***1/2 Godzilla Saves the Earth!

This movie does to pollution what the original "Godzilla" did to nuclear bomb testing. It does a little more than just say "Pollution is bad, it will make a giant monster!". It shows the horrors of pollution so well, it’s almost painful. Oh well, it got’s a spiffy Godzilla battle!

Pollution spawns a hideous monster named Hedorah. He comes from space, and grows from pollution. It attacks Japan to feed, but Godzilla comes to fight it. It runs off, and returns bigger and more powerful. It heads to Mt. Fugi, with Godzilla right after it. They fight, and Hedorah walks into a human trap that dries it out. Godzilla rips what appear to be eggs out of Hedorah, and dries those out to. The drying apparently isn’t enough, and a smaller Hedorah pops out of it. Godzilla "flies" after it, and dries it up for good.

Wow, that is much better than the last movie! It has a great plot fit to everyone, and great special effects featuring no stock footage. The movie has more of a big budget feel, something the two movies surrounding it didn’t have. In this movie, Godzilla sets himself fully as a good guy. Hedorah itself is a major challenge, which is probably why Godzilla wanted to fight it, but it may be for the reasons the kid said it was. Hedorah is big, highly poisonous, and a very powerful monster. The did a good job designing it. I have always considered that Hedorah has done the highest death toll and damage total of any of the original Godzilla movies. He even did a lot of damage on Godzilla(he’s probably going to get lung cancer later in life because of this). Of course, all this death and destruction add to the allegory on pollution. "Pollution is dangerous, clean it up!"

Despite it’s good point on the allegory of pollution and one of the best Godzilla battles of the classic series, the movie aint perfect. The main battle was great, but the first one dragged on forever. Also, the movie gets severely weird at times. There are many scenes thrown in that are just plain odd. There is one scene were the kid dreams of Godzilla burning up water pollution, and creating air pollution! There is also a few really odd out of place cartoons slipped in. These weird scenes really destroy the plot flow, and look a bit like commercials. Plus, the title song "Save the Earth" gets a bit annoying after a while. Well, at least it is dubbed, unlike the rest of the Godzilla songs of the 70’s.

As a whole, I though this movie was done very good. It may get weird at times, but the rest of the stuff is worth it. If you can find it, buy a couple, and give me one. The only place I found it was at a video rental place. If you can’t find it to buy it, at least rent it like me. It’s a most see for fans of the classic Godzilla.

Good plot.

Great special effects.

No stock footage!

Big budget feel.

Allegory put out well.

Terrific ending fight.

Hedorah designed well.

Gets a bit weird at times.

Gets a bit sick and horror inducing at times.

"Pollution is bad, it will spawn a monster that will kill us all!"

Godzilla is going to get cancer because of that jerk.

AAAAHHHHHH! Not that song again! Stop the torture, stop the torture

Credits