Godzilla Minus One

That was wicked man.

I'm kinda friggin' stunned, I mean what a time to be a Godzilla fan! We are two for two on japanese produced Godzilla films being released here in the States. Can you even believe it was 7 years ago when Shin Gojira came out? That is a luxury any veteran Godzilla fan in the US never had, and I really want to say thank you Toho for tapping the american market, because kaiju and tokusatsu films are niche even in Japan and are a hell of a lot more so here. If it's not transparently apparent I loved this film and there is a great deal I want to talk about and now it's a more of a task to remember everything I want to say rather than be in fear of spoilers. We set the wayback machine even before 1954, in the wake of the end of the second world war where we meet an air pilot named Koichi who when taking repairs on Odo island comes face to face with a dinosaur turned monster the islanders call Gojira. He thankfully survives and returns home dealing with the aftermath of such a sight, the defeat of Japan, and ghosts that he has to make peace with while slowly rebuilding his life, but oh dear atomic testing in the Bikini Atoll has scarred the creature and he's making a B-line straight to Tokyo Bay, leading to a non-military group to formulate a plan to stop the terrible giant. Pure distilled synopsis, but there is a lot going on in this movie. It easily is way more serious than Shin Gojira, maybe even more so than the 1954 film which may get me in trouble for saying so. It tackles a lot both from a character standpoint and a history standpoint, all of which feels organic to the setting and time period and is executed quite well. You don't need to be a history buff to understand all the inner workings of the landscape of Japan at this point (just go watch D Man1954's video on Minus One history) but it is fascinating stuff. I won't lie to you my jaw was on the floor almost the whole film, I'll say it cause I mean it that Godzilla has never been more terrifying. He was an undeniable force in the first film, he was effectively creepy in Shin Gojira, here he is uhhh...Jesus. The roars, the booming footsteps, the physique, the atomic breath, fear inducing. I'm not sure if it's pure CG or just suitmation digitally touched up or even both, but I like the design. Very 54' appearance with the Legendary type physique, and he moves with the ferocity of a wild animal when he wants to! I kinda like how they go one step beyond the american films and make the dorsal fins slowly light up but also jut out of his back when he does the atomic breath, and when it fires it's fucking doomsday. It damn near reaches Oppenheimer levels of apocalyptic despair but has great uplifting moments and messages that balance it out. Did catch a fair few references though and being the dork that I am I shall list some! To hear several tracks of Akira Ifukube's music in ground shaking surround sound was unreal, we hear the main theme, a track from Mothra Vs. Godzilla, what I like to call the Heisei march, I think you even hear a bit of the underwater music from the 54' movie which is so peaceful and yet so haunting at the same time so that was Kino. Love how after all this time Godzilla is still based on Odo island and we get a nod to the underwater flash you see from the original too. No doubt the film tipped it's hat to Jaws which already was scary as hell now replace Bruce with Godzilla and I was anxious to say the least. Now I would say I loved it more than Shin Gojira on first watch, but I've seen that movie many many times since and the love only increases so we'll have to see where this ends up. A really rock solid human plot that is there for a reason, devastating rampage scenes, very good effects, and another fine addition to the collection nearing 70 years in length. 4 stars, 9/10, go see it Friday when it's out nationwide. And if my calculations are correct we only have two movies left for the year, big time fingers crossed for those so stay tuned.

Gamera Vs. Zigra

I may surprise some people with this.

I'm just gonna say it, this is my favorite Gamera movie. Now I wouldn't say it's the best Gamera movie, I hold that for Gamera Vs. Gyaos but there was something about this movie that got me in just the right spot. Full disclosure here, I was in a terrible mood, downright hostile angry this morning but I knew I had to get this review done and said it might just be the movie I need right now. We take a bit of a relapse into sci-fi territory as another alien race comes to colonize Earth specifically it's oceans as we are introduced to our human cast who also have affiliations with the sea and Gamera is called upon one more time to save the day. I don't know if I can properly pinpoint exactly why I loved this movie as much as I did cause it really doesn't stray from the Gamera formula all that much. You still have your child protagonists, both japanese this time, who are actually funny and cute and enjoyable. Kids in kaiju movies are almost a death sentence to the majority of fans but here I very much enjoyed their interactions and stance on the story. The production values though in my opinion not as high as Jiger still did pretty good work, and the fact the movie is shot around the Kamogawa Sea World makes for an interesting location. I also quite liked the relatively small fact that they shoot the monsters from far away on ground level, like seeing it from a human's perspective, I just noticed it and thought it was interesting. Despite our main alien antagonist having a fair bit of screentime, I was interested more in the space girl we meet and no it wasn't because she ran around in a bathing suit for awhile you dirty dirty scoundrels. I digged the green spacesuit, her Master like ability to hypnotize people, the fact she was hunting down two kids makes for a decent villain. And the movie had just little touches and moments that made me laugh considerably, with highlights being how one of the kids says spaceships he can pilot but a motorboat isn't his forte just cracked me up, and Gamera has a few "What the hell?" moments that I just couldn't stop myself laughing at. This movie easily takes the most innocent and childlike style and tone of the entire series but plays it off in a way where it's rather endearing and entertaining rather than just roll your eyes nonsensical. I'm beyond thrilled this series did not spiral into the depths of horribleness as I thought it would. It really only was Viras that did nothing much for me, and it was a fascinating experience going through all these movies and appreciating the more silly and fun style of it all. The director Noriaki Yuasa always said he wanted Gamera to be a figure children could trust and obviously he had a lot of passion to keep making these movies, despite the dwindling budgets to the point where this was the last Gamera movie to come out because the studio Daiei went bankrupt before the movie even hit theaters. It was a dark time for kaiju movie fans, first Gamera gets the ax in 1971 and then just three years later Godzilla ended in 1974 for a decade. That sucks, it seemed like I finally got it, I finally understood, appreciated, and enjoyed the kid friendly, sweetly naive, bonkers but fun kaiju series this was just at the very end of it all. That's a bummer man, and while I don't have plans to discuss Gamera Super Monster, I most definitely will dive into it and tell as much information as I can before we review the 90s Gamera movies one day. But I finally got Gamera off my list and overall enjoyed it. I give this movie a very partial and biased 4 stars, 7.5/10, but objectively it would be a 7/10. Take of that what you will and I'll see you next week for some horror inspired comic book movies.

