Talkback Thread #6: Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965)

[Ethan]

I don't see what's the deal with Toho officially retitling movies, it's just a matter of nomenclature. Nobody is holding people at gunpoint with these titles, it's just a formality.

As to which names to use, you could say "Invasion of the Astro Monsters" is closer to "War of the Giant Monsters" than "Monster Zero". Additionally, I only use the title Godzilla's Revenge when I'm talking about an English dubbed film with funky music. All Monsters Attack! is a Japanese language film with a boy/girl singing at the beggining.

[Rody]

I think it's funny that some people refer to all the films by their international titles and then refer to GODZILLA as GOJIRA, which isn't the international title. Way to be consistent.

Personally, I use "Gojira" to make sure no one confuses it with GODZILLA(1998).

I can't wait for one day in the future when titles like "Invasion of Astro Monster", "All Monsters Attack", "Godzilla and Mothra: Battle For Earth" and "Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2" no longer exist.

Because they're idiotic.

Grrrrar, rant over!

I don't know, the former two at least make some sense; Although I personally think "All Monsters Attack" would be even more appropriate for DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.

[miguelnuva]

bump for Rody.

[Rody]

Thank you very much, miguelnuva!

Well, as I mentioned in the Ghidorah thread, I watched both Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster and Godzilla vs. Monster Zero yesterday. If I were to compare the two, I will say that Monster Zero is superior. The reason I say this is due to execution. The pacing is a bit slow, but steady, and manages to keep you interested in what will happen next. Although the plot contains multiple conveniences and a few large plot holes, they're fairly well concealed. I think this film was more focused on presenting a world than a story within the world, and it delivers on this. The special effects are top-notch; although Godzilla and Rodan don't look their best here, everything else looks terrific.
Monster Zero is a grand sci-fi adventure, perhaps with some political undertones. It seems a little more thought out than Ghidrah, and is presented much better. Even the dub is quite good (or at least sounds good; I have no idea how accurate it is). I'll give this movie 7/10.

[Goji]

Rodan looks better in this than he does in any of the other 60's films, even if he's got that "derp" look going on. It doesn't bother me personally. It only looks really silly in that close up of his face during the climax. The flying marionette is also fantastic, and one of the best ever for the character.

While It's not one of my personal favorite designs, but the Godzilla suit looks really good in this too.

[Rody]

This version of Rodan is starting to grow on me --- but it still pales in comparison to the original.

Daisenso-Goji, to me, looks like a "watered-down" version of Mosu-Goji. It's not a terrible suit, but I consider it one of weaker ones.
Fortunately, that doesn't effect the awesomeness of his screen time.

[Goji]

I agree with all of the above. I think when seen in full profile, the suit looks really good. For instance, when Rodan wakes up on Planet X, he looks great! As goofy as it is, I love that close up during the climax. The look on his face is priceless.

[TechnoForce]

I loved this movie. It is one of my favorite of the Showa films. I love the main two guys and Kumi Mizuno makes a great sexy alien temptress. Not to mention all the good monster action. Gotta love Godzillas little jig!

[Zentenk]

I may have to pick this up somewhere... I don't recall watching it, I thought I had all the movies!??! So this isn't a renamed movie?

[Tohosaurus]

I may have to pick this up somewhere... I don't recall watching it, I thought I had all the movies!??! So this isn't a renamed movie?

Invasion of Astro Monster is also known as Godzilla vs Monster Zero or simply Monster Zero.

[Zentenk]

Hmm yeah, I do have Monster Zero. The date is different though, it threw me off. Well, I ordered Invasion of Astro Monster off Amazon for cheap. Oh well...

[menschenjaeger]

Melting radar dish. MELTING. RADAR. DISH.

[Rody]

^ That was quite the jerk move, wasn't it?


I would love to see how the effects crew pulled that off, by the way.

[menschenjaeger]

^ the JERK jerk move was blowing up the P1...THAT THEY JUST BUILT THEMSELVES.

I would assume they did the radar dish in a manner similar to the melting electrical towers in Godzilla and Mothra vs Godzilla: Wax (or maybe just plastic in the case of Monster Zero) melted with hot stage lights off camera.

[Poe Ghostal]

I watched this one over the weekend. Having watched a number of the Showa flicks recently, I'm struck by how flat-out fun this one is. It has a nice balance between human and monster action, and the human story isn't boring at all. I attribute a lot of that to the portrayal of the Xilians, and Nick Adams. All the games with light and dark on Planet X add a wonderfully weird atmosphere. And except for a couple of the spaceflight scenes, the movie doesn't drag very much (unlike, for instance, the endless space/chase scenes in DAM).

The production values in Astro-Monster are better than the previous film - Ghidorah and Rodan look better than Ghidrah (although the Mosugoji suit is superior to the DaisensoGoji) and the Planet X set, while obviously scientifically dubious, still looks great. And it's genuinely a bit sad when the astronauts take off and leave the monsters behind (even if they were, y'know, immensely destructive).

That said, as an adult I do find it a bit difficult to suspend my disbelief regarding the Xilians' behavior. Why the deception? Why the ultimatum? Why not just unleash Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah upon the world?

I can make up a couple reasons. Maybe the Xilians needed to get Godzilla and Rodan on Planet X first to do whatever process they need to do to control them, and just swiping them out of the blue would would have given humanity notice and allowed them to prepare better for the attack; or maybe the Xilians knew they couldn't really conquer the planet with just three monsters and hoped the Earth wouldn't call their bluff. But both of those are just fan speculation. In the end it doesn't really matter - it's still an extremely fun movie - it's just funny to think about now.

As for the melting radar dish - I always assumed it was wax and was melted under lights on high-speed film.

[SUPERTOHOREMIX]

By far my favourite of the sixties films in the Showa era. Not only were the monster battle a blast but the plot was well thought out for its time. The cast was superb . Oh! and being anchored by a great score thanks to Akira Ifukube!

A huge kudos to Eiji Tsuburaya for pulling off those spectacular special effects ( especially with his masterpiece King Ghidorah )

[eabaker]

the plot was well thought out for its time

What an odd qualification...

[SUPERTOHOREMIX]

eabaker Wrote:
What an odd qualification...

What I meant by that was, the sixties was ablaze with alien invasion films and it is great that Ishiro Honda took a few more steps forward and explored more plot points for an alien race wanting world domination. The cure for cancer trick, and the tragic love story for examples.

So to me - that's what makes it so good during that time. Get what I am trying to say here?

[eabaker]

eabaker Wrote:
What an odd qualification...

What I meant by that was, the sixties was ablaze with alien invasion films and it is great that Ishiro Honda took a few more steps forward and explored more plot points for an alien race wanting world domination. The cure for cancer trick, and the tragic love story for examples.

So to me - that's what makes it so good during that time. Get what I am trying to say here?

I think so. It has good plotting relative to similar contemporary films.

I'd say it also has good plotting relative to both earlier and more recent films of the same ilk. It just has good plotting period.

I guess it read like you were suggesting that film plotting in general has improved since the 60s.

[SUPERTOHOREMIX]

eabaker Wrote:
I think so. It has good plotting relative to similar contemporary films.

I'd say it also has good plotting relative to both earlier and more recent films of the same ilk. It just has good plotting period.

I guess it read like you were suggesting that film plotting in general has improved since the 60s.

Yeah, my bad. Should of structured it better ( My autism does not help in that department AT ALL XD )

No way, because of the steps Honda took to make it stand out during that era is one of the reasons why it still an absolute classic today. I would NEVER hold its time period against it, not ever.

Gotta love Honda and his subplots .