GODZILLA-THON #25 - Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

First off, kudos to the Millennium series for finally nailing a poster. The art for the last two entries was about as bland as the series had ever gotten, so seeing a return to form automatically gives me additional hope.

The easiest way to forget how...well, forgettable the last two Godzilla movies were is simple: watch Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. The Japanese clearly hate brevity as much as Godzilla hates making a quiet entrance, so from here on out it'll be referred to as GMK. Once again, the Millennium series is rewriting history, bestowing upon G yet another new origin story to go along with his new look and the new looks of his co-starring monsters. Writer & director Shusuke Kaneko came to the series as a veteran of Godzilla's "competition", the titanic terrapin, Gamera. Kaneko helmed all three of the Heisei era Gamera films for Daiei Films. If I haven't mentioned it before, I'll say it again but I have only seen, like, one Gamera movie that I can kinda recall. I did watch a few of them as a kid, but very little of those viewings stuck with me. As a kaiju fan I sort of feel like it's my duty to remedy that, so at some point I'll be buying all of Shout!'s DVD releases and more than likely reviewing them here. My point in all of that was to say I don't know what type of sensibility Kaneko brought with him to the series. Maybe Gamera is steeped in all of this ancient mythology and ritual that pervades GMK.

In this universe, Godzilla appeared once in 1954 and died as the result of the Oxygen Destroyer. When a monster the Americans mistakenly think is Godzilla attacks New York City (one of the best lines in the series for obvious reasons), the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) meets to discuss the possible return of the real Godzilla. A nuclear submarine goes missing shortly thereafter, and a glimpsed Godzilla is the culprit. Meanwhile, a truck driver who survived a recent earthquake claims to have seen Godzilla as the monster responsible, but it was really Baragon. And some kids who were partying at a lake are nearly killed by larva Mothra making landfall. An old man who appears wise on these matters determines that Godzilla is the physical embodiment of the soldiers killed during the Battle of the Pacific in World War II; their souls lashed to Godzilla's skeletal remains making him whole once more. The only way to defeat him is by summoning the Guardian Monsters - Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. We already know Baragon is ready for action since he was the first monster spotted, and judging by his lack of a credit in the film's lengthy title it's safe to assume he won't be winning the battle. But, man, does Godzilla ever stomp a mudhole in his ass before decimating his corpse with a blast of atomic fire. The military sends whatever they can at Godzilla. Nothing has any effect whatsoever, except maybe pissing him off more. Mothra, newly hatched from her cocoon, finally gets in on the action along with a fresh-off-ice King Ghidorah. The pair battle it out with Godzilla in the city, losing quite spectacularly. In fact, Ghidorah gets beaten so badly that Mothra has to sacrifice her life in order for it to absorb her energy and be revived. This leads to a massive melee between the now fully-grown King Ghidorah against Godzilla, once again ending in Ghidorah being destroyed. With all the guardians defeated, the only person left to face Godzilla is the JSDF captain who's commandeering a submarine with missiles capable of blasting a gaping hole in Godzilla... which one does, and when G goes to fire off his atomic breath - POOF - he vaporizes instantly. But that big heart of his keeps on beating, deep in the ocean depths.

This film drew a lot of controversy amongst fans due to Godzilla's portrayal, which is wholly different than any iteration that had preceded or followed. He's looks like a pissed off demon, more or less; brought to life by the dead. To emphasize this, director Shusuke Kaneko had his eyes made up with no pupils, giving Godzilla a blank, horrific visage. That wasn't nearly the only change to his look, though. The Millennium Goji design was entirely scrapped. Godzilla had a modern, stylized appearance that retained his essential features. The black-and-bone dorsal spines were back, looking more like his classic spines and less like the aggro design used for the last two films. His color was back to charcoal black; no more green. The suit itself, dubbed the SokogekiGoji, was intended to be a modern interpretation of the classic '54 design with cues taken from the Heisei series suits, too. I think Kaneko really nailed the appearance, making this the most ferocious, menacing Godzilla seen in the series, period. He's an evil beast, practically indestructible and able to outmatch and outwit any foe with relative ease. The movements of Godzilla are much more aggressive than usual, especially his quick stride which leaves a wake of devastation due to his hefty, thick legs.

