Toho Kingdom

Well, I like that this movie sort of paved the way for Godzilla vs. Monster Zero. The later film reimagined a lot of the same elements... the cool-as-ice aliens who look like humans in flamboyant retro fashions, the wary men invited into their underground base, the obviously transparent protestations of friendship. Unfortunately, I don't think The Mysterians did those things nearly as well. I guess the most interesting character was Shirashi, but while Miss Namikawa at least had some emotion behind her betrayal, Shirashi ping-pongs back and forth between humans and Mysterians with only some vague blanket statements to explain his motivations. The "climax" is a loooooong sequence of the Markalite cannons shooting at the dome, and the dome shooting at the Markalite, and the airship shooting at the dome, and the dome trying to shoot the airship...

I don't hate The Mysterians, but I have very little interest in watching it again.

I really like this movie. The Mysterians were a nicely developed invader with an interesting asthetic; particularly their Flying Saucers, a very sleek organic look to them. It's a shame the Xilians didn't geta flying saucer as interesting. I liked how they didn't have unreasonable demands at first, even if they did have nefarious intentions. Something you don't see a lot of as far as invaders to go.

I also liked how very structured and elaborate the battle plans were. With the construction of the Alpha and Beta Airships, the deployment of the Markalite Cannons and the battle wasn't one-sided. It was a nice tense engagment that could've gone either way.

Overall a fun little sci-fi story with a lot of classic tropes, even if the human element is rather dull.

The Mysterians is one of Toho's stronger 50s sci-fi efforts. Nothing can beat its beautiful opening or the foreboding 1st act in general. The special effects and score are fantastic as well. My only complaint is that the cast takes a back seat to the borderline exhaustive 3rd act.

I enjoy The Mysterians. It's one of my favorite non-Godzilla kaiju flicks from Toho. The characters and story was good and there was some neat special effects in the film. I also dig Moguera's design. Very retro in design.

Personally I love this movie. The military battles may feel dragged out, but in the end i really like the way the battle is staged. Feels like you're watching a military film instead of a scifi space flick.

I absolutely dig this film. The special effects look phenomenal, even by today's standards. Tsuburaya was definitely at his A-game when he worked on this film. The music score is also one of Ifukube's liveliest and, in my opinion, my favorite score of his until Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla.

Yeah, the characters are forgettable and cliched, but Honda and the writers know that we're not here to watch the human story. We're here to watch aliens blow shit up, and then watch the military blow up the aliens. So, they deliver us a simple but decent story that knows it's serving only as padding between action scenes. Mogera's also just a tad goofy, but it is a memorable role in the movie, similar to how the Meganulons foreshadowed Rodan's appearance.

So yeah, it's definitely my favorite of Honda's space movies. If the humans bore you, just fast-forward to any scene with the Mysterians. They're exciting and brilliantly executed.

Does anyone know what happened to the original dubbing for the Mysterians?

It's possible that usable elements for the dub could not be found, which is why it was included on the R1 DVD. It's been yeaaars since I've watched the original U.S. versions, and honestly can't remember if it was edited different. It's also probable that Toho didn't have prints of the U.S. version for Media Blasters to be able to use (much like the situation with many of the AIP versions containing the Titra dubs)

Although it is hard to find, there were at least 2 different VHS versions produced that has the original DUB. A friend of mine had this version:

http://www.tohokingdom.com/articles/ima ... s_star.htm

from which I burned a DVDR, but I also remember Blockbuster having a Clamshell version with b&w photo rendering of Moguera on the cover back in 1990.

The VHS and BETA releases from VCI were taken from a 16mm print with warped audio on one of the early reels.

Thanks Baradagi, I didn't know who (VCI) had released that Clamshell version I rented 20 years ago. Here's one on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/MYSTERIANS-VHS-JAPA ... 5886b17772

I wouldn't pay $50.00 especially if it has audio issues as you stated. But I am glad my copy (from the other release) dosen't have that problem

Interesting..I've never even heard of that VCI release until now actually. I do have the Star Classics VHS release, which I think I bought at a Woolworth's (anybody remember those?) sometime in 1990. I really need to get that onto a DVDR asap. Does anybody remember what company dubbed the film?

Goji wrote: Does anybody remember what company dubbed the film?

I heard Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer might have dubbed it in the 50s and that's what got released until Media Blasters's DVD.

As Toho's first step into the alien invasion genre, The Mysterians is very impressive. The ideas are interesting and the monster Moguera doesn't feel forced at all, unlike Maguma five years later, and works as a nice opener plot point for the film.

Still, not a film I find myself watching very often, and feel a lot of the concepts were done a bit more enjoyable, arguably by making them more bombastic, in the form of the Xiliens for Invasion of Astro-Monster.

I enjoy the movie, but it's not one I watch on my own. I really only bring it out to show to people who are into genre history, so we can talk about how much we love the design, or how well certain sequences play out. But I don't watch it for beginning-to-end entertainment value, because it just doesn't engage me enough emotionally.

^ I have very similiar thoughts on this. Also I prefer to watch the original RKO english dub. I know MB had thier heart in the right place back in 2005, but their dub is just...not good.

*edit* I can't believe how far back my Amazon purchase history goes. I got this DVD when it was iniitally released on 3/1/2005!

^I've actually never seen any dubbed version of The Mysterians. The first version I ever had was a subbed VHS bootleg, and I've never watched the dub on the DVD.

Oh yeah, finally gave the Bang Zoom! dub a listen last night. Almost fell asleep watching it. "We are the nerdy Mysterians. Give us your land and women."

I've seen this film once. I thought it was pretty good, although I don't remember a lot of the details.
Mogera was pretty funny though.

I like this film. It's basically a tokusatsu version of War of the Worlds. The final battle was great and the beta w/ the electron gun seems like a really nice, if nominal, foreshadowing of Gotengo.