Gamera Vs. Jiger

May be speaking too soon, but this is the best one so far with the kids.

Again, pretty damn shocked how good this was. Thankfully it takes a departure from aliens and sci-fi and gets back down to Earth, as we meet another japanese-american double act of kids where they learn about the really real 1970 Expo where a relic is uncovered and in classic horror fashion a monster is awakened after the relic is taken, leading to destruction as Gamera gains another adversary. Quite a few good things to say again so let's talk production. Apparently each subsequent Gamera movie had less and less of a budget but this movie looks gooood, it actually seemed to have money behind it from the sets, monster effects, the film stock looks better, it looks like a true competitor to the Godzilla movies that were kind of winding down by this decade. But I was very impressed with the visuals and like we get a lot more focus on the monsters throughout. It's like if they took elements from Barugon and Gyaos and mixed it with the kid centric light entertainment of the past two movies, leading to a very entertaining and balanced story. I know not everyone is a fan of children being the main story aspect of the Gamera series, but even I must admit I have seen more competent and good child actors from Japan more than here in the States before the new millenium. Plus it was just interesting seeing this Expo showcased as this brand new event which was true at the time in 1970, and I'd honestly go to one today if I had the opportunity. Now for the kaiju, I feel as if the Gamera suit got updated and beautifully so, and also they got a new suit actor which might explain why it looks different. Jiger is more on the normal side, or as normal as Gamera villains get with a brown reptilian design complete with Spinosaurus fins on the back, and the abilities he has are both new and old. Able to fire needles from it's horns, it has Barugon's death beam sans the magnificent colors, I think it flat out has telekenisis and can fly, so it's a formidable opponent. Needless to say I appreciate going back to the kaiju having a strong stance throughout, even if they aren't on screen they still have bearing and weight on the plot just like in Gyaos. And just to throw it out there, outstanding work on the set design when we see Gamera's internal systems, just the fact we see the walls pulse and move in his lungs like he was breathing was proper good set design. Top notch work found here man. It breaks from the overly goofy and weird stuff for the most part and gets grounded again which helped my enjoyment a great deal, and I actually hold it high up on the ranks like Barugon and Gyaos. So I give it 3.5 stars, 7.5/10, could we end on a high note as we cap off the original series? I hope so at least.

Gamera Vs. Guiron

Okay, I was pleasantly surprised.

For the fifth movie in this series, I was kinda shocked how much I liked this more than Viras. Which is really bizzare to say cause the plot isn't terribly different, two young boys discover a spaceship and are stolen away to the alien's home planet where they try to survive and come face to face with their monster Guiron, a four legged reptile with a literal blade as part of his skull, while Gamera makes the trek to the planet to save them. And I actually have a fair bit to talk about than last time so I just hope I remember all my points. So let's talk about the fun random stuff first. I cannot believe even in this version they still retain the line "A world without wars and traffic accidents" which has become an in joke to the kaiju community at large which is repeated once, twice, three times a space girl so I got a good laugh out of that. We meet policeman Kon-chan, or as we effectionately call him Officer Corn-Job who I believe we will see again in the next movie. And we get my favorite version of the Gamera song, along with a true Olympic display of acrobatics and poise. I think I was just in a grumpy mood yesterday, because the child like mentality and absurd monster stuff actually worked for me quite a bit this time. I again give major credit to the designers of the aliens and their "star" (Yes they did it again.), with the world looking like something straight out of the original series of Star Trek mixed with some Lost In Space set design. The aliens are wild, helmets with antennae, super short capes, Kamen Rider style belts, it's a sight to behold. However, the actors playing the aliens are excellent being able to give more subtle moments of interaction and never go truly over the top while still having a tiny bit of threat. The monster fights I feel are the best yet, with exaggerated and humorous emotions, awkward but highly entertaining hits, and just a weird fun tone to it all. You know guys, it just dawned on me how kinda weird these films are, they're kinda goofy. It's rather interesting seeing this as a time capsule movie, they bring up the Apollo moon mission several times and it really puts it into perspective the time these movies were made. It took until movie number 5 for man to land on the moon, and space craze was in full swing. I don't mind our child actors this time around, and I'm not sure I brought this up last time but we have a japanese kid and a caucasian kid but what's fascinating about that is, both speak in japanese there's no dubbing or japanese subtitles filling in the english dialogue. That's...never happened much, even Nick Adams was dubbed in Astro-Monster, you really don't see white american actors speaking the native language. It's cool, I like that, but it's a rare anomaly for these types of pictures. All in all, it's silly but fun kid's entertainment and a nicely done entry in the Gamera series. 3 stars, 7/10, and we only got 2 more to go.

Gamera Vs. Viras

Here we go...

