Godzilla vs. Biollante - Plant Gang

After officially bringing back Godzilla, Toho wanted to keep the graving train rolling, holding a contest for a fan to essentially write an early draft for the next Godzilla movie. And while the winner Shinichiro Kobayashi's original draft has a lot of differences with the finished product, it still resulted in the release of Godzilla vs. Biollante. Godzilla vs. Biollante tends to be one of the movies I've had a difficult time finding. I've never owned a copy of it and have only ever seen it on TV before, very briefly. So when I checked it out on Archive, I was really happy to rediscover and rewatch the movie. I will concede that I don't love it as much as others love it, and I don't love it as much as some of the later films in the series, but it, like the Return of Godzilla were two really solid entries in the series to usher in this second wave of Godzilla films. It has a lot going for it. Some really awesome effects work, some of the most awesome shots in the entire series and one of the most interesting opponents Godzilla has ever faced in Biollante. Godzilla vs. Biollante is an incredibly strong entry in the series, and while not every aspect of the movie is perfect, it definitely leaves a solid impression for any viewer.

After Godzilla's second attack seen in the Return of Godzilla, cells from Godzilla were chipped off and discovered to have amazing regenerative powers. A year after the cells are discovered, biologist Genshiro Shiragami's daughter is murdered, and he fuses her cells with a roses. After a tremor kills the roses, he then adds Godzilla's cells to the mix, unintentionally creating the tribrid, Biollante, in hopes of keeping his daughter alive. After Godzilla is freed from his volcanic prison, the two monsters are sure to fight each other, with Biollante surprisingly posing a bit more of a threat than Godzilla this time around.

Right out the gate, the movie makes an incredible first impression to any viewer with the introduction of one of the most fantastically designed monsters of the entire series; Biollante. For a monster that has so far only appeared in one movie, she makes a fantastic impression and is instantly memorable. Monsters that use Godzilla's genes or are a bad copy of Godzilla are common, and I promise that Biollante will absolute will absolutely not be the last. But as for a genetic clone, she is the first and gets bonus points for it. Biollante has two forms, the flower beast and the plant beast form. Both look simply stunning on screen and they look and sound absolutely incredible. I really like the flower beast a lot. The roars she makes and her hideous mangled form almost sound and feel like it's the ghost of Dr. Shiragami's daughter screaming for help from the father who doomed her. That's definitely a little dark, but it's gotta be what they were going for. And the plant beast form might be even better. With her many tentacles, acidic sap like Godzilla's atomic breath and her terrifying appearance and roar, she stands out among other Toho monsters. I'm glad she was created during the second era, one focused much more on a streamlined continuity and more realistic and terrifying monsters, because I don't think she would have worked or been executed properly in the first series. Biollante is not my favorite Godzilla monster or even my favorite opponent of Godzilla. But if someone told me she was theirs, I'd completely understand.

The movie also earns bonus points for absolutely nailing the look of Godzilla. Godzilla looked great in his 1984 reemergence, but this suit is just perfect. A menacing face and fantastic roar while getting up in Biollante's face just enough and still being able to use his iconic powers, it's no surprise that Godzilla's design for the rest of the second series was basically unchanged, looking exactly like this design, BioGoji, for the rest of the series' existence. This movie also really establishes one of Godzilla's stronger powers; his incredible regeneration and healing factor. It seems like any super powerful character gets to have a healing factor, and Godzilla's is so strong it motivates the entire plot of the movie. Honestly, Godzilla himself pilots the whole movie. Of course, the movie is truly helmed by the humans at the front of the story. But Godzilla really drives every decision made during the entire runtime. Not giving the G-Cells over to the eco terrorists? No problem. Except that if you don't, they're gonna set Godzilla free from Mount Mihara to reign fire and devastation on the country again. We found Godzilla's cells and discovered they have amazing self preservation and incredible healing capabilities! You know what'd be really genius?! That's right! If we added them to a rose hybrid to force them to stay alive! Godzilla drives every aspect of the movie that is only seen in the strongest entries in the series like in Godzilla. It's also interesting seeing him in this movie, because it's basically the only time Godzilla is not a straight up villain for most of the series. Of course, he takes more of an anti-hero role in the second series, but after seeing him become a villain again in the Return of Godzilla, seeing him almost be the main good guy monster of the movie is pretty interesting, as for a time he is almost the lesser of two evils over Biollante. That is until he wrecks downtown Osaka. That's right! Godzilla even gets in some more awesome city destruction in this movie and the effects look better than ever! Honestly, Godzilla is just fantastic in this movie. Definitely one of his best portrayals in the series, in my opinion.