Some fans also had concerns with Kaneko's reinterpretation of Godzilla's classic foes Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Baragon. In order of ire, Baragon got a nice contemporary facelift to his design, but fans rightly complained about a lack of any heat ray powers. The only power Baragon does have is his ability to burrow, which isn't too helpful against a hyper-aggressive Godzilla. Mothra has a more angular design, with more pointed wings and elongated legs. Her coloration is also more vivid than ever before, with a kaleidoscope of color under the wings. Her super power this time around is the ability to fire these tiny pellets that apparently have the effect of knocking Godzilla right the fuck out. Finally, we get to King Ghidorah, who underwent more changes than either of the other two. He's smaller. He's not very powerful. He gets his ass handed to him three times. Ghidorah's heads have been updated, but it's not for the better. This new design doesn't elicit the same sense of sheer terror the Ghidorah of old could muster up; this guy just looks like Godzilla could wipe the floor with him. And he does. Once Ghidorah is revived for the second time, he comes back as a fully-grown 1,000 Year-Old Dragon... not that it does much good against Godzilla.

Again, I really didn't have a problem with any of these changes. We're on the TWENTY FIFTH movie in the series; a little shake up of the status quo is a good thing. It certainly helped this entry stand out as one of the most original and inventive of the series. It shows more ambition than most entries can claim, too.

On the topic of ambition, did you know Kaneko originally wanted the three guardian monsters to be Varan, Anguirus, and Baragon. As usual, Toho wasn't seeing enough dollar signs with any of these choices so they insisted Kaneko bring some of the top draws into the fold. Baragon managed to survive the extermination; I wish they'd gone with Anguirus instead. He hadn't been seen in a film since Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) - almost 30 years ago. Also, I just got a little sad realizing we never got a Heisei incarnation of him. I would have loved to see him be re-imagined for a more modern series. Speaking of long absences, Varan's last appearance was in 1968's Destroy All Monsters! But, yea, sure, let's just keep on using the same monsters we always fall back on, right Toho?

The film's score was composed by Kow Otani, another noob to the series. His work is easily the best of the Millennium series. There's a mystical quality to the compositions, adding to the rich mythology laid out on screen. It's downright ethereal at times. Electronic beats underscore much of the tension, elevating the action on screen without becoming too techno or robotic. Otani achieves a nice balance by adding in orchestral pieces over his beats, allowing the score to encompass both contemporary and classical cues.

GMK is a solid G film, no question. Godzilla is his perhaps the most menacing he's ever been, raining down fire and death everywhere he turns. More than that, his overall design is just a thing of beauty in an evil, twisted kind of way. The inclusion of multiple monsters puts the film over the top by allowing fans to see numerous battles throughout the course of the film. Godzilla fights each monster at least a couple of times, all of which are done with stellar choreography and realism thanks to modern suit technology.

I'd always considered GMK to be the only star of the Millennium series, but a recent re-evaluation of all these films has proven to me that I was wrong, because the follow-up to this film produced a wonderful one-two punch that, frankly, should have ended the Millennium series as a whole. But then they had to go and make Godzilla: Final Wars, which I have always loathed. I am actually quite anxious to watch it again, however, before that can happen we've got two rounds to go with Mechagodzilla!

GODZILLA-THON #18 - Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Just take a look at that poster for a second.

I've always admired that artwork. It's visually stunning on numerous levels. Godzilla, intertwined with his most legendary foe, engaging in a heated battle that appears to be even on both sides.

