| All right, I'll be perfectly
honest: it's not my cup of tea. Atragon
is far from the most exciting Toho Sci-Fi film
I've seen. The plot is uneven and strangely paced;
the enemy monster shows up in only very dark,
brief, and inglorious sequences; the main characters
fall flat; and the title vessel, the Gotengo (aka
Atragon), is used all too ineffectively. The music
is probably the best aspect of the film, but then
again Akira
Ifukube is hard to beat. All in all, it's
pretty ho-hum, and its greatest claim to fame
is probably the simple fact that it did introduce
Gotengo and Manda, two fan favorites, to the kaiju
eiga genre.
The massive Mu Empire, an Atlantis-like
civilization that sank to its supposed doom millennia
ago, has suddenly made itself known to the world
again. Wishing to reclaim its glory and colonize
all the nations of Planet Earth, the underwater
Mu Empire sent earthquakes and disasters on the
world's cities. The advanced civilization feared
nothing, except for one solitary wrench in their
works: Captain Hachiro Jinguji and his flying
battle-submarine Gotengo. Jinguji was a recluse,
however. He was a patriot, filled with an unbending
honor toward his country; for he had revolted
against the surrender of Japan. He planned only
to introduce his war machine when his nation would
ultimately remobilize, and didn't show concern
for the plight of the planet. When his daughter,
long kept ignorant about her father's safety following
the war, was kidnapped along with her allies by
the Mu Empire, Jinguji finally realized it was
time to attack.
Meanwhile, the kidnapped Japanese
slaves of the Mu Empire rebelled and captured
the Empress of Mu. The Gotengo, equipped with
a powerful drill and Zero Cannon, pierced through
the indigo depths on its mission to thwart the
plans of the Mu Civilization. Little did it realize,
however, that a ferocious monster guarded this
undersea world...
Perhaps the biggest problem for
the plot is that there really are no
surprises. It's very straightforward and predictable,
perhaps with the exception of the speedy capture
of the Mu empress (a strike against the easily-bamboozled
Mu people). It just seems that the Mu Empire is
the equivalent of the Crankor civilization on
Prince of Space (MST3k fans, you know
what I mean). Despite the supposedly superior
intellect of the Mu-an race, they seem to prefer
good ol' spears and knives as opposed to anything
that would actually effectively work in modern
warfare. It's not as though they aren't advanced
in this area, as the little Manda-shaped beam
cannon on their flagship seems to be a potent
weapon of mass annihilation, but they seem unable
to use that technology for the all-important purpose
of guarding their Empress, for example. Unfortunately,
in this regard, the filmmakers don't really make
the Mu-ans out to seem all that threatening. Sure
they can devastate cities through some form of
seismic control, but that and their single beam
weapon appear to be the extent of their power.
Acting falls flat, as does character
development. Everyone, I'll just say it right
now, is deadpan. Yes, they've all fallen victim
to the acting cliché of this genre, not
one has escaped. Even the groan-worthy I'm-going-to-repeat-what-you-just-said-as-a-question
dialogue has found its way into the film (you
mean you're going to repeat what I just said as
a question?). Of course, that doesn't mean
that of the actors, there isn't a performance
that is at least better than the others. Yoko
Fujiyama (Makoto, Jinguji's daughter) has a pronounced
ability to display emotion, separating her from
her fellow actors for the most part. Her character
is one of a tragic nature with whom the audience
can sympathize; she was a war orphan who suddenly
realized her father was alive, only to find him
so hardened by old-fashioned patriotism that he
seemed to barely even care. Jun Tazaki's character
(Captain Jinguji) is at first seen as severely
gruff, hardened by his old principles. But in
that one scene where he reveals to Susumu a picture
of he and his daughter from before the war, his
character begins to soften and the audience warms
up a little, despite his craggy exterior. Tadao
Takashima's character (Susumu Hatanaka) is, well,
um... he's a photographer. And he's apparently
the hero of the story... and he's... okay; there
really isn't too much development here, even despite
his receiving top billing. The love aspect between
his character and Ms. Fujiyama's character takes
the casual first-time viewer off guard a little,
as the development of this relationship is certainly
a subplot I must have been grossly overlooking.
