Godzilla's Revenge (1969) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Godzilla's Revenge
Year: 1969
Director: Ishiro Honda
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

In regards to Godzilla's Revenge film historian Richard Pusateri has said that “Fans cannot decide if this is the worst movie of the series, or the second worst.” Uh Oh. Toho Studios planned to conclude the Godzilla series with 1968’s epic Destroy All Monsters, but their resolution did not hold for long. Making this film in the least expensive way possible Toho gave instructions to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka to create a Godzilla film for children that made extensive use of existing special effects footage.

In this film,  a bullied schoolboy dreams of traveling to Monster Island, where he befriends Godzilla's son, who is also having bully troubles

With special effects director Eiji Tsubaraya too sick to take on the work, Ishiro Honda handled the visual effects with the aid of Tsubaraya’s protégé Teruyoshi Nakano. Special effects!? Where!? The entire picture feels like a copy/paste job with splices of every other GOOD Godzilla film within it. Godzilla's Revenge is the Frankenstein's monster of the series.

The script is also mostly taken from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla.The picture lost so much money that Toho had to shut down its special effects department and severly limit the budget of their 1970's pictures. The film has somewhat funny and somewhat sentimental moments but this really won't appeal to anybody in the 2010's.

I wonder if Godzilla's Revenge would have appealed to Japanese children at the time? I wonder if Godzilla's Revenge would appeal to children now? There is a worthy message about dealing with bullies, but is unfortunately lost by the misguided ending. Also the screenwriter's don't seem to know if Godzilla is real or just a part of a kid's imagination, which is really confusing for the viewing. Such a good title, but it's utterly wasted. Avoid at all costs.