This is where the Gamera series changes not entirely for the best. Though heralded as the favorite of the entire series by the director himself, Gamera Vs. Viras takes the first step into children's entertainment. Not at all that the previous three films couldn't be watched or enjoyed by kids, or even that it being kid centric is entirely bad but it's a delicate art mastered by few. So we finally get alien invaders in the Gamera series as the species from the "star" Viras have come to claim and colonize Earth but have to deal with Gamera first. Now fair credit where it's due the kid story is front and center so it doesn't feel tacked on or out of nowhere, but it's still a bit odd how two literal boyscouts encounter and befriend Gamera, are subsequently captured by the aliens, and have to figure out a way to save the Earth. I never expect faultless logic in my monster movies, but I'm just saying it didn't do much for me. Which is a bit of a problem considering 75% of the movie involves these two boys, what's the remaining fourth you may ask? Stock footage, yeah this is the Gamera movie that really sets the standard for the remainder of the series. Aliens, stock footage, the Gamera theme makes it's first appearance, and plots mainly involving children. You see key fights from Barugon and Gaos, but also the attack on the dam, and Tokyo (despite it still presented in black and white), so needless to say it does feel like padding. I can't blame them, there isn't much of an original story to reach near 90 minutes but they also could have worked on the script more. It was a budget decision, okay, fine, these movies didn't have a lot of studio backing so they had to be economical in making it. With that being said, I like the visuals a fair bit, I love the alien spaceship mainly because it looks so alien, it's not your typical rocketship or fighter plane made to look futuristic, it is bizzare and otherworldly. Great job on that and the aliens, that glowing eye effect gave me the creeps and the design of Viras is simple but still works. I do however find it odd that the star discrepancy still exists in the original japanese version. Lesson time! In japanese the words for planet and star are the same word, Hoshi, and in the english dub they translated it as star and not planet. Whoops, americans are idiots when it comes to foreign languages big shock, however the subtitles for the japanese version still call it a star. And this is modern translations on Prime Video, how the hell did they still mess this up? If I can translate one single word from japanese to english in roughly 10 seconds, why can't others in this day and age? It's weird. The monster fight was a decent length, and you know this movie though mainly intended for kids has some gnarly visuals, an arm gets ripped off and you see the flesh and bone, you get 5 decapitations in a row, and Gamera gets flat out staked in a bloody fashion. I mean Jesus. As long as the fluids aren't red, the rating system doesn't care! All in all, it's a lesser entry in the Gamera series but not entirely unwatchable. 2 stars, 5.5/10, I would say here's hoping for better but...I have my doubts.

Gamera Vs. Gyaos

They're learning.

After the shocking amount of screen time Gamera got in the last movie, I feel the production team and writers doubled down on this one. Several volcanic eruptions release a new adversary for Gamera, a giant bat kaiju named Gyaos who terrorizes a small village that brings another kid into the equation as military and scientific minds collaborate once more. I feel this is a movie that took elements of both the first and second movie, and mixed them pretty well. As I said there is a huge amount of kaiju action in this, even when the monsters aren't on screen the scene still has something to do about them. Learning more about Gyaos, seeing the effects of experiments on his flesh, Gamera coming into his hero light and befriending a young boy, it's a perfectly balanced kaiju movie for me where you get lots of monster scenes and the human story enters unfamiliar waters for one of these movies and still holds some interest. The movie I think is setting the bar for the rest of the series, cause the previous two while still having humorous and off beat moments were still fairly serious and "realistic". This one takes a much lighter, silly, ludicrous, and kid orientated stance and it flat out does not care that it's absurd. Take Gyaos for example, a giant bat kaiju that lives on blood, has a weakness to sunlight, shoots weird green mist out of I can only assume it's breasts, shoots a ultrasonic ray that honestly looks and acts more like a lazer, and can regrow body parts. Only in Gamera movies will you get something this weird. The kid is a touch more annoying in this one, and still retains the scene where they just barge into a military operation without reason, prelude, or connection and has a bonding session ride with Gamera visiting an amusement park. What? It was the 60s, a strange monster could take your child alone to a fair without anyone even batting an eyelid. I trust the several storey tall, flying, fire breathing monster that destroyed the city and claimed countless lives in the last two movies oh wait-

Well...I trust him more than that reporter guy, that was some stranger danger shit man. I think it's obviously clear this was a movie intended for kids, which is interesting cause by Barugon in 1966 the Godzilla series wasn't at the lighthearted for kids romps though Godzilla was a hero by this point. And by Gyaos we were up to Son Of Godzilla which sort of was taking baby steps (Laugh!) into that department. So could it be Toho was taking inspiration from these movies for their future Godzilla projects? Possible. But I can appreciate both and can much more fullheartedly recommend this movie to kaiju fans. I like the human story but not as much as Barugon, the effects are still in good shape, the monster stuff has my full attention, it's a very solid entry. I give it 3 stars, another 7.5/10 but for completely different reasons than Barugon, and I kinda feel this is the high water mark for the Gamera series. I've seen the reviews (go watch Brandon Tenold's Gamera-athon), and I know it is not too pretty from here. Into jaws of death we go!

Gamera Vs. Barugon

And the versus commences until the end of the series.