This was a mythical film for me as a kid. I'd managed to find a copy of Godzilla vs. Biollante for rental when it got a release here in the States, but finding this particular picture was much more difficult. Around the time of this film's release, I was spending a lot of time shopping at this local Japanese market, called Yaohan. It's since been completely renovated and turned into a Mitsuwa Japanese marketplace, but back in the day (early '90s) they had a KILLER toy store inside that sold everything Godzilla. Everything. I've got loads of ultra rare collectibles simply because my parents would always take me there after a dentist appointment (right across the street) and I'd blow every penny of my allowance on anything related to the series. One item I purchased was a small book related to this film. I'm assuming it's part synopsis, part behind the scenes info. I bought it because I was obsessed with Godzilla and this had lots of great color photos. Don't forget, I hadn't seen the "new" King Ghidorah yet, nor had I see Godzilla's latest look, so this was big shit in my mind.

Years later, once I finally saw the film it was about what I was expecting, maybe a little less exciting. It opens in the year 2204, when an underwater crew comes across the corpse of King Ghidorah, missing a head, who an unseen woman mentions had fought Godzilla and lost in the 20th century. Cut back to the present day (1992) and evidence of Godzilla reawakening after his battle with Biollante has been confirmed. Aliens from the future have come back in time to warn Japan that Godzilla will decimate the country, leaving it an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland. Their only hope: go back in time to 1944, when a group of Japanese soldiers on Lagos Island came across a dinosaur that helped save them from invading U.S. forces. That dinosaur, Godzillasaurus, would go on to become Godzilla when nuclear testing in that area mutated him. The aliens go back in time with a group from the present, but they curiously bring along three small creatures, called Dorats, that look an awful lot like mini-Ghidorahs. They arrive at Lagos and teleport a wounded Godzillasaurus back to present day, away from the island, before disembarking.

But the aliens also left the Dorats behind, and when they return to the future it's revealed that the Dorats received the radiation meant for Godzilla, turning them into King Ghidorah. Nothing can stop Godzilla from happening, however, and the aliens soon realize they dropped the Godzillasaurus body in an area where a nuclear sub went down back in the '70s. Godzilla is resurrected, and when another nuclear sub is destroyed and consumed by him, his size grows to larger proportions than ever before. Reborn and enraged, he begins to attack the city, no longer the protector the Japanese army thought he was back on Lagos Island. The aliens have Ghidorah under mind control, sending him to fight Godzilla. The battle is fierce, but Godzilla is able to blast off one of Ghidorah's heads and destroy his wings before dispatching of his corpse in the ocean. Concerned this new Godzilla will surely destroy the country, one of the aliens goes rogue and returns to the future to rebuild Ghidorah's corpse, leading to... Mecha-King Ghidorah. The huge brute has been upgraded, with a new robotic head to replace the missing one, metal wings, and a reinforced chest plate. The hulking behemoth, with Emmy, the rogue alien, controlling from inside, goes to war against Godzilla. The fight is just as rough as before, but even in a newly mechanized form Ghidorah just cannot overcome the power of Godzilla, and eventually the two tumble into the ocean, where it is later revealed that Godzilla survived while Ghidorah is now totally dead.

This film got some flack after its release because of the perceived treatment of Americans by the script. It's true that, as an American, it does appear to be anti-U.S. due to scenes of American soldiers being stomped by Godzillasaurus, as well as the fact that the evil aliens are all Westerners with the exception of Emmy, the one Japanese alien who defects during the film. You've got to see this from the filmmakers point of view, though. This isn't necessarily any different than we would have written it in America, is it? The Japanese would be the villains, or more likely the North Koreans today. I can't think of a reason why director Kazuki Omori would have shown Japanese soldiers being killed by U.S. forces in his - a Japanese director - film. It is a little odd that he chose to make all of the evil aliens American, especially since Toho has traditionally always used their own Japanese actors for such a role. That's the only possible tip-off that the film has some anti-American sentiment.

