Destroy All Monsters (1968) Review
The most succinct way I can describe this movie is »Justice League, but for Godzilla«.
Every time I sit down to write one of these reviews, I resist the urge to open by describing the movie as »a weird one«. Weird is a lazy description. It comes from something being hard to get a grip on. The interesting thing is where that uncertainty comes from.
Destroy All Monsters (1968) is weird — not because the movie itself is overly hard to follow or because its content is that extraordinary. No it is weird, because how the hell did we end up here?
First of all, the plot is explicitly set in the future. We are now all-in on the spacefaring themes that were established in Ghidorah, the Three-headed Dragon and Invasion of the Astro-Monster. The United Nations Science Committee has established an advanced space program, with a permanent moon base to boot. It almost gives a whiff of Star Trek for a hot minute with all the globalist tech-utopianism.
Now, hold my beer, because it does not stop there, because what about all the rampaging monsters from the prior film? That does not sound very utopian. Well, in this future scenario, the UNSC has managed to capture and confine every kaiju to a remote location: Monster Island. A specialized system makes sure that every monster is kept safely on the island. Godzilla even get to spend time with its son (*grumble* *grumble*).
And if that feat of kaiju preservation was not impressive enough, the UNSC has built their primary earth base smack dab in the middle of Monster Island. The premise of this entire operation boggles the mind. And maybe I should not be that surprised. I do know how we got here after all. This tracks with the trajectory of earlier films. We are not in the realm of speculative fiction or ponderings about society through the lens of a kaiju-shaped metaphor. I will reiterate that this is pure sci-fi.
I probably do not need to be explicit about it, but I find this entire scenario to be decidedly dull. Domesticating kaiju is an oxymoronic premise that can only work if you go the route of Jurassic Park. But this movie is not about man’s hubris, how the advancement of tech exasperates our urge to take command of our surroundings. It is about foreign entities spoiling our perfect society.
The plot itself is not exactly gripping. We are back to a hostile alien species that plots to take control over Earth’s monsters and seize the planet itself in the process. There is some back and forth, information is gleamed, plots are unveiled etc. To me it just comes off as a rehash of Astro-Monster, but without the charm of the buddy setup. In the end, the only way to conclude on the plot is for the aliens to call in King Ghidorah again. Godzilla and pals have to reunite and beat up the dragon. Roll credits.
So as I put it initially, this movie gives me flashbacks to watching the Justice League animated series as a kid. And it is not a vibe I particular enjoy for Godzilla.
I remember Destroy All Monsters as being a bit of a slog, but is not quite that bad. Most of the individual elements are fine. They just do not coalesce into something that excites me. The most interesting part is mostly the novelty of having so many different monsters running rampant across the globe. Every time we see this movie we always cheer when Manda — a pitiful-looking snake creature — demonstrates its might by destroying a raised highway. It is such a spectacular show of something tame — given too much gravitas.
Another fun quirk is the hero of the story being portrayed by the same actor that played the plucky journalist in Son of Godzilla. His role here is much more stern, but I always expect him to suddenly pivot into something more jovial. Recycling actors is very prominent in this era of Godzilla movies — a property of the time that I always enjoy. It adds a theatric flair that I enjoy. It is mostly in this movie that it disturbs my focus.
If there is one interesting thing about Destroy All Monsters, it is that it is the deathblow to the notion of escalation. Throwing in bigger stakes, more monsters and more locations does not keep the movie from feeling stale. Godzilla needs something else to invigorate it.
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