In the future of 1999, all of the monsters including Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and several others are confined to Monsterland, a large contained island where the monsters live sequestered from the rest of the world with ample food supply. When a group of mind controlling aliens known as the Kilaaks lead by their Queen (Kyoko Ai) take over the observation center and its controllers, the Kilaaks unleash the mind controlled monsters upon the entire world as part of an invasion. In order to stop the rampage of destruction, Katsuo (Akira Kubo) leads a group against the invaders.
Potentially planned at the time of being the final Godzilla movie, development on the film began alongside Son of Godzilla with the idea supposedly being to feature every single giant monster Toho Studios had ever produced including King Kong and the Gargantuas. After it was decided that Son of Godzilla would take priority, the film was postponed until the following year by which point Toho's King Kong license had expired and the number of monsters was scaled back for budgetary reasons. While Destroy All Monsters did little to win back critics and was only a marginal step up in ticket sales in Japan, thanks to its popularity abroad with the film being sold to many countries it likely gave Toho the confidence to continue the franchise (for better or worse) and has become a fan favorite for its large scale monster brawls. While Destroy All Monsters doesn't reach the level of earlier entries like Godzilla vs. Mothra or Ghidorah, The Three-headed Monster, it's none the less an exciting monster mash that pulls out all the stops.
In terms of its plot Destroy All Monsters is more or less a remake of Invasion of Astro-Monster only without the alien's pretense of benevolence and considerably less stock footage. The plot's about as simple as you can get with good humans, bad aliens, and as with the previous movies human characters no one really stands out, but it also avoids the painful comic relief. Where the movie does deliver however is with large scale Kaiju action. Destroy All Monsters tries to encompass a more "global" feel this time around with brief tangents where the monsters attack major cities such as Moscow, London, and New York City (albeit at a slightly reduced scale and briefly for budget reasons) but we do get an entertaining full city destruction sequence in Tokyo which marks the first one of those we've gotten since Ghidorah, The Three-headed Monster. Destroy All Monsters puts a previously unprecedented amount of Kaiju on display from major players like Godzilla and Mothra to more minor monsters like Baragon and Manda. Admittedly the Kilaaks are pretty standard evil aliens, but at least there is slightly more to them than the Planet X aliens from Invasion of Astro-Monster.
Destroy All Monsters is pretty much truth in advertising (not necessarily the "Destroy" part) and if you want an "Everyone is here!" style monster free-for-all Destroy All Monsters has it to spare. A fun if not particularly substantial entry in the Godzilla saga that makes up for the mediocrity of the prior few entries.
Potentially planned at the time of being the final Godzilla movie, development on the film began alongside Son of Godzilla with the idea supposedly being to feature every single giant monster Toho Studios had ever produced including King Kong and the Gargantuas. After it was decided that Son of Godzilla would take priority, the film was postponed until the following year by which point Toho's King Kong license had expired and the number of monsters was scaled back for budgetary reasons. While Destroy All Monsters did little to win back critics and was only a marginal step up in ticket sales in Japan, thanks to its popularity abroad with the film being sold to many countries it likely gave Toho the confidence to continue the franchise (for better or worse) and has become a fan favorite for its large scale monster brawls. While Destroy All Monsters doesn't reach the level of earlier entries like Godzilla vs. Mothra or Ghidorah, The Three-headed Monster, it's none the less an exciting monster mash that pulls out all the stops.
In terms of its plot Destroy All Monsters is more or less a remake of Invasion of Astro-Monster only without the alien's pretense of benevolence and considerably less stock footage. The plot's about as simple as you can get with good humans, bad aliens, and as with the previous movies human characters no one really stands out, but it also avoids the painful comic relief. Where the movie does deliver however is with large scale Kaiju action. Destroy All Monsters tries to encompass a more "global" feel this time around with brief tangents where the monsters attack major cities such as Moscow, London, and New York City (albeit at a slightly reduced scale and briefly for budget reasons) but we do get an entertaining full city destruction sequence in Tokyo which marks the first one of those we've gotten since Ghidorah, The Three-headed Monster. Destroy All Monsters puts a previously unprecedented amount of Kaiju on display from major players like Godzilla and Mothra to more minor monsters like Baragon and Manda. Admittedly the Kilaaks are pretty standard evil aliens, but at least there is slightly more to them than the Planet X aliens from Invasion of Astro-Monster.
Destroy All Monsters is pretty much truth in advertising (not necessarily the "Destroy" part) and if you want an "Everyone is here!" style monster free-for-all Destroy All Monsters has it to spare. A fun if not particularly substantial entry in the Godzilla saga that makes up for the mediocrity of the prior few entries.