Blu-ray Review: Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack/Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla double feature

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews

The last of three new Toho releases brings us two more Millennial Godzilla films: Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack and Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.

All-Out Attack (2001) gives us a very bizarre Godzilla origin story; something about him being formed from the souls of the people who died when the first atomic bomb was dropped. It’s been 50 years since anyone has seen Godzilla and now he’s back to wreck havoc again. Only this time Japan has three monsters on its side: Baraga, Mothra and King Ghidorah. Legend has it that they are the three guardian monsters who protect Japan. So Godzilla is a bad guy in this one and it’s up to the three monster guardians to take him down.

The twins aren’t in this film supporting Mothra, but there is a nod to them. As Mothra flies over the city, two young women, who look a lot alike stop and look in wonder.

The human story in this one follows a father and daughter. The father is a military leader leading the attack on Godzilla while the daughter is a reporter trying to get the story of the monsters fighting to the people. Most the stories in Godzilla films are mostly filler between kaiju battles to pad at the film, but this one is actually pretty good. It’s one of those rare moments where you actually care about the human story in a Godzilla film.

In my Godzilla 2000 review I couldn’t help but compare it to the newest American Godzilla due to its lack of kaiju action. All-Out Attack has some really great battles in it with some classic monsters. I hope the American sequel is as good as this one.

The second part of this double feature gives us Godzilla Against Mechgodzilla. Godzilla is back again to destroy Japan. However, this time around no kaiju are going to be showing up to save them. So they build a giant robot Godzilla using some of the DNA they found in the bones of the original Godzilla that originally attacked Japan back in the 50s.

When the film opens, Lieutenant Akane Yashiro is the only one of her squad that survives a Godzilla attack in the late 90s. Five years later the Mechagodzilla, that they call Kiryu, has been built and is ready for battle. It armed to the teeth with all sorts of missiles and the crème de la crème of its arsenal is the Absolute Zero beam which lower it’s targets temperature instantly to Absolute Zero and shattering it. Conveniently Godzilla shows up the second Kiryu is ready for battle and the fun begins. Kiryu has a technical glitch in the first battle that sets Akane and her fellow soldiers back, but the scientists fix the problem and the Godzilla and his mechanical counterpart have a final show down.

This double feature includes two very solid Godzilla films, both films not only delivering great kaiju battles, but great human stories as well. Also, the acting and production values of both these films are high and definitely add to the entertainment value of these films.

The films are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 DTS-HD MA Surround sound. These are both great looking movies. They look and sound fantastic. English dubbed versions are on these discs, but I didn’t watch them.

You get Original Trailers for both films, however the trailer they put on the second film is actually the trailer for 1993s Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II which really confused me at first. I kept waiting for Godzuki to show up, but he never did.

If you’re a Godzilla fan, this blu-ray set, along with the other two that Toho has recently released (and I’ve reviewed) are must owns for your collection. These have all been remastered and they all look great as well as being thoroughly entertaining films.

Toho and Sony Pictures present Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack/Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla . Directed by: Shusuke Kaneko/Masaaki Tezuka. Written by: Keichi Hasegawa, Masahiro Yokotani & Shusuke Kaneko/Watabu Mimura Starring: Chiharu Niyama and Ryudo Uzaki/Yumiko Shaku and Shin Takuma. Running time: 105 min. / 88 min. Rating: Not Rated. Released: September 9, 2014.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years