Every time I watch this I like it more. The monsters have so much personality.
From the description: "Godzilla and Anguirus quickly decipher the message and begin a plan of action." This makes it look like giant monsters are doing spy work. And I wrote this before seeing the movie, after seeing the movie I see what they mean, in an early scene they are talking about investigating something they sensed and we have their monster dialogue in written balloons before they go off to investigate.
This 1972 Toho release is more of the same. There's a lot of recycled footage from previous movies and it's once again focused on a younger audience. This features aliens that build a Godzilla-themed park that they use to control the monstrous duo of Ghidorah and Gigan.
The plot is silly but simple and it's secondary to the monster battles, of which there are many. Godzilla pairs with the under-muscled Anguirus to tag team Gigan and Ghidorah. There are a number of firsts in this movie. There's two separate scenes where the blood gushes from a slashed Godzilla and another where Anguirus voluntarily drives his head into the rotating saw-bellied Gigan. Inexplicably, Godzilla and Anguirus communicate by actually talking. It's unsettling to say the least and probably freaked out a lot of younger viewers back in its day. "Godzilla Vs. Gigan" is of course, totally ridiculous. But it's got plenty of what we watch these movies for...the monster match-ups. This is also called "Godzilla On Monster Island!"
I'm not a fan of Godzilla movies that revolve around an alien invasion, and "Godzilla vs. Gigan" falls into that category. Otherwise, though, this is an acceptable installment in the series, unlike some of the predecessors that actively annoyed me. Overall, the established formula is followed a little too strictly, but you can't have it all. At least the speech bubbles are new. Either way, King Ghidorah is always a welcome antagonist, and Gigan design-wise is also acceptable. But more than a merely mediocre movie was probably not possible at this point in the franchise.
Cockroaches from outer space occupy empty human husks, summoning a pair of deep-space monsters (Ghidorah and Gigan) to wipe out Tokyo and set the table for an invasion. They're somehow able to command these enormous beasts using a reel-to-reel recording, though it appears they needn't have bothered, as the chaos and destruction continues unabated after the device has been ruined.
Sounds like campy '60s sci-fi madness? You're right on the money. It's also terribly cut-rate and careless, even more so than previous entries. The plot is agonizingly slow and dry, with a lot of empty threats and meaningless laser-pointing, and the action scenes borrow liberally from the Godzilla vault or stock footage archives. A good part of the big guy's tussle with Ghidorah is lifted straight from their 1964 headline match, which gives us the unexplained image of a horizon that blinks from dark, smoky midnight to bright, sunny afternoon and back again. Most outrageous is the scene where Godzilla, completely out of nowhere, begins speaking English with a friendly kaiju. What the hell was that?!
Usually the monster attacks provide frosting to the pedestrian cake (and that's being very generous) but in this case, the whole treat has turned. This was a cheap, soulless cash-in, no two ways about it. Avoid at all costs.
Shout by whitsbrainVIP 5BlockedParent2022-01-15T16:37:16Z
This 1972 Toho release is more of the same. There's a lot of recycled footage from previous movies and it's once again focused on a younger audience. This features aliens that build a Godzilla-themed park that they use to control the monstrous duo of Ghidorah and Gigan.
The plot is silly but simple and it's secondary to the monster battles, of which there are many. Godzilla pairs with the under-muscled Anguirus to tag team Gigan and Ghidorah.
There are a number of firsts in this movie. There's two separate scenes where the blood gushes from a slashed Godzilla and another where Anguirus voluntarily drives his head into the rotating saw-bellied Gigan.
Inexplicably, Godzilla and Anguirus communicate by actually talking. It's unsettling to say the least and probably freaked out a lot of younger viewers back in its day.
"Godzilla Vs. Gigan" is of course, totally ridiculous. But it's got plenty of what we watch these movies for...the monster match-ups.
This is also called "Godzilla On Monster Island!"