Runtime: 84 minutes
Directed by: Jun Fukuda
Starring: Masaaki Daimon,
Kazuya Aoyama, Reiko Tajima, Akihiko Hirata, Hiromo Matsushita
From: Toho
I don't plan on seeing these Gojira movies in order; also, this will
be the last one I see from the series for likely a few days... my week
trial of Starz ran out late last night and well, otherwise this film is
surprisingly hard to track down, at least in decent quality. The
streaming options are limited and the DVD went out of print long ago,
and only recently were prices not astronomical in case you wanted to own
it. Thus, this had to be viewed Monday night; ironically, I've actually
experienced its immediate sequel as a kid several times via a
videostore rental when Paramount released it in the 90's... but this was
a first time experience. I guess the first Mechagodzilla was always
hard to track down in the West.
Anyway, the villains once again are aliens; sure, there are differences with them and wait until you see what they really are (some people were obviously inspired by another popular franchise at the time; also, apparently according to canon, they are actually known as BLACK HOLE PLANET 3 ALIENS, as that was where they said their home was) but it seemed like Toho was running out of ideas so no wonder after the next movie they took a break for awhile and stopped this franchise temporarily. At least the human side of the movie provided enough entertainment for me; our heroes have to try and resurrect a monster from folklore called King Caesar as the events of the movie are following an ancient prophecy and there's also secret agents involved. This is one of the times where the movie was bloodier than usual for the genre.
There are some “oh, come on!” moments yet overall this was a blast... sometimes literally with the pyrotechnics on display. The kaiju battles were among the best I've seen in this era. Caesar actually doesn't do all that much in the grand scheme of things, which is something I can laugh at rather than get upset about. After all, how can I be mad when the dubbed version I saw had some great voices (especially for the lead heel) and said lead heel liked to drink what I'll call SPACE WINE out of a wine glass? There's even a random musical number!
Anyway, the villains once again are aliens; sure, there are differences with them and wait until you see what they really are (some people were obviously inspired by another popular franchise at the time; also, apparently according to canon, they are actually known as BLACK HOLE PLANET 3 ALIENS, as that was where they said their home was) but it seemed like Toho was running out of ideas so no wonder after the next movie they took a break for awhile and stopped this franchise temporarily. At least the human side of the movie provided enough entertainment for me; our heroes have to try and resurrect a monster from folklore called King Caesar as the events of the movie are following an ancient prophecy and there's also secret agents involved. This is one of the times where the movie was bloodier than usual for the genre.
There are some “oh, come on!” moments yet overall this was a blast... sometimes literally with the pyrotechnics on display. The kaiju battles were among the best I've seen in this era. Caesar actually doesn't do all that much in the grand scheme of things, which is something I can laugh at rather than get upset about. After all, how can I be mad when the dubbed version I saw had some great voices (especially for the lead heel) and said lead heel liked to drink what I'll call SPACE WINE out of a wine glass? There's even a random musical number!
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