Running out of ideas and the monster movies losing interest TOHO figured it was time to retire Godzilla, but not without one last movie to end the series. The plan was to use all of the monsters from the previous films as well as ones from stand-alone films at their disposal. It would have the biggest number of monsters to be featured in a movie in the series until the 2004 movie, Godzilla: Final War, which would bring in a larger monster count. Despite TOHO saying that this was going to be the last movie, successful ticket sales and positive reviews reinvigorated and inspired TOHO to make more movies until 1975.
The monsters in the movie feature Godzilla, Minilla, Rodan, Mothra, Anguirus, Kumonga, Gorosaurus, Baragon, Varan, Manda, and King Ghidorah. Baragon and Varan would not appear until the end of the movie, but Baragon was actually suppose to have more screen time when it was suppose to attack France. Due to complications with the Baragon suit, Baragon was replaced by Gorosaurus to attack France and in both versions they would accidentally call Gorosaurus, Baragon.
Review:
The year is 1999 and all of Earth's monsters have been collected and brought to an island called Monster Island until an alien race called the Kilaaks arrived. The Kilaaks take control of the monsters and they send them to invade different parts of the planet. The people of Earth must come together and find a way to get the monsters back to normal before they are forced to surrender.
For a film at it's time, I can see how this could be the biggest event ever. Even fans give it a lot of praise for being one of the best Godzilla films in the series, but is it that good? It's an enjoyable movie that was probably needed for its time after two under budgeted movies, but I find it to be over hyped. The movie gets interesting when the monster invasion begins, but it is kind of boring to sit through until the finale when all of the monsters gather for an 8 vs 1 fight (Baragon and Varan didn't join in on the fight) between King Ghidorah and the Earth monsters. King Ghidorah is no push over, but the fight was extremely one sided. He was able to stand his ground, but once he was knocked to the ground it was all over. Ghidorah just gets stomped everywhere and it's probably the most brutal thing to happen to a monster at the time. Ghidorah was not given any chances to escape and he seems to only be there as a punching bag, which is underwhelming to say the least.
Final Verdict:
It's one of those movies where you watch it once and you decide whether you like it or not. It was a breath of fresh air for it's time and it paved the way for future Godzilla films. It is only important because if this movie didn't do well then there probably would not have been anymore Godzilla movies. My verdict is watch it once and see for yourself.