The original idea for this entry was to have Godzilla fight his most popular adversary ever - King Kong. The problem was that Turner, who owned the rights to Kong, wanted nine million dollars for the rights. Toho balked, and instead planned to have Godzilla fight Mecha-Kong, first introduced in King Kong Escapes (1967). Turner made the claim that the character was still too close to their Kong, so the only option was to bring back another popular enemy, namely King Ghidorah. It's really a shame things couldn't be worked out with Kong because it would have been amazing to see what kind of a new suit Toho would design for him, not to mention seeing the two of them battle using modern suit technology.

Godzilla looks more or less just as he did in Godzilla vs. Biollante, but special effect designer Koichi Kawakita did buff him out a little more by adding more muscle and increasing the size of the chest. Godzilla's head also looks slightly more aggressive and a fraction smaller. Once again, suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma portrayed Godzilla. He'd be wearing suits in the series since Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), where he played the Smog Monster. Since Gojira (1984), he's been the guy under the rubber, a job he would keep until the final entry in the Heisei series, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. 

Mecha-King Ghidorah isn't the movie's only robot. The aliens have their own android, dubbed M-11. And, man, is he ever corny. Robert Scott Field does a great job of giving M-11 virtually no facial expressions or sense of humanity. It's kinda creepy. But when he runs, the way the effect is done basically looks like he's power walking but moving quickly. You just have to see it. It's bad.

Godzilla doesn't make a proper appearance until there's 45 minutes left in the film. Until that time, the most we see is the footage of Godzillasaurus, which is admittedly very cool. I love how Kawakita was able to create a new monster that looked like a highly distilled version of the Big G. And Godzillasaurus is pretty damn admirable, too. Saving the Japanese soldiers and whatnot. He really puts his life on the line, with the eventual reward being that he's turned into a massive mutated nuclear monster who wreaks havoc on the coastline whenever he damn well pleases.

Once Godzilla and King Ghidorah meet, it's virtually a non-stop battle until the end credits. The fights staged here are big and impressive, with lots of heavy duty given to both suit actors. Particularly impressive are the miniatures, which are hardly so mini here. Skyscrapers tower over Godzilla in ways not see before, dwarfing him but still proving just as weak under his assault. When G and Ghidorah get going, the city gets leveled fairly quickly. Godzilla is more brutal than ever, really laying his all into killing Ghidorah. And he does it once again. Seeing one of Ghidorah's heads go flying off after a powerful atomic blast is awesome stuff. I really loved the look of Mecha-King Ghidorah, too, but he proves to be just as weak under the intensity of Godzilla's heat ray. There's not a whole lot that can withstand a head-on blast from him.

This film also marked the return of legendary composer Akira Ifukube to the series. His work hadn't been featured since 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla, sixteen years prior. I'm a big fan of how Ifukube reworks some of his classic G themes, but adds more dread and emotional weight to the mix by using piano and other instruments played at a steady, lumbering pace. His opening theme in particular is haunting and foreboding, suggesting the great battle that is yet to come. Ifukube would stay on to compose the rest of the Heisei series from this point onward, save for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994).

The Heisei (or Versus) series maintained a steady pace following this entry, with a new Godzilla film coming every year until 1995. Next up, Godzilla would once again face off against one of his most popular nemeses, this one arguably the most benevolent of them all - Mothra.     

GODZILLA-THON #12 - Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

After the "disaster" - according to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka - that was Godzilla vs. Hedorah, work was swiftly underway to produce a new Godzilla film that hewed closer to the tried and true formula. Rather than allow someone else new to the series to have creative control, Tanaka brought back director Jun Fukuda, who had already enjoyed moderate success with his two previous Godzilla pictures Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla. This entry, Godzilla vs. Gigan, would be the first of three pictures in a row he did for Toho. Gone were heavy messages and social commentary; this was to be a return to the plot lines that Tanaka felt worked best: alien invasion and mind control, featuring a roster of top monsters. The script went through a number of changes before deciding upon exactly who those monsters would be, with names like Varan and Rodan in the mix at one point. There was also talk of drafting some new kaiju into the fold, giving Godzilla some new adversaries to combat. Eventually, the screenwriters settled on having Godzilla team up with his old buddy, Anguirus, who just had a new suit made for 1968's Destroy All Monsters. On the opposing side, the golden space dragon, King Ghidorah, would be paired up with a new villain, the cybernetic, cosmic, cyclopean, curved-claw chicken from outer space, Gigan.

