SKREEONK's Fan Reviews! YOUR Opinions on Kaiju Classics!

[HayesAJones]

I think your review are good. Very professional and informative.

[therealmccoy]

Thanks, I appreciate it. Yours are good too. I enjoy being a part of something like this.

[UnCanny Studios]

Great stuff, so far guys. I'm impressed. Ive added everything you guys have posted here so far, so make sure to check the site and see your stuff in action!

The following is the current amount of films listed on http://Skreeonk.com's Kaiju Movies page.

- Anything in GREEN is in great shape. We don't really need anymore reviews on these films unless you have something unique burning a hole in your pocket.
- Anything in RED has'nt been touched yet. We need reviews for these the most!
- Anything that's BLUE has some material, but not enough. We need more.

I hope this helps for those of you who are having a blast with this, but want some suggestions. Knock yourselves out - I'm seeing some truly fantastic material so far . Thanks again, guys!

— Showa Toho Kaiju Eiga —

Gojira (1954)

Rodan (1956)

Godzilla Raids Again (1956)

Mothra (1961)

King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)

Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster (1964)

Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965

Godzilla vs The Sea Monster (1966)

Son of Godzilla (1967)

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Godzilla vs Megalon (1973)

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974)

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)


— Showa Daiei Kaiju Eiga —

Gamera (1965)

Gamera vs Gyaos (1967)

Gamera vs Viras (1968)

Gamera vs Guiron (1969)

Gamera vs Jiger (1970)

Gamera vs Zigra (1971)

Gamera: Super Monster (1980)


— Heisei Toho Kaiju Eiga —

The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Godzilla vs Biollante (1989)

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991)

Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)

Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II (1993) (really needs more!)

Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla (1994)


Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy


— Heisei Daiei Kaiju Eiga —

(Gamera Trilogy distributed by Toho Co.)

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996)

Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys (1999)


— Shinsei Toho Kaiju Eiga —
Godzilla Millenium (1999)

Godzilla vs Megaguirus (2000)

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002)

Godzilla X Mothra X MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S (2003)

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) (You KNOW you wanna review this controversy )


— Shinsei Daiei Kaiju Eiga —
Gamera: The Brave

Again, if there is any film you want to review that isn't on this list, go for it! I want to include other classics such as The Mysterians, Matango, Space Amoeba, Etc.

[Svitska Donkun]

Here, UnCanny, I want you to use this for your Godzilla: Final Wars review. I touched it up a bit for public viewing.


Godzilla: Final Wars is Godzilla's 28th outing, in which a group of mutants fight of an Alien race that brings apocalypse by controlling all of Earth's Monsters. With Godzilla's assistance, they make it to the alien mothership for a showdown with the alien leader.

Oh Godzilla: Final Wars...Where do I begin?
I will open with the statement that GINO is a better film than Godzilla: Final Wars. It is, honestly. The problem here is GINO, is not a Godzilla film, as GFW ironically proves(obnoxiously and nonsensically). GINO meets none of the criteria needed to be a Godzilla film other than monsters in it. So, where as GINO was a complete and utter false statement and took liberty on the entire franchise, and basically ruined Godzilla for a period of time, its wrongs were only temporary. And its funny because its ramifications were only temporary because it WASN'T a Godzilla film. So when you think about it, because they were two different things completely, the real Godzilla remains virtually untouched. All he has to do is file a suit for impersonation and identity theft. Godzilla would soon be back to his normal character. Shoot, with all the money GINO made, it probably paid for the budget of Godzilla 2000. Does this make me a GINO apologist? No. I hate the film and it is rather insulting that they slapped Godzilla's name on it, but it isn't really Godzilla, so its really just insulting itself. Now, GFW on the other hand is most certainly a Godzilla film, as it includes the character, the other monsters, Godzilla's back story, destruction, and even a snippet of the Godzilla Theme. We have to live with this film now. Because it is a Godzilla film, we can't push it under a rug and ignore it like GINO. Like the Prequel trilogy, it will always be there, taunting us with its stupidity and horrors. It is also, arguably, one of the most significant Godzilla films because its the 50th Anniversary film. Its supposed to be the culmination of 50 years of development and evolution of the character, Japan, and movie making itself. That's what makes this most insulting. This is what we got for his 50th anniversary/retirement film.

Basically, GFW is the complete opposite of everything I said the 50th anniversary film should be. Instead of taking anything a step further it takes massive steps back. It pretty much crams every negative stereotype about modern cinema and Asian Culture into one film and creates a primitive tone between goofball and seriousness. Either of which would be bad, but together? Even worse. The film, rather than being an ambitious film that could focus on developing a character that has no human traits and exemplify the best of the series, completely folds back on itself. How can a film contribute anything to anything when it boldly rip offs almost every successful sci-fi/action film ever made? Some people say "derivative". That's incorrect. Derivative would be taking ideas form other works and restructuring them into something of artistic merit. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. A good example would be how the original Star Wars took inspiration from Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. A poor example would the Prequel star Wars trilogy trying to take fom the OT and failing miserably. (=P) GFW just blatantly, and unapologetically rips off so much, to the point that I don;t know how he never got sued. Though, that's probably because I doubt George Lucas, the Wachowski Brothers, Stan Lee, or Michael Bay would trouble themselves to watch this schlock. Its honestly a disgusting practice and I;m not surprised Japanese audiences caught on to it. But there's honestly not much else to say about that aspect off the film that hasn't been said already. The next thing that's a huge step back are the way the action sequences are shot. This is a pretty basic complaint and fairly two dimensional, but its important when a greater amount of run time is given to the Kung-Fu than the monster sequences. Basically, the action choreography follows every negative stereotype seen since the Shaw Brothers, and basically disrespects all the work people like Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa put in to break those generalizations. Sure the Shaw Bros. films worked back in the 70's, but thats because it was the 70's. And that's why they still hold up. They're corny fun. Trying to emulate it in a modern film with dead pan seriousness will not work. Audiences are to sophisticated nowadays to not notice when people are basically flying. Realism also rears its head when you are using 70's monster cliches as well. While possibly being the most infamous period of the franchise, it was also relatively short and i no way represents the franchise as a whole and was already "sort of" uncharacteristic to Godzilla's character. To go this route in a film that's supposed to be a 50th anniversary film for modern audiences? Its a stupid move. Especially when you have stuff like an S&M Monster with chainsaw hands. Keep it in anime please. All the other Godzilla films since 84 kept one foot in reality, at all times. This was because of how much more sophisticated audiences became. Why backtrack 30 years of evolution? Its not just evolution of the franchise, its film itself. GFW actually has some of the worst photography I've ever seen. Its all because the director was too lazy to construct interesting shots and uses of natural color. He just slams color filter over EVERYTHING to make up for it. Great work! Compare this to the dynamic camera movements and style of Godzilla 2000 and GMK. And the icing on the backtracking cake, is replacing a vast library of Godzilla music that has evolved over time with a terrible 80's symphonic soundtrack. Lets top it off with the plot being a rip off of DAM, instead of creating a new and innovative plot that tells us more about Godzilla as a character. I don't understand these decisions...

Another thing to point out that I think is never touched on, are the strong, sexual overtones of the film. It seems nearly everything is sexualized. EVERYHTING. Everyone is unrealistically attractive except the veterans shoe horned into this travesty, but even Mr. Takarada seems to shoot off an innuendo at one point. Of course the scientist is a perfect sex item with a short skirt. Of course her sister, the famous reporter, is one too. Of course all the main cast members are all in the prime and make a habit of getting into scenarios where they have to sweat and wrestle each other. Of course two ethnic men are alone together in the arctic listening to music and wearing revealing clothing. Of course are main villains are ripe with vanity and homosexual stereotypes. What was the purpose of this? I attribute it to compensating for a weak plot. they need to keep 13 year old boys and girls attention somehow, and apparently Godzilla won't do the trick...

