Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
aka Gojira vs. Desutoroia
Article 5693 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-7-2019
Directed by Takao Okawara
Featuring Takuro Tatsumi, Yoko Ishino, Yasufumi Hayashi
Country: Japan
What it is: End of the Heisei series

When Godzilla becomes physically unstable, it becomes apparent that he is going to suffer a meltdown. He must do battle with a monster created by the oxygen destroyer, a mutating beast called Destoroyah.

It’s no surprise that this one is a vast improvement over the previous entry in the series (GODZILLA VS. SPACEGODZILLA); once the decision was made to climax this one with Godzilla’s demise, everyone probably knew they had to put their best feet forward. Still, I like the first half of this one better than the second half; the early appearances of Godzilla starting to undergo his meltdown are a bit harrowing, and I think Destoroyah is scarier when he’s a group of human-sized insects terrorizing human characters. The second half starts getting a bit repetitive with new mutations of Destoroyah popping up every fifteen minutes or so to do battle with Godzilla (or his son), and many of the scenes with the human characters are dull. Still, the actual meltdown is worth the wait and is the most memorable scene here. Much of the Heisei series was on the weak side, but it’s nice to know that it ended on one of the best movies for the series.