Movie Review: Godzilla vs. Biollante

Godzilla v.s. Biollante [1989]

Happy Godzilla Day! Yes, apparently this is a thing. 

So... I've had a weird relationship with the Godzilla franchise. I really, really have been fascinated with Kaiju -- as the sheer amount of words on this blog I pour into monster designs might've clued you in. Yet until 2014's relatively simultaneous release of Universal's Godzilla as well as Toho's Shin Godzilla, I've never actually watched a Godzilla movie in full. I've seen bits and pieces here and there, or localized versions with bad dubs, and I've certainly read and watched some spinoff material like the 1998 controversial movie, the cartoon and read some comics. I knew who Ghidorah and Gigan and Destroyah were before even seeing a movie that featured them. 

And there were a multitude of reasons why I never quite got into the Godzilla franchise, at least until 2014 finally got me to start binge-watching the movies. Partly it's that, like many other long-running franchises, the series is subject to a lot of retoolings and reboots, with currently four different and distinct continuities in Japan -- the Showa era, the Heisei era, the Millennium era and everything else. Each one had its own tone and themes, and it's bizarre going from, say, the highly political-driven Shin Godzilla to the campy goofiness of Son of Godzilla. 

And... and I'm not sure why I chose "Godzilla vs. Biollante" as the movie to cover in this year's Godzilla Day. It was a movie that was relatively fresh in my head because I watched it recently, and is one that I have enough to talk about without going on tangential rants. And it certainly is a lot more easy to review than my original plans for today -- either Shin Godzilla or the original 1954 Godzilla movie.

Godzilla vs. Biollante is the second of the Heisei-era movies, a sequel to 1984's The Return of Godzilla, and I'm probably going to be reviewing mostly Heisei and Millennium movies if I continue with doing more Godzilla movies in the future. We'll see... I just didn't want to over-commit to something, particularly since that "superhero movies" list hasn't been updated in a while. 

And Godzilla vs. Biollante is a very, very solid Godzilla movie. And I say that knowing full well that Godzilla movies will always have a certain amout of things that tend to bug me, but isn't enough to turn me off of the movie. This movie ostensibly pits Godzilla against the massive, giant mutant plant Biollante, which, at that time, was given the pretty neat twist of being created as the result of genetic experimentation with some of Godzilla's own cells. It's an interesting enough concept, and I've always loved the look of Biollante's two forms in screenshots I've seen online before watching this movie for the first time, that I was definitely more than a bit sad that we really could've gotten way more of Biollante than we actually did. Also, it's a movie where Godzilla is definitely the antagonist -- not malicious, perhaps, but definitely the Big Bad of the many threats we see in this movie. I've never been the biggest fan of some of the Showa movies' attempt to really make Godzilla out to be this misunderstood cuddly giant.

What we did get is more of a three-way fight between the Japan Defense Forces, Godzilla and Biollante. Throw in a bunch of foreigner black ops agents running around trying to steal Godzilla cells for their own nation's good, and a series of plotlines that could have been distracting and ended up being piled upon one another ended up being... pretty dang good and the movie's paced pretty well. The only huge, iffy part for me are the weird esper/psychic segments, which really did not have any payoff at all. Miki Sageusa is a recurring character in these Heisei movies, and while her actress is certainly competent... sometimes all the esper stuff just feel out of place and end up with no payoff, y'know? You'd expect that she would be able to communicate with the not-as-harmful Biollante in some way, or to contribute in some way to the movie's storyline, but we get no such thing. 

Likewise, while Biollante's role as a more benign monster that hfeels pretty true to Godzilla's original 1950's concept of a tragic, man-made monster (swap out nuclear science for genetic engineering), and while that part of her characterization is certainly true, there's a genuinely bizarre sub-plot that seems to come out of nowhere that the lead scientist's dead daughter's soul is part of Biollante's genetic makeup, something that's just straight-up bizarre. 

Another quibble that isn't as bad as the other two and is more of an unfortunate product of the time is the huge, huge usage of English in this movie. And it's not that I minded the movie being multi-lingual... it's that the English used by some characters (the Bio Major and Saradian agents) are pretty all right even if the lines they read have weird grammatical syntax, but the English used by some others are pretty atrocious. Also they drop like "damn" and "shit" every second line of dialogue, which is actually hilarious. "Shitdamn, we are the lethal weapon!" is perhaps the most unintentionally hilarious piece of comedy from these Engrish lines. 

