Destroy All Monsters!

According to someone, Destroy All Monsters (Japan, 1968) is the last “great” Godzilla film produced by Toho Studios. The next film in the series, Godzilla's Revenge, began the much-lamented children-oriented Godzilla films of the 1970s. Boo. Hoo.

Recently, I purchased the DVD of Destroy All Monsters. Originally, I had watched it on WLVI-TV 56’s Creature Double Feature sometime in the early 1980s, and was curious to know what I thought of the film now.

First, the film’s title: it’s deceiving. Destroy All Monsters boasts a cast of eleven monsters, but only five or so have anything more than a cameo appearance. I call bullshit.

Second, the story takes place in the year 1999, where voyages to the moon occur on the hour, but enormous rotary phones are still in use. Huh?

But wait, it gets better: Members of the United Nations Science Committee have established a research facility on the moon. The narrator doesn’t tell us what the UNSC is studying on the moon, but he does say that the UNSC has collected all the earth’s monsters and put them on an island known as Monsterland. What a coincidence. (In the Godzilla films of 1970s, the island is known as Monster Island.) Using a series of sprays, mirrors, and invisible fencing, the UNSC keeps the monsters contained and docile on Monsterland. Thank goodness. As the narrator introduces us to the film’s true stars, i.e., grown men in cheap rubber suits, Rodan swoops into the ocean and captures a dolphin. Great. Also on Monsterland, the UNSC has established an underground research facility, from which they control and study the monsters. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.