Godzilla Vs. Megalon

The only Godzilla film in the public domain, and probably the reason why these films never quite caught on here in the States.

Do I personally think this is one of the most notorious and poor entries in the Godzilla series? Actually no, it's wild and certainly could be considered the black sheep of the Showa series but I enjoyed it for what it is. The story centers around an inventor named Goro who somehow, I wish I knew how, independently created a robot named Jet Jaguar who gets swept up in a plot of underground humans, a bug kaiju, and quite possibly the most iconic tag team duo in history. The film was originally supposed to be all about Jet Jaguar as our hero but thinking it wouldn't perform well, Toho added Godzilla and Gigan to try and up the box office profits. Now you can tell that from watching the movie, Godzilla really only shows up for the big fight and a brief scene where Jet Jaguar and him meet. I don't have a huge problem with that but it is kinda silly for a movie named Godzilla Vs. Megalon. But I think Jet Jaguar is awesome, the design is unapologetically 70s, the concept was very much based on other heroes like Infra-Man and Kamen Rider, and the fact that a child designed Jet Jaguar for a competition and got to see his creation on the big screen is pretty amazing. It's a shame Haruo Nakajima bowed out of the role in the last film, I honestly thought he was there until the end of this era but Shinji Takagi does mighty well giving personality and power to the king. But yeah, this movie is kinda weird when you step back and look at it. Not at all to say the production is bad, the cast does decent work, the production design is cool, you can tell and the special effects director at this time Teruyoshi Nakano said so too, that the effects crew working on this put a lot of work into it. It's such a shame the budgets for the effects got so limited, I can't even imagine trying to make all this work with a genuine inadequate amount of money, and I just have monumental respect for the effects creators of these movies and more importantly this genre, even if it wasn't flawless. The final fight is worth it, it's pretty awesome in it's own outrageous way, with plenty of explosions, tag team moves, and one of the most absurdly hardcore badass moves ever put to cinema. I can't obviously speak for audiences in 1976 when this was released to the States, but they pretty much shit on this movie. Now I know the climate of viewing cinema has changed, and all for the better I say, but if I watched a piece of japanese cinema about giant monsters fighting even if it was hacked to hell in editing, I couldn't bad mouth it. But the stigma this movie got transcended generations even to this day, if you tried to sit someone down to watch a Godzilla movie from the 60s or 70s they would probably object due to the quality. Oh it's a rubber suit, oh it has dubbing, blah blah blah, it drives me up the wall. Do I blame this movie? Hell no, it has a cult following all of it's own, with lots of it's own idiosyncracies that makes it so popular whether in a positive or negative light. And if you're wondering what camp I reside in, I can recite almost the entirety of the Jet Jaguar song. I rest my case. 2.5 stars, 5.5/10. Final two coming your way.

Godzilla Vs. Hedorah

You know guys it just dawned on me how kinda weird this film is you know? It's kinda trippy.

Ummm, so this certainly was a Godzilla movie. It had the roar and everything. I...got nothing. Yoshimitsu Banno's only directorial effort in the Godzilla series and the one disliked the most by producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Godzilla Vs. Hedorah or the more generic term The Smog Monster is one of the most simultaneously fascinating entries and bewildering entries. The plot is primarily more about an issue than character dilemmas or intense sequences of events, specifically pollution. Back in the 70s there was a huge appraisal of the situation where the Earth was ecologically, reports were coming in of massive amounts of airborne pollutants in urban areas and littering was quite possibly a bigger deal than it is now. So Banno took a page out of Honda's book and wanted to make a Godzilla movie to bring up the issue, which is admirable, it really is I mean it was an issue in 1971 and still pretty rough today. I have no problem with that, but good God the movie is such a bizzare, odd, and all around unusual sequence of events that makes Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas seem resoundingly normal and even logical. So Hedorah I originally assumed was a monster bred by mass pollution, but found out just to make it even more surreal, that it originates from the one place that isn't corrupted by capitalism. Space! And thusly it goes on a rampage with Godzilla right on it's heels, who gives a hoot and wants to put an end to this putrid kaiju. There's too many odd occurances and moments to even fractionally bring up, all I can say is it's weird. And you know me, you know my tastes, so trust in me when I say this shit is out there man. I mean far out. Needless to say it wasn't well received when it came out but in recent years has gotten a serious second look at and a lot of people respect it for how bonkers it is which is fine. Even I can't say I hate it, but I'm far from loving it. While the effects are done quite well, with multiple forms of Hedorah to play about with and it has such a fascinating but properly disgusting design, and the film is shot well even with the menagerie of abnormalities in it, the music ain't pretty. It's like the one bad thing I can say about it, now I quite like the opening titles which is so transparent in it's Bond-esque presentation but the song is good. It has some psychedelic rock tunes thrown in which I personally love, but the rest just further cements how unashamedly wacko this film is. I almost urge people to watch this more than other entries of the Showa period just so not only can you experience the film, but just attempt to come to your own conclusion. I'm seriously blanking on a rating right now, so I must deduce my stance based on my ratings of the other films. Do I like it more than All Monster's attack? Objectively, no. But neither do I hate it or think of it as a shoddy production. I think I'm just gonna have to give it a solid 2 stars, 5/10, smack dab in the middle. Do I suggest you watch the film on any substances? A drug person can learn to cope with things like seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth. But no one should be asked to handle this trip. No sympathy for the devil. Buy the ticket, take the ride, best of luck.