AKA: Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster
AAKA: Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster
March 21, 1974
March 21, 1974
Up till now, the last few Godzilla movies have been entertaining but they're hardly considered great films. For Jun Fukuda's last Godzilla movie, he managed to bring together a film that was more in tune with the films of the early 60's but still had his own flair. It would also be the introduction of one of the Big G's classic and reoccurring adversaries.
An ancient prophecy foretells that a monster will come forth to destroy the world. The monster comes in the form of Godzilla, but something doesn't seem right. When the true Godzilla shows up, it is revealed that the impostor is really the weapon of conquering alien invaders, the mechanical titan of terror...Mechagodzilla!
Gone were the more light-hearted stories and kid friendly tones. This movie plays out more like an Indiana Jones or a spy film, but despite the tone it isn't afraid to include more odd and unusual elements. I mean come on, the bad guys are essentially space apes and Godzilla gains the power to turn himself into a magnet. But I feel this movie balances the serious and fantastic elements very well without going too over the top (they leave the over the top stuff to the special effects). There's a strong cast of characters who carry a very intriguing mystery along with the action packed story.
Godzilla's design was left intact from the previous film, though he was given a slightly meaner expression. Introduced in this film is the fan favorite monster, King Caesar, a monster based on the Shisha from Okinawan mythology.
Undoubtedly, Mechagodzilla is the one who steals the show. His design is immediately eye catching and his presence imposing. What makes a good villain is the one who provides a real challenge to our hero and once Mechagodzilla shows off his vast variety of weapons it really makes you wonder just how Godzilla can defeat him, even with King Caesar's help.
Aside from some still shots at the beginning, this movie contains no stock footage. Teruyoshi Nakano's team was able to get a better handle of the reduced budget and up the flair of the visual effects, creating a great amount of sets and monster costumes. They most certainly don't skimp out on the Michael Bay style explosions.
The movie also has the distinction of being the most violent Godzilla movie in terms of showing excessive blood. Red, gushing blood.
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla remains the best of the 70's films and one of the most popular Godzilla films in general. I know when I first got this movie in a box set with other films, I loved it a lot. It was the second most watched movie by me from that set, the first being 'Godzilla 1985'. In fact, this movie was so popular it even spawned a follow-up. If your thinking of getting into the Godzilla films, this one is a must watch.
Gone were the more light-hearted stories and kid friendly tones. This movie plays out more like an Indiana Jones or a spy film, but despite the tone it isn't afraid to include more odd and unusual elements. I mean come on, the bad guys are essentially space apes and Godzilla gains the power to turn himself into a magnet. But I feel this movie balances the serious and fantastic elements very well without going too over the top (they leave the over the top stuff to the special effects). There's a strong cast of characters who carry a very intriguing mystery along with the action packed story.
Godzilla's design was left intact from the previous film, though he was given a slightly meaner expression. Introduced in this film is the fan favorite monster, King Caesar, a monster based on the Shisha from Okinawan mythology.
Aside from some still shots at the beginning, this movie contains no stock footage. Teruyoshi Nakano's team was able to get a better handle of the reduced budget and up the flair of the visual effects, creating a great amount of sets and monster costumes. They most certainly don't skimp out on the Michael Bay style explosions.
The movie also has the distinction of being the most violent Godzilla movie in terms of showing excessive blood. Red, gushing blood.
TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA
(Original Title: "Mekagojira no Gyakushu" -Mechagodzilla's Counterattack-)
AKA: The Terror of Godzilla
March 15, 1975
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla ended up being a critical and financial success, it got Tomoyuki Tanaka and Toho hopeful that the series could continue. In an attempt to get the series back on track properly, the one and only Ishiro Honda was brought back to direct what would ultimately be the final entry in the Showa Era of Godzilla.
Following the events of the first film, a second wave of aliens return to continue their conquest of earth. They enlist the help of a scientist seeking revenge for being scorned by his colleagues, who has a device capable of controlling a large aquatic dinosaur called Titanosaurus. Along with a rebuilt and upgraded Mechagodzilla, the odds seem stacked against Godzilla's favor as he has to face both monsters on his own.
With the return of Honda, the story is given a flair of drama and poignancy. Aside from our villains who act in their typical bad guy fashion, most of the characters take the situations they're placed in seriously. In many ways the human element is very similar to Destroy All Monsters, while our characters may not be as memorable as the casts of the other films they still carry the movie very well. Which is good seeing as how Godzilla doesn't show up until about 48 minutes into the movie.