The aliens this time around are human-sized cockroaches who assume the form of people that have recently died. They operate a massive playground known as World Children's Land, where a massive Godzilla tower has been erected as the centerpiece control tower. Their plan is to use a series of "Action Control Tapes" to manipulate space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan to destroy the Earth so they can inhabit it because their home world is dying. Gengo, a freelance artist who gets a gig with the company, stumbles upon one of their tapes and plays it, drawing concern from Godzilla and Anguirus on nearby Monster Island. After the two have a conversation - yes, a monster conversation - Anguirus decides to go investigate, drawing the fire of the military upon arrival. So, he takes off back to monster Island to let Godzilla know something is going down and Earth needs their help. Ghidorah and Gigan enter our atmosphere and promptly begin to smash everything in sight just before Godzilla and Anguirus arrive to challenge them. The fight eventually moves back to World Children's Land, where the aliens have concealed a massive laser inside the Godzilla tower. This weapon seriously neutralizes Big G, and just when it looks like he may be down for the count Gengo and his crew of hippie radicals send an elevator full of explosives up the tower, annihilating the controls and every alien inside. With the laser death ray compromised, Godzilla regains his composure, confers with Anguirus, and then proceeds to deliver a crate of whoop ass to both Ghidorah and Gigan, forcing them both to retreat back to the cold vacuum of space.

A chief complain about this film is that it relies too heavily on stock footage, which is absolutely true. This was Teruyoshi Nakano's second film as special effects supervisor after Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971), but there was only so much he could do with the limited budget this film was afforded. It's confusing as to why so much stock footage was utilized because they clearly had the required costumes for the shoot. It isn't like Ghidorah was added in using the power of film editing; the suit was on set! There are clips from numerous productions spliced in, including Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, and even non-Godzilla properties like Rodan and War of the Gargantuas. Needless to say, the fight scenes often appear to have been hastily cobbled together. It's bad enough to do this because Godzilla fans will immediately notice the suits aren't matching up between shots, but a couple fights foolishly use daytime footage during a nighttime battle, and no amount of color correction can fix such a glaring, gaping hole. And, again, Toho's actions here only hurt the film. The suits for all four monsters were on set, ready to shoot, so why not just do whatever you can with what you've got? The tag team battles that were shot for this film came off beautifully, featuring some of the best multi-monster mayhem since Destroy All Monsters. This would be the last time the SoshingekiGoji suit was used as the hero costume for a film, having previously appeared in the prior three pictures. The suit was in a state of disrepair, likely why so much footage was reused for this film, and in some scenes you can clearly see pieces of it are coming undone and looking a bit shoddy. Godzilla even appears to be sporting the eye injury he received from Hedorah.

Speaking of the battles, this is the first entry to show Godzilla bleed when attacked. Previous special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya resisted the urge to show open wounds, fearing it would scare many of the young children who had become fond of Godzilla. Nakano clearly didn't share the same sentiment - he had no qualms with temporarily blinding Godzilla in his fight against Hedorah, and here he allows Gigan to draw blood twice. Even Anguirus isn't safe, running headfirst (kind of a stupid move) into Gigan's power-saw stomach. Having seen the film dozens of times as a kid and an adult, I can see where both special effects men were coming from. It was terrifying to see Godzilla bleed when I was a youngster, my mind immediately drawing the conclusion that he was going to be killed since nothing else had made him bleed in the past. Now, older & wiser, I find it simply imbues the film with extra tension that hadn't been employed before. There's a dreadful sense that Godzilla & Anguirus might be defeated by these cosmic scoundrels, though in the back of our minds we all know nothing is taking Godzilla down.