In many ways I like this movie better than the first, yet in other aspects I can almost see why it isn't rated so highly. I will give major props to the story, taking a vast departure from the majority of kaiju movies I've seen in my entire life. So 6 months have passed since Gamera got shot into the void of space before a meteor crashes into the rocket releasing Gamera unto the world once more, as he regains some power and still keeps his antagonistic edge. Now the main story on the humans side involves three men who travel to New Guinea to find an opal that is hailed by the locals as cursed, and many deaths do follow in the wake of finding it but weirdly enough the opal is actually a monster egg and hatches Barugon, who is easily one of the most inventive and bizzare kaiju I've ever witnessed. So eventually both monsters meet, clash, and this is where I can see a lot of people tuning out for this film. Gamera truth be told is maybe in the movie 15 minutes total in an hour and forty minute flick, he loses the first fight and it takes until the last 10 minutes for a rematch and win for the flying turtle. That is a big issue for a movie called Gamera Vs. Barugon, when the kaiju stuff and our main star is more in the background. However I really actually like the human story a fair bit, almost turning into a revenge movie for our human protagonist Keisuke often conflicting with the man who double crossed him and left him for dead Onodera, while getting some help from one of the natives Karen. Yes Karen, the most exotic islander sounding name I've ever heard since Sheamus Mac An tSithigh. And they help the military deal with this mad bastard that bleeds purple, freezes and punches things with it's tongue, and shoots deadly rainbow beams that would make Mechagodzilla jealous and me jealous that the lovely folk of the LGBTQA+ community cannot do the same thing. Well let's see 1966, acid was probably a thing in Japan, case closed on the conception of this monster design. It does have pepperings of monster fights and military action with the most outlandish operation names ever said, but there's more the main story of us seeing these previous partners at odds. I don't hate that! Very misleading movie title, but not much else bad with it. The effects have improved, the casting is very good and I always applaud japanese actors who have to say this stuff out loud and they do it stone faced serious and will always have my respect, the story is still engaging, and the color footage and direction is solid and looks good. 3 stars, I give it a 7.5/10, so check it out and tomorrow we meet the Gamera equivalent of Ghidorah.

Gamera

It was bound to happen.

Yep, we're doing all the Gamera movies. Why? Why not? Released the same year as Invasion Of Astro Monster, japanese studio Daiei brought their own signature kaiju to the plate and I must say it's better than you'd think. So many people cry Godzilla rip off, and if you're somewhat familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000 you'll know the american version is....not great. But I got my hands on the original japanese version and will endeavor to stick to that for the remainder of the week. The movie is shot in pristine black and white despite color being a very available yet more costly option, as a brief conflict in the arctic awakens a massive fire breathing turtle who wreaks some havoc as scientists find a way to stop it, very typical stuff but truthfully is it's own entity and handles nearly every aspect very seriously and competently. The suit and effects for Gamera are really good to the point where I had to ask how they achieved certain effects of Gamera flying among others, it does undoubtedly take a serious tone that probably gets shot out of the window at warp factor 9 by the next movie but I just greatly appreciate how they handle the disasterous aftermath of Gamera's attacks. I like our main cast, following a zoologist and his assistant, along with a photographer for almost the whole movie and I never found the talky bits dull or super exposition-y, but the kaiju action is more on the low side. You get the big city setpiece and a few bits here and there but it is more human centric. I felt the script did a good job though creating intrigue explaining aspects of Gamera and formulating plans to deal with him. However, and this is where we get to talk about the kid, his whole story with him and his family is so out of flip flappin' left field to the extent where I'm just baffled he's even in this. It really does just start without any introduction or segueway, but mercifully the kid really isn't that annoying in the japanese version. Still a bit of an idiot but not insufferable, but hey that's kids for you. It's a very by the numbers kaiju movie but like I said it handles the material quite well and I would recommend it if you haven't seen it and japanese monster movies are your thing. 3 stars from me, 7/10, and the weirdness has only just begun.

In Retrospect: Godzilla Vs. Kong

Let the good times roll!

Yeah the enjoyment factor really hasn't shifted too much, granted I noticed more contrivances and the one aspect of the film I really wasn't there for didn't improve like, at all. But I still stand by my very fan biased opinion, though on a purely objectionable basis this movie is a 7.5 to a 8/10, but f*** that this is my show and it gets that 10/10. So let's expand upon my opinions in no particular order. I payed a lot more attention to the soundtrack this go around, and while it is highly unconventional for a monster movie I had a real good time with it and hearing a smidge of Judas Priest was a treat. Effects still look good, the kaiju have weight to them and the hits feel rough and impactful, the fact the movie looked as good as it did when production was very much occuring during a darker phase of this world I must congratulate the effects team. I'm sort of mixed on the cast, not so much the actors with one crucial exception, but more the characters. I genuinely could see this movie not incorporate any previous actors from King Of The Monsters, kinda keep the fresh new cast angle this series has been doing since the start. I feel it would have worked better if we stuck to our 3 main characters and their journey with Kong, not to diss Millie or Kyle but they didn't really have to be here especially in Kyle's case the poor guy has like 5 scenes grand total of maybe 3 minutes of screentime. And Millie well it's good to see her but the means do not justify the ends in her side story. I know people gave Brian Tyree Henry some shit for his performance but he only aggravated me once, really you think some super ultra secret piece of tech is just gonna be laying about after an attack on the factory where it is housed? Stupid! I think he performed it well and while probably could have been written better I hold no grief towards him. The same cannot be said for Rebecca Hall. Sweet...God. This woman gave me nothing in terms of performance, the number of f***s given by her in this movie was almost below zero, I really cannot firmly grasp and convey my opinions on this character and performance but it's undoubtedly negative. Again, not hating on the actor here but I just wasn't feeling it. And now comes the part where I relieve you the little Kong warriors of the burden of your failed and useless arguments. It is astounding how much this film really nails it into your head that Kong would be the winner, you get more emphasis on him, you see his relationship with Jia, the character profess their need for Kong as some sort of savior, you see him return to his ancestral home and reclaim the weapon of his forefathers, everything points to him winning. But he doesn't. And I know. I know. The cases people are making for the lovable big ape. Well actually Kong never submitted and would have beat Godzilla. Well actually if Kong could beat Mechagodzilla, and Mechagodzilla beat Godzilla, then ipso facto Kong could beat Godzilla. Well actually it was a tie at the end, and they decided to go their seperate ways. Oh honey, bless your heart. He got his ass kicked, needed to be saved by the humans, and submitted. Twice. I will go full hardcore nerd beatdown on you, don't try it. I have the high ground! Even if Mechagodzilla was not part of the equation and we had the 3 round fight throughout the movie, Godzilla still was winning 2-1, and nobody wanted a tie again. But Dude clearly at the end of the original, Kong won even though they both fell into the ocean and there was no real decisive winner, because Kong was seen and Godzilla was not. Dream on hooker, I got news for you good buddy you're leading two things right now. Jack and shit, and Jack left town. It was a tie. But not this time. Hail to the king baby. I'm done busting your chops Kong fans, I actually really like him and I hope we see some more films with him. For the purposes of comedy. I'm not ever that serious. 4 stars, 10/10 despite the flaws and contrivances, goodnight everybody! You're a wonderful crowd and I'll be here all week, be sure to tip your waitress.

