal which my wife and I differed on. I found the editing and music pretty effective at creating tension and suspense. Then again, I’m a sucker for a maser.)

The effects are a bit of a mixed bag (the fire-dragon sequence kept bugging me by not being visible from the underside of the ship when it would have been, simply popping into existence when the topside of the ship was exposed by the camera angle)- but most of it was good. The SY-3 was well-realized, particularly the excellent flight shots over the lunar surface. The true forms of the Kilaaks were appropriate alien and creepy, and well-realized. The maser-beams looked good, and the destruction of the Kilaak base turning the colorful landscape to a dead-looking lunar grayscale was a great touch. And of course, the kaiju all looked tip-top (barring the annoying Godzilla-firing-angle problem and the copious (if understandable) stock footage. The animated flying saucers have a nice look.

On the other hand, the saucer and Kilaak base miniatures don’t look so hot, the inappropriately-gory makeup effects for blood and pain don’t look that great (except for the torn-out earings, which looked painfully real), the fight with Fire Dragon employs the same silly ‘stretched video’ effects that menaced Helen Slater at the end of Supergirl, and the scale model of the SY-3 to Monster Island looked to be several hundred feet tall. Still, there was a lot more good than bad; the budget of this one really shows- particularly in the final battle, which is the main thing we care about.

So how was this movie? Well, I can’t disagree with the general consensus; watch it for the brawl, but otherwise, not so hot. It’s too long and slow, the tonal jar of the gore makes for an uncomfortable viewing experience, the ‘fire dragon’ finale was needless and frustrating, as the film had reached a perfect endpoint… like Against Mechagodzilla, this film improves on its template, and there are some genuine human sequences- maybe 10-20 minutes worth- that are good. If you recut the film to feature the return to Monster Island and first encounter with the Kilaaks, the doctor suicide/beach-shoot out, the monster attack/Kyoko ultimatum (and freeing), then immediately went to the military defeat and forest close-encounter and the SY-3 landing at the Kilaak base, followed by the big brawl and then the epilogue flyby, you’d have a pretty-engaging, taut, fun 45-minute thriller (which was a bit thin on character). Unfortunately, those engaging sequences are padded by too much runaround and excess verbiage which leaves the characters almost equally-thin and the plot more-or-less the exact same as the outline above, just taking longer to get to each point. It makes for a frustratingly-uneven film that excels in brief sequences but disappoints overall.

But that brawl is pretty spectacular, and it’s what Destroy All Monsters will rightly be remembered for. It’s just a shame that there couldn’t be a better movie to complement it.

[ZinK]

Probably my favorite Godzilla film after Godzilla v Hedorah. Just pure fun.

This was also the first Godzilla movie my mom watched with me and the only thing she had to say was Minya looks like he was born with down syndrome.

[LamangoKaijura]

Why is a giant Glenn gunning down Ghidorah.

[edgaguirus]

Ghidorah is a dirty stinking rat.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Has it ever been stated why Rodan just took off and left the battle at the end?
Was the suit too damaged to take part in the full fight, or?

It's totally random when he leaves the fight so I always wanted to know if their was a reason for it.