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| Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidora: Daikaijū Sōkōgeki |
Several years ago, there was a marathon of old Godzilla movies. I watched them, giddy as my six year old self ever was at watching giant lizards, moths, turtles, and three headed dragons beat the snot out of each other. The Boy - around six at the time - turned up his nose big time. Apparently, the monsters looked too stupid to live and he'd rather eat liver than be forced to watch.
Then tonight I stumbled on Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. It came out in 2001, but I had never heard of it. I was struck by how much it felt like the old monster movies of my youth. This was definitely no Matthew Broderick style Godzilla, and it wasn't some stupid robot Godzilla thing (sorry Mechagodzilla fans, but I didn't like that movie at all.) There were dudes in rubber suits, rinky-dink models of helicopters and destroyers, bad explosions, clearly out of scale flames coming from monsters and buildings, tons of senseless violence and death of innocent by-standers, and Godzilla was THE BAD GUY. In short - it was glorious.
And what's more, the Boy whooped and hollered and cheered as the monsters battled it out as if he had been a pro-wrestling fan. "Smash him! Sling him around by the tail! He'll never survive that. OMG! Mothra took a direct hit! The missiles just bounce off! He's only been resurrected two times so far Dad, not three - get it straight. Mushroom cloud time! They are fighting underwater! When three heads shoot golden lighting at you, it's all over, buddy!"
There is some attempt at a story. Apparently now Godzilla is the raging angry spirit of everyone killed by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII. Blah blah blah. Whatever. You can safely ignore any of that babble. I mean, really, we are here to watch giant monsters destroy things and each other.
I recommend the movie wholeheartedly. Well - for the right sort of person. You know who you are.
Of course, I got to thinking during the movie and wondered 'how the hell would I handle a Godzilla like monster in a regular D&D game?' I am not shy about throwing high level monsters at low level players. But freaking Godzilla? If he decided to walk through the player's home town - well - it's more like a hurricane that an encounter. At most the party could piss him off - if he noticed at all.
I don't have any answers for that question - but I'd like to figure something out. When the players end up shipwrecked on the Island of Irradiated Giant Monsters during sparring season, I need to have a plan. :)
- Ark




