MEGUMI ODAKA MINDING MONSTERS IN 'GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE'

YEAR: 1989 RATING: ****

Strange that a movie about Godzilla fighting a giant plant with the head of a red rose would be one of the best of the entire franchise, dating back from the groundbreaking original classic, but it's true... GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE is also the first of five co-starring Japanese starlet Megumi Odaka as Miki Saegusa,  bringing to light another miracle...

That a young, cute, vulnerable and sympathetic Japanese girl (with upturned leafy ears giving her a unique koala bear pixie look), gifted with ESP, could actually read Godzilla's mind without it being too lame, corny or contrived: She's what Amy Irving is to THE FURY (think CARRIE with powers in check)... and her four other "Heisei Godzilla" films (reviewed here soon) lasted throughout the entire 1990's...

Megumi Odaka with Kôji Takahashi

The central character is a middle-aged scientist whose daughter died five years earlier in a laboratory explosion, and he winds up working for a corporation, reluctant at first, but then his creation becomes even more dangerous than Godzilla, or has the potential: that aforementioned plant-beast uses an octopus-tangle of furious vines for weaponry, each with fang-snapping jaws that resemble the titular "Feed me Seymour" from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS combined with the mad energy of The Muppets drummer Animal, in droves...

But the final battle between the reptilian and the organic are the first of several peaks that, while going on about twenty minutes too long, winds down a complicated yet clearly told story with a smooth cold war thriller vibe meshed with 80's popcorn-action involving an Arab assassin cutting through and around various Japanese henchmen: all trying to steal the plot-device aka McGuffin from competing labs...

Megumi Odaka with Kôji Takahashi again

Those being Godzilla's cells, one of several ingredients to bring the new creature to life and what shocked the nuclear lizard from the GODZILLA 1985-induced volcanic slumber: But his true adversary is a flying vessel that, with blasting lasers laced with anti-nuclear-matter, is a visual cross between a mini-submarine and an old-school b-movie spaceship...

Godzilla Vs Biollante

and urgent matters: The Japanese military either anticipating Godzilla's arrival or dealing with his usual citywide ravaging that, at that point, 1989, still using the beloved man-in-suit applied effects, actually looks impressive given how much the burning city's flamed-redbrick background, or dark-lit lagoon sequences or even the open sea battles, visually evens-out the screeching, upright-standing creature that, while dated, many find far more entertaining, and even formidable, than what computers do so easily, and without the same creative finesse or overall sense of doom and dread: But it's the multi-tiered story that drives this monster instead of the monster highlighting a one-dimensional action flick.

Grid Interior of the space craft attacking Godzilla... neat inexpensive looking Star Wars Used Future Look

Godzilla about to battle both he and 1976 Kong's flying foe, the Helicopter

Megumi Odaka in Godzilla Vs. Biollante with Yoshiko Tanaka

Megumi Odaka in Godzilla Vs. Biollante

Megumi Odaka in Godzilla Vs. Biollante

Megumi Odaka in Godzilla Vs. Biollante

Homage to Close Encounters of the Third kind when the India natives (or Arab?) pointed to the sky: these kids all dreamed of... GODZILLA!

Megumi Odaka with Kôji Takahashi in Godzilla Vs. Biollante