Toho Kingdom

Terror of Mechagodzilla



To finish up my Showa talkback threads, I'm doing the final two Showa talkbacks (the Mechagodzilla duology). Finally, sometime next week, I'll be doing the thread that these talkbacks have been leading up to... The Showa Era As A Whole where we'll take a look at everything - the good and the bad - dealing with the pros and cons of that series. I hope to discuss the recent phenonenon that I've been noticing on these boards concerning the Showa period.

Another really fun movie, this movie introduced on of my all-time favorite kaiju, Titanosaurus! Even if it was a slight rehash of the previous film, it was still really fun to watch.

A good sequel to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and a worthy movies to have Ishiro Honda return for. The action sequences are excellent and I just love Titanosaurus. Not the best and not the worst, so it's a bit forgettable, but I really do enjoy it.

Well it was an end of an era for Godzilla

Honda's direction is sufficient, and it's a testament that he was able to slip so well into a franchise that's so different from what he began it as. However, Ifukube's music is just not appropriate. At all. It's a good score, but it doesn't fit the tone or the pace of the film. I want jazzy-surf rock again, damnit.

Good movie, but not as strong as the first.

It's my favorite Mechagodzilla film, here's why:
http://www.tohokingdom.com/reviews/sub/ ... d/tomg.htm

Great movie, what more is there to say? Honda returns one last time, Godzilla manages to be both dark and serious but still not a villain, we get the return of one badass and the addition of another. Not to mention it's almost universally loved in the fandom - it's just as much fact as opinion it kicks ass.

Hellspawn28 wrote:Not as good as the first Mechagodzilla film, but still a good movie. Titanosaurus was cool, I enjoy most of the action in the movie, and the story was pretty decent. Pretty good movie, and a nice way to end the Showa Godzilla movies. 3.5/5

Agreed.

Another good movie to make it the final Showa film for Godzilla I think I like this one better than Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla cause you get two enemies for Godzilla to fight. Titanosaurus is the best ally for Mechagodzilla even though his attacks with his tail fin was weak. I saw this on tv not on VHS way back sadly but now I own both movies!

This is in my top 10 favorite G films. The direction Ishiro Honda took is dark and adult, and the monster fights are great. I can't be the only one who finds Tomoko Ai(Katsura) extremely hot?

Eh, I can live without this film. Its honestly very forgettable for me, and outside of Godzilla's Revenge, its probably my least favorite Ishiro Honda film. The fight scenes are standard, the story is forgettable and confusing, and some of the characters just seem out of place to me. Though I will admit that I love Katsura's character. But, that's the only thing that I can say I love about this film.

So yeah, not one of my favorites, but can still be fun to watch every now and then.

Y'know, I actually prefer Fukuda's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla to this one. It's not that this film is bad, but I honestly find the former to be a bit more enjoyable.

I haven't seen this film, but seems like a proper ending, like a return to the origins even after all the changes. We have Ishiro Honda, a serious tone, a frustrated scientist with a patch... a familiar scenne with him at the climax (At least, in the original, real version).

Also interesting to say, that unlike most films sience "Guidorah: The Three Headed Monster", where Godzilla always had allies to fight his enemies (Rodan, Mothra, Minilla, Anguirus, Gorosaurus, the army, Jet Jaguar, King Seesar), here Godzilla is not just alone, but is fighting Two monster that could easily "take his place"... I mean, Titanosaurus is an aquatic dinosaur, traped in a world that is not his', just like Godzilla and as powerful as him; and Mechagodzilla is, precisly, a robotic version of Godzilla...

Terror of MechaGodzilla is simply AMAZING. I loved it more and more everytime it played on TNT's Monster Vision. Definitely on my top 5 Showa Favorites.

This movie also gave birth to one of the single best monster roars, the roar of Titanosaurus!

You know, I'm not really fond of this film. It's just more proof that Honda didn't care about the genre anymore and didn't want to put much effort in. Yeah, there is some effort, namely in the camerawork and attempts to bring out emotion from our leads, but it's nothing compared to when he had Tsuburaya's cooperation. The human drama is dry and unconvincing, which isn't helped by some of the really forgettable acting. Honestly, our lead falls for Katsura way too quickly and adamantly for me to even have time for emotional investment. Godzilla's role in this film is extremely weak, appearing simply for convenience's sake. He's simply a plot device in this film.

