Talkback Thread #9: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[Legion1979]

For over 30 years DAM was treated as a straight out classic. Everyone I know loves the movie, and it's easily my all-time favorite.

But suddenly, in the past few years people have started turning against it, newer fans especially. I've never seen such a drastic change in opinion about a Godzilla film before. What the f@ck happened? Then again, I never though people could hate Mothra vs Godzilla before I joined TK, so I dunno...

[20th Century Boy]

For over 30 years DAM was treated as a straight out classic. Everyone I know loves the movie, and it's easily my all-time favorite.

But suddenly, in the past few years people have started turning against it, newer fans especially. I've never seen such a drastic change in opinion about a Godzilla film before. What the f@ck happened? Then again, I never though people could hate Mothra vs Godzilla before I joined TK, so I dunno...

Yeah, seriously. This movie is in my top 5 and I've never understood why people hate it recently. I've never seen an analysis go deeper than "It's just boring."

[PRIMEVAL]

I always found it quite boring. People always say that it's more entertaining during the non-Godzilla parts than G'14 is but I can't agree with that. I just get lost with DAM and end up not caring what's happening at all. To each their own, though. I can see why it's quite loved.

[eabaker]

I think part of the issue with DAM's decline in popularity is that it was so late in having a stateside home video release. The mystique around the movie was so heavily built up, it ended up disappointing fans who were expecting more than it could deliver.

Honestly, I can kinda see both sides on this one. It doesn't have a lot the lighter charm of most Showa movies - in particular, the characters are very dry and kind of unpleasant - and there are a few bits where the pace kinda drags. So "boring" certainly isn't the most shocking reaction. Plus, there are a few effects moments that don't match either Tsuburaya or Arikawa's earlier standards. And, in the big final battle, a few of the monsters are completely sidelined, which might disappoint those expecting to see every kaiju get his due.

But, then, there are also some very tense sequences, some absolutely stunning effects, beautiful production design and photography in both the effects sequences and the human narrative, a rousing score, and a lot of really cool monster action.

I don't rank DAM in my top 10 Godzilla flicks, and probably right around dead center for the Showa era, none of which means I don't love it.

[Spuro]

I've never seen such a drastic change in opinion about a Godzilla film before.

I dunno, the evolution of the entire Heisei series from "These movies are so epic and way better than those cheesy showa movies!" to "These movies are so dull, the showa series is a lot more fun!" still staggers me to this day. Or maybe that's just TK.

[1tisoygoji]

DAM had some of the best effects and quality of the Showa films but the film is quite boring and I found the pacing very flawed.

[NSZ]

I've never seen such a drastic change in opinion about a Godzilla film before.

I dunno, the evolution of the entire Heisei series from "These movies are so epic and way better than those cheesy showa movies!" to "These movies are so dull, the showa series is a lot more fun!" still staggers me to this day. Or maybe that's just TK.

Who the hell considers Biollante dull? Sure, everything that came after just spiraled into "just skip to the fight already!" territory (especially egregious in BFE and SpaceGodzilla ... which incidentally are also the two movies that contribute absolutely nothing to the Heisei narrative), but I always found Biollante to be the one Heisei entry where I just have to watch the entire movie.

But yeah, on topic, at the end of the day, DAM has some issues with pacing and characters, but I still manage to get some enjoyment out of it... unless it's the dubbed version. Blech.

[Tohosaurus]

I just don't find it to be well paced. The bulk of the action is loaded at the end without much to keep us entertained prior to that. And by entertained I don't mean they just needed more monsters, but interesting characters and plot developments. Plus when we do get that enormous final battle, it's basically KG against every other monster so few of them are terribly involved. As with GFW, I would have wanted to see an alien "monster force" where several alien monsters battled our Earth monsters. It would've evened up the action in a big way. So the battle isn't worth the wait, and then the anticlimactic Fire Dragon gets tacked on afterword. I derived a lot more entertainment from Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster and Invasion of Astro Monster, which are somewhat smaller in scope but their focus allows them to be far more effective. Worse, they did all of this years before DAM so aside from the inclusion of extra monsters to stand around or do very little it brings nothing new to the table while being, to be blunt, "worse". But that's just my take, and based on memory I don't remember ever liking DAM that much. Among the Showa films AMA and Gigan are probably the only ones I like less. Maybe Megalon, but that movie is just so bizarre it's hilarious (to me).

[Legion1979]

It's a shame that the DAM blu ray with commentary is so hard to find. At the very end they tackle this criticism head on and explain why the movie is so important to so many people.

[kamilleblu]

It's a shame that the DAM blu ray with commentary is so hard to find. At the very end they tackle this criticism head on and explain why the movie is so important to so many people.

Can you paraphrase?

