#9- "Destroy All Monsters" (1968)

 

If I had to select a movie to represent the entirety of the early goings of the Godzilla series (Showa Series), Destroy All Monsters would be my final choice. This is a legendary Toho production and for good reason. It features eleven, count that, eleven monsters! These eleven beasts, led by Godzilla, are all contained on "Monster Land," a fanciful place where all the monsters live, near the Ogasawara Islands. This is not Monster Island, infact Monster land and Monster Island are two different entities. They're basically the same thing, but Monster Land exists in the future in 1999, (well the past now, but you get the idea) while Monster Island exists in the present day of the Godzilla Movies it is in. Destroy All Monsters is the best though at showing Earth's monsters in their natural settings of Monster Land. The eleven monsters from left to right in the above picture: Larval Mothra, Gorosaurus, Rodan (flying), Kumonga the spider, Anguirus, King Ghidorah (flying), Varan (Flying in background), Godzilla, Manda (the snake creature), Baragon, and Godzilla's Son, Minilla. No movie up until Final Wars ever depicted eleven monsters all at once, making Destroy All Monsters a revolutionary Monster movie.

The story begins by outlining the monsters of Monster land and the futuristic technology of the world that has developed by 1999, including space ships regularly traveling to the several established moon bases. The monsters are contained on the island, but suddenly break out by unknown means. Godzilla attacks New York and destroys the United Nations Headquarters, Rodan destroys Moscow,  and Gorosaurus tunnels into Paris. Mothra destroys Beijing and Manda slithers around in London. Meanwhile, Captain Katsuo, pilot of the space rocket "Moonlight SY-3", is sent to discover why the monsters have rebelled. He, along with his crew of cornily dressed yellow space men, discover an alien race, known as the Kilaacks, has taken mind control over the scientists of Monster Land, as well as the Monsters, releasing them to take over the world. Moonlight SY-3 goes on a daring mission to the moon to destroy the Kilaacks communication base there before returning to Earth as the Monsters wreak havoc in Tokyo together. With their strange communications down, the Kilaacks lose control of the monsters, who become friendly again and converge together by Mt. Fuji. This prompts the Kilaacks to send down their ultimate monster, King Ghidorah,  (again), who takes on seven of the ten Earth Monsters at once (Varan, Baragon, and Manda all sit the bench but are present). The Earth Monsters, led by Godzilla, appear to kill King Ghidorah, and even little Minilla gets to dole out some pain. Then, Godzilla destroys the hidden Kilaack base on Earth as they release a flying flaming monster into the air. Moonlight SY-3 and its crew of weak actors goes after it, and they successfully destroy the flaming apparition which ends up being a flaming flying saucer. Godzilla and his posse of monsters return to Monster Land to live happily ever after.

Gorosaurus and his memorable "Kangaroo Kick" which knocks Ghidorah down for good.
 

For 1968, Destroy All Monsters was clearly intended to be ahead of its time. It has such an ambitious plot and so much action, that it's easily one of the most memorable Godzilla movies. As a kid, all the monster mayhem in this movie was a dream come true, but watching it nowadays from an analytical perspective breathes a slightly different story: Destroy All Monsters may fall short in the pacing category. Some of the scenes without monsters are quite boring, and as I mentioned above, the actor's skills do little to keep the somewhat slow pace of the movie engrossing. Captain Katsuo may as well be Captain Obvious, almost narrating to the viewer what is going on on-screen. There is a prevalent female theme here, although I do not think it accomplishes much in the end despite its deemed relevance. These short comings aside, the shots of various monsters in various cities around the world are incredible, especially when Gorosaurus enters Paris. I've read that Destroy All Monsters was intended to be the final Godzilla movie before, and I think this bears significance because DaM was clearly channeled into the last "final" Godzilla movie, Final Wars, in which an alien race takes over the monsters for world domination, culminating in releasing King Ghidorah on the Earth. You could make a serious argument that Final Wars is the remake of Destroy All Monsters, but despite the new age production, Destroy All Monsters still does it better. This was the 9th movie in the Godzilla series and I've unintentionally ranked it 9th overall on the countdown. Not only has this movie gone down as one of the most memorable Godzilla movies, but I think it has a strong case for one of the best Monster Movies of all time. A monster cast as strong as this one will never be witnessed again. It's nostalgic. It's legendary. It's old school Godzilla at its best.