This would be the final time that legendary actor Haruo Nakajima donned the Godzilla suit. He had been toiling away under every iteration of the suit since its inception, masterfully perfecting his craft to add a sense of graceful power to Godzilla's movements. The end of his tenure marked almost 20 years of embodying Japan's most famous monster.

Also making his final appearance: King Ghidorah, who would remain dormant on movie screens until his rebirth nearly 20 years later, in 1991, when he was once again pitted against Godzilla. 

Akira Ifukube "returned" to his scoring duties for this entry. "Returned" is in quotations because the entirety of his work is re-purposed from his efforts on other Toho films, not just pre-existing Godzilla tracks. Only the most eagle-eyed, hardcore fans would be able to tell, though, since Ifukube had a tendency to reprise his most common themes throughout the series, making it nearly impossible to know if a piece of music was new or old. Tanaka did state that he wanted this film to be a return to form for Godzilla, and using his trademark themes was a surefire way to see that happened.

Godzilla didn't continue his upwards ascent after this film as Tanaka had planned, because the next in the series is often considered one of the worst right alongside All Monsters Attack. Released the following year, Godzilla vs. Megalon is another entry that shoehorns Godzilla into a pre-existing story, uses stock footage, and is usually credited with the public's perception of Godzilla as a form of children's entertainment and nothing more. 

GODZILLA-THON #9 - Destroy All Monsters (1968)

The dream team is back, baby! After the diminishing returns Godzilla had been facing for the past couple of years, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka decided to bring back director Ishiro Honda and composer Akira Ifukube for what was intended to be the Big G's last hurrah. The big question was, though: if we're going to do one last film, who does Godzilla face? Gary Oldman from The Professional knows - EVERYONE! Toho threw down the gauntlet here, bringing back many fan favorites, many of which hadn't ever been in a film with Godzilla before. Not only was this just about the coolest idea Toho had ever come up with outside of creating Godzilla, but the inclusion of monsters created for other properties gave fans even more incredible work to marvel at watching. Think of it as The Avengers (2012) of monster movies. The plot would once again involve mind control as executed by an evil alien race, this time all women (!), but the real meat here, the real reason why everyone is tuning in, is for that glorious monster action. And, brother, believe me when I say this pull out all the stops to deliver one helluva time!

Don't ever ask how, but in the year 1999, mankind has managed to wrangle all of the planet's monsters into one location - Monster Island (called Monsterland here). Godzilla, Minya, Anguirus, Gorosaurus, Rodan, Mothra, Kumonga, Manda, Varan, and Baragon. All living on an island that looks like it would be small for any one of them, where we're told food is plentiful and they all get along. Sounds like a bullshit PR piece SeaWorld would've put together. But it's working. At least, it is until communications with the island are lost and the monsters escape to begin attacking world capitals. We soon figure out the Kilaaks are the ones behind it, an alien race composed of all females (and they procreate how?) who wear glittery silver spandex hoodies. The have the monsters under the control of a mind-altering signal, one that is emanating from a location on the moon. Hey, we have a base there now! Capt. Yamabe (Akira Kubo) goes up with a team of his best men to stop the aliens by destroying the signal. It works, but the Kilaaks unleash their most powerful weapon as a last-ditch effort: King Ghidorah. The monsters of the Earth must unite to fight their common enemy, all while humanity fights against the alien invasion.

Alien mind control is used a lot in these films. It's a good way to allow Godzilla, our supposed hero by this point, to cause worldwide destruction without actually looking like the bad guy. His mind was under control, after all. And when he does get his head clear, you can always tell he feels really bad about what he did. This was, however, the first entry to have the aliens use a human appearance as their cloaking device, revealing a more hideous, sci-fi origin when their true selves are exposed. In this case, the Kilaaks are extremely sensitive to cold, so when the temperature drops considerably in their environment they revert back to looking like silver slugs that live in rocks. It's funny later on when the military learns of this, and the commander can only help but grin and say something about how friggin' easy an attack this is going to be now.