Terror Of Mechagodzilla

Excellent ending shot for the entire Showa series.

It's a real shame that this is the most least succesful Godzilla movie to this day, cause it is a decent ending to it all. The year is 1975, Godzilla has been on screens for over 20 years, and the energy crisis has hit Japan leading Toho to make just one more Godzilla movie. And in that time and place in the world it was the last, the Heisei series didn't pick up until 9 years later so for all intents and purposes this was the final Godzilla film. It was the final film of the series directed by Ishiro Honda, and was also the final appearance of Akira Takarada playing one more scientist role. The story follows a marine biologist who is sent to investigate the appearance of a dinosaur named Titanosaurus, while Mechagodzilla is rebuilt and both forces start to take on Japan. The strange part is this film is the first and only entry to focus on a romance, sure there have been couples and young people going out but it's never been this prominent and in the foreground, with our biologist Ishinose falling in love with Katsura the daughter of the scientist who discovered Titanosaurus. It's not a terribly good romance, Ishinose just seems completely whipped for this lady with little provocation and the story of Katsura is quite tragic and apparently this was only one of two Godzilla movies that had a female who wrote the screenplay, and had a good amount of the story focused on Katsura. So the human story is decent, I don't like it as much as the first Mechagodzilla movie but it does work. Seeing the opposite of what happened in the last movie with Godzilla in a big handicapped match against two other monsters is really good stuff, though the monster action isn't very abundant. It does however have the best Godzilla entrance ever, fight me this is no hot take, I'm right. It never fails to get me pumped and ready, it is all the awesome and greatness. And while the box office was lacking big time, the production is very well done and does not feel like just another average Godzilla movie to cap off the series. It truly was great fun to go through all of these movies, and I'm kinda sorta tempted to do a ranking list just for the fun of it tomorrow, I just really loved talking about all these movies. But for this one I'd give it a solid 3 stars, 7/10! And now that I have done over a month of talking about nothing but Godzilla it's time to move on, but very much like the ending of this film it's just a break before we return again to the empire of the rising sun with the king of the monsters surveying all in his domain. And it has come to my attention today that a certain movie just hit theaters and to apologize for my lateness, get ready for a week of MORTAL KOMBAAAAAT!!!!

Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla

I may jump the gun but this is the best Godzilla movie of the 1970s.

It was 20 years after a genre, a metaphor for nuclear destruction, and the king of the monsters was born and Jun Fukuda went out swinging on his last Godzilla film. The plot concerns a statue being found at an excavation site and with it a prophecy of monsters, and I'll give you a buck if you can guess what I'm gonna say next. Aliens. Yes, another anonymous sect of extraterrestrials have created Mechagodzilla to destroy Tokyo. Why? Aliens. How did they build Mechagodzilla and why did they model it on a heroic monster? Aliens. Why does it move so fluidly in Godzilla camouflage and yet ultra robotronic without it? Aliens. It's like the Godzilla form of "It's magic, you don't have to explain it.". Granted it's the best Mechagodzilla design still to this day, and you get yourself a mighty fair dose of action. Hell there's enough explosions to put Infra-Man to dishonoring shame, my God they actually had a budget! You see what happens Toho? This is what happens when you have a budget in the effects Toho! Very well done on the suits, miniatures, action, and boom. Can't forget about the boom. And as we come to a close on 2/3 of the Godzilla series, I've yet to see a truly bad human story, the one aspect every fan wishes was simply not there. Now is there a gradient of human stories? Absolutely. But this is one of the best. You can tell a good human story by looking at the impact the characters have on the kaiju stuff. They are influencing events constantly, attacking the aliens, aiding Godzilla, summoning King Caesar (Not my favorite Caesar though.), relaying the prophecy. They put good effort into all of this and it shows. It's certainly the most bloody of any Godzilla movie I've seen, for a movie rated G and to have literal arterial spray at least 3 times is sort of shocking. I feel this is where the demographic for strictly kids ended, and that was a fair stint of 4 movies in a 15 movie series. And it all culminates in the best end fight since Destroy All Monsters, excellent use of effects, explosions, and brawling, a truly memorable highlight of the entire series. So it's no secret I love it, but really I haven't had any negative feelings towards any of these movies and I doubt that will occur with the final Showa entry. 4 stars, 8/10! Mechagodzilla will return. In the meantime I strongly and highly recommend Brandon Tenold's YouTube channel, he makes great reviews and his Godzilla stuff is engrained in my memory. So check it out and it all ends tomorrow.

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. Gigan

We are truly in the tail end of an era.

