Destroy All Monsters!

Title: Destroy All Monsters
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Action/Horror
Starring: Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi
Director: Ishirô Honda
Language: Japanese

I must admit that I was never really enticed to the prospect of the Japanese 'Godzilla' films, for whilst I know that the campy original 'Star Trek' might keep me entertained for a while it gets boring rather quickly, and the dodgy man-in-a-suit style of effects would likely grow tiresome. This, however, is not your standard Godzilla film but the 'Battle Royale' of Honda's career; Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah and just about every other monster he's created all doing battle with...well actually they all gang up on Ghidorah because he's a space monster and the others are from Earth. Racism: the next evolution, but I digress.

Set in the future – 1999 to be precise, but this was made in the 60s after all – all the monsters of the earth have been held captive on an island dubbed “Monster Island” for obvious reasons, and meticulously observed and maintained so as to prevent them from leaving using state of the art techniques. For 20 years the project had been successful until a mysterious UFO is observed by the lunar base heading for earth. Soon a mysterious gas emerges from the island and in an instant the monsters are let loose to wreak havoc on the world, and with the mysterious alien race at the heart of the dilemma its up to Tokyo to track down the culprits and bring them to justice before humanity is destroyed.

So its probably best not to think too hard about the plot as it really is pretty damn ridiculous, but that never gets in the way of this film being fun to watch. Between the monsters randomly making things spontaneously explode, the obvious man in the Godzilla suit kicking things and jumping on Ghidorah's back whilst another monster just seems to dance a little, big tanks firing laser beams at the enemy, whose true form is potentially the most silly of all. It all reeks of someone who never grew out of playing with their toys; finding an odd combination of Godzilla, various dinosaurs, jet planes, tanks and some weird looking black gunk that had been evolving under the bed, all somehow colliding with one another, and most importantly the lego building you'd made specifically for them to demolish repeatedly.

But with all films built around being cheesy, something always has to give. The acting is dreadful and melodramatic, and despite having monsters attack all around the world there's only a few shots of this actually happening, and those are naturally done using a green screen (an actor in front of stock footage, which is often fairly obvious due to differences in camera, lighting, and often leaves a black outline around the actor) compared to the often on-location and miniature Tokyo which can at times be jarring. Coming towards the end of his career, his practice at using these effects feels at its peak and whilst obviously dated, it remains interesting to watch the old methods in action. This film is little more than an excuse to see lots of monsters stomp around a bit in an all out cheese-laden story; a nonsensical non-stop action romp of monster proportions, and for all the flaws it isn't half fun to go along for the ride.