- Original theatrical poster - image courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art
The first of several dozen sequels (so far), Godzilla Raids Again is among the more unusual movies to ever come out of the giant monster genre. In setting the prehistoric dragon against another skyscraper-sized opponent, this flawed but ambitious movie established a template that would be played out within an inch of its life over the next few decades. This film has the right idea, but loses much of its punch while trying to cover too many bases.
At the end of the 1954 original, a weary paleontologist (Takashi Shimura) commented that another Godzilla was distinctly possible if nuclear bomb testing was to continue, a thematic reinforcement that perhaps inadvertently opened the floodgate for additional movies.
The first Godzilla was killed, but that was of little concern here. Amusingly, American distributors, under the impression that the name Godzilla was copyrighted, reworked the film and released it as Gigantis, the Fire Monster.
This Americanized version is a frequently hilarious hodgepodge of reworked dialogue (often written to match lip movements at the expense of all logic) and unnecessary, often absurd changes to the general story, and audiences weren't fooled. Despite some high water marks, however, even the original version of Godzilla Raids Again is mostly a mess and failed to perform with audiences or critics. It would take another seven years for Toho to return to their roots, exploring other monsters in the interim. The kaiju genre was here to stay.
Godzilla's opponent is Anguirus, a reptilian hedgehog of sorts first seen doing battle with the big lizard on a remote island, where two pilots have converged after an engine failure left one of them stranded. Within ten minutes, the film offers a glimpse of the monsters and ensures that this outing will be more technically elaborate than its predecessor, to say nothing of the ultra-sized fisticuffs to come. Unlike many later "versus" sequels, including more recent mash-ups like the atrocious Alien vs. Predator films, Godzilla Raids Again delivers the goods when it comes to giant monsters beating the stuff out of each other.
What's most awkward about the film, then, is the lack of balance between giant monster action and human drama. A comparison to James Cameron's Titanic is apt, as both films are essentially soap operas set against a larger tragedy incidental to the character drama at hand. Unlike that frequently railed-against Oscar winner, however, Godzilla Raids Again is unwise in investing so much time in its human characters, who are poorly drawn and never particularly compelling on their own, and only tangentially related to the larger story.
The tonal shifts between scenes are frequently so bizarre that the film often takes on a dreamlike tone (on more than one occasion, I thought I'd fallen asleep, continuing the movie in my head), morphing from one scenario to another with little to be found in the way of transition.
These warts are mostly smoothed over when the real stars take center stage, culminating in a massive centerpiece battle that sees the two foes battling each other tooth and nail as the military wages their pitiful strike against them. Unlike the slower march typical of early Godzilla rampages, the fighting between Godzilla and Anguirus is particularly dynamic and fast-paced, literally so in one sequence where a second unit director accidentally had the camera shooting at an accelerated rate, achieving a hypnotic, surreal effect.
This being the last Godzilla movie filmed in black and white, there's a palpable spark of aggression that later films, in semi-cartoonish color, were unable to match. Godzilla Raids Again is as problematic as it is frequently compelling, and it speaks to the creative issues at hand that a montage of destruction from the original movie, played back without sound, is better than 90% of what this film has to offer.
Dramatic obstacles notwithstanding, the new Godzilla still leaves an indelible impression, never more so than in the beautiful shots of the big fella transfixed by flares used to draw him out to sea, his eyes haunted by these inexplicable, floating lights. There's soul to be found in the eyes of the beast.
Godzilla Raids Again. Dir. Motoyoshi Oda. Perf. Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Haruo Nakajima. Toho, 1955. Running Time: 81 min.