Jun Fukuda returns once more to direct in Godzilla Vs. Gigan, a not half bad entry in my eyes. Though you can tell the production was just as low budget as similar films of this period, I can't say this movie is at all bad. The plot once again features aliens from outer space but has one of the most interesting of twists to it. An illustrator for comics is contacted to work for a theme park that is building a Godzilla tower but treachery is afoot as oopsy daisy my employers are aliens, as they bring down King Ghidorah and newcomer Gigan to tear stuff up leading both Godzilla and Anguirus to stop the menace. Yeah, it's an original if nothing else stance on invading aliens. They come from a planet in the Space Hunter Nebula M (God I love terms like that) very similar to Earth hence their plans here, but they also have perception filters so they look human but are actually space cockroaches. Freaky, but props to keeping it fresh and unpredictable. Gigan also is a strange creature, with a Cylon eye, hooks for hands, and a buzzsaw on it's chest, an instantly recognizable and memorable foe for such a hacked and slashed budget. The plot focuses more on the humans but once again in a twist, for the last roughly 30 minutes of film it focuses mostly on the monsters fighting, with brief scenes of the humans. That's never occured. I think the longest kaiju fight up until this point was the stand off in Mothra Vs. Godzilla, cause you get the winged version and the 2 babies at the end. So it's one of the best entries if you want prolonged fight sequences. Granted there is a fair amount of stock footage from Ghidrah, Destroy All Monsters, and even Son Of Godzilla, but it's really not a lot. I do find it hard to rate though, because while I do not consider it sub-par I also don't think it's very good either. I'd give it a solid 2 stars, 5.5/10, and we only have 3 left. But the next one might not be so great either, so join me tomorrow for Rex Dart eskimo spy!

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.

Destroy All Monsters

Yes the "final" entry in the Godzilla series. Short but sweet I'd say.

I mean would Destroy All Monsters be the grand epic finale if it really was? Eh, it does a good job but it's no surprise that because this movie did so well the studio did a 180° and started cranking out more Godzilla movies. It's the last dream team entry of the entire series from Showa to Reiwa, Tanaka is producing, Honda is directing, Ifukube composes, and Tsuburaya does effects, and it really does show. I know some people give this movie a bit of flak because it's not the monster royal rumble but in all seriousness the pacing was excellent, for an hour and a half movie it barely feels like an hour long. You do get a good moderate amount of Kaiju action, from military scenes, to city destruction, to the big fight, so they got their bases covered and all is done very well. The story takes place in the futuristic year of 1999 where mankind has set a base on the moon, technology is pretty close to where we are now, and all the monsters have been rounded up (Somehow?) on Monsterland. But all goes to hell pretty quick when the Monsterland outpost is attacked, in such a fashion I was half expecting Cesar Romero or Frank Gorshin to be behind it, but no an alien species known as the Kilaak's have plans on what else? Taking over the world. OF COURSE! They quickly take control of the monsters and start an international attack on major cities, Rodan in Moscow, Mothra in Beijing, Godzilla in New York yes it's way better than the 98' version, leading the humans to thwart the aliens once more. Again, not a horrible plot though heavily similar to Invasion Of The Astro Monster, but I am happy the series continued on past this. The plot focuses more on the human aspect but it's not at all dull, there's always something going on whether it be shoot out's, new developments on the human's plans, space travel to the Kilaak base, it keeps you engaged. The monster stuff is handled very well too, with a greatly improved Godzilla suit, you get all new monsters added to this series that have been in other Toho movies like Varan and Baragon and Manda, the destruction scenes are good but of course the major highlight is the fight against King Ghidorah near Mt. Fuji and for good reason. The kaiju have their own unique attack styles, the fight goes for a decent length, it's hardly fair for Ghidorah and he gets curb stomped to death, it's good stuff. This movie easily has my favorite of all the opening titles so far, which is just an excuse for me to say Akira Ifukube is a master of his craft. Though the plot is familiar there's enough there to not just dismiss it as old hat, and you can tell every aspect got some serious attention in production. Some people say just watch the end, but I very much advise against it because it is a solid entry. I give it 3 stars, 7/10, and we are more than halfway there. 6 to go, and another step towards a lifelong goal will be accomplished.

Son Of Godzilla

Quite a leap from decimating Tokyo and being an allegory for the most horrific weapon in existence.

All good jests aside, Son Of Godzilla while massively divisive in the States didn't showcase the worst of this series. I put it on par with Ebirah, and urge everyone to see it just to find out where you stand. The story once again goes tropical with a team of scientist's working on a weather machine to influence food growth for the world, but apparently they never knew the premise of Geostorm otherwise they would have ended the project, but if that wasn't enough multiple kaiju are found on the island. Of course you have Godzilla and his probable son Minilla, but you also have giant preying mantises, and a spider that would put Tarantula to shame. Now I need to say, while the setting of the movie was purely for cost effectiveness because of the budget which is no bad thing I mean studios have shot films in local places for decades, just look at Vasquez Rocks and Bronson Cave, and the monster suits are pretty good. I seriously have no clue how they pulled off Kamacuras and Kumonga, because it's not your average man in suit technique which makes me think it's pure wirework but they do such a good job with it that it seems there is far more to it, once again showing even in the lesser renowned entries in the series that these special effects are an artstyle as much as just an effect. It's praise worthy for sure. Though I will admit the Godzilla suit is my least favorite of the series thus far, and Minilla while going through phases showing his growth isn't horrible, it's kind of easy to pick on this being the least good design of Godzilla's son. Now I've heard tale Minilla is quite well recieved in Japan but here in the States it's a true love or hate situation, do I feel it was entirely necessary? Nope! Even the writers really had no clue what to do next so they were throwing anything that would stick. Despite Toho being the most world known Japanese studio besides perhaps Studio Ghibli, they were on hard times in the late 60s through the 70s nearly going bankrupt. The Godzilla movies from Ebirah onward were made essentially to keep the studio in production because of how succesful they were with audiences, more so children now at this point, so I somewhat see the decision to appeal to as many kids as possible to keep tickets selling. But you can tell even with less than great entries it was never a cash cow for Toho and they still put a lot of effort in it. I think the human story is kinda interesting, the new monsters are good additions, the interactions between Godzilla and his son do work and you can tell what's going on through visual storytelling and physical acting, I even kinda like the relationship thing going on between Saeko and Goro Maki (yep the same name from both 1984 and Shin Godzilla, guess Hammer wasn't the only studio guilty of renaming protagonists), so I can't genuinely say this is a bad movie. You need to be in a specific mindset but I didn't mind it much. It's a kaiju family film and I can appreciate that somewhat. 2.5 stars, 6/10, the supposed end is near next time.

