Very disappointing...

That was an excellent one.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie is something I originally was going to give a 6, but as the last thirty minutes dragged on horribly, I found myself lowering it.pretty much all the action scenes last like at most a minute, then cut to the humans talking forever, then more talking, then more talking.... the acting is rather good, a lot better than expected. At first I was really into it, I was genuinely interested in how the Japanese government deals with the knowledge that Godzilla is back as well as the drama of the Soviet Union and the United States wanting to kill Godzilla with nuclear weapons.The action (when it did happen) was fun and entertaining, mostly. Too little happens, just small teams of the self-defence force occasionally hit Godzilla, he mostly ignores them and sometimes knocks a building over.Not a good first Zilla filick.

Despite bringing back director Ishirô Honda and toning down the child-friendly antics that were plaguing the series, 1975's "Terror of Mechagodzilla" was a financial failure and the big guy was put on waivers for a decade. His triumphant return in 1984, his 16th outing, was a big-budget, one-monster show that was very much a return to the roots of the series (literally, as all of the intervening sequels were ignored as well as was the obvious death of the monster at the end of the original). As in the '54 version, the story opens with an attack on a ship, from which there is a single survivor, who claims to have seen a giant monster. People are generally disbelieving (which seems odd, as only 30 years have passed since Tokyo was first flattened by a giant monster), but come around when Godzilla wades ashore and destroys a nuclear power plant. Although nods are made to environmental concerns, the background issue in this film is the cold-war, as the Soviets and the Americans push to be allowed to use nuclear weapons against the monster. The Japanese prime minster is all quiet dignity, reason and principles while the Americans and the Russians blustering war-heads, which led to accusations of anti-Americanism in the Reagan-era U.S.A. (at one point in the discussion about using nuclear weapons near Tokyo, the American representative says "This is not time to be talking about principles", a line apparently changed in the American version of the film). Most of the special efforts are very good, with Godzilla back destroying cities rather than thrashing around on some inexpensive deserted island set, and although he's increased in height to 50 meters, he himself is dwarfed by Tokyo's towering (but apparently fragile) skyscrapers. Some of the back projection sequences are weak and the diminished scale of the city models limits the details that enhanced the realism of the sets in earlier films, but overall the film looks good. The Godzilla suit is excellent, very saurian and predatory looking, with internal mechanisms that allow for more facial expression than earlier versions and, in addition to the usual tanks and missiles, the JDF deploys laser cannon (nicely done) and the first of a series of improbable looking flying fortresses, the X1 - all of which is effective and exciting. The film's score, although not as good as Akira Ifukube's iconic original, is quite good, especially the ominous opening music. I watched a subtitled Japanese version of the film and parts of an English-dubbed version (but not the American release, which I've read has a number of alterations). The dubbing in the version I saw was not very good, with poor syncing and sometimes silly sounding voices (esp. the Russian ambassadors 'accent'). Remakes of classics are rarely classics themselves (1959's "Ben Hur" notwithstanding), and this incarnation of Godzilla is not as good as the 1954 original, but it is a watchable and entertaining film in its own right, both for fans and for the uninitiated.

I was really hoping that the decade in between Godzilla movies would mean that this might be a half decent flick.But it's not.I have accepted that this series has no continuity.I hate it but I have accepted it.This one pushes the limit by acting like Godzilla hasn't been seen since the first movie.People who like these movies always say things like "they were re-inventing the brand" blah blah blah.Why re-invent something that didn't work?Fifiteen times?They had the nerve to bring back Raymond Burr as the same character he played in the original(well, the American version).Not only does it not make any sense but the character is different now.Different in a bad way.He's an expert on Godzilla from seeing him one day thirty years ago,ugh.So Godzilla attacks and they do so much stupid stuff to try to kill him.I fear this may be the biggest lack of a plot Godzilla has seen so far and that's saying a lot.This is my last Godzilla movie, I have seen enough........

OK, so I'll admit that I've only seen the version that played in the US (featuring Raymond Burr), but "Godzilla 1985" is still a pleasure. As usual, the big guy stomps his way through Japan wreaking havoc, while the people try to figure out what to do. In the US version, Burr reprises his role as reporter Steve Martin (although they didn't state the name directly due to the existence of a certain wild and crazy guy).Another thing that I notice is that the diverse filmographies of the cast members. Everyone knows Raymond Burr from his TV roles and from "Rear Window". Eitaro Ozawa starred in "Ugetsu" and Taketoshi Naito starred in "The Burmese Harp", both of which dealt with the effects of World War II on Japan. Dubbing Goro Maki is Tony Plana, best known as the dad on "Ugly Betty".But above all, the movie is about the monster himself. No doubt the bombing of Hiroshima gave the Land of the Rising Sun a reason to be suspicious of nuclear weapons. Enjoyable movie.I wonder if Steve Martin the comedian ever noticed that Raymond Burr's character shares a name with him.