We know the returning faces - Godzilla, Minya, Anguirus, Rodan, Mothra, Kumonga - so who are the new guys? Gorosaurus was featured in King Kong Escapes (1967), where he fought Kong. Manda was a chief opponent as an undersea dragon in Atragon (1963). Varan appeared in his own film, produced in 1957. And, finally, Baragon was best known as the opponent to the title star in Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965). Of all these, only Gorosaurus gets an appreciable amount of screen time, teaming up with Godzilla at the climax to help finish off King Ghidorah. Varan gets little more than two shots during the entire film. This was due to the suit being in such a state of disrepair since the filming of that feature over a decade prior. Baragon was being used on the Ultraman TV series (monsters were often redressed for other programs, Godzilla included), so his appearance was extremely limited here. In fact, the script called for Baragon, not Gorosaurus, to destroy Paris. But in typical Toho fashion, even though the monster change had to be made the script change wasn't, leaving Gorosaurus with not only Baragon's ability to burrow underground, but also his roar and in some cases even his name, since the media refers to him in the film as Baragon.

There were to be two more monsters added to the fray - Maguma (from 1962's Gorath) and Ebirah, last seen fighting Godzilla in Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, but budgetary concerns caused both to be scrapped from the production. Also of note, there was a brief scene filmed where Godzilla fights with Manda, which makes no sense in the context of the film since both are under the same mind control. The footage is said to be shown at conventions from time to time, though it has yet to show up on any official release. 

Despite their being an abundance of kaiju, everyone gets a good amount of screen time with the exception of the two previously mentioned monsters. After the introduction at Monster Island, the film does an adept job of cutting back and forth between human/alien drama and monsters causing a melee across the globe. Some of the sets aren't as distinct as others (Godzilla destroys a seaboard that looks nothing like NYC), but for the most part it looks pretty rad to see Gorosaurus demolish the Arch de Triumph, or to see Rodan flattening Moscow. I can vividly recall seeing the extended trailer for this film on my VHS of Grandpa's Sci-Fi Hits, which was hosted by Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis. The promise of an international incident as carried out by all my favorite monsters looked astoundingly epic to my young brain. Even now, all these hardened cinematic years later, I can say it's an ambitious entry that really put a lot into the story.

Interestingly, director Gareth Edwards, who is helming the upcoming 2014 reboot Godzilla, has expressed a desire to make a sequel to his film something akin to this film. I really do applaud his ambition, but I hope they set that universe up further with a second film before throwing too many names into the mix. Plus, I don't see that being a successful idea unless Toho grants the rights to use other monsters. Right now, Legendary can only use Godzilla.

A final film is never a final film when a series is successful. Even though producer Tomoyuki Tanaka declared this would be Godzilla's final feature film, the success it enjoyed meant another movie was in the works, this one coming out just a year later. Only to call it a new film is almost disingenuous considering almost all of the fights are culled from stock footage. And that's not even to mention the undeniably child-centric tone and core message about bullying and standing up and... oh, Christ, is there anything good to be said about Godzilla's Revenge? 

GODZILLA-THON #6 - Invasion Of Astro-Monster (1965)

Toho kept the Big G on a roll by releasing another entry almost exactly a full year later, this time bringing back familiar elements that were popular in the last one. Namely, King Ghidorah, Rodan, and the use of an alien race for a plot device. That last feature would go on to become ubiquitous in the series, with nefarious alien races plotting our doom through various means right on up to Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). The core team of director Ishiro Honda, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, and special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya remained together for this film before briefly disbanding, and then finally returning for the last big melee, Destroy All Monsters (1968). This entry, titled Invasion Of Astro-Monster (1965) in Japan and Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1970) in America, is the last to display a sense of continuity from the previous entry, as the follow-up Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster completely ignores the events of this film. Though that's the least of its problems. But I digress.