Possibly the worst aspect of the film though, which has nothing to do with its insulting attitude towards Asian cinema, is Godzilla's involvement himself. sure its been cited that Godzilla has limited screentime, but I'd doubt he had all that much more in Godzilla '84. The key difference is, Godzilla was involved in the plot. It revolved completely around him. He was still in the film even when he wasn't on screen. This feeling of tension ALSO made it more impacting when he appeared on the screen. GFW is NOT about Godzilla. This is not an opinion, this is a fact. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong. This idea is the 100% incorrect method of making a 50th anniversary film about a character. In the 28 films Godzilla's been in, sure there's some room for experimentation, but NOT on his 50th anniversary film. and even the former is arguable. What if you went to a movie called Spiderman: The Last Stand, and the movie wasn't about Spiderman? But I guess that's different because Spiderman is human.(SPOILER: It isn't different at all.) Ozaki, the blatant Neo rip off is what the film is about, and his struggles against things and his character arch. He's the parts we have to suffer through in order to get to the title character. And there's s o much of it. I don't even care about this character because he's not the reason I saw the movie. Its painful to sit and watch all this crap that has NOTHING to do with Godzilla at all, in a film called Godzilla: Final Wars. Godzilla is almost treated as a Non character, he's just a solution to one part of the problem. They're all sitting at a table over halfway through the film, and they're like "Hey! That's right! Earth has the strongest creature in existence! Lets go get it, I guess." This disregard for Godzilla's character in the 50th anniversary film is just so disgusting and insulting that my hands are trembling as I type this. It just gives the impression that this hack director took advantage of the film he was assigned to make the movie HE always wanted to make. He used it to inflate his own ego and cram in every "idea" he's ever had into one film(Hopefully because his career would be over afterwards). A disgusting way to use the studio and the fans for his own personal gain and wants.

So why? Why did Toho pick him, furthermore, why did Toho approve the script? I'm sure Kaneko or Okawara would've jumped to direct the 50th anniversary feature. Shoot, Banno would've done it better and cheaper. Why did we get this film?
[spoiler]Because screw you, thats why.[/spoiler]
In all seriousness, this production makes no sense to me. From the creative choices, to what Toho's brass was thinking, to marketing. Nothing. I guess the DAM premise makes sense because of all the classic monsters. But this only works when the monsters are the main focus of the film, or are portrayed realistically. Why did GINO have to be in the movie? That doesn't make any kind of sense. That's like if Red Son appeared in a Superman film as a main villain. Sure it was an interesting scene to see, but was it really essential to have in the film? It seems more like a fun bonus feature to put on the DVD than a legit scene. Also, how much of the budget went towards getting that sound byte from a SUM 41 song? Minya? His size changing ability is canon, not a hallucinogenic drug? None of the decisions in this film make sense...Its worse than the Prequel Trilogy, Star Trek: Generations, and AVP: Requiem combined! The fanbase got the biggest kick in the balls with this movie than any other Sci-fi fandom in history. Look at the previous retirement film, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Perfection. It was true climactic perfection. It made perfect sense to tie the original film to the final film, and then kill the character off in an incredible way WHILE preserving his legacy. Why not try something like that? Why not add a third film to the "Kiryu saga" about something similar? Why all...this? Godzilla 2000 would've made a damn fine 50th anniversary film. So would GMK. Shoot, how about the project that GMK was made instead of. Toho rejected Daiei's proposal to do Gamera vs. Godzilla so they could do GMK. Let that sink in for a moment. We were that close. GMK is a good movie and all, but I'm sure most of us would've preferred the alternative. But here's the question, why not save that movie premise for Godzilla's 50th anniversary? How GREAT would that have been? The movie we got is stupid.

Now lets put this in a retrospective. When I first saw the film, when I was 12. My mind told me I liked it, while my heart told me no, if that makes sense. I tried to rationalize liking it, as it was a Godzilla movie after all. I just couldn't, and as I grew older and rewatched it, every time I had more of a reason as to why. The movie just fails on every level. I guess I can see how it would be fun and for someone to like it, but only in a really stupid kind of way, like "OMG this is so stupid! LOL!" Godzilla: Final Wars though is just too stupid for me. Its insulting to my intelligence, to me as a fan, and to Godzilla's integrity. What was the point of this film? What was it trying to do or say? Every Godzilla film had a point, no matter how 2 dimensional or obvious it was, every single one had a point, and endgame. There really wasn't any kind here...nothing the film is basically just fluff. Its kind of about nothing...I mean Don Frye was entertaining to watch. He's kind of like Burt Reynolds mixed with Bruce Campbell, but I'd rather watch a movie about him than this piece of crap...maybe that was the point? Idk. Godzilla: Final Wars is a bad movie, and the worst Godzilla film ever made.

0 stars out of 5.

[Tohosaurus]

Tohosaurus

I pulled and lightly tweaked these from reviews I've left elsewhere, but here are some for starters. I'll add some more later.

War of the Gargantuas
War of the Gargantuas is a movie that stems from another somewhat dark-themed monster movie, 1965's Frankenstein vs Baragon. Even from the beginning it has a sort of dark theme, with a sinister looking Gaira attacking Oodaku (giant octopus). As Gaira thoughtlessly devours people, you're tempted to cringe. But the hero gargantua, Sanda, brings another piece into the story. It becomes a battle of brothers, one dark and evil while the other is for all intents and purposes good and pure.

This isn't your average monster movie, but in a lot of ways that's a good thing. It is, however, one of those dark, near-horror style films that Toho produced in the 50s and 60s, such as 1954's Godzilla or 1958's H-Man. The more human like nature of the gargantuas draws the viewer in and in turn draws out more emotions.

It's worth mentioning that although the film is a direct sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World, almost all of the relationship between the two films is edited out of the American version, leaving a lone comment on the main protagonist discussing a 'hand' he's been studying. That would be Frankenstein's hand. Another thing mostly edited out of the American version is the more romantic relationship between the doctor and his assistant. You get that kind of vibe even in the edited region one release of the movie nonetheless.

If a lot of the campy 1960s or 1970s Godzilla films don't do it for you and you want something darker, more serious, near-horror, War of the Gargantuas is for you. It's a great film with the only real weak point being lack of character development. You don't really care even when they're in danger, but otherwise there are few faults. I wouldn't even mind if Toho decides against ever creating a remake of the film, because its quality even roughly a half-century later is superb, and they probably wouldn't capture the spirit of the original, much like other classics such as King Kong (1933) or Godzilla (1954).

Looking outside of this specific film, I'm actually glad they elected not to place the gargantuas in a Godzilla movie (Toho originally had written up some loose plans to make a "Godzilla vs Gargantua(s)" for a 1978 theatrical release). In the 60s and especially by the 70s, Godzilla had become campy and "fun". While there's nothing wrong with that in itself, bringing a gargantua would weaken their story much like the campy Godzilla films greatly weakened Godzilla's (1954) reputation as a dark horror movie. Both monsters have their place, just not together.

7/10

Space Amoeba
Space Amoeba was essentially the last fresh giant monster film from Toho's Showa era. After this 1970 entry, the rest of their giant monster films were Godzilla pictures. Space Amoeba is mostly a rehash of elements we've seen before at Toho. Alien life forms have come to conquer the planet and use a human vessel as assistance in carrying out the plan. However, instead of bringing their own monsters as the alien races do in The Mysterians, Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster, or Godzilla vs Gigan, they simply blow up the size of some Earth animals (more on that later). It is up to a small group of people on the plot's island to save the day.

In spite of being that last original giant monster picture from Toho's Showa series, Space Amoeba fails to move the needle as much as some of their 50s and 60s movies did. The plot could've worked if it had been carried out with a bit more care, but the passe plot was made no more interesting by good acting or special effects. Eiji Tsuburaya was a famous special effects director at Toho, and this was the first kaiju film made after his death. The special effects are pretty hit-and-miss here. In other words, he is missed.

