After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese government uses the cells to create a new bio-weapon, ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). They seeks the aid of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who's experiments result in a new mutation.
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Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) ** (out of 4) After the huge success of THE RETURN OF GODZILLA, Toho waited a while before another film in the series hit the big screen. In this movie, Godzilla rises from out of the volcano and sure enough he heads towards Japan. The people there brace themselves for more destruction but then Biollante makes his stand.I'm not really sure what Toho was thinking but this movie clocks in at 104-minutes and I'm going to take a guess that Godzilla might appear in thirty-minutes of that. This film didn't do very well at the box office and the company blamed the fact that Godzilla was fighting someone new. I really don't think that was the reason this turkey failed at the box office. To me this here is one of the most boring films in the series as there's nothing but non-stop talk, talk, talk.I'm all for some great dialogue and a terrific story but we get neither of those here. We get endless scenes of people talking and the only thing we're wanting is to see Godzilla break stuff. He finally appears at around the forty-minute mark with awful looking fire sparklers going off behind him. The actual battle scenes between him and Biollante were actually good and especially the various green goo that comes out of Biollante. The special effects are actually above average for a Godzilla film and the destruction of the city was good. The ending was a letdown but it's too bad this thing ended up so boring.
Godzilla is literally the longest running film series in history, so it's hard not to see so many movies and treat them like long episodes of a TV show. Hey, it worked for "Mystery Science Theater 3000"! All the Godzilla movies feature either him destroying a city or him fighting another monster and this film goes the extra mile by having both occur! What's better is that we get to see the most frequently appearing human character in the entire Godzilla franchise, Miki Saegusa. She has a psychic link with Godzilla. As the franchise is known for its monsters, it's quite unique for a human character to be important.We get great setup to the creature Biollante and in a lot of the movie and we even get great action scenes from the actual human characters, especially when Biollante's vines are attacking people in the beginning. It seems pretty lame for Godzilla to fight a giant plant, but it certainly gets better. There's actually two huge fights between these two characters. In the second one, Biollante takes on a much cooler and more crocodile like form. At the very end, Godzilla is still alive, but decides to stop attacking. It's really a good story that should please all fans. ***
There's rubbery mayhem a-plenty in this 1989 addition to the Godzilla series, which casts a newly-reborn Godzilla as the menace and the genetically-engineered super-plant, Biollante, as the heroine of sorts. It's an episodic film whose plot meanders all over the place, drawing together the usual army-vs-massive-monster action, mucho destruction, lots of cool special effects and a sub-plot involving bio-engineering, loss and evil foreign agents.Despite the overload of plot, GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE fails to be one of my series favourites, purely because it feels dragged out to a degree. There's never quite as much destructive mayhem as you hope to see, and some of the sub-plots involving the human characters are pretty dull. The whole making-up of a Middle Eastern country to supply some human menace is nothing more than a piece of xenophobic propaganda. Not that I have a problem with that, but the action is pretty dull as it stands.Thankfully, the good news is that Godzilla himself is at his vindictive best, stomping all over Osaka in his bid to destroy mankind. However, Biollante is a rather unwieldy menace and it must have been tough to animate this giant, tentacled plant, so there's a slight lack of monster action limited to just a couple of titanic showdowns. Despite the progression in FX technology I just didn't enjoy this movie as much as the brighter, more colourful '60s Godzilla flicks.
Dr. Shiragami (an excellent performance by Kunihiko Mitamura) creates a form of indestructible plant life out of both his deceased daughter and Godzilla's cells called Biollante. When Godzilla gets reawakened and shows up to destroy Japan, it's up to Biollante to stop the lethal behemoth. Writer/director Kazuki Ohmori relates the engrossing story at a snappy pace, maintains a serious tone throughout, stages the monster fight set pieces with thrilling verve, and delivers the expected large scale mondo destructo carnage along with a smart and thoughtful environmental message about the dangers of man messing around with the natural order of things. The special effects are quite funky, lavish, and imaginative, with Godzilla looking more believable than usual and Biollante rating as one beautifully grotesque creation. Moreover, it's well acted by a sturdy cast, with especially commendable work from Masanobu Takashima as the shrewd Major Sho Kuroki, Megumi Odaka as sensitive psychic Miki Saegusa, and Turu Minegishi as the hard-nosed Lt. Goro Gondo. Takehiro Kato's polished cinematography delivers several striking poetic visuals. Koichi Sugiyama's dynamic and dramatic orchestral score not only hits the rousing spot, but also boasts a hauntingly melancholy main theme. One of the best and most satisfying entries in this popular long-running series.
