Movie Review: The Return of Godzilla (1984)

With this film, I've finally seen all the main Godzilla films, not counting the Netflix anime movies. A fitting way to wrap up, I think. However, maybe not the most exciting way to wrap up. I've never found solo kaiju movies to be as fun as multi-monster mashups. In solo kaiju outings, the burden of spectacle falls on a singular monster stomping around and destroying miniature sets. Those scenes will always be fun, of course, but it just can't match the joy of two guys in rubbery monster suits duking it out. The Return of Godzilla is still a decent film, it's just not as appealing to me as some of the others of the Heisei era.

This is a reboot of sorts for the Godzilla franchise, ignoring every film except for the 1954 original. Godzilla, as the title would suggest, returns to destroy Japan once more. It's never clear if this is the same Godzilla who somehow survived being vaporized at the end of the '54 original, or a separate Godzilla altogether. Either way, volcanic activity in the ocean has brought the big galoot back to Japan, and he's on a rampage.

The bulk of Return is dedicated to Japanese officials trying to figure out what to do about their giant lizard problem. For a while, before the whole world realizes that Godzilla has in fact returned, his Soviet-submarine-destroying undersea rumblings are blamed on the United States. Cue a Cold War-era diplomatic crisis. Japan steps in, revealing that Godzilla's back, but now the U.S. and Russia want to handle Godzilla themselves. All the governmental back-and-forth and heated diplomacy feel quite similar to the original '54 film and prescient of the most recent Toho Godzilla film, Shin Godzilla. In a way, this is the connective tissue between the original and Shin Godzilla. Three solo Godzilla ventures that are much more concerned about Godzilla as an entity and how that affects international politics, rather than a bunch monster fights and sci-fi kookiness. 

Your mileage may vary with Return. If you prefer your giant monster movies to actually be thematic and trying to say something, this will probably be your cup of tea. Especially considering the majority of the 60's and 70's Godzilla films were silly and kid-oriented, Return comes as a darker, more grounded take on the monster. Some people might prefer that. If you're like me, you might like the serious tone but still find yourself pining for monster fights. Of course, the rest of the Heisei era films deliver in that regard, but it's still a bit of a let-down. This is a perfectly fine Godzilla film, just not what I'm looking for in this franchise.