MONSTER SIGHTING #19: Godzilla 1985

While I own both the original Japanese version released in 1984 as Godzilla Returns, Godzilla 1985 was the film I grew up with and this will be the version that I watch.

The series went dormant for nearly a decade after Terror of Mecha-Godzilla, finally returning nine years later in 1984 with Godzilla Returns, the final film of the Showa period and the soft beginning of the Heisei period of Japan and the series of Godzilla films.

The budget was upped and the movie, like Terror of Mecha-Godzilla that proceeded and the film that follows it, has a legit theatrical vibe to it that went missing after Godzilla vs. Biollante. 

I definitely appreciate this movie more now as an adult than I did when watching it as a kid. The Russian conflict story at the films core being sparked by Godzilla's destruction of a soviet sub is actually pretty interesting, but rewatching the American 1985 cut of the film now after more than twenty years, I can definitely see how little me found it less than fun. 

For starters, Godzilla versus any sort of military was never all that interesting to me. I wanted brawling between two monsters. The heavier focus on story also had me constantly fast-forwarding through the "boring talking parts" just to get to the monster action. 

Godzilla's design in this highly reminiscent of how he was when we last saw him in 1975; with big, round eyes, a rounder head and bulbous dorsal fins. Things that would be sharpened to elongated as we move into the Heisei era of films. 

Another reason I will always prefer the 1985 version of the movie is the ending; Raymond Burr's speech following Godzilla's drop into the volcano (and that horrifying shriek of terror) has so much weight to it that I am not surprised that the current ongoing Reiwa era Monsterverse haven't used it in some way considering Godzilla is literally a force of nature in the continuity. 

Now if you will excuse me, I have a strange craving for a Dr. Pepper.