Still, these minor quibbles aside, Godzilla vs. Biollante is a pretty fun movie. It picks up from the 1984 Return of Godzilla with a brief recap given to us by a brief montage and a lady reporter with surprisingly good English. Considering the pretty suspect delivery of English by the rest of the cast -- and there are a lot of Engrrish in this movie -- that's saying something! We're quickly thrust into a bit of an action scene as soldiers from the nation of Saradia as well as an evil organization called Bio-Major send their agents to shoot each other in an attempt to steal Godzilla's cells. We're then quickly introduced to the scientist dr. Shiragami, who initially worked with Godzilla/plant cell experimentation in Saradia until his daughter ended up being killed in a bombing caused by Bio-Major agents. 

That's the prologue, and flash-forward five years later, and dr. Shiragami is a recluse growing flowers and spouting angry remarks about how his daughter had paid the ultimate price for his research. We're also introduced to a school for psychics that Miki Saegusa hangs out in, and... okay, I derided the relative pointlessness of the psychics, but the ominous scene where the children all show jarringly-cheery crayon drawings of Godzilla emerging from the mountain and wrecking shit, set to a reprise of the 50's movie theme... that's pretty great. 

Meanwhile, we establish Japan's main defenses against Godzilla, both experimental weapons -- the Anti Nuclear Energy Bacteria (developed with the aid of a reluctant Shiragami), a genetic weapon derived from Godzilla's digestive cells that can consume nuclear energy, as well as the advanced... fighter jet-box-aircraft called the Super X2. The movie's a bit slow at this point, but I do appreciate the slow buildup as everyone tries to move their chess pieces around. The grieving Shiragami combines the DNA of a rose (which he names after his dead daughter) with the Godzilla cells, Saradia tries to eliminate Shiragami and his research, while Bio Major tries to steal the cells. The last two factions end up facing off in a shoot-out that destroys part of Shiragami's lab... before they are accosted by vines, heralding the birth of Biollante. 

And the scene where we finally behold Biollante in its gigantic form is pretty impressive, as the camera pans out onto Lake Hashi where Biollante has grown into a titanic, vaguely humanoid figure with a rose for a face. The long shot of everyone arriving to behold the massive flower creature is genuinely well-done, which, again, is impressive considering the year this was made. While Shiragami spouts some speeches about science, progress and weapons, essentially saying a bunch of similar sentiments to 1950 Godzilla's dr. Serizawa, we get this whole bit with Bio Major threatening to detonate explosives aroud Mt. Mihara which would free Godzilla from his volcanic prison. A confrontation between the Japanese military men we've been following throughout the movie, the Bio Major agents and the lone Saradian agent end up in the death of the Bio Major agent, causing the explosives to erupt and unleashing Godzilla. 

It's a relatively long way before we get either Kaiju up and running, but unlike most other human-centric plotlines, I honsetly feel myself really caring for this inter-country spy espionage, because the stakes here -- the easily-weaponized Godzilla cells -- end up feeling really relevant to the actual themes of giant monsters borne out of the folly of reckless science experimentation. We then get the first of our action scenes, and one that I am surprised to find a lot of enjoyment out of -- Godzilla fighting against the Super X2. It's a bit gimmicky, for sure, but I do like that this weird little ship is actually able to stall Godzilla and even fight back, using the "Fire Mirror" technology to reflect Godzilla's nuclear blasts and send them back at the giant lizard himself. The X2 eventually overheats and gets taken out, but it's still a pretty fun fight. 

I'm not particularly sure why Godzilla ends up stalking out Lake Hashi to do battle with the docile Biollante. The esper characters give a vague talk about how Biollante is "calling out" to its "genetic twin". We did get a neat little fight... except, y'know, it was a bit too little. There is some token vine whip resistance from Biollante, but Godzilla quickly unleashes gouts of flame that incinerates Biollante before moving on to hunt for more nuclear plants to restore its energy. The military over-commits its forces to protecting the nuclear plants, which backfires when Godzilla shows up in Osaka. After a bit of a pointless bit with Miki utterly failing to do anything with her esper powers, we get a pretty damn spectacular "Godzilla destroys city" scene. 

It's a neat race against time as the good guys scramble to get their contigencies in place. A group of soldiers go out to get the ANEB bacteria ready, while the damaged Super X2 plane tries its best to hold out against Godzilla. The Super X2 is ultimately destroyed, but it buys enough time for a group of soldiers with bazookas led by General Gondo manage to launch the bacteria into Godzilla's body before Godzilla's rampage destroys the building Gondo is firing out of. It's not the most elaborate of scenes, but I really did like what we got out of this sequence. Gondo's sarcastic, hilarious but surprisingly not over-the-top lines make him a pretty fun contrast compared to the other super-serious humans, and that scene where the Saradian agent opens the blinds to see Godzilla rampaging outside before dropping a well-placed "SHIT" is a pretty neat visual effect, as is Gondo's ultimate death. 