That's right. And y'all still wanna complain about 2014's lack of screen time?
Without a doubt, the standout character is Katsura (Tomoko Ai), the daughter of our villainous Dr. Mafune (Akihiko Hirata), as she is torn between not wanting to harm humanity and loyalty to her father. This is further complicated by the fact that Katsura is actually a cyborg rebuilt by the aliens after an accident, and is therefore susceptible to mind alteration.
The monster scenes are top notch as usual and quite explosive. And I do mean EXPLOSIVE! There is even a moment where the Godzilla suit catches on fire. It's moments like that as well as the city destruction scenes where you have to give the suit actors and special effects guys major props for their tenacity.
Our new monster Titanosaurus is a monster with a design more simple than the ones we've gotten in the past but is still very cool in is own way, even if sometimes his movements can seem a bit unnatural. This is partly due to the fact that the suit actor, Tatsumi Nikamoto, actually wore the suit backwards for some scenes.
On a side note, am I the only one who hates fighting Titanosaurus in 'Godzilla Unleashed'? (specifically the Wii version) The bastard always seems to have considerably more health than my monster and is in general annoying to fight.
This movie also has the distinction of being one of the few Godzilla movies to feature nudity. During a scene where Katsura is being operated on, her breasts are shown. Now obviously the bust is shown to be synthetic and not real, but the implication is still there.
For it's American release, Terror of Mechagodzilla was heavily edited to ensure a G rating (obviously the boobs were cut out) and was renamed 'The Terror of Godzilla' (because that makes sense...) But the edits caused severe damage to the films third act. The entire final action scene had moments cut out that undermined the drama and eventual tragedy of the original. But you wanna hear the crazy part? The television cut was left intact! I mean, it still didn't have the boobs, but how crazy is that? Usually it's the other way around. When Terror of Mechagodzilla was released on home media in the US, it was tragically the theatrical edited version. That finally changed when in 2007, Classic Media got a hold of the uncut version, as well as the original Japanese cut and released it to DVD. Since then, it has thankfully become the standard release for the movie.
Despite how good Terror of Mechagodzilla was, it unfortunately bombed at the box office. To this day, it remains the lowest attended Godzilla movie ever (at least, in terms of live action films.)
The writing was on the wall and Godzilla was finally put into hibernation. For a while it seemed like the series would never return. But as the old saying goes: Good things come to those who wait...
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
With the return of Honda, the story is given a flair of drama and poignancy. Aside from our villains who act in their typical bad guy fashion, most of the characters take the situations they're placed in seriously. In many ways the human element is very similar to Destroy All Monsters, while our characters may not be as memorable as the casts of the other films they still carry the movie very well. Which is good seeing as how Godzilla doesn't show up until about 48 minutes into the movie.
That's right. And y'all still wanna complain about 2014's lack of screen time?
The monster scenes are top notch as usual and quite explosive. And I do mean EXPLOSIVE! There is even a moment where the Godzilla suit catches on fire. It's moments like that as well as the city destruction scenes where you have to give the suit actors and special effects guys major props for their tenacity.
On a side note, am I the only one who hates fighting Titanosaurus in 'Godzilla Unleashed'? (specifically the Wii version) The bastard always seems to have considerably more health than my monster and is in general annoying to fight.
This movie also has the distinction of being one of the few Godzilla movies to feature nudity. During a scene where Katsura is being operated on, her breasts are shown. Now obviously the bust is shown to be synthetic and not real, but the implication is still there.
For it's American release, Terror of Mechagodzilla was heavily edited to ensure a G rating (obviously the boobs were cut out) and was renamed 'The Terror of Godzilla' (because that makes sense...) But the edits caused severe damage to the films third act. The entire final action scene had moments cut out that undermined the drama and eventual tragedy of the original. But you wanna hear the crazy part? The television cut was left intact! I mean, it still didn't have the boobs, but how crazy is that? Usually it's the other way around. When Terror of Mechagodzilla was released on home media in the US, it was tragically the theatrical edited version. That finally changed when in 2007, Classic Media got a hold of the uncut version, as well as the original Japanese cut and released it to DVD. Since then, it has thankfully become the standard release for the movie.
The writing was on the wall and Godzilla was finally put into hibernation. For a while it seemed like the series would never return. But as the old saying goes: Good things come to those who wait...
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair for my
100th BLOG POST!
100th BLOG POST!
So long...
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff.
Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/
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