BLOOD WORK: THE SAGA OF THE KING OF THE MONSTERS ~ PART 17: GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE

If the first Godzilla film is the greatest in the series, this one is the best of all the others... at least in my opinion. GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE is the real start of the second series and the best looking Godzilla movie ever made (also in my opinion). Godzilla has never looked more life-like and the special effects are Hollywood caliber for the time. And Godzilla's enemy in this film is like none other, a truly inspired work of art among the ranks of the Queen Alien and other cinema monster greats.

Remember how devastated I was when Godzilla fell into the mouth of the volcano in the last movie? I had always imagined (if Godzilla had lived) what it would look like to see him rise up out of the volcano, all triumphant and pissed off! Then I heard about this movie... AND MY HEART JUMPED OUT OF MY CHEST! It had been a few years since the last one, years where I believed my hero dead, and then to suddenly hear he's alive! This was greatest news of my young child life! This was the film I had dreamed about as a child. This was before I knew what sequels or franchises were. To me, after Godzilla 1985, Godzilla was dead.

In the years since his demise Japan has developed multiple contingencies in the event of his return: Advance robotics. Artificial Weather Manipulation. Laser Technology. Biological Weapons. And Genetic Engineering. As a result Japan develops the first ever Anti Nuclear Energy Bacteria, an organism that eats spilled nuclear waste. The genetic engineering to create such bacteria was derived from Godzilla's own cells. Godzilla feeds off nuclear energy. Somewhere in his cell structure is a nuclear digesting set of genes. Japanese scientists extracted this set of genes and created perhaps the one weapon that could kill the king of the monsters for good. This weapon also catapulted the country to the top of the list in the arms race of the world.

One of the first scientists to work on the Godzilla cells, a man named Dr. Genichiro Shiragami, began gene splicing the Godzilla cells with other organisms, particularly with those of plants in hopes of making a hardy plant that could survive in the harshest of climates. During his first phase of work with the cells a terrorist organization attacked his lab killing his daughter. She died among a bed of roses. Ever since then he had felt the spirit of his daughter within those roses. One night, Mount Mihara on Oshima Island (the same volcano entombing Godzilla) erupted. The tremors from the eruption collapsed Dr. Shiragami's greenhouse of roses. In a desperate attempt to save the roses from dying (saving his daughter in his mind) he spliced Godzilla cells together with the cells of the rosees. Godzilla's regenerative properties combined with the plant genetics resulted in a kaiju sized half plant half Godzilla monster! The most realistic looking of all the kaiju in the roster, not to mention the scariest, BIOLLANTE!

The same terrorists who attacked Dr. Shiragami's lab,a group called Bio-Major, blackmails Japan into giving up the newly developed Anti-Nuclear-Energy-Bacteria (Japan's nuclear deterrent) or else the terrorists will blow open an area of Mount Mihara releasing Godzilla. Japan reluctantly gives into their demands. During the exchange a third party intervenes. An assassin takes out the Bio-Major agents, steals the ANEB, and lets the explosives detonate thereby releasing Godzilla. Godzilla marches out of the rim of the volcano roaring his fury! Meanwhile on the mainland Biollante has grown even larger than Godzilla. She calls to Godzilla and he answers. What ensues is one of the most bizarre and incredible kaiju rumbles in history!

The monsters act like monsters, not men in rubber suits. The fight scenes look wicked and realistic. You can even see Godzilla's tongue move when he roars. Godzilla's blue radioactive breath looks amazing and powerful. What's more the film is taken completely serious, ludicrous plot and all. And it's a unique plot too. You'd think being the 17th film in a franchise you'd have seen most everything. But I hadn't seen this. The plot is fresh and feels modern with the heavy focus on genetic engineering. Even the score has been updated (some of it good, some of it maybe not).

You can imagine my elation at this movie! Not only do I get my hero back but I get him back in the best Godzilla movie I had ever seen! Watching GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE today still gives me a nostalgic feeling similar to what I had back in 1993 when I first saw it. The film has lost a little power in the intervening years and dozen sequels to follow. It feels like an 80's movie in some respects but even so I feel it transcends the Godzilla films to follow it, in plot and scope. This movie wasn't just another Godzilla film, it was pushing the series away from campy scifi towards a world of realism and terror. The series was headed this way with the previous film. Sadly Godzilla vs Biollante would be the last film like this. From here on out the series would go back to more traditional and campy grounds of old. It's not a bad thing, but it has done nothing to advance the series into new realms.

Part 17 is my second favorite Godzilla movie of all time. Part of that is due to my personal history with the film and how wonderful it was to get my hero back. The feelings I had at seeing him rise out of the volcano for the first time I will always remember. That sequence will forever be seared into my memory and will forever be one of the most powerful scenes in Godzilla history, still unequaled to this day. Everything before it only adds to the power. Everything after it strives to match it.

Overall Ranking: 9 out of 10

Category: Transcendence

BLOOD WORK

Thursday, September 10, 2015

THE SAGA OF THE KING OF THE MONSTERS ~ PART 17: GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE

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