Ebirah Horror Of The Deep

Or Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster if you want the late night cable version.

I know people consider this to be one of the lesser Godzilla movies but I don't think it's bad at all. True it focuses primarily on the human characters, more so than usual even, with a man named Ryota searching for his brother lost at sea before the weather started getting rough and the tiny ship was tossed before setting foot on an island used for creating nuclear weapons. Soon he and his companions find a woman from Mothra's island and very soon Godzilla as well. So it's a matter of evading military forces, avoiding Godzilla, and trying to find a way past Ebirah the eponymous sea monster. Most Godzilla movies have about half if not 60% of the runtime devoted to the human characters, but here I'm almost willing to bet 85% of the runtime is devoted to the human characters. You don't get a lot of monster action or fighting until the last quarter of the movie. Originally this was supposed to be a King Kong film and it seems abundantly clear when you take that fact into consideration when watching the movie, but my question is would Mothra still be a part of the movie to get everyone off the island? Now why they swapped Kong for Godzilla is beyond me, he still has a lot of traits of the Toho King Kong and I don't mean the 30s japanese King Kong, and I do feel it would have worked better with the ape. This happens to be a significant entry not for plot elements but production elements, this is the final Godzilla film to feature Akira Takarada who's been around since the first film until the Heisei series, this is the directorial debut of Jun Fukuda in the Godzilla series who will pop up more as we go along, it's the first Godzilla movie not to have Eiji Tsuburaya doing the special effects since he was heading his own special effects company though I would say the effects are on par for the series, and both the adult Mothra and the twin fairies also wouldn't be seen till the Heisei series. So quite a few events to take note of for an entry that's less than good. It's not horrible by any stretch, the pacing is decent, the cast does well I even strongly approve that there is zero romance subplot with Daiyo, the plot though scarce of monster action isn't the worst I've seen, but I think it's safe to assume this is a definite skip in the filmography. 2 stars, 5.5/10, and we get a divisive entry in the series next time.

Invasion Of Astro Monster

Or pick whatever title you want, Monster Zero, Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero, it's a dime a dozen for these Godzilla movie titles.

Out of the Showa era, this is probably my favorite of the King Ghidorah entries. Ghidrah The Three Headed Monster was good, do not get me wrong and you could argue this could be a remake of that movie with a lot more sci-fi in it. The year is 196X, yeah back when movies had to be vague and stuff like this could actually happen, two astronauts voyage to a previously unknown planet orbiting Jupiter brilliantly named Planet X, we get one more and this will be the first Godzilla movie with a XXX (hoo-hoo), where an alien species makes first contact with Earth and requests their assistance. The aliens are attacked by Monster Zero or the kaiju formerly known as Ghidorah, and they want both Godzilla and Rodan to defeat it in exchange for the literal cure for cancer. We're not science fiction we are in fact, science fact over here at Toho. This movie was released in 1965, man had not yet landed on the moon but we're taking manned flights to Jupiter. I would be 86 years old and we still wouldn't have gotten to that point. Hell Star Trek wasn't even out yet, those 60s was the space age man. I was very happy to rewatch this movie again and to see it in it's native japanese was really nice. One curious thing to note is an american actor, Nick Adams was put in the movie for better international releases yet this is the only occurence at least in my memory that such a thing has occured in a Godzilla film. And even more so strange, he was dubbed in the japanese version which okay fine this is the edit for audiences in Japan, but that's never occured in another movie. I expected english audio with perhaps japanese subtitles, like when I watch something like Shin Godzilla with the japanese audio but english subtitles. Huh, how about that. I watch these to fully experience the performances sans dubbing, and yet I get dubbing in the original version. Blows my mind man. But enough of that, how's the rest? Pretty good, performances are really good, I like the designs of the spaceships and aliens, it's really friggin' cool to see Godzilla fight in outer space, I mean this is the movie that gives us the Godzilla victory dance for crying out loud, it's just a fascinating entry. And while the alien invaders plotline will get so dull even you'll want me to say something else happens, and this is where stock footage is first used albeit sparingly, I can't give this movie any good grief. It's solid, they play their cards right and still make a entertaining, special effects heavy, monster movie that doesn't go too weird or too quick. Keep in mind, weird is highly relative when it comes to this show. 3.5 stars, 7/10, and the directorial chair will be swapped out for Jun Fukuda next time.

Godzilla Raids Again

Yes, we're doing this. I got the Criterion collector set.

