There's no place else to go and pretty soon we'll all be dead, so forget it! Enjoy yourself! Let's sing and dance while we can! Come on, blow your mind!

The 11th of the Godzilla franchise is easily the most trippy, and most divisive. Hedorah (AKA: The Smog Monster) is spawned from pollution and begins to destroy Japan. It spews poison, shoots acidic mud, tokes on smoking chimney stacks and can shape shift into the bargain. Enter the atomic lizard, Godzilla, who takes up the challenge to hopefully rescue mankind, he can even fly in this one...

There's some psychedelic animation inserted into proceedings, which couples up with the whole hippy vibe and LSD infused musical interludes. It's really a hard film to recommend with confidence, with director Yoshimitsu Banno doing an appalling job of staging action and pacing the narrative for cohesive viewing - a first line director he was not.

However, it's just nutty enough to understand why some Zilla fans love it, kind of like it's a fun off-shoot of the more potent pics of the series. Certainly the eco message is worthy, but really I'd personally have to be under the influence of strong liquor to ever watch it again. 5/10

==Please note: This review is for the original Japanese subbed version.==

Finally, Godzilla has come back to his horror roots. Even if it's only briefly and not himself being the terror, it is so good to see this use the kid-oriented previous films to its advantage in terms of shock value. Not to mention having one of the main characters be a kid and seeing them go through these horrific events.

While the early 70s psychedelic themes are odd and jarring at first. I got used to them as it conveys the more adult undertones of abuse of the world, let alone on one's self. The cartoon inserts are also great and are meant to transition when we see Hedorah evolve into its next stage of life. These also show, directly how we as humans help them grow. It's fantastic.

Now, the horror aspect as I said is brief. It's only in the first half of the movie where we see some serious scenes. The polluted sludge flying into homes and melting the people inside. A cat is shown almost having drowned in it. An infant is also shown crying over everyone else in the proceeding shots as it is neck-deep in the goo. Not only that, but even when the monster flies by and expels its toxic gas, it melts people's flesh away to the bone. We see this through the eyes of a young kid who stumbles upon the scene while running away. Real-world horror with a dash of fantasy is what Godzilla is all about.

I hardly care if Godzilla doesn't do much until the very end either because everything else going on is just too good. Besides the ending that is. The final battle is so terribly stupid that it almost ruined the great movie that was leading to this point. The only other major complaint I have is the music choices aside from the main theme. The silly music that plays throughout is out of place against the serious first half of the movie. However, the sound editing is lovely. Especially when the main kid sees Godzilla for the first time on a rollercoaster and the music just stops dead for a second or two. It added so much to the fear that Godzilla still holds. Even if by the end he was the same stupid hero we know and _love?_

This movie lacked the budget of other Godzilla movies and you don't get all that much cityscape destruction. So, if you're looking for a monster battle movie with Godzilla, I'd skip this one. But if you want to see a great new evil take the helm of what Godzilla was in the beginning, it's worth a look as it still stands up today with its message.

**7/10**

>See my Godzilla ranked list: https://trakt.tv/users/corruptednoobie/lists/godzilla-films-ranked?sort=rank,asc