John Chard
I've a feeling this is going to be Godzilla's last fight.
Godzilla is on the verge of nuclear meltdown, which spells doom for mankind. At the same time horrifying new organisms are discovered in Japan. These crustacean like beings are seemingly born of the Oxygen Destroyer, which was the weapon that killed the original Godzilla. From such things the mighty Destoroyah is born - the toughest enemy Godzilla has ever faced...
It's not only the last of the "Heisei" era of Godzilla, it's also one of the best in the whole franchise. It was meant to be the swansong for the big atomic lizard, which would have been fitting as it happens, but when Centropolis took up the rights and produced the must chastised 1998 blockbusting Matthew Broderick pic, things changed...
G-Force is on the case here trying to find out what the hell is going on (armed with the new awesome Super-X III), which brings in the human facor coupled with some wonderful sci-fi babble. Godzuki is in here, but he's not the cute goggle eyed cuddly thing we have seen before, he looks like the big parent only in smaller form - and here having junior in the piece works.
The effects work isn't the best of the series, and some of Destoroyah's abilities are strangely not explained - which is annoying. Fans of all things "Zilla" will rejoice at the nods and homages to the past "Zilla" entries, which is credit to Toho Studio for showing respect to their baby (and the fans).
The great Akira Ifukube came out of retirement to musically score this one, and he doesn't disappoint, blending the traditional Tokyo stomp thunders with emotional swirls. Ah yes, emotion, this be the one that has it in utter abundance. There is wonderful colour, carnage, laser shows and beast smack downs, but ultimately the emotional heart of the pic is what rises it up towards the top end of the Godzilla franchise. 8/10