Released just 6 months after the original, Godzilla Raids Again is a unfortunately average entry in this series. Which sucks to say because the original is like a 9 if not a 10/10 film, it's a masterpiece. But here? Well let's talk about it. I genuinely did get to thinking before I ever watched this movie, who had the idea to make a sequel to Gojira? I mean it had a pretty strong definitive ending, so who gave the green light to make another? I think that's the most interesting thing about the Showa era is to find the reasoning as to why the series kept going on. Well I sort of have an answer, apparently the executive producer of Toho, Iwao Mori heard of the huge success the first film made and told long time producer Tomoyuki Tanaka to make another. That's right they pulled a Son Of Kong, ironic that the international re-release of King Kong inspired Toho to make Godzilla. But boy that's a decision that changed the scope of cinema forever. The story this time around is two air pilots discover an island where not just another creature of Godzilla's species is found but a mutated Ankylosaurus dubbed Anguirus, who in future films is a trusted ally but here a bitter rival. And that's basically it, the humans try to find a new way to handle Godzilla and minimize damage to Osaka while he battles another monster. Now I'm not going to judge the first kaiju clash, the crew members barely figured out how to make Godzilla work let alone a new monster suit which also had to fight one another. I respect it for introducing such a concept and trying their best to make it work. Which they mostly do but there's no way of getting around it, they goofed hard on production. The camera crew was supposed to undercrank the camera so you would see the appropriate speed for the monsters, but they didn't so when you see Godzilla or Anguirus on screen they move in real time, it's not slowed down to where they look like they are huge monsters with significant weight to them. It literally looks like two guys in suits scuffling in a model city. Yes that's what it is, but there is an art for such special effects, and it's not here. Sometimes it looks totally fine but this does add to the more "cheap" quality of the film. I genuinely don't think it's bad, but there are elements I dislike. Which is two aspects, but they are big important aspects. First is the music, the score is subdued at best with hardly any music throughout, now if this was a film made in 1932 I could forgive it because sound in movies was new, but here it's blatantly obvious. The only scene where it works effectively is when they show news footage from the 54' film where Godzilla levels Tokyo, it makes sense why it wouldn't have sound you needed actual equipment to capture sound back then so if only the footage survived it only makes sense there's no sound recordings with it. But the biggest issue and what drags this movie down so much is the pacing and the movement from scene to scene. This feels more like a film from the 1940s when it comes to the human scenes, they have the full gambit of a romance scene, a scene set in a club with a lounge singer, and even a big group laugh scene and spoiler alert, none of it feels like it's connected to a giant monster movie. They even have this fraking bizzare sequence where for 5 minutes we follow these escaped prisoners from a convoy in the middle of a monster fight scene. Are you real right now?? And it is horrendous writing at that because I know the filmmakers were like, "We need to get Godzilla back on land somehow, how do we do it?" so like the prisoners steal a car, with really noticeable jump cuts as the police pursue them, they crash the vehicle into like a factory or something, everything blows up, and Godzilla sees the mass of flames and goes to it. That is the most bullshit writing I have ever seen in a Godzilla movie. What the fu-, oh my God! I'm absolutely speechless! The best part of the entire movie isn't even in the movie, it's in the english dub, this is the movie that has the line banana oil. Find this clearly early 2000s documentary, it's called It Came From Japan and you will hear George Takei bring this up. It's amazing. And thank God that Toho broadened their horizons and did stuff like Mothra and Rodan before getting back to Godzilla cause they needed time to actually work out a movie. This is a definite skip in the annals of Godzilla history, I'd give it 2 stars, 5.5/10, but they came back swinging with King Kong Vs. Godzilla so balance was achieved. Now we gotta jump alllll the way to Invasion Of The Astro Monster, go read the previous reviews and I'll see you back here next time.

Godzilla Vs. Kong

Is it a 10/10? No. THE END

Now in all seriousness how was the movie? Well it certainly gets a thumbs up from me and while it may not be my favorite in the Monsterverse, I cannot deny the results were great. So it's been about 3 years in movie time since King Of The Monsters, Kong has been placed in a secure location on Skull Island, Godzilla has been pissed right the hell off and starts blowing shit up, and the humans are more or less trying to find truth to the hollow earth theory that's been cropping up in these movies. Now I know there's probably lots of people who are just like, "I don't care about all this stuff, I came here to see who wins." well genius this is what happens when you enter the fourth movie in a franchise! New shit has come to light man, they're ever expanding this Monsterverse with lots of cool new stuff. Believe you me, there is a lot to appreciate in this film. The sound design, holy fiery balls, is incredible and the fact that we actually hear things from the perspective of this little girl who is deaf really pushed it over the top for me. I dare even say she was my favorite human character in the film, but the other actors do fine work and treat it seriously. I'll have to keep my eye out for Shun Oguri who plays Dr. Serizawa's son, this was his first american film and I was so interested to see him in this. The effects are excellent, this film is not afraid to have color to the point where it's almost comic book-esque, Godzilla and Kong look outstanding and considering the shape of the world now I'm impressed with how they did it all. The fights are brutal, mutilating at times, with tons of moments that probably made my face look like I was having a stroke, and yes there is a winner. It may not seem like it when credits roll, but one Titan did yield and undisputedly lost no matter how you slice it. No one died, I knew that was never the intention, so they're both gonna stick around. The real question now is what comes next? This was kinda sorta the culmination of it all. 2014 Godzilla was a humble beginning to see if they could do it right, Skull Island reintroduced Kong and set the stage for future events such as these, King Of The Monsters still has a part to play but placed Godzilla at the zenith of the kaiju tower, now the dust has settled from the rematch of the century with both monsters still out there. I'm stumped beyond belief as to what happens next, I can't imagine how the creators feel. It didn't disappoint, gave me a lot of what I wanted, and was a highly enjoyable movie. 4 stars, 8/10, but the kaiju action never stops. See you next month.