Kaiju Blender: Godzilla: Final Wars

With the reduced revenues from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Tokyo SOS, Toho decided it was once again to retire the franchise. But they would celebrate Godzilla's fiftieth birthday with a big bang, a more expensive Godzilla film than they had ever before produced, directed by maverick film maker Ryûhei Kitamura. The approach had worked with the excellent and well-regarded Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. But it should be pointed out that director Shûsuke Kaneko had directed three well-received Gamera films before being asked to work on Godzilla. Kitamura had no such experience.



The first sequence is Godzilla being attacked by a flying submarine of the Atragon style. Godzilla falls into a crack in the Antarctic ice, freezing him, in a nod to Godzilla Raids Again. The gunner screams as he unleashes missiles to bring tons of ice down on Godzilla and in that moment, I knew exactly what kind of movie this is going to be.



In the narrative flashback, the audience is shown Varan, the squid from Space Amoeba, Titanosaurus, Gaira, Baragon, and Megaguirus. These kaiju do not appear in anything but stock footage, but it sets the tone. We are going to see a lot of monsters in this film.



We are also introduced to the mutants that protect us from the kaiju. A new race of superman and women have emerged from humanity, better, stronger, faster, and more psychically powerful. They, along with superb purely human specimens such as Captain Gordon, form the Earth Defence Force. After the title sequence, one of the supersubs defeats Manda. Gordon is emblemic of the film itself, big, physically powerful, and only speaking English, while everyone around hinm speaks Japanese, but somehow they understand each other anyway. As with Atragon, the sub fires its Absolute Zero gun, freezing and then destroying Manda. This introductory sequence lets us know how the Earth Defence Forces work.



The Earth Defence Force higher-ups, for reasons that will become clear, have rather Nazi-esque unforms; a grey overcoat with a belt with a black arm band. The Mutants, a scientist tells us, share a certain biological link with the kaiju. The best way to defeat monsters, it seems, is to use them against themselves. The Shobijin, Mothra's fairy communicators show up, and give us a bit of back story. They also tell out Mutant protagonist that he has some kaiju in him