Review of Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) by Godzilla 2 — 08 Feb 2009
I can appreciate that director Yoshimitsu Banno was trying something different with his Godzilla film, and I can appreciate that he wanted to include a serious critique of society's wastfulness and the pollution we produce. I wish he made a good movie with these things instead of an awful movie.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah is boring. There are a few good scenes in it. The strange psychedelic club scenes are pretty interesting, the animated interludes work well, and the scenes of Hedorah in flight mode are nifty, but the battles between the two title creatures are no good. Godzilla spends more time wiping his nose than he does attacking Hedorah. And all Hedorah does is fling toxic poo at Godzilla. It isn't until Godzilla has killed Hedorah stone dead (and please don't comment to tell me that that is a spoiler. Who did you expect to win in a Godzilla movie?) that he really lets the Smog Monster have it, and he begins ripping to shreds the poor mutated tadpole-thing in a gruesome display of savagery.
The one thing that might have saved this film would have been the music. I have seen many spaghetti westerns and many kaiju films, and even the sloppiest of these two genres' films will often be saved by a brilliant soundtrack. Unfortunately, neither Akira Ifukube nor Masoru Sato, the two usual composers for the Godzilla series, were available. I don't know who they got to write their music this time around, but it is the worst soundtrack I have heard in any Godzilla movie. It is the worst soundtrack I have heard in any science fiction movie. It is worse than any video game soundtrack I have ever heard, yes, even worse than the annoying beeping sound in Pong. Whoever the hell wrote it thought it would be funny to do the kind of music that you hear in old cartoons when someone gets drunk, and to play that music whenever Godzilla appears.
Supposedly the director of this film is going to make the upcoming 3D Godzilla film. I pray to God that he doesn't fuck that one up too.
This review of Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) was written by Godzilla 2 on 08 Feb 2009.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah has generally received mixed reviews.
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