Superhero Media: Godzilla Vs King Gidorah

Considered one of the best Godzilla films of it's era, Godzilla Vs King Gidorah is almost an excellent place for non-fans to jump in and attempt to enjoy the King of the Monsters, but not quite. The Heisei era of Godzilla (running 1984-1995) is typically considered to not be the best era for the world's best known Kaiju, with the mid-1990s being the first time in history where the Gamera franchise took over as the biggest in the genre. For the new era, Godzilla Vs King Gidorah attempts to reposition Godzilla as an anti-hero within his own universe, much as the Legendary films would years later in the West. Struggling to endure yet another Godzilla rampage, the Japanese government is offered a lifeline from an unexpected source; the future. Yes, this Godzilla film features time travel and more references to hit 1980s Western Action Films than you would expect, all with plenty of monster fights to keep the pace up. So yeah, it's a blast.

I notice that a lot of people that only watch Western Kaiju films tend to complain that there's "too many humans, not enough monsters", which leads me to think that they've never seen an actual Japanese Godzilla film; which is just full of interesting human characters doing things to drive the plot. As much as I like the parts of Kaiju films where the monsters are hitting each other, if the entire film were just that, it wouldn't be interesting and Godzilla wouldn't be one of the biggest pop culture exports Japan had ever managed. Godzilla Vs King Gidorah strikes a good balance, with a solid core cast that helps build the mythos of Godzilla, confirming his nuclear origins, but codifying the idea that he was a surviving dinosaur on a small Pacific Island and that it was specifically the Bikini Atoll tests that began the creature known as Godzilla. Throw in a robot for The Terminator references and a sprinkling of predestination paradox, and that's a solid Science Fiction core for your silly monster movie.

Even though Godzilla Vs King Gidorah was made in 1991, it feels a little dated for that time in terms of effects, as the Japanese film industry lagged behind Hollywood's tech boom. Still, the model work is great, and except for the odd flying scene, the incredibly complex King Gidorah suit/puppet is a marvel to behold in motion, but for those more used to CGI, it can be jarring and look a little goofy until you acclimatise. When describing where Godzilla Vs King Gidorah fits in the overall franchise, it may be fair to call it a kind of "soft reboot", a lead-in to the Heisei era that sets the tone for what will come, and, as such, it can be a good place to start if you want something closer to modern cinema than the older Godzilla outings. Oh, and this film is the origin for Mecha-King Gidorah.