It's Kaijuly! Movie #3 is "War of the God Monsters" (1985)

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s War of the God Monsters, which is part of our inaugural “Kaijuly” look at some giant monster films (of which we both love thanks to seeing them in our childhood of the 60s and 70s).

Synopsis

A young reporter named Kang Ok-hee (Nam Hye-Gyeong), is writing a story about the theories of Dr. Kim (Kim Ki-Ju), a scientist who believes dinosaurs still exist. When monsters suddenly appear and cause destruction, the doctor and journalist must find a way to save the world.

The Good

Joseph: This movie has Ultraman kaiju in it! Other than that, what some would consider the “bad” was what I enjoyed most, including an obviously live, moving snake being revealed a shot later as a mere toy. SoHee, the young daughter of the scientist proclaims, “How exciting!” as she watches a monster destroy a city, and then feels bad about it shortly thereafter to the point of crying. The scientist falls into a giant dinosaur/monster footprint that he didn’t notice before. The Korean-shot kaiju feet are poorly disguised boots. The English translation provides a few laughs, such as “prehistoric dinosaur” and said beast living “thousands of years ago.”

Mike: Fans of the various early Ultraman series may find this interesting since the monsters herein are pulled from episodes of Ultraman, Ultraman Ace, and - I think - Return of Ultraman. Director Kim Jeong-Yong has done an admirable job of editing the various clips into fairly cohesive scenes that manage to transition into and out of the original material that makes up the human drama element of War of the God Monsters.

One thing of interest is the global warming message that lies at the core of Lee Mun-ung’s script. It’s almost prophetic with what we’ve seen in recent years due to climate change. Perhaps he should have stopped there.

The Bad

Joseph: There’s a good deal of pouting and crying on the part of SoHee, which gets to be bothersome — though I must say, the young actress plays her role well. The editing is spotty, with initial random kaiju footage insertion early on, but it improves as the film unspools. Comical choices at inappropriate moments up the corniness level. There’s lots of melodrama and “Will they or won’t they fall in love?” silliness.

Mike: Despite some nice and fairly effective editing to make it at least seem like the monsters are in the same place (even if they’re not quite fighting - let alone having a “war”), the original script for this thing is laughable. Numerous shots of our “hero” scientist walking around rocky outcroppings and beaches, looking for evidence that will support his theories of dinosaurs still being alive gets tiresome almost as quickly as it is when it comes to people endlessly shouting each other’s names.

There are some pointless plot elements that seem to be pulled from sitcoms and dubious decision making by characters that is the definition of “because the script said so” as no real human would go to some of the lengths of stupidity that these boneheads do.

The Verdict

Joseph: You’ll come for the kaiju. You’ll — perhaps reluctantly — stay for the (often unintentional) wackiness. You’ll wish you had just watched the original Ultraman episodes instead.

Mike: Although not a totally “lost” movie, War of the God Monsters is something I hadn’t heard of until a couple of months ago when we were plotting out Kaijuly. Joseph and I both agreed that it would be a cool addition to our lineup since neither of us had seen it and, we suspect, not many readers will have either.

Was it a cool addition? Well, if you like giant monsters, and I’m going to assume that you do since you are reading our third “Kaijuly” entry, then you’ll probably find something to enjoy about this. Some serious script revisions and there might have been a much better movie here, even if there wasn’t any original monster action (aside from a forced perspective shot of some boots doubling for monster feet).

This thing is like if Godfrey Ho had decided to ditch ninja films and made a tokusatsu movie instead.