At the end of the 1980s Godzilla needed to solidify his comeback. After a few years of silence, the big lizard had made a return with 1984’s appropriately named The Return of Godzilla (re-edited and renamed Godzilla 1985 in the U.S.). a film that played it safe by taking Godzilla back to basics. It performed well, but that didn’t necessarily mean that Godzilla could thrive in the changed, blockbuster-heavy environment in which he now found himself. The second film in what’s come to be known as Godzilla’s Heisei Era, Godzilla vs. Biollante both incorporated scenes nodding to ’80s action movies and introduced a novel threat in the rapidly evolving plant-based antagonist Biollante.

Film critic Katie Rife, whose work has appeared at RogerEbert.com, Indiewire, The A.V. Club, Letterboxd, Vulture and elsewhere joins The Laser Age to talk about his unusual turning point film in the penultimate installment of a season dedicated to giant animals (and, in this case, plants.) No stranger to the world of Godzilla, Katie helps put this strange, melancholy installment in its historical context.

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