Starting off the top three of the Glog's Godzilla Countdown, Godzilla vs Biollante from 1989 is an incredible Godzilla movie for any viewer, although surprisingly it does not have a wealth of Godzilla footage in comparison to other G movies. One could even make an argument that the actual scenes featuring Godzilla are somewhat bland or lacking in a way, and I would agree with this notion. You might think a Godzilla movie without awe inspiring scenes of monster carnage would be ranked lower, and Godzilla vs Biollante would be, if not for what is likely the strongest plot and story arc in the entire Godzilla series. Even as a true hardcore Godzilla fan, I can still admit some Godzilla movies are lacking in pacing and overall character development and plot, although this Godzilla movie is the opposite. I think it is incredibly intriguing during the scenes away from Godzilla, and that is one reason why it has been ranked as the third best Godzilla movie by the Glog.
As the direct sequel to 1984's "The Return of Godzilla", Biollante picks up almost immediately afterwards in the ruins of Tokyo, as soldiers and scientists comb the rubble in search of Godzilla cells. Some are recovered but the Japanese forces are soon after attacked by a small militant group and a shoot out with the Japanese military ensues. The militant group escapes with the cells before being assassinated by a lone mercenary, who collects the cells and returns to his homeland, the imaginary desert country of Saradia, an oil nation similar to Saudi Arabia. The Godzilla cells are brought to a lab where the hope is that scientists can use the regenerative qualities of the G cells to genetically enhance their crops to grow throughout the vast deserts of Saradia to take over the world's agricultural trade. A Japanese scientist Dr. Shiragami and his daughter Erika are employed by the Saradian institute, but as Dr. Shiragami discusses the biological experiment outside, the lab containing the G cells is destroyed by a terrorist bombing. His daughter Erika is tragically killed. Shiragami returns to Japan and over the five year period between Erika's death and the present day of the movie, he works on his own project to instill the soul of Erika into a Rose garden, by combining her cells with those of the flowers. Meanwhile, the Japanese forces are using the rest of the collected G cells to create a new biological weapon to use against the imprisoned Godzilla (if he ever were to escape his volcanic confines). They call it "Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria, basically an organism that feeds off of radiation and harvests the poison. The Japanese Defense Forces want Shiragami's help, but he is very reluctant and declines. The character Miki Saegusa is first introduced, the psychic girl who studies Godzilla and becomes fond of him throughout the coming five Heisei era movies. An explosion at Mt. Mihara (where Godzilla fell in 1984) triggers a worldwide panic as easily as its tremors knock over the Rose Garden containing Erika's soul. Helpless to the chance of his daughter dying again, Shiragami decides to join the Japanese Anti nuclear energy bacteria program. They provide him special access to G cells, and alone on a dark and stormy night he combines a G cell to that of his daughter's rose cell. A new organism is born. Two factions after the G cells attack Shiragami's home, which include the lone agent from the movie's beginning. After a shootout, large vines shoot through the house and kill one of the shooters. The Saradian agent escapes bewildered. The other shooter, representing an organization called Bio-major, reveals he has placed explosives around Mt. Mihara and threatens to release Godzilla on Japan if he does not receive the Godzilla cells his company desires.
After a frantic race to deliver the G cells to the bio major agent, the Saradian Agent interferes from a far away vantage point with a sniper rifle, prompting my favorite line of dialog in the entire Godzilla series. The two parties exchanging the cells duck in cover, and the Bio Major agent spots the Saradian agent, "Sonofabitch, its that Saradian agent again!" The dubbing here could not be better. The Bio Major agent attempts to escape with the cells but the Saradian agent kills him, and the other party of Japanese cannot disable the explosives in time. Godzilla triumphantly marches out of the destroyed volcano as the world trembles in fear. Biollante appears in the lake by Dr. Shiragami's house, a massive rose like creature, which begins calling Godzilla towards it. Godzilla heads towards Biollante and meets the creature in the lake, where after a short duel Godzilla easily destroys Biollante with his radioactive beam. A massive fire engulfs the lake and Biollante fades into a golden dust, which floats away into the atmosphere. Godzilla then sets his sights on a nearby power plant, but Miki changes his direction with her psychic powers, allowing Japanese forces armed with Anti Nuclear bacteria rockets to attack The Big G in Osaka, but their attack has little effect. It is hypothesized that raising Godzilla's core temperature will allow the bacteria to spread more easily, so the Japanese forces set up an array of microwave plates that attract lightening. Godzilla steps on these plates and the Japanese detonate the plates heat charges, only slightly affecting the monster. Suddenly, a massive, menacing reincarnation of Biollante forms from the sky, a hulking behemoth of a monster that looks like a crocodile. It charges Godzilla and wraps him in vines whilst barfing a barrage of pure anti nuclear energy sludge on the King of the Monsters. The battle is somewhat brief as Biollante bites down on Godzilla's entire head at once, before Godzilla blasts Biollante's mouth with his Atomic beam. He stumbles away from Biollante as the sludge from the monster takes effect, and Biollante disintegrates once more, this time for good. Dr. Shiragami looks on in awe as the golden spores of Biollante form and image of his daughter Erika before fading from view. Suddenly a bullet pierces his chest and he falls to the ground dead. The Saradian agent flees while one of the movies protagonists Kirishima chases after him. The agent corners Kirishima after a scuffle and holds him at gunpoint, but a misplaced step places him on one of the microwave plates and he is vaporized. Suddenly Godzilla awakens after Biollante's biological attack wears off, and he stumbles back into the ocean in a weakened state as the remaining characters look on.
The G suit featured in Biollante was very similar (if not the same suit) to the one seen in 1991's Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, and it is every bit as bad ass. Godzilla looks phenomenal, as you can see above, and some slight alterations to some of his roars and his heavy footfalls present a more than imposing monster. Godzilla is the menace again in this movie and it becomes apparent from the get-go. The whole world seems to be in fear of his activity within Mt. Mihara. Some fast facts here, Biollante's final form, the crocodile like beast pictured above, ranks in as the largest foe Godzilla ever faced in any of the movies in this countdown. While projections of the beasts' size are purely fanciful, it is estimated Biollante "crouched" at around 400 feet tall, much taller than Godzilla's 289 foot frame in this movie, and weighed in at over 220,000 tons. Also, Biollante and the general idea for the plot of the movie were both dreamed up by a dentist, who submitted his ideas to Toho after the company asked Japan to submit ideas for the next Godzilla move. A small idea became a big time movie, and number three on the Glog's countdown. Thematically, where do I even begin with this one? The themes of anti nuclear energy are present once more, this time literally in the name of the biological weapon which brings up a negative theme towards biological and chemical weapons as well. The mentioning of such conflicts as the weaning off of oil by the world's nations and importance of agriculture are constant themes in everyday politics, as well as the continuing under the table struggle between factions of each country over the resources in play. Company and country play a big role in this movie, in both realistically depicting an arms race and setting up an awesome conflict throughout the plot of Godzilla vs Biollante. At times, the focus is not on Godzilla, he is just the force waiting to break free due to the actions of the people. He is the reaper, the ultimate consequence of each nation and corporation not cooperating for peace. He ascends from the jaws of hell to punish those guilty, and what we have to realize as we watch this is Godzilla doesn't seek out those who have done wrong individually, such as the Saradian agent, he punishes us all because we all make up mankind, the good and the bad. Even at an individual level, you can make an impact in the world and it is up to us to stop the arms races of the future that could destroy our beloved planet. Everyone can do something positive with even the slightest amount of effort. Consequences at a global scale affect everyone, not just those involved.
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