★ 5 / 10
There's no place else to go and pretty
John Chard
There's no place else to go and pretty soon we'll all be dead, so forget it! Enjoy yourself! Let's sing and dance while we can! Come on, blow your mind! The…
There's no place else to go and pretty soon we'll all be dead, so forget it! Enjoy yourself! Let's sing and dance while we can! Come on, blow your mind!
The 11th of the Godzilla franchise is easily the most trippy, and most divisive. Hedorah (AKA: The Smog Monster) is spawned from pollution and begins to destroy Japan. It spews poison, shoots acidic mud, tokes on smoking chimney stacks and can shape shift into the bargain. Enter the atomic lizard, Godzilla, who takes up the challenge to hopefully rescue mankind, he can even fly in this one...
There's some psychedelic animation inserted into proceedings, which couples up with the whole hippy vibe and LSD infused musical interludes. It's really a hard film to recommend with confidence, with director Yoshimitsu Banno doing an appalling job of staging action and pacing the narrative for cohesive viewing - a first line director he was not.
However, it's just nutty enough to understand why some Zilla fans love it, kind of like it's a fun off-shoot of the more potent pics of the series. Certainly the eco message is worthy, but really I'd personally have to be under the influence of strong liquor to ever watch it again. 5/10
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★ 5 / 10
The most "eh" Godzilla movie of them all!!
beetle-259-554148
Okay, so.... Godzilla vs Hedorah! It's been said that this is a Godzilla movie you either love or hate, so it's either a 10 or a 0. For me personally, this…
Okay, so.... Godzilla vs Hedorah! It's been said that this is a Godzilla movie you either love or hate, so it's either a 10 or a 0. For me personally, this movie is a 5; right smack dab in the middle! It's not a shining gem or a smouldering turd, it's just kinda "eh" *gesture where you shake your hand with all the fingers flat out*
So, the premise; rampant water and air pollution has spawned Hedorah, a sentient monster made of pollution that is like a mix of the Blob and a garbage dump! Hedorah is able to melt people to bones! The only hope for humanity, as always, is GODZILLAAAAA~!!!!
Hedorah is a notable monster as he is the last monster of the Showa era that is acting on his own will, he isn't obeying anyone or under mind control, unlike Ghidorah, Gigan, Megalon, Mechagodzilla, and Titanosaurus of the succeeding Showa films.
This movie is different; there's bizarre animation, trippy montages, and drug innuendos a-plenty!!! Now, the animation shown isn't anime, it's just some bizarre animation straight out of Uncanny Valley. Hedorah is shown sucking on a smokestack from a factory and exhaling the smoke before showing his bloodshot eyes, a blatant reference to taking a bong hit.
As someone who has taken a few bong hits before, I found this to be a clever little thing. The drug innuendos can be excused because this movie was made in 1971; weed culture was still in it's very huge first run!
There are two or three POV shots from Hedorah's perspective.
Also, no review of Godzilla vs Hedorah would be complete without mentioning the bizarre scene where Godzilla FLIES. This was a total WTF moment.
All in all, if you watch this movie with a sober mind like I did, you'll either hate it or it'll just be "eh". If you watch it after smoking some weed or ingesting an edible, it'll be the best damn Godzilla movie you've ever seen!
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