Destroy All Monsters (1968)

It's 1999 and Earth has a moon base and daily shuttle rides there. All the monsters are safely and happily ensconced on Earth's Monster Island. Of course some pesky aliens have to ruin everything by creating their own base inside the moon and under Japan. To top it all off they gain control of the monsters and have them go destructo on the major cities around the world!

I'm going to start off with what I liked. The quality of the miniatures, sets, 1968 special effects, and space ship was quite good. I had to remind myself that this movie came out a year before the first manned trip to the moon. I appreciated their optimism that the world would be fully cooperating in 1999 not just on Earth but the moon as well. On the monster front, eleven popular Kaiju stars made appearances: Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Mandan, Kumonga, Baragon, Varan, Gorosaurus, Minya, Anguirus, and Ghidorah. The fight near the end was all you could hope for in this era from Ghidorah against Godzilla and friends.

What let me down about this movie-in a movie called Destroy All Monsters, I want to see monsters. I suppose it could have been talking about the aliens because out of 88 minutes, the monsters were only on screen for around 18 minutes. The alien story could have been interesting but the acting was stiff and unemotional from humans and aliens alike. There were some entertaining moments, but not enough to keep me from wondering what the monsters were up to while the humans were talking.

Even though I was happy to see all the monsters in one movie, it would have been nice if they'd felt like the stars instead of guest stars in their own movie.

Read More