In the far future of 1999, the giant monsters of the world, including Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and others no one cares about, have been imprisoned on an island cleverly named Monster Land (Monster Island in the subtitled version, which is… better). Of course all is not well as aliens plan to invade Earth using the monsters. These aren’t the aliens who planned to invade Earth using monsters from a previous Godzilla movie, nor any of the multiple alien races that would plan to invade Earth using monsters in numerous later Godzilla movies. Nope, this is a different group. And they are spectacularly inept.
Who’d have thought that by 1999 we’d have a moon base, space ships, and electro-guns, but still be speaking on giganto telephones? It is a little item, but does point to the lack of imagination on screen.
Once Toho combined Godzilla with space opera they just couldn’t stop themselves. Aliens invaded first in 1965’s Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, with Godzilla eventually defeating the extraterrestrial’s most fearsome monster. The exact same plot was used for the majority of the 70s Godzilla films and popped up several times after. This was its second use and already had the freshness of unwashed socks. Destroy All Monsters stands out merely in the number of mobsters on hand (13 if my count is correct). The previous several films had been box office duds, so this was planned as a big shiny farewell. However, Destroy All Monsters was a hit so it would be another decade before the big guy took his first hiatus.
Big and shiny it is, but that’s about it. For a film sold on its giant monster action, there isn’t much of it. Like all the alien invasion Godzilla movies, most of the running time is spent with poorly developed characters in unlikely confrontations with laughable aliens. Not that the monster fights are much of an improvement.
I saw Destroy All Monsters at the theater (part of a triple feature) as a child when it was initially released, and as an 8-year-old I found the combat silly and the suits and puppets embarrassing. Still, I enjoyed it. Far worse Godzilla movies were soon to follow. I suppose that is some kind of a recommendation.