The monster with the most combined discussion and screen time is the first to appear, Gezora; he is thought to be a monster god by the inhabitants of the island. Gezora is referred to as both a squid and an octopus in the picture depending upon which audio and subtitles you are referencing, but he mostly reflects the proportions of a squid in my opinion. He isn't very convincing in his motions with his suit wrinkling and folding unnaturally. His eyes look very fake as well. Gezora is a pretty obscure monster even within Toho's fans, but it's not without warrant.

Ganime is a giant mutated crab, somewhat similar to Toho's own giant lobster Ebirah that starred in Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (aka Godzilla vs The Sea Monster) and much more recently in Godzilla: Final Wars. Compared to his Showa Ebirah stablemate, I actually think Ganime looks better and more menacing. A pretty well done suit and acceptable movements here. Kamoebas is the third and final monster in the film, a giant turtle. He is probably the best known due to his second appearance in a far more popular and contemporary movie, 2003's Godzilla: Tokyo SOS. Kamoebas and Ganime actually battle at the end of the movie and plummet into a volcano to their demise (predictably).

The only real reason to view Space Amoeba is to see some new monster action, because from the standpoint of the plot and acting, you've seen it before at Toho many times over. That's not to say I will give this film a low rating; I'd still rate it a mediocre 5/10, but that's the most it deserves. Toho did a plenty of superior monster movies before this one (and some of the Godzilla ones that followed), so this shouldn't be one of the first ones you seek.

5/10

Godzilla vs Megaguirus
I was pleased that Toho was continuing to explore new monsters with this film. In fact, I really liked Megaguirus' origins. I also like that they tried for a slightly scarier experience, particularly the alley scene. This movie is almost in some ways a throwback to the Showa era's silliness at times. Perhaps it's the mix of various elements and themes that turns some viewers off, but I have to say the movie is still fun.

And yet, I rate the film only 6/10. Outside of the monster action, much of the rest of the movie is fairly dull, as is the female lead. I also find the Dimension Tide piece of the plot almost too silly. A man-made miniature black hole fired at Godzilla from a satellite in space? Oh come on! That's gotta be more outlandish than aliens. The special effects were only okay, but with three notable bad points. The SGS looks like a small toy, the Meganula on Godzilla's hide looked iffy, and when Megaguirus first appears, the wires are visible. Some of these is another element that reminds me a bit of Showa era Toho movies but probably isn't one of the characteristics Toho wanted us to remember.

This was the second installment of Godzilla's Millennium series, and after watching these two you might not be inspired to watch the next four movies unless you're a major Japanese monster movie or Godzilla fan, which I am. But rest assured, the rest of the series picks up (even Final Wars). As a final word, if you don't really care how loony some of the plot is, then you'll probably enjoy this movie more than a 6/10, no problem. If you want to give the Godzilla franchise a try though, I'd check out GMK or Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo SOS before this one.

6/10

[Space Hunter M]

Mothra (1961) Can't really think of anything else to say yet, so here is my opinion from the "Last Movie You Watched" topic:

"One of those Toho fantasy films where the outstanding human characters simply outshine the top-billed kaiju in the first place. But don't get me wrong, Tsuburaya's special effects work is at it's near pinnacle here. The larval Mothra special effects have frankly never looked better and the Atomic Heat-Ray Cannons are an exciting spectacle."

5/5

[Dust_pan]

I'll try to make fresh, new reviews for other films. But for now, I'll settle with these edited reviews of mine.

Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster is awesome, to say the least. It starts the era of goofy Showa films that feature Godzilla and Rodan as our saviors, but it still manages to portray the giant brutes as destructive, epic, and titanic.

The human scenes are actually interesting and mix well with the monster scenes (I liked them even when I was a little kid! Surprising considering human scenes from most other kaiju movies were either boring or went over my head). The story of a martian (or venusian, if you watch the original japanese version) possesing a princess is something new to the series, and it's fun seeing how this alien (or crazed lady) spreads word about Ghidorah, giving him plenty of buildup for his grand appearance. Admittedly, the other humans don't have much personality (or anything new), but atleast their story is interesting to watch play out. It makes waiting for the monsters very enjoyable, for once.

Let's not forget the music, which itself made many scenes quite powerful and expressive. Specifically Ghidorah's scenes (from his entrance to his city destruction) and the final battle. Ghidorah is absolutely awesome as a villian with his own agenda. He had never been so badass in any other Godzilla film, mainly due to his tendency to be mind-controlled by random alien invaders. He practically became Team Rocket with a single body after that. Then, of course, we have Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra, perhaps the three greatest monsters of any japanese monster movie, all showing up together for this movie. And all of them pull off a great performance. Godzilla and Rodan's characterization was shaped more like that of a human, which some people might hate. But I personally found it quite entertaining. It made their grumpy, crude personalities easier to understand. Mothra once again plays the little hero of the ending, and she does it with a great confidence and drive. It made me cheer her on after Goji and Rodan basically blew her off. All of these monsters, their personalities, and their interactions with one another, made me feel for them. And I loved it.

4/5

Godzilla vs The Sea Monster, a very fun adventure film. Definitley something different from most other Godzilla movies. The plot is much more human-driven, but that's quite all right, as the story is an interesting (but definitley cliched) one. The protagonists are a ragtag group of different characters with different backgrounds. There's the ambitious young man searching for his missing brother, his personality-less brother, two goofy characters (one goofier than the other), the badass dude with experience and a dark past, and the hot, skimpy islander girl (and I mean HOT). It's fun seeing them work together, doing some of the most simplest of plans to dupe/get away from the antagonists. Nothing heavy in characterization, but it's that simplicity I enjoyed.

What do these guys have in common? They're all stuck on a distant island that happens to belong to an evil terrorist organization called The Red Bamboo. What's keeping these guys from getting off the island? A gigantic monster shrimp known as Ebirah, "The Sea Monster".

Some people would laugh at a giant shrimp. I mean, c'mon, It's a giant SHRIMP. But I personally liked his excellent design. Of course, other than that, he's got nothing special. Ebirah is pretty much just The Red Bamboo's guard dog, and not much else. The even more random (and unexpected) Giant Condor also serves the same purpose, but only shows up for a single scene for the whole movie. Mothra looks great in this film, but her role is only to be the ultimate saving grace for our brave heroes. Still, it's cool seeing her wisk everyone off the isle (one of the few times a monster directly interacts with humans). Godzilla takes up a big spot of the film, showing off plenty of fighting amd destroying. All he does is fight Ebirah and The Red Bamboo's other forces, though, which is atleast entertaining to see.

A fun film to watch. Something great and exciting for kids, and simple enough for adults to watch on a lazy sunday morning ... oh, and don't forget Daiyo ... DAIYO. Daiyo, man ... she's Daiyo!

4/5

[King Caesar]

Gamera vs Viras:

This is...a bad movie. The whole plot revolves around aliens traveling in giant honeycombs with their cuddlefish-squid-spear monster. As the movie progresses, our two happy-go-lucky Boy Scout protagonist actually are brought into the alien ship. It's incredibly yellow in there (but I may blame my St. Clair 12-pack box set for that problem). The issue with this movie is that Gamera and Viras never really fight until the finale, unlike Barugon or Jiger, who fight twice. There fights were also more entertaining, but that's just my opinion on it. The monotonous aliens and the previously mentioned scouts are truly the only parts that keep the plot moving in any sort of direction. Viras lacks any sort of power (outside of drilling himself into his opponent, which is idiotic, but I digress), which really leaves most viewers eating more.

Another problem I noticed when I watched it a couple months ago was the segment of stock footage. It lasts around fifteen minutes, which is a good chunk of time in this somewhat short movie. It shows the previous two battles Gamera has been in (against Barugon and Gyaos), but it isn't courteous enough to edit it down to a minute or two. It's faintly familiar to how All Monsters Attack is, except this time the footage seems is completely cut and pasted into the movie.

Final thoughts? If you have to pick and choose between Gamera movies, stick with War of the Monsters and Gamera vs Gyaos. This movie may be the worst of the whole Gamera series, and with good reason. However, if you want a good laugh at a couple short-short-wearing Boy Scouts going against a race of aliens, this is the movie for you.

A half eaten squid tentacle out of a possible five for this '68 flick.

Godzilla Final Wars
Ah, yes, the controversial movie in the skin. This movie has sparked arguments unlike almost any other movie in the series. Something about this film ignites a flaming hatred inside of people, and this brief review will five head-first into why this is.

The plot centers in on a continuity that follows the Showa series (or at least that would be the presumption, since all the monsters seen are already identified and named) for the first time in almost thirty years. The G-Force has found a string of mutant humans that have increased fighting capabilities and speed. The force uses flying battleships (such as Goten--or Gotengo, a clear homage to the earlier non-Godzilla science fiction genre) to fight against the various different monsters across the globe. In the other wing of the G-Force (metaphorically speaking), scientists uncover a mummified monster of some strange origin. The Shobijin appear and reveal its identity to be Gigan. In ancient times, Mothra and Gigan had fought for the earth, but Mothra had won. It's an interesting backstory, but it raises questions about who exactly Gigan is; a alien's warhammer or a rogue destroyer? Then, the world breaks out into a massive panic as monsters appear all around the world, as if part of a plan...

After that, the story and pacing really kicks up and you'll cruise to the end before you have time to realize what happened. The main complaint about the movie is the minimal screentime some monsters had. Take Hedorah, for instance. He had a grand total of maybe a half a minute on the silver screen, yet he was one of Godzilla's deadliest opponents ever. The movie had to juggle the biggest cast of monsters ever put into a Godzilla movie, which is one of its fatal flaws. Considering the alternate of each battle taking five to ten minutes with all those monsters, it's understandable why the filmmakers kept the fights brief. Then again, they could have just reduced the number of monsters...I digress.

The acting is decent, nothing spectacular, but X (the Xilien second-in-command with the spiky hair) is fairly memorable, partially because of his psychotic tendencies. Don Frye took up the role as the captain of the Gotengo, and he is the perfect stereotype of a badass. He always gives a sly comeback to the Xilien leader, which is amusing at times. To sum it all up, Gordon kicks butt and asks questions later.

The movie definitely is focused on the human cast. Godzilla (and the whole crew of Kaiju, for that matter) are in the shadow of the humans (or mutants, depending on how you see it). Godzilla Final Wars is speckled with conflicts between aliens and humans, surpassing the other competitors easily in that field. The fight scenes remind me of the crazy Kung-Fu movies where ninjas would jump all over the place, kicking and punching at times that would otherwise be impossible. Whether it was an intentional nod to that genre or not, I thought I should point it out. There's also a scene towards the end that rips off of Star Wars, where a ship has to reach the center of the mothership and destroy its generator. This, hands down, is too noticeable not to see.

Through all of these problems, the movie is still entertaining. It isnt boring or dull like Godzilla Raids Again or Mothra vs Godzilla: Battle for the earth, but it doesn't blow you away like the Mothra vs Godzilla would. It falls somewhere in-between the cracks. I will say that any avid Godzilla fan should give this movie a try, because it is action-packed from start-to-finish.

Three and a half Eclairs out of five for Operation Final Wars.

[Kyono_Rei]

ATORAGON 1963

Actors
First of all I think the acting was overall much better than in most tokusatsu films of this period. I wouldn't say any of the roles was a ground-braking oscar-winning one, but all the major actors performed well and their acting ties in well with the plot and does not draw the viewer away from the story.

Jun Tazaki and Ken Uehara perform their roles well, so does Yoko Fujiyama. While the father-daughter relationship between the two characters may seem a bit artificial and formal now (especially to western viewers), these were the 60s in Japan and if you look at it from the period's perspective, it doesn't seem unrealistic.

Tetsuko Kobayashi has a minor role as the Empress fo the Evil Mu empire, but she performs her role very well IMHO, with the limited amount of lines her character is given, Kobayashi "fills in the blanks" with facial expressions and the final outcome is positive. She does not go overboard with the "moustache-twiching bad guy routine", insted her play is subtle but strong.

Music
Akira Ifukube did a good job here in my opinion. The soundtrack and especially the Gotengo theme are fun, catchy and fit the story very well. This is definitally one of the film's strong points.

Mu plot
The main plot is somewhat your typical 60s SF-fantasy film with an evil civilization threatening earth hoping to conquer and turn everyone into slaves. There is a twist though, as this time its not aliens from space, but people from the lost Mu continent that was sunk thousands of years ago. In a way the story pays tribute not only to classic Mu/Lemuria/Atlantis legends, but also to Jules Verne books. While the plot is not very fast paced, there are no "filler" scenes and each scene somehow contributes to the overall plot.

I would also like to add that despite some comments in the Kiaju fandom, the Mu are not portrayed as a "primitive" civilization. They have modern-looking submarines, have destructive laser beams, some sort of "flying bombs", wetsuits that seem superior to regular human ones, they mastered geothermal power, they posess small but very powerfull explosives similar to plastique, have technology that allows them to heat up various objects at will and last but not least they have a device that can cause earthquakes.
I wouldn't call all that "primitive".

True, their palace guards carry spears, however I see them as the equivalent of human police carrying nightsticks. These are just the "law and order" guys of Mu, not its army.

The Mu society is visually similar to ancient Egyptians, which is yet another element typicall for early 1960s films. The inclusion of an "ancient" theme was likely inspired by the sucess of films like "10 commandmends"(1956), "Ben Hur" (1959), "Hannibal" (1959) or Cleopatra (1963).

Human plot
This is where SF meets real life politics. The film was made in 1963, only 18 years after the war ended and 20 years after the death of Admiral Yamamoto at the hands of US pilots. There was a lot of tension between contemporary pacifists (including leftist youth groups like the Zengakuren) and conservatives over issues like national defense, US bases on Japanese soil or the Japan-US Security Treaty.

In Atoragon you can see things that you wouldn't often see in contemporary "realistic" japanese films - the hinomaru flag, sailors in WW2 garb and last but not least the war-obsessed conservative Captian being one of the good guys. Indeed, the tensions between Tazaki's and Uehara's characters is an allegory about contemporary japanese political issues- the clash between old-school conservative-nationalists (represented here by Captain Jinguji) and the pragmatis-reformists (represented by ex-Admiral Kosumi).
"Serious" cinema of the period always followed official propaganda that condemend the old nationalits and praised pacifism. Atoragon however delivers us a different message - while it condemns the extremes of both viewpoints, it depicts both the nationalists and pacifists as good people that need one another and should work togeather to protect japan and build a better future. I think that was the most popular view of that era and Atoragan, precisely because it was a fantasy "not-serious" movie, was allowed to depict this despite going against offcial propaganda.

Another, but related story is that of a generation gap and tension between captain Jinguji and his daughter. We should remember that the film's initial target audience (20-something year olds) were all born duing the war and most likely had parents who either fought in WW2 or worked for Japan's war effort. Again, this was a very common socail issue in early 1960s Japan.
Atoragon gives us a bit of social allegory here, again stressing the need for both generations to seek to understand one another and work togeather.

All in all, I think Atoragon is the most socially and politically heavy of Toho's 1960s tokusatsu films. This is not necessarily bad, but its important to understand this and the socio-political context of the times to get the most out of the human plot of this film.

Special effects&Props
The special effects, like in most 1960s Toho films, are very good and amongst the bets of the best in the world in that time. Exploding ships, effects of an earthquake, buildings collapsing, the explosion in Mu - they all look fun and realistic - even if you know they are all scale models. The effects, while not as impressive as modern CGI, still look good after 50 years.

Props in this film are good, better than in many contemporary tokusatsu films. /the merchant japanese vessel has adequate uniforms, which are different from the crew on the American submarine, which again are different from the uniforms of the Gotengo crew. All look realistic and not the paper-mache-tinfoil pseudo space suits taht you can see in a whole lot of 60s films. The only "bad" props in my opinion are the freeze ray rifles used by teh gotengo crewmen at the end. The good thing you won't see them on screen for very long.

Both the US nuclear sub and the Mu submarine models are nice and believable. The Gotengo model is one of my favorite Toho designs and I think its not just my own opinion, but the opinion held by the vast majority of tokusatsu fans.

Kaiju
And here we have the sole kaiju of the film - Manda. Manda is an underwater chinese-style sea dragon. First of all I think its an original and fun idea to have a kaiju that appears and fights underwater for the whole time and I should add taht the underwater scenes look well and do their job.
What I don't like is that the Gotengo-Manda battle is very anticlimatic. In fact all the Gotengo-Mu fights are anticlimatic in the film. The fact that there is hardly ever any serious threat to the Gotengo and that there is no dramatic, evenly-matched final battle really does hurt the overall feel of the film.

So, final summary:

The Good: Nice special effects and props, great music, pretty good acting, interesting designs of vessels and kaiju, the "evil empire with a twist", cool underwater scenes.

The Bad: Anticlimatic battles.

Other: The human plot is not bad, but those not familiar with Japanese history and politics may fail to grasp the meaning and context of the social commentary made in the film. Also, the film is mostly set at sea or in remote locations, so you won't get too much of Showa-era nostalgia here, other than the clothes worn by the civilian characters.

I think Atoragon is a good film, not without a few flaws but still very good. I think its a must see for any japanese tokusatsu film fan and one of the most memorable non-Godzilla films made by Toho.

[King Caesar]

Uncanny, I don't know if you can control this or not, but could you organize the reviews a little better? Sorry if that sounds Douschbag-y, but it would make it a lot easier to navigate through the site.

[UnCanny Studios]

Uncanny, I don't know if you can control this or not, but could you organize the reviews a little better? Sorry if that sounds Douschbag-y, but it would make it a lot easier to navigate through the site.

You mean the way they're listed? Unfortunately I cant think of a better way to do it as of now. It's a blog format, so there's no way to put them in columns next to each other. So for right now, they're all in a long vertical list, like the movies on Toho Kingdom or Kaijuphle or anywhere else. If I can figure something out, I will.

And what a wealth of information! You guys are exceeding every expectation, how great is all of this! Its going to take me a long time to get all of this stuff up, but I cant wait to get to it!

PS: THE MOVIE LIST ABOVE HAS BEEN UPDATED!!!

[King Caesar]

^ That's okay, I was just curious. Yeah, I'll definitely have to get more info out to you and this site. It's pretty awesome.

[omgitsgodzilla]

On Godzilla: Final Wars...

In 1954, the Godzilla franchise began with Gojira, an extremely masterful and haunting nuclear-apocalypse horror film using a monster to illustrate the devastation caused by the atomic bomb. In 2004, the 50th anniversary of the original film, it ended (at least for a while) with Godzilla: Final Wars, a film that is considered at best a rather flawed but somewhat enjoyable monster-action film and at worst nigh-unwatchable filth from a hack director and a studio that didn't care anymore.
The film opens in Antarctica, with the triphibian warship Gotengo (first seen in Atragon) doing battle with Godzilla in an unknown time period (some sources say it is the 1960s). The latter shoots down the former with a blast of atomic energy, forcing it to crash-land. As Godzilla advances on the Gotengo, a rather "deus ex machina" earthquake strikes and Godzilla falls into a crevasse that conveniently opens right under his feet. The quick-thinking commander of the Gotengo calls for missiles to be fired into a nearby glacier, and as they reach their target Godzilla is buried in an icy tomb.
Next, we have a montage to bring us up to speed on what happens in the years after this incident. A narrator tells us that monsters began appearing all over the world as a result of "wars and environmental disruptions." To combat these creatures, the Earth Defense Force (EDF) is formed. A race of mutant humans possessing incredible fighting abilities (naturally) emerge as enemies of mankind, but join forces with humanity to fight the monsters. The M-Organization, a division of the EDF made up of mutant soldiers, is founded, with their ultimate goal being to defeat the King of the Monsters.
After a very interesting (but nearly unreadable) opening credits sequence featuring scenes from Godzilla films throughout the franchise's history, we see the Gotengo fighting Manda underwater off the coast of Normandy in the year 20XX. Colonel Douglas Gordon, the ship's commander, manages to destroy the creature, but nearly destroys the ship in the process. Off-screen, he is court-martialed, becomes enraged at one of his superiors, assaults them, and is incarcerated. Next we see two of the mutants from the ship, Ozaki and Kazama, fighting in a training exercise. This scene establishes two things: First, that Ozaki is the "soft" one to Kazama's fighting-obsessed mindset, and second, that the film's human combat scenes are (ahem) inspired by those seen in the Matrix.
Ozaki is assigned to be the bodyguard of Miyuki Otonashi, a biologist from the UN. He goes with her to investigate a fossilized cyborg monster found in Hokkaido and brought to the EDF museum. Here we learn that mutants contain a fifth genetic base, creatively called M-base, which they share with this and other monsters. We also learn that the monster is 12,000 years old, meaning that it could not have been created on Earth.
We then see Miyuki's sister, Anna Otonashi, interviewing the newest UN Secretary General, a Japanese man by the name of Daigo. We learn that he plans to go to New York next.
During her research, Miyuki comes across some documents on Infant Island that show ancient paintings that appear to depict the cyborg monster. She shows this to Ozaki and another scientist she is working with, when they hear two female voices in unison telling them the monster's name: Gigan. The three of them are immediately teleported to Infant Island, where the Shobijin inform them that Mothra did battle with Gigan when he first appeared, 12,000 years ago. They warn Ozaki about his genetic relation to Gigan ("a wicked creature") that we already know about, and say that so long as he does not become an enemy of the Earth, Mothra will aid him. They are teleported back to their laboratory, where they find a charm from Infant Island, given to them mid-transport by the Shobijin.
Next, Daigo's plane is destroyed on its way to New York by Rodan, who proceeds to attack the city. Angilas appears in Shanghai, King Caesar in Okinawa, Zilla (an obvious stand-in for the American "Godzilla" from 1998) in Sydney, Kamakiras in Paris, Kumonga in Arizona, and Ebirah in Tokai. A squad of mutants led by Ozaki and Kazama take down Ebirah, only to have it disappear moments later. This happens to the other monsters as well, seemingly being captured by UFOs that converge into a huge mothership above EDF headquarters. Daigo descends from the ship, explaining that the aliens in the UFOs rescued him from his plane. He and two top military officers are taken aboard, where the Xiliens (aliens from Planet X) inform them of an impending threat from a planet, Gorath, that has broken free from its orbit in another solar system and is on a collision course with Earth. Daigo, apparently very grateful for this, suggests disbanding the United Nations and replacing it with the "Space Nations." This is greeted very enthusiastically by just about everyone but Anna Otonashi, Ozaki and Miyuki.
As the latter two discuss their suspicions, the former shows up with a video of Daigo's speech, saying that he has been replaced by an Xilien double, pointing out that he now doesn't blink at all. These suspicions are confirmed by a test of blood recovered after an attempt to assassinate Daigo. Ozaki notices the same change in one of his superiors, who was one of the officers taken aboard the mothership. On top of this, Gorath is revealed to be a hoax, as all photographs of it are sloppy fakes. Realizing that their allies may all be in danger of replacement by aliens, Ozaki springs one man they know hasn't been kidnapped: Colonel Gordon.
Anna Otonashi interviews Daigo, the Xilien Controller and his younger right-hand man on live TV. Meanwhile, Miyuki is confronted by the double of Ozaki's superior as well as that of the other officer. Gordon, Ozaki, Kazama and a team of Mutants show up and kill the impostors and see their false bodies split open as they die, revealing their true form. They take one of the corpses to the scene of the interview, throwing it on the ground before the show's guests and demanding an explanation. Daigo attempts to get up, but is immediately shot once in the chest by Gordon, his head opening to reveal that of an alien. The Controller stutters for a moment, trying to fabricate an explanation, but is shot through the head by his second-in-command, who assumes the position of Controller. Four more Xiliens teleport into the room. Gordon's ensemble responds by calling a huge squad of mutants into the room.
The Controller places the mutants under his control (with the exception of Ozaki), leaving them to kill Gordon's team. They manage to escape, however, but are confronted on the highway by a Xilien-controlled Kazama. Osaki and Kazama fight (on motorcycles!), culminating in Ozaki besting Kazama and freeing him of the mind control.
The Controller sets all the monsters, under his control, loose on the Earth. They utterly destroy the self-defense forces, wiping out almost all of civilization.
Gordon and the others take off in the now-repaired Gotengo for Antarctica, planning to free Godzilla. As they arrive, Gigan attacks, crippling the ship and again forcing it to crash-land. They fire off missiles into Godzilla's prison, releasing him. Godzilla defeats Gigan, then advances towards the Gotengo once again, intending to finish their previous battle. The engines are repaired just in time, and the ship takes off with Godzilla following it.
They lead Godzilla around the world, where he defeats all of the enemy monsters. They then lead him to the Xilien mothership, where they are captured and brought aboard and talk about the Xilien's plans for humanity, which I won't even bother trying to explain. The mysterious Monster X arrives in a meteor and does battle with Godzilla. Mothra appears, prompting the Controller to deploy a new, improved Gigan. At the same time, Gordon's group fights the Xilien forces, with Ozaki battling the Controller. Mothra sacrifices herself to defeat Gigan. The real Daigo and the military officers show up, Ozaki beats the Controller and they all escape as the Controller activates the mothership's self-destruct mechanism.
Monster X suddenly transforms into the extremely powerful Kaiser Ghidorah, turning the tide on Godzilla. He begins sucking out Godzilla's life-force. The Gotengo fires its maser into Godzilla's spines, replenishing his life-force and allowing him to defeat Kaiser Ghidorah. He then shoots down the Gotengo once more, only stopped from killing the crew by the intervention of his son Minilla, who had been following his father for a while along with a hunter and his grandson. Godzilla and Minilla head out to sea and humankind is left to rebuild.
If the plot seems hopelessly convoluted, that's only because it is. Most agree that it's as if a Godzilla movie and several other action movies were haphazardly combined, scored like a video game and edited like a music video. The story itself has been compared to a bad fanfiction. It's generally agreed that Ryuhei Kitamura, the director, was given far too much control over the project and that the result was a rather bad film.
The monster designs are a frequently debated aspect. Many people dislike them, while others are fond of some or all of them. I for one see them as rather cartoonish for the most part, but with a few high points, specifically Godzilla and Gigan. The revamped Gotengo looks great as well.
The editing is fairly standard, with a few major exceptions: Color filters are used almost constantly, which many find annoying. Also, some very quick cuts are used in the battle scenes for no apparent reason. Because of these two factors, the editing has been compared to a bad music video.
The music is highly unusual. It's largely techno with some orchestral and pop-rock elements, and created by three different composers, which makes the score an exceptionally mixed bag. Some cues are great, while others are horrendous.
The overall tone of the films just seems like it's trying to be cool instead of a good Godzilla film. The editing, techno music, Matrix-style fights, and random, semi-trendy occasional English dialogue all come off as an attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator in every possible way. Despite all these desperate attempts at coolness, the film tanked at the box office and is known as one of the worse installments in the entire series.
The final verdict? Do not go into this expecting a fitting celebration of Godzilla's fiftieth birthday. Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream. It's pretty much the only way to enjoy the film.

[Tyler]

Godzilla

"The original Japanese Godzilla (or Gojira) is a masterpiece. It's one of the most important, underrated films of all time. It has a very strong anti-war and anti-nuclear theme and in case you don't care for that there's a giant atomic dinosaur destroying building and causing general havoc. But if you want to dig a little deeper there's great human drama going on. A love triangle, whether to study or destroy Godzilla and so on. The American version starring Raymond Burr is good but the Japanese version that truly started it all is so much more."

Godzilla Raids Again

"The first of many Godzilla sequels is a little wonky. I like it but it does feel inconsistent is numerous areas. The characters go from being in high spirits to moody and back again. There's a chase scene involving fugitives during Godzilla and Anguirus' battle in Osaka that has nothing to do with the main story. Anguirus is beaten halfway through the movie and the plot becomes very slow after that. But as a fan of this stuff I do enjoy the movie, but it's one I seldom watch. It's good for a rainy day or late night viewing."

- Tyler Beasley

[Tohosaurus]

King Kong Escapes
Kid-friendly, and if you want something realistic and serious then run!

Heavily due to the success of King Kong vs Godzilla, Toho wanted to keep Kong around. The first project was Continuation: King Kong vs Godzilla, a direct sequel to the 1962 cash cow that adjusted for inflation was easily the highest grossing Godzilla film of all time. That project never came to fruition, but Toho later collaborated with Rankin/Bass in hopes of making a small series of Kong films. The first project was discarded by Rankin/Brass but didn't die out completely; Toho simply swapped out King Kong and replaced his role with Godzilla, which was released as 1966's Godzilla vs The Sea Monster. The script that actually did succeed was this one, King Kong Escapes.

With that bit of history out of the way, this movie is really aimed at a younger audience, so if you want something more serious, I'd kindly recommend you look elsewhere. The plot is totally ludicrous, with an evil mad scientist (that apparently is filthy rich) who wants to mine "Element X". Naturally, you'd build an enormous 35 meter mech named Mechani-Kong, right? It's interesting that when you mention a giant Japanese robot monster you'd be inclined to think of Mechagodzilla, who amongst giant mechs is far more popular than anything the world over. And yet, this here Mechani-Kong was in a movie nearly a decade earlier.

Speaking of monsters, we should probably start with King Kong. He looks terrible, almost like a joke. Will kids mind? Probably not. Mechani-Kong actually doesn't look bad. The giant snake would've been fun to have had his brief encounter with King Kong extended a bit, and I wonder if the 1976 King Kong remake was inspired by the snake used here rather than the dinosaur of the 1933 original. This film just seems to have given birth to a number of things, whether it actually did or not. We can't forget about Gorosaurus. He looks pretty good, and his kangaroo kick was fun stuff. Corny as heck, but fun. This is also actually the first film for Gorosaurus at Toho, although he's better known for his role in the much more popular Godzilla franchise, most notable being 1969's Destroy All Monsters.

This is a fun movie, something you could buy for your kids or just enjoy on your own as long as you understand its intentions. The monster action is overall quite good and the picture holds your attention throughout the film. I bought the DVD and enjoy it. I can't give it above average marks for a number of listed reasons above (did I mention King Kong seems to understand English/Japanese as long as the female lead speaks slowly and loudly enough?), but I still recommend it if it sounds like something you could appreciate, quirks and all.

5/10

Rebirth of Mothra
Not bad, just geared a bit towards kids.

After ending the Godzilla series with the Heisei series, Toho wanted to maintain a higher grossing monster movie. The one that drew in females in what's admittedly a pretty male-centric genre was Mothra. Mothra is definitely known for her numerous roles as a hero in Godzilla films ever since her first role in a Godzilla movie (Mothra vs Godzilla, 1964). But actually, Mothra had her own movie before all of this like some other monsters best known for their role in Godzilla movies (Rodan comes to mind). Her 1961 movie is something to check out, but getting that history out of the way brings us back to 1996's Rebirth of Mothra. Unlike the Godzilla series of Toho's Heisei era movies, Toho decided to cater more towards kids with the Mothra series.

Mothra received a huge intake of power with her Heisei Godzilla redesign, and that continued even more so with this unrelated Rebirth of Mothra series. Boy, even the larvae can beam spam! Mothra looks okay, but a bit fuzzy in moth form. Her offspring, named Mothra Leo, looks pretty good in larvae form and doesn't fall apart like the larvae of the Showa series. This is also the first time we have a distinctly male Mothra, Leo. In moth form, Leo looks notably different from the female Mothra. Mothra also has blue circular eyes, whereas Leo has more angled green eyes and other design tweaks. I like that. How about the villainous monster in this movie, Desghidorah? He's an interesting take on the Ghidorah family, relying on four legs and with an almost elephant-like roar. He sure makes you pine for his defeat the way he heartlessly attacks Mothra and Leo in larvae stage. It may even be considered a bit graphic actually if the kids are too young. On the whole the monsters are a plus and the action is pretty good and maybe the best of the trilogy. The drawback is that the final battle between Leo in moth form and Desghidorah is just way too easy. Desghidorah overpowers the aging Mothra in the beginning, but then Leo just comes in and gives him a good one-two. Easy peasy. Except it was annoyingly easy. Maybe this has something to do with the kid-centric theme.

Moving on, what else does the film bring? Well, the RoM series has one distinctly annoying trait for me, at least with the region one release: the women just scream and scream and SCREAM. It gets old. The pacing is a bit iffy here too and a number of scenes could've been cut entirely or trimmed. The score does an adequate job of complimenting the film itself and conveying the emotions we should be feeling. The acting is not particularly impressive, but yet again the fact that it caters to children may have been Toho's way of justifying lower standards. Maybe I'm wrong.

What we have here is a decent movie especially for younger people, and you might certainly be emotional when you see the larvae desperately trying to keep its dying/dead mother alive. It's probably worth more than a 6/10 for younger people, but if you're a much beyond perhaps a teenager you may not enjoy as much. Its sequel, Rebirth of Mothra II, is arguably even more child-themed, so it doesn't get better here on out in that sense. But for all this kid theme talk, I still like the movie and have a copy on DVD.

6/10

Rebirth of Mothra II
A weak sequel to Rebirth of Mothra

Man oh man, has Mothra become a super monster or what? Transforming into aqua modes and all, woo! I also have to give Toho credit for coming up with an original monster that looks good. To continue, the plot isn't bad either. The ancient empire theme is cool, as is their architecture. But I have to say this movie has some serious execution issues. The plot is totally ruined by this movie's massive pacing problem. By the middle of the movie I was antsy, and it genuinely feels like a movie that exceeds two hours long. I was watching it with a couple of other people, and one had simply fallen asleep. This picture also slips even further into the kid-zone with the Furby looking thing and continuing with the children leads. I found this partially odd with them having become friends with a pair of grown men that they don't know. When's the last time you encouraged kids to make friends with strangers? But I guess that's missing the point.

Mothra Leo comes in three forms this time around. The standard Leo moth suit looks decent as it did last time and the same goes for the lightly revised Rainbow Mothra suit. Aqua Mothra has a very interesting take on what the Mothra design would look like as a sea dwelling creature. Toho did a pretty good job there. The same goes for Dagahra, who looks cool and manages to put up a good fight. All of these suits if nothing else do look like reasonable quality, hence me giving a high score to the quality of the monster aesthetics for this movie.

The special effects are often unimpressive but don't really tread into "awful" territory. The battle scenes may leave something to be desired, and one part of the battle is so drawn out that the movie gets boring all over again. The score is pretty uninspiring. This movie just fails to movie the enjoyment meter in any real way, this despite the good looking monsters. Since there really isn't much of anything connecting the three Rebirth of Mothra films, you might as well skip this one and go straight to Rebirth of Mothra III.

2/10

Rebirth of Mothra III
A comeback compared to RoM II

Before I get into the actual film, a word for region one audiences (Canadian and American). You can't buy this film on DVD or VHS (you can buy RoM and RoM II as a double feature DVD). This hasn't been released on DVD yet, but in the future at some point there will probably be a DVD/Blu-Ray release. Up until some point in August 2011 you were able to watch it for free (and totally legally) on Sony's website crackle.com. In fact, the entire Rebirth of Mothra trilogy was available on Crackle, but at some point in August 2011 Sony took all three films down and as of this writing (early September 2011), they are still not back up. This has created some murmers as to Sony's reasoning. Is a new DVD/Blu-Ray release in the works? At this point, we simply don't know why.

After being totally disappointed with Rebirth of Mothra II, I didn't have particularly high expectations for RoM III, but it was definitely better than I thought it would be. To start off with a complaint, it's with Grand King Ghidorah. He looks great, but his appearance is just bizarre. A giant monster randomly comes to Earth and takes children hostage? It makes no sense, even as a children's movie. My other complaint is that the monsters almost always look great, but the dinosaurs look pitiful. In the era of Jurassic Park, this films low budget shines through loud and clear here.

This one has almost no pacing issues, which is a great improvement over the last two films. That said, the plot of having two or three child leads with the screaming hero fairies and laughing evil fairy falls too closely in line with the films before it and it ends up being a little repetitive. Maybe it's just me, but the film didn't try to branch out. I'm still not sold on the time travel aspect of the film, because although it doesn't create the billions of questions and controversies like Toho did the last time (Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, 1991), that's probably got more to do with the RoM series having a lot less baggage to it in the first place.

Its monsters look the best of the trilogy. Leo's standard form continues to look pretty good, but the best known Leo form is featured in this movie, Armor Mothra. Armor Mothra holds the title as far and away the most powerful Mothra we've ever seen and it looks the part. if a little stiff; it must be that excessive armor. Cretaceous King Ghidorah and Primitive Mothra are a bit uninspiring as designs go but their execution and quality is above par. Grand King Ghidorah is arguably the most powerful Ghidorah and he looks nothing short of great.

With a decent score, decent special effects, above part monsters, and much improved pacing, you could give it a decidedly average score of 5/10. For kids you could probably inflate the score a bit more than that. There are still a few too many unanswered questions and random-ness going on to warrant much better. Such a shame given the quality of the actual monsters here. I would be pleased if Toho would bring Mothra films back again someday, but I'd lose the overly child themes. It seems to allow the film makers to dumb down the movies as if they think kids will care less about plot holes or acting. It's true, but it softens the experience for us older folks.

5/10

Rodan
One of the giant monster movie greats.

After the success of Godzilla's first film and the mediocre box office performance of its sequel, Toho had no idea they had a monster movie giant on their hands. Thus, they decided to keep pumping out new monsters. Rodan was the first one of these, a monster that would also go on to gross more money in America than the original Godzilla film. That fact is probably as much a surprise to you as it was to me when I found that out. Rodan's success propelled the Rodan monster to become one of the best known monsters at Toho.

As a very brief summary, a huge insect attack a mining village. Upon trying to dispose of the insect, one of the miners becomes trapped and discovers that there are numerous insects in a secret cave like area. More importantly, there's a giant egg that hatches. Naturally, the Rodan infant is born, feeding off of the Meganulon insects. Not long thereafter, reports of a UFO in Japan and other countries emerges, so frequently that it is believed that there is more than one UFO. It turns out to be not one but two grown Rodans. Eventually one of the Rodans become trapped in a volcano. The other Rodan refuses to live without the other and thrusts itself into the lava with its mate, a most touching scene.

Rodan is a very serious monster movie. The bloodied pilot's helmet, the young couple eaten by Rodan, the memorable death of the monsters, it all makes the movie emotional and extremely entertaining. I will say this, however. The character aspect of the plot is not very good. For a Toho monster movie, it's perfectly acceptable, but you won't walk away talking about the characters at all. This isn't to say that it takes away from the film; it just doesn't add to it. The special effects are good, and Rodan looks good. The Meganulon look pretty good, although their movements aren't natural. The miniatures look convincing, especially for that era.

Rodan is a classic and fairly unique. For the rest of the Showa era, Rodan's appearances would be distinctly campy, funny as how his own movie is anything but campy. That's actually too bad, because they did such a fine job with this film. One question I left this movie with is where the second Rodan came from. The movie never touches on that subject. Overall, I rate this movie a 7.5/10.

7.5/10

Dogora
Not particularly remarkable as a monster movie, but Toho for once addresses the human plot.

Dogora is one of those monster movies that -whether or not it was the intent- focuses less on monsters and more on people. Whether or not that was a good idea is entirely up to debate, but at least that meant Toho put more effort into the human side of the plots than they did for most other monster movies from this era. For this reason, Dogora is a bit unique among other Toho movies.

Dogora's plot breaks down two ways, with one part of the movie being committed to the diamond stealing gangsters, the other being committed to the space monster itself. Both involve diamonds, which is of course how the plots are supposed to converge and make the movie work. This works out well enough, although the two don't integrate flawlessly; at times the two sub-plots can feel a bit disjointed. I actually find it to be more about the gangsters than about Dogora at all. The acting is pretty lacking here, and the musical score leaves something to be desired as well. The one shining star is the surprise quality of the monster Dogora. It moves quite gracefully in the sky and looks great. Other aspects of the special effects are less successful, but I'm willing to bet most of us would consider it a reasonable trade off.

Dogora is somewhat notable in that it was the last solo giant monster movie from Toho's Showa era of pictures, but the movie on its own probably requires a foreign monster movie fan to fully appreciate the film. The main thing that props up this picture's rating is the better human story and greater attention paid to them. Whether or not this is a worthy compromise in the eyes of monster movie fans is up to debate, but since it breaks the mold from almost every other Toho monster movie, it's reasonable to believe that it helps differentiate this movie a bit.

5.5/10

Giant Monster Varan
A mediocre giant monster movie, for better or worse.

It took Great Monster Varan some four years before it finally made it to America under the title Varan, the Unbelievable. As fate would have it, Varan isn't so "unbelievable" or "great". I am reviewing the Japanese version that's presently available on DVD, the very one in the picture at the top of the page. Despite the American version's title, it's the Japanese version with English subtitles. It is my understanding that the American version is significantly worse than the English version, but I can't comment on that as I haven't seen it.

The giant monster plot is not unlike many other monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists are searching for a unique species of butterfly and awaken the monster god. The Japanese military lends a hand, bringing their equipment and troops to the island, expecting an easy kill. As you'd expect, Varan is virtually immune to the weaponry, so the military retreats. Varan swims through the water and attacks an airport and some of the city, but certainly not on the scale that we see some other monsters, Godzilla for one. Eventually the military discovers a trick to defeating Varan, and the wounded monster retreats.

Pretty basic, but it works. It's mediocre, but in some ways that's kind of a good thing. Toho didn't make the monster out to be as huge, destructive, and powerful as monsters like Godzilla or Rodan. But while that bolsters the strength of those monsters, it makes this film and its monster a bit more forgettable. The first irk I have is that this movie was shot with a fairly tight budget, and it shows. The movie is shot in black and white, despite Toho having done color since 1956's Rodan. The acting is also average, with some rough spots where the character(s) should be acting more emotional (or seem to express the wrong emotions). Varan is nothing spectacular but still looks good enough and has some personality to his design. He's also versatile, being able to operate in water, in air, and on land. Two upsides to the movie were 1) a fairly good score, and 2) mostly good special effects. Sometimes Varan's suit gave away its rubber origins and the monster himself didn't exude much character, but he works, and that's what's important I suppose.

Is the movie worth checking out? Well, if you're just getting into monster movies or Japanese monster movies, there are many better choices. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, War of the Gargantuas, and more were all done under Toho as with Varan, the Unbelievable, but are far more emotional, engaging, and solid films. If you're seen all of these main movies, then Varan is worth checking out. It's by no means a bad movie, it's just that it's not inspiring or riveting. If it comes pack of a discounted multi-feature set as they offer now (Varan with The Mysterians and Matango, for example), then the movie is probably worth it. On its own, for $10-15 it may be a less compelling proposition for you. I purchased it despite that, but I'd more likely just recommend it should it be found in a $5 bin.

5/10

[UnCanny Studios]

To give you guys an idea of how productive/incredible youve been - the site was at four movie reviews five days ago. We are now at 25! I cannot thank you enough!

All of the reviews posted prior to this update have been posted, make sure to check out your work! Below is an updated movie roster and its key:

GREEN means a movie has had its limit of lovin'. Reviews will no longer be added, unless they are small quips or tidbits.
BLUE means that a movie has a smaller amount of information comparatively, and could use more.
RED is, again, the TOP PRIORITY. RED movies haven't been touched!

You know the drill! If you enjoy doing this type of thing and want to take a crack at one of the movies below, we'd love to have your input and contributions!

Gojira (1954)

Rodan (1956)

Godzilla Raids Again (1956)

Mothra (1961)

King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)

Matango (1963)

Atragon (1963)

Mothra vs Godzilla (1964)

Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster (1964)

Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965)

Frankenstein Conquers The World (1965)

War of the Gargantuas (1966)

Godzilla vs The Sea Monster (1966)

King Kong Escapes (1967)

Son of Godzilla (1967)

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

All Monster’s Attack (1969)

Space Amoeba (1970)

Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971)

Godzilla vs Gigan (1972)

Godzilla vs Megalon (1973)

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974)

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)


— Showa Daiei Kaiju Eiga —

Gamera (1965)

Gamera vs Barugon (1966)

Gamera vs Gyaos (1967)

Gamera vs Viras (1968)

Gamera vs Guiron (1969)

Gamera vs Jiger (1970)

Gamera vs Zigra (1971)

Gamera: Super Monster (1980)



— Heisei Toho Kaiju Eiga —

The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Godzilla vs Biollante (1989)

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991)

Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)

Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II (1993)

Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla (1994)

Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995)

Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy



— Heisei Daiei Kaiju Eiga —

(Gamera Trilogy distributed by Toho Co.)

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996)

Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys (1999)



— Shinsei Toho Kaiju Eiga —

Godzilla Millenium (1999)

Godzilla vs Megaguirus (2000)

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack! (2001)

Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (2002)

Godzilla X Mothra X MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S (2003)

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)



— Shinsei Daiei Kaiju Eiga —

Gamera: The Brave (2006)

[HayesAJones]

Don't wanna spam your in inbox, UnCanny, so I'll start posting reviews here.

***

"Ah, King Kong vs. Godzilla- another one of my favorites! Following two much more serious films, this was the first Godzilla movie that took itself lightly, something I'm ever so glad it did.

Special effects-wise, not a lot going on here. A few effects are laughable bad, and the Kong suit is pretty horrid-looking. His arms look like especially wonky. The Godzilla design has its fans, but I'm not big on it. But this film is oh so much fun. The characters are a lovable collection, especially the goofball that is Mr. Tako. He's easily my favorite character from any G-film. The story is charmingly silly, something that's not at all unintentional. And the battles are just a blast! Godzilla is powerful and straightforward, while Kong uses more imaginative tactics. At one point, he shoves a tree down Godzilla's throat! The Eight Wonder of the World starts off in way over his head though, effortlessly fended off by a few blast of Godzilla's breath. The King seems to be lovin' it too, laughing and clapping merrily. He's a dick in this one, but a likeable one. But once Kong starts slurping electricity (an odd leftover from basis of this project, 'Frankenstein vs. Godzilla'), the odds get even. The two engage in a huge duel, viciously grappling with each other, until they both plunge into the sea. Awesome. Even if it didn't turn out well for Godzilla, the fight is a great time and the end fitting. After all, Kong is one of the forefathers of monster movies. I feel that his victory is Toho's way of giving him his props. I'd say the final confrontation between Godzilla and Kong is in my top five, maybe even three, battles throughout the series.

Overall, this is a fun satire, and an awesome crossover between two of the world's greatest movie monsters. Definitely check it out!"

- HayesAJones

[King Caesar]

Hey, Uncanny, I edited my Gamera vs Viras review (on page two) after I rewatched the movie. Is that a problemo?

[Svitska Donkun]

I don't like how you just glossed over my review as "extreme". It took a lot of thought an analysis to pin down everyhting wrong with the picture, at least ten viewings, and I try to delve into every aspect.

[therealmccoy]

Phew. I'm reviewed out for the night. Pumped out three of those puppies today! I like where this is going, by the way. I think it's great to contribute to the fan community like this, even if it has been done a million times before. I feel like I'm part of something important.