Still, there is some good to this film. I enjoyed Ifukube's synth-heavy score, although it is EXTREMELY repetitive. Nakano's still on his A-game here, providing some spectacular effects in Tokyo's destruction. The final fight is entertaining, although Mechagodzilla doesn't exactly do much here. It helps that Titanosaurus is a very distinctive kaiju, and definitely the main highlight of the film.

So yeah, I'm not a fan of Terror of Mechagodzilla. Its human drama is contrived, and two of the three kaiju have pretty weak roles. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla is vastly more entertaining.

DaikaijuSokogeki! wrote:You know, I'm not really fond of this film. It's just more proof that Honda didn't care about the genre anymore and didn't want to put much effort in. Yeah, there is some effort, namely in the camerawork and attempts to bring out emotion from our leads, but it's nothing compared to when he had Tsuburaya's cooperation. The human drama is dry and unconvincing, which isn't helped by some of the really forgettable acting. Honestly, our lead falls for Katsura way too quickly and adamantly for me to even have time for emotional investment. Godzilla's role in this film is extremely weak, appearing simply for convenience's sake. He's simply a plot device in this film.

Still, there is some good to this film. I enjoyed Ifukube's synth-heavy score, although it is EXTREMELY repetitive. Nakano's still on his A-game here, providing some spectacular effects in Tokyo's destruction. The final fight is entertaining, although Mechagodzilla doesn't exactly do much here. It helps that Titanosaurus is a very distinctive kaiju, and definitely the main highlight of the film.

So yeah, I'm not a fan of Terror of Mechagodzilla. Its human drama is contrived, and two of the three kaiju have pretty weak roles. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla is vastly more entertaining.

Man, I fall exactly the opposite of you. To me, Terror of Mechagodzilla is Honda proving that he is indeed the master and allowing the franchise to go out on an up note. Mechagodzilla '74, though an improvement from the last few, is a pretty terrible and formula-driven movie outside of the kaiju scenes. Here Honda makes the best of what the series had become and delivered a great film. Katsura's storyline, though very B-movie sci-fi, was one that captivated me most, harkening back to the darkness of the original. To me, the end of the Japanese version is what defines the movie: Godzilla is victorious and disappearing from our sight into the ocean's depths like the mythical creature he is, but on the human side? We don't get the usual smiling, happy, relieved Japanese waving goodbye at the end of the movie. Instead, roughly all the main characters are dead and Interpol are gloomily standing over Katsura's body.

I wouldn't say Godzilla is a plot device either. In the 70s, he was firmly the hero. He showed up to save the day. He had already been developed in the previous dozen movies. The pre-title credits recapping Mechagodzilla '74 were enough exposition for him. Here the creature's grandeur has been restored somewhat and I was actually moved to root for him more than usual since he was up against such great odds.

I also dig how Honda revamped the apes (creepy face rippings > monkey transformations) and the whole groovy ethical question regarding Titanosaurus (a peaceful dinosaur forced by humans to do evil). Sure, the lead falls for Katsura far too fast, but in a Japanese monster film, that's one of the easiest things to let go. The lead was sympathetic and I felt for his plight.

IMO, Terror of Mechagodzilla has the best human stuff going on since Mothra vs Godzilla (not that the entries in between really tried all that hard). The american cut is a butchering, but the original Japanese cut, imo, is golden and was certainly the end of an era.

HedorahLives, I totally agree! I gave the film a solid 4/5 on my review of it(see main site). One should give credit to Shinichi Sekizawa the scriptwriter as well. Sekizawa could always write nice human dynamics and this film is no exception. With Honda back with him, this was his first film with the director since Latitude Zero(1969), and he did an excellent job fleshing out Ms. Takayama's story. Another thing that really stood out to me was the sadism of the Black Hole aliens was amped up ten times this film and we saw their disregard for life, at least in the JP version.

Love everything about this film, although IMO, the two Mechagodzilla films are very different in tone, similar to how different GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS and GIGANTIS, THE FIRE MONSTER are...

Aren't all the images of the monsters from the previous film?