Who else is there? Yu Fujiki! Always a good sign,
as he is usually great comic relief. The filmmakers
do attempt to use him in this way, but there really
isn't anything memorable at all about his performance
(a very-far removed trend in comparison to his
laugh-out-loud role in King
Kong vs. Godzilla [1962]). There's also
Hiroshi Koizumi, a soon-to-be veteran of kaiju
flicks in general. Though normally given a deadpan
role, he is especially underused and underdeveloped
this time around, even compared to his fellow
actors. Even the incomparable Hideyo
Amamoto is underused; and his is certainly
a unique role, which he could have easily sunk
his teeth into, were he used more prominently.
One can definitely find oneself at a loss to find
any other actor worth mentioning. Tetsuko Kobayashi,
the Empress of Mu, is probably the only one left.
Her bitter tones and furious expressions add greatly
to her performance, but the lack of development
even on the main antagonist of the film is another
flaw worth noting. It is clear she has a deep
bond with her culture and people, to the point
of belligerence, but that's about the extent of
it.
As for the effects themselves,
they are mostly a mixed bag (and unfortunately,
rarely on the "better"-side). First,
let's start with Gotengo. When it rises out of
the water and soars through the sky, the realism
is actually relatively uncanny. However, it pretty
much ends here. Most other scenes involving the
Gotengo, either in the subterranean base, underwater,
or drilling through the heart of the Mu Empire,
are pretty ineffective. The prop looks like what
it is: a small plastic ship. There isn't anything
awe-inspiring about the ship past its ascent from
the island's bay, which is kind of sad, seeing
as how it is the focus of the film. Then, there's
Manda, Gotengo's enemy. The Manda prop has an
organic appearance in the neck-and-up shots, and
its glowing eyes add to its eerie persona. However,
its movements are a little too jittery in the
full body scenes, and the zoom on the head (in
the case where we see the creature from the Mu
view port) is pretty goofy and unrealistic. The
remaining miniatures are pretty much a mix too.
The scene of a section of Tokyo caving in on itself
is actually rather superb for the time, as is
the background in the "heart" of Mu.
However, in most other cases (i.e. the underground
base), this is clearly not the case. The lapping
waves in the clearly tiny set look like water
at a small scale, which it is, but it is very
jarring to see the water rise a centimeter and
realize a character somewhere is yelling that
the water has risen however many feet/meters.
The major problem all around is simply that almost
everything looks like the size that it really
is, and it doesn't help the illusion in the least.
Concerning music, this isn't Akira
Ifukube's best score, but it is still an excellent
listening experience nevertheless. The themes
spread throughout the film are fairly similar
to each other, and there aren't any that stand
out. Still, they accompany the action of the scenes
in which they're featured very well, adding a
chilling and eerie tone to compliment the atmosphere
of the movie. Also, here is a treat for some of
you avid Godzilla fans (especially fans of Godzilla
vs. Gigan [1972]); you will probably
notice a few recognizable themes that find their
origins in the Atragon soundtrack.
When it comes right down to it,
there's nothing all-too-special about Atragon.
It brings a famous mech and a famous monster to
Toho's sci-fi roster, but beyond that, it is a
film that could leave the viewer a little bored.
It seems to be another early 60's cookie-cutter
sci-fi film, not something out of the ordinary,
but not something that really stands on its own
two legs very well. Should you see it then if
you haven't? Of course! It's definitely a landmark
in Toho sci-fi if only for the mech/monster origin
aspect. In closing, however, it should be mentioned
that this film is seemingly highly regarded by
others more so than by me, so you might actually
have a much different opinion altogether upon
viewing it. Always give a movie a chance, despite
(or in spite of) the reviewer. |
(2/5)