This film also succeeds in one of the best human plots of the entire series, helmed by the character of Genshiro Shiragami played Koji Takahashi. Shiragami is tasked with creating a plant that can help the country of Saradia become less reliant on other nations buying their oil. And when his daughter is killed, he takes rose genes and mixes them with his daughter's to make a plant that can just keep on living. He's a tortured man, convinced that he led his daughter to her death and convinced even more that he has to keep her alive. He's kind of like Dr. Frankenstein, pushing science too far, and once his experiments begin to hurt the world, he simply hides himself away and refuses to see and acknowledge how much harm he caused the world. His story is very perfectly wrapped up within the movie, watching Godzilla and Biollante both cause damage to the country, which he unknowingly caused both to be released into the world because of his own poor decisions. Once he is killed at the end of the movie, it's the perfect conclusion to his arc. He caused so many others to get hurt from his actions, his daughter included that he basically must pay with his own.

HOWEVER, the movie is not perfect, not even close. My biggest issues are three: odd music choices, direction on the non-Japanese speaking actors, and some strange editing. Starting with the weird music choices, let me present to you the song Bio Wars. This song appears in the movie a few times, largely during some more intense action scenes, so I ask: why the hell is this song they went with? It's not a bad song or anything, not even close. It's one of my favorites of the amazing lineup of songs Toho has for these movies, but it's weird and detracts a little bit. It first plays over an intense gunfight for the first sample of G-Cells. Either silence or a more Ifukube inspired score would have worked much better. 'Cause I hear this song and I want to dance. It's not bad music. It just doesn't fit. Next up, you read that right. Non-Japanese speaking actors are prevalent in this movie, probably a lot more than any other movie in the entire series. And uh, yeah. Their direction isn't great. Of course, it must be difficult casting and working on a set that is primarily working in a language you don't speak, but if that's such an issue, it'd be better to just keep the story in Japan 100% and not make it an international spy thriller. A standard internal spy thriller would be no problem. In fact, that might look kind of cool. It's not the biggest deal in the world or anything, but it sticks out. As for the strange editing, I probably should have gotten on the Return of Godzilla over the same issue, but I didn't. Oops. A lot of scenes end SUPER abruptly and with them ends the music. Just a sudden cut. Not a fade out or a cleaner cut or fade out. Just a hard cut that is really jarring and not the best editing in the world at all. I just prefer some tighter editing, and that is absolutely not what I'd call tight editing.

Despite its flaws, Godzilla vs. Biollante is a really great entry. Some fantastic monster effects and designs that are some of the strongest in the entire series, a really tight human story with some strong performances to boot, it's one of the better entries in the series. I'm kind of bummed I don't like it as much as some other G-Fans, but it's not bad in the slightest. It has some flaws I would have worked out, but it's a strong strong entry. I definitely would recommend this movie to others and if you can find it, pick it up immediately.

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Coming up next, we got what I call "the Rematch Trilogy." Godzilla vs. Biollante didn't quite perform at the box office how Toho was hoping it would, so they believed the only solution was to bring back  more classic monsters from the first series. And let me tell you, it was a brilliant decision that will change the rest of the franchise. Coming up next, we have one of my favorite entries of the entire series. I'll see you tomorrow when we get reintroduced to a fiend as we watch Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah!