| After watching Godzilla
vs. Gigan (1972) one could think its
lack off effort can not be topped by any other
film in the long story of Japanese Sci-fi History.
But the truth goes far beyond that. When we conceive
movies like Super Monster Gamera, or
the even worse Gappa; we sometimes forget
about the movie that made the Big G stand still.
This is of course the well known Godzilla
vs. Megalon. Its overused stock footage,
its non-existent special effects, its irritating
score; everything seems to be destined to fail
in this movie. Yet it's not one of those
flicks that can be considered good for being so
bad. This movie, despite it's noticeable
flaws; still stands on a higher level than many
of the movies with which it is compared.
We start with a prologue that tells
us about some subterranean nuclear tests done
near the Aleutian Islands. It is explained that
the toxic gasses from the blasts were transported
directly into Monster Island, thus making it a
wasteland, from which some monsters left immediately.
But that's the least of the consequences
of the tests. It appears that the Ancient Underwater
Kingdom of Seatopia has suffered terrible geological
disasters as a result of the explosions. In response,
the good people of the Kingdom contact their evil
deity Megalon, and order him to decimate mankind.
Why are people so mean these days, couldn't
they just tell humans to stop the tests? Well
apparently no, so it's up to Godzilla and
man-made android Jet-Jaguar to stop Megalon and
save the Earth!
It appears that the whole thing
about the whole world being in jeopardy was very
popular in the 70's, because most of the
Japanese flicks from those days seem to threat
that topic, in difference from the previous Kaiju
Eigas from the Golden Age, which seemed to be
destined just for Japan. This whole logic would
work quite well if it was done with better intentions,
but it appears that Toho wanted to achieve instant
successes with their movies, instead of taking
their time to make something the audience would
like.
Still, this film has been underrated.
Many other monster movies have been than worse
and received more acclaim. This is perhaps because
of the way this movie departs from seriousness
from one moment to another, and that doesn't
help it much. But the kind of comedy we witness
is, in fact, funny. Critics considered many moments
to be unintentionally hilarious, while they were
meant to be like that, although misunderstood
by many.
Music is done by Riichiro Manabe,
who gave us the ear-piercing score for Godzilla
vs. Hedorah (1971). In this movie, he
brings back some of the irritating themes present
in the previous score, although this time around
we do get to hear them better. The soundtrack
is basically composed by a 12 note theme for Godzilla,
played on a loud trumpet; and Jet-jaguar's
theme, a march-wannabee theme that plays in any
scene with the annoying droid. The theme repeats
itself in the ending with the song "Godzilla,
Jet-jaguar, Punch! Punch!", yet another ear-piercing
cue.
Special effects were done by Terokushi
Nakano, the man who made the special effects for
all the Kaiju Toho Films from the 70's.
This time we get even more stock footage than
in Godzilla
vs. Gigan (1972), repeating many mistakes
from there. We get to see Gigan's hands
destroying airplanes (the ones from Ebirah,
Horror of the Deep [1966]) that Megalon
is supposed to be destroying. We also get to see
a brief glimpse of Gaira once again, hiding behind
the trees in War
of the Gargantuas (1966). The beams were
OK, but they really didn't add anything
to the fight scenes.
Monster costumes aren't really
that bad, the only comment I have to make is the
way the monsters move. Especially Jet-jaguar,
that looks too much like a human, rather than
a robot. Godzilla itself looks to have been doing
some exercise, with his weird karate movements.
Megalon didn't even bother to move properly,
and in fact; his ability to fly doesn't
look useful. Gigan is just the same case as the
previous film; most of the scenes he appears in
were from the previous movie anyhow!
I tried to search for some acting,
but it gave me a 404 error, so I didn't
bother to continue. This is really the movie's
dark point. We get the worse expressions, reactions,
and dialogues from the characters from start to
finish. The kiddo was the best example. A kid
like that, with his lame phrases, and annoying
interferences, shouldn't star a monster
movie.
So, if you're ready for this
film's bizarre content, feel free to watch,
but you may turn up wondering what the hell you
smoked. Otherwise enjoy. |
(2.5/5)