[Mr. Xeno]

I would hardly say that DAM is awful. The last time I watched it, it was quite a breezy viewing that went by very fast. The monster scenes are all fun, albeit used sparingly, and the film doesn't overuse stock footage the way Astro-Monster before it or AMA/Gigan/Megalon would after it. Although I will admit that the story is extremely dry and predictable. It's just another alien-invasion film, and the film does feel quite monotonous at times. It's also, IMO, too brightly lit. Almost every single scene (sans the ones on the moon) are shot in bright-ass daylight, usually out in open fields. Another big annoyance is that it has a huge collection of monsters, and yet most only make the briefest of brief cameos (Varan in particular literally only has a handful of seconds on screen, and Kumonga appears almost entirely, if not entirely, via stock footage). Which is why the appraisal of, "This film's awesome because it has a crap-ton of monsters in it!" feels undeserved.

Ironically, this same criticism is applied ad naseum to Final Wars: A huge selection of classic monsters get shafted in favor of a dull alien-invasion human story in what's supposed to be an epic series-ending monster brawl. Give credit, Final Wars is more guilty of this due to it's longer runtime, but that film also did something much more unique with it's human characters by ripping off The Matrix.

I honestly think that this movie's praise is more a result of people putting on rose-colored glasses (like many Showa films) than an objective analysis, but I also think the movie doesn't deserve any kind of true hate, either, but that's just IMHO.

[Tohosaurus]

It's a shame that the DAM blu ray with commentary is so hard to find. At the very end they tackle this criticism head on and explain why the movie is so important to so many people.

I bought said release before it was dropped in favor of the basic version that's on sale now. Very interesting and informative. But it doesn't change my personal take on the movie. What's far more important than anyone's opinion though is its success which allowed for additional Godzilla films to be made - and some of its successors (Hedorah and the Mechagodzillas) are among my favorite in the entire franchise.

[three]

For over 30 years DAM was treated as a straight out classic. Everyone I know loves the movie, and it's easily my all-time favorite.

But suddenly, in the past few years people have started turning against it, newer fans especially. I've never seen such a drastic change in opinion about a Godzilla film before. What the f@ck happened? Then again, I never though people could hate Mothra vs Godzilla before I joined TK, so I dunno...

Yeah, seriously. This movie is in my top 5 and I've never understood why people hate it recently. I've never seen an analysis go deeper than "It's just boring."

do they have to?

if it's not interesting, it's not going to get any deeper than that. you can lose an audience in the first sentence of a book, or the first act of a movie. if that happens, then it's not the fault of the viewer. i always found DAM to be boring and unsatisfying myself. the only reason i would watch it is for that ending stomp on poor Ghidorah (who lost its title of "king" in that fight).

there's nothing particularly great about it, either. what sets it apart from other movies of the time? what makes it better, or worse, or more fun? i think that this "depth" people are asking for can work both ways.

[ThunderScore]

[Mechagigan]

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/69836 ... 26d47d.jpg

Varan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Minya?

[ThunderScore]

[edgaguirus]

I like DAM. It can be slow in parts, but I find the music score good and the special effects compentent. The characters aren't deep, but they can be amusing at times. The space commander is over the top at times, like the hero of some old 1930s serial. The monster scenes are handled well, and the big fight at the end is probably the best part of the film.

I didn't see this film until some years ago. I'd seen plenty of G films, but never this one. It came on tv one day, and I saw it for the first time. I found it entertaining. It could use a few tweaks, but DAM does its job.

[szmigiel]

For over 30 years DAM was treated as a straight out classic. Everyone I know loves the movie, and it's easily my all-time favorite.

But suddenly, in the past few years people have started turning against it, newer fans especially. I've never seen such a drastic change in opinion about a Godzilla film before. What the f@ck happened? Then again, I never though people could hate Mothra vs Godzilla before I joined TK, so I dunno...

I still think DAM is a classic, easily in my Top 10, but I grew up seeing it on UHF TV and it was just another one of the movies Godzilla was in. I am also a bigger fan of the Showa era then the Heisei or Millennium eras, so I might be biased because it is one of the films from my youth.

When it never made it to VHS and newer fans couldn't see it, but heard about this movie that had more daikaiju then any other, exceptions of the people who never saw it grew. But when it was finally seen it can be a disappointment because the daikaiju are not front and center to the plot. They are a tool of the plot, not the main focus. And most of the daikaiju action is them stomping around, not even the longer wrestling style matches from the Champion Festival Era of films from the 70s. The international dub doesn't help either, I really wish the Tokyo Shock release could have included the old AIP dub. So for many fans it is a movie that can never live up to the hype and expectations.

[Mechagigan]

I like DAM. It can be slow in parts, but I find the music score good and the special effects compentent. The characters aren't deep, but they can be amusing at times. The space commander is over the top at times, like the hero of some old 1930s serial. The monster scenes are handled well, and the big fight at the end is probably the best part of the film.

I agree with this judgement. The characters aren't spectacular, but they serve their purpose fine and keep your attention on what's happening without coming off as basic. The effects were really a marvel, too, considering the scale of the project. I personally wouldn't call it one of the very best, but's it's higher in my list than it seems it is on some people's, as it's definitely very creative and entertaining - AKA, worth watching more than once.

[GodzillaFanatic2001]

I heard somewhere about a copy of this movie called "Operation Monsterland". I'm curious if its any different from the standard copies of DAM, and what info there is about it, although if I remember, there is very little info about it.