A new planet has been discovered in our solar system - Planet X - and two astronauts (Nick Adams and Akira Takarada) have been sent on a cosmic journey to explore it. Before you have time to marvel at the efficiency of the Japanese government to execute such a mission with surgical precision in scant time, they land and are greeted by the people of Planet X, known as Xians. They, um, have a unique look, with visors that Levar Burton would envy, black skull caps, and what look like yoga mats wrapped around their necks. They certainly accomplished making them look fucking weird, I'll give 'em that. Anyway, these guys have to live underground because the surface is patrolled by Monster Zero (their name for King Ghidorah). What they propose is that we sign off on a Monster Loan, wherein they would drop into Earth, wake up Godzilla (Monster One) and Rodan (Monster Two), cart them up into space to their planet so they can fight off Ghidorah again, and then send them back before living in eternal bliss. Why Glenn and Fuji (our two astronauts) agreed is questionable since these guys look really sketchy. But I guess a slow space death was likely taken into consideration. Oh right, and the fact that they promise to give us the cure to cancer. The Xians arrive (or, should I say, rise from a nearby lake they hid in at some point), and two of their flying saucers play wakey-wakey-eggs-and-bakey with Godzilla and Rodan, scooping them up using an egg-thing made of energy. The trip to space is apparently quick for these guys, and in no time Godzilla and Rodan (who luckily don't need to worry about adapting to a foreign atmosphere in any way) kick the ever-loving shit out of Ghidorah. Godzilla is so proud of his work he even does a little dance.

 
 But you knew these Xian dudes were up to no good. Right after they send our astronauts back home, a crowd assembles so they can all listen to the miraculous cure for cancer we were promised. The tape is cued up, everyone is waiting with baited breath, someone hits plays, and... we get a message from the Xians that more or less says "Haha, fuck you, thanks for the free monsters. And by the way, we're coming back right now with all three of them to destroy your planet." Whoops. So, now Godzilla and Rodan, under the spell of a mind-control device, start wreaking havoc around town alongside a mean-as-usual King Ghidorah.

This is the part where the slightly cute but ultimately stupid subplot focusing on Fuji's sister and her bumbling, inventor would-be fiance, Tetsuo, comes into play. We're told the Xians are extremely sensitive to a certain sound, which is why the Xians bought Tetsuo's stupid device that is supposed to scare off attackers by emitting an ear-piercing sound. The device is used, Xians start to literally drop out of the sky, and the mind-control ray is shattered. Godzilla and Rodan snap back, realize what's going on, and promptly hand Ghidorah his golden space ass once again. Man, these guys would have made a killer WWF tag team.

Godzilla didn't get much of a major facelift this time around, with only minimal alteration made. This new suit, dubbed Daisensogoji, enlarged the eyes a little to give him a more friendly appearance, along with dorsal plates that were reduced in size ever so slightly. The guy's our hero, can't have him looking too unfriendly for the masses. Godzilla has a fairly consistent look over the course of these last three films, one that is continually reference as being among fans' favorite. We can thanks Eiji Tsuburaya once again, as it becomes obviously by the next film that when his presence isn't on the set, the quality immediately sees evident decline.

Akira Ifukube's score reprises many of the key themes he created for the series, with not much variance to give it a distinct feel specific to the film. That's not a knock in any way, however, since all of his music for the series has been inimitable. Oddly enough, he didn't even supply my favorite score for the series (which will be revealed when we get there), but those arrangements he produced are so iconic it's nearly impossible to think of Godzilla and not hear it.

The American version, titled Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (a better title, btw), was released in 1970 on a double bill with War of the Gargantuas. The film was only cut by three minutes, making it fairly faithful and respectful top the Japanese version. As usual, a lot of Ifukube's score was shuffled around or just replace outright. Oddly enough, some shots of Godzilla's foot stomping houses and huts were removed. Usually these versions want all the monster action they can get, sometimes even adding more in the case of Mothra vs. Godzilla, but here they trimmed it out. No matter, since the Classic Media DVD contains both cuts. And you know which one to watch.

After this, it goes downhill a bit when we get to King Ko... er, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966). Trust me, that gaff makes perfect sense when you know the story.