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How sad is this?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

After rising from his volcanic grave, Godzilla is threatened by a mutated rosebush.I think the story to this film is pretty decent, and maybe I should give it a better rating. You know, maybe. The idea is that Godzilla's cells are in a lab and the scientists want to use them for things -- one guy thinks it will help his rose bushes live longer. He was probably right, but it also transforms the bush into... Biollante! (Or Biorante, if you prefer.) And that is just silly! Godzilla fights giant monsters, not giant bushes... what a crazy idea. I mean, I guess after you have made fifty or so Godzilla films you are ready to try just about anything, but I feel like this might have been a misstep.

There's rubbery mayhem a-plenty in this 1989 addition to the Godzilla series, which casts a newly-reborn Godzilla as the menace and the genetically-engineered super-plant, Biollante, as the heroine of sorts. It's an episodic film whose plot meanders all over the place, drawing together the usual army-vs-massive-monster action, mucho destruction, lots of cool special effects and a sub-plot involving bio-engineering, loss and evil foreign agents.Despite the overload of plot, GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE fails to be one of my series favourites, purely because it feels dragged out to a degree. There's never quite as much destructive mayhem as you hope to see, and some of the sub-plots involving the human characters are pretty dull. The whole making-up of a Middle Eastern country to supply some human menace is nothing more than a piece of xenophobic propaganda. Not that I have a problem with that, but the action is pretty dull as it stands.Thankfully, the good news is that Godzilla himself is at his vindictive best, stomping all over Osaka in his bid to destroy mankind. However, Biollante is a rather unwieldy menace and it must have been tough to animate this giant, tentacled plant, so there's a slight lack of monster action limited to just a couple of titanic showdowns. Despite the progression in FX technology I just didn't enjoy this movie as much as the brighter, more colourful '60s Godzilla flicks.

I am a big fan of this movie. The Godzilla fan base is fairly divided on this film, but personally, I love it. It has wonderful cinematography, acting, themes, music, special effects, characters and all around brilliant.The characters are likable and well written, they are believable. The music, while you cannot compare it to the work of Akira Ifukube, is still excellent and goes very well with this film. It is very well shot, with many wonderful scenes with a great atmosphere. The special effects are done, as per usual in this series, with great skill and talent. Suitmation is very underrated and all too often the subject of disdain. This film shows just how excellent suitmation can be, as well as all the other practical effects, which come together to create a believable and stunning world.The themes were well handled, not forced violently down your throat as they were in the 1992 version of Godzilla vs Mothra (which is still a good movie, but the environmental message gets to be rather preachy and forceful at times).The buildup to Godzilla's arrival is excellent, and when he does show up, it is a spectacular sight seeing him rise out of a volcano (however, going back to the 92 Godzilla vs Mothra film, I think the very similar scene from that film does it much better). The film contains two excellent monster battles, in which Godzilla goes up against the very creative monster Biollante, a combination of rose, human and Godzilla DNA. It's an artful movie, and shows that Godzilla movies are not just cheesy crap like most people seem to think they are (I personally think most of the films are good).

Out of the twenty-eight entries in the long-running Japanese Godzilla series, one of the more artistic and welcomingly imaginative ones is the unfortunately overlooked "Godzilla vs. Biollante", a film that is so-so in its story and characters (although that is a standard for most Godzilla movies), but tremendously entertaining in its premise and its visual style. The movie follows the majestic monster movie masterpiece "The Return of Godzilla", in which Godzilla is released from his volcanic prison on Oshima Island and begins to wreck the countryside of Japan again around the same time that a scientist's (Koji Takahashi) experiment to preserve his dead daughter's spirit in an immortal plant species goes awry."The Return of Godzilla" was not only a great Godzilla movie, but one of the finest monster movies, Japanese or otherwise, that I have ever seen and I do like to sometimes pretend that "Godzilla vs. Biollante" and the not-so-special sequels that followed never existed, that it ended with Godzilla falling into Mount Mihara and being imprisoned there forever. But although this movie does kind of ruin that feeling, it's quickly forgiven once its slow beginning departs and its truly majestic middle begins.As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the more artistic Godzilla movies there is. Most entries in the series are formulaic and repetitive. And although this is okay for the fans, it is refreshing to see one that tries something new and original. And "Godzilla vs. Biollante" most certainly is original. Basically everything except the human characters tries something new. The movie boasts a battle between Godzilla and his new monstrosity of an opponent, but it's not all about their clash, it's really more following the spirit of the preceding movie with military trying to eliminate Godzilla. What's more, the movie boasts some incredibly visionary and impressive special effects. Godzilla's appearance is one of his finest yet. There are a few shots where he didn't look very good, such as this one where the way he was positioned reminded me more of a bear than a reptile, but other times the mobility that he had in his jaws and his neck provided some surprisingly convincing movements. The miniatures for the destruction scenes are thoroughly impressive, and the effects used to create Biollante are a pure triumph without a single weak shot.Even the music score is something new. The movie reuses three classic Godzilla themes by Akira Ifukube, but most of the score, as with the first film, is done by a new composer and he does it with a completely new style. Now Koichi Sugiyama's score is not incredible as Reijiro Koroku's was for the preceding movie. There are some weak moments and some parts are recycled too much throughout the movie. In addition, after having reviewed the whole soundtrack on CD form, I discovered that the best of Sugiyama's score was left out. Why Toho opted to do this, I have no idea. But as for what we do here, it's mincemeat of visionary triumph and minor letdowns.I do have some complaints about the movie, however. It does take a while to get started. Whereas "The Return of Godzilla" had great characters and a strong story so that I could stay interested even when Godzilla was not on screen, this movie struggles a little more. And again, some parts of Koichi Sugiyama's dare-deviling soundtrack simply don't work as well as they should have. And the ending of the final battle between Godzilla and Biollante was a flat letdown.However, despite its flaws, "Godzilla vs. Biollante" is a more unique and interesting and certainly enjoyable entry in this deservedly famous long-running motion picture series. Now I don't think Godzilla will ever be considered art by any major organization. But there are three films starring the big lizard that do stand out pretty strongly due to either their strong allegorical content or their tremendous style. This is one of them.