The burning, ruined Osaka is a pretty neat effect, and everyone panics as they figure out that despite being injected with multiple doses of the ANEB bacteria, Godzilla's body temperature is too low and that's inhibiting the bacteria's growth. A group of tanks and these weird little giant mines are mobilized and we get some neat military-vs-Godzilla action scenes that, while not as well-choreographed as the previous two, did end up immobilizing Godzilla enough... and that's when Biollante shows up again!

And this time, Biollante Mark 2 has mutated into a far, far larger creature, exhibiting way more of its Godzilla ancestry than its plant ancestry. It's essentially a massive, bulbous Piranha Plant, towering even over Godzilla, and we get some amazing cuts as Biollante erupts from beneath the ground, and while we tragically don't see enough of Biollante, the suit they made for the unconventional monster is easily one of my favourite bad guys in the Godzilla franchise. Biollante and Godzilla fight in a pretty neat fashion for a Tokusatsu show of the era, and I did find the particular scene with Godzilla's arms being brutally pierced by one of Biollante's vines to be unexpectedly graphic. We eventually get Godzilla blowing up Biollante by launching a nuclear blast into the plant monster's mouth, but collapsing due to his injuries. Biollante herself breaks up into spores and ascends into the heavens, while Shiragami and Miki both see the ghost of Shiragami's dead daughter.

The Godzilla/Biollante fight is honestly pretty short, and I really would've loved to see more out of Biollante, but I really did like the action segments of what we got. The score was great, the action was neat, and between Godzilla being weakened and Biollante's massive size, I get the feeling in that scene that Ihad no idea who was going to win, a rarity in these monster movies. 

The ending's a bit weird, but pretty consistent with the main plot of the movie. Shiragami declares to his sponsor that he will never allow another Biollante to be created, and he will never release the ANEB research for anyone in the world, in contrast to his earlier insistence that "you people can't be worried about giant monsters, scientific discovery is important!". Just as he says this, the Saradian Agent kills dr. Shiragami dead while everyone's distracted by the giant kaiju fighting. A brief car chase scene with the military-men main male lead, and the Saradian agent is vaporized by the mine-fields used earlier to weaken Godzilla. Godzilla himself ends up waking up and basically just buggers off and returns to slumber beneath the ocean. 

And honestly, the plot has so much things going on that I'm genuinely baffled that the movie flows as well as it did and even holds up to a second viewing. Biollante should have been an annoying anomaly that doesn't have a motivation beyond just being a secondary that wrecks shit, but they manage to make use of her as an allegory of human scientific discoveries trying to one-up other scientific discoveries in a pretty effective way. Yes, the movie could've definitely been improved a lot by leaning either way in telling us what Biollante's whole deal is. Is she just a benign creature that just wants to hang out with Godzilla, gets killed, and transforms into her final form in either self-defense or revenge? Is she trying to compete with her "twin"? Is she possessed by the ghost or spirit of the dead girl Erica?

Also a slightly weak part of the movie are the human characters. It's always been something that Godzilla movies struggle with -- these one-off human characters tend to just exist to fulfill a role, and most of them in this movie fill their roles adequately. The stand-outs that are the most relevant, of course, are Shiragami, Miki, the Saradian Agent, and the military boys Kirishima and Gondo. Kirishima is perhaps the most boring of the main characters in that I don't think he has any personality beyond "I don't trust the ANEB" and basically being the obligatory good-guy-action-man in any given scene. Miki, as pointed out before, is well-acted but bland. Meanwhile, Shiragami gets some neat character development, but the acting is very subdued. 

Overall, Godzilla vs. Biollante is a movie that's highly praised among the Godzilla fandom, and I tend to agree that it's definitely one of the most solid outings that the kaiju monster movie genre has. It's far from perfect, though, which is what most people do have to keep in mind -- these Kaiju movies are fun, but each of them tend to carry with them some charming flaws. A very solid outing nonetheless, though, and I'm a huge fan of the big flower chompy girl Biollante. 

Random Notes:

• I am not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure they revamped the Godzilla suit between Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante... but this version of the suit is pretty damn great, striking a neat balance between "big scary monster" and "intelligent creature", and basically stuck aroud for the majority of the Heisei movies.
• Shiragami notes that "Biollante" is named after a Nordic plant god, but no such name, or anything that resembles it, exists in the Norse pantheon. 
• We get a random cameo of the oxygen destroyer from the 50's movie in Gondo's office.
• We last see Biollante sort of hovering in space as a rose. My memory of the subsequent movies is a bit foggy, and I'm not sure if she ever returns back to Earth.