Invasion Of Astro-Monster

Invasion of Astro-Monster (Kaiju Daisenso) (1965)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Ishiro Honda

Starring: Akira Takarada, Nick Adams, Jun Tazaki, Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno

From: Toho/UPA

I don't have too much to say about this film also known as Godzilla vs. Monster Zero so the Letterboxd review is below:

(Note 1: The version I saw is the original Toho cut)

(Note 2: Earlier in the month I was hoping to see some Godzilla films on Hulu that would expire at the end of this month. Well, for various reasons those plans changed, but that is alright as I can always track them down at a later date.)

As I have this movie on disc and nothing better to do on this lazy Sunday, why not watch this Godzilla film?

This plot was rather wacky: Astronauts Fuji (Akira Takarada) and Glenn (Nick Adams; this was a co-production with UPA from the United States) fly out to a mysterious Planet X, which is inhabited by an intelligent yet wacky-looking group of humanoids known as the Xiliens. They wish for assistance for their little King Ghidorah problem but it turns out to be a ruse and they actually wish to use King and control the minds of both Godzilla & Rodan in order to rule Earth.

Thankfully the goofy plot and characters were interesting; the quaint charm of the 60's sci-fi special effects did help, as there actually isn't too much in the way of kaiju action, although what we got was good, and this is the film where we got the famous .gif of Godzilla doing that rather odd dance, which I just

Even though this isn't the best film in the franchise, such things as the special effects and the score from the always good Akira Ifukube help make it at least acceptable.