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09-05-2014, 02:39 PM | #1 |
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Englewood CO
Posts: 10,893
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Over the last few movies, Godzilla was been portrayed as a hero of children, he has suffered through battles of stock footage, and has dealt with some of the series’ worst musical scores to boot. As such, what does Toho decide to do for Godzilla in 1973? Make an even dopier looking Godzilla costume, team him up with an Ultraman rip off, and combine past annoyances into one mess of a movie.
Earthquakes have been occurring around Japan, causing the sea to sink into the depths of the Earth. Goro, his younger brother Rokuro, and his assistant Jinkawa are enjoying a nice day at the lake when one of the Earthquakes occur and they rush back to Goro’s lab to find out what is going on. After they arrive they discover there are some strange men who have torn apart the lab and left some sand behind. It is revealed the men are from an ancient civilization lost to the seas of time called Seatopia, and they have declared war on the surface world for fear of their own safety. Seatopia sends a monster to the surface, a giant kabuto beetle with drills for hands known as Megalon to destroy Japan. In the meantime, Goro had created a robot named Jet Jaguar who has somehow gained a will of his own and helps to summon Godzilla to Japan. Gigan also joins the fray to help Megalon battle Jet Jaguar and Godzilla. “Godzilla vs. Megalon” has a really nice build up before it introduces the Seatopians, but when it does, the movie takes a turn for the worst. The plot itself is just overloaded with utter nonsense that it becomes impossible to even care about any of the characters. There was an interesting idea laid out of using one of the lost civilizations that are believed to have been swallowed by the sea, but Toho had no idea what they wanted to do with it, and instead, gave us a generic movie that amps up as much goofy camp as possible to cover for its shortcomings. Goro, Rokuro, and Jinkawa are as generic and uninteresting as they get, and the movie would make you think they are the only ones effected by what is going on. The military has very little to do here and they seem to just disappear after helping Goro get control of Jet Jaguar back. The Seatopians are just a joke to look at and they do absolutely nothing. None of them are given any sort of development so there is no reason to even care about their motives. All we know is they are attacking the surface to avoid them from being attack, but it is never explained why. Did the commander just wake up one day and say, “We are going to be attacked one day even though no one knows about us, quick, attack!!” Also, for being an underwater race, why do they have a giant insect as their monster? How do they even know about the alien galaxy to borrow Gigan from? Have they met them before? If so, when? There are just too many questions left open that could have been avoided had some thought went on before this movie was put into production. Even the effects to the movie are pretty subpar. There is a large amount of stock footage used. During the scene when Megalon is battling against the military jets and he goes to swat them, it switches to Gigan’s claw knocking down the jets from the past movie. When Megalon is shooting the buildings with the electricity with his horn, it is Ghidorah’s lighting breath blowing up the buildings from “Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster” we are shown. In fact, the only time we see damage to a city is during this moment as the rest of the movie takes place in a mountain area. The footage shown when Godzilla is summoned to Japan by Jet Jaguar is his leaping off of the island in “Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.” There are constant jumps during battles and scenes to signify the footage was cut at that spot. Wires can be seen all over the place whenever the monsters are in flight. Gigan never once uses his chest blades. Even when Godzilla is sitting right on top of him. The music never seems to fit the scenes either and the horrific theme from “Godzilla vs. Hedorah” has returned. Why Toho felt the need to include the “Boing” theme into another movie is beyond me as it is just flat out terrible. It does not fit the mood of what Godzilla is supposed to represent, even in his campy kid hero days. The designs themselves are a mixed bag. Gigan’s costume is just a reuse from the previous movie, so there were no changes done at all. Jet Jaguar’s looks is that of a creepily smiling robot. His color scheme fits him with its red, blue, orange, and silver, but he is clearly just meant to be a copy of Ultraman. On the other hand, for what Megalon is, he does looks pretty cool. I do not know why they felt the need to give him drills for hands when they already did that with Gigan the year before, but it works. As a big bug, his design is memorable. The worst atrocity is this new Godzilla costume. While the past costume was nothing to write home about, this incarnation easily takes the cake for one of the worst suits ever. Godzilla has large anime-like eyes and a cute friendly smile. It also does not help matters that the Godzilla in this movie is clearly a man in a suit rather than a monster. He does nothing to move like a monster, act like a monster, or even fight like a monster. The worst moment of the movie is when he slides on his tail to kick Megalon. Clearly Toho wanted a giant man in suit movie, but could only afford to do it as a Godzilla movie, and as such, it suffers majorly for it. Overall, there is very little to like here. The characters are some of the worst the series has ever (and will ever) have. The villains are laughable, the monsters are an utter joke, there is still too much stock footage being used, and the theme song is very unpleasant to hear. There were some interesting ideas here that were plagued by a rushed script and a lack of a budget. Of course, none of that matters when this is one of the worst iteration of Godzilla to ever be seen on screen. This movie just down right blows and I gave it a 2/10 stars. |
09-06-2014, 02:50 AM | #2 |
Tokusatsu Hero
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Maryland
Posts: 6,221
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I do feel like some people can be too harsh on this movie. Sure it's a bad movie generally speaking, but I like the movie for what it is. I would watch it over Final Wars. At least GVM was trying to hype up the movie to be one of the biggest movie in the franchise.
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09-06-2014, 09:51 AM | #3 |
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Englewood CO
Posts: 10,893
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Nah, I think it deserves its hate because it is so bad. It is pretty much the Godzilla equivalent of Gamera. At least the movie is watchable in Japanese compared to its utter garbage dub.
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09-06-2014, 01:12 PM | #4 |
Tokusatsu Hero
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Maryland
Posts: 6,221
|
With Gigan and Megalon, they know that they are being stupid fun movies. I do admit that my biggest issue with the movie was that I felt like Gigan was force in. I know he was added in the movie in the last second, but I do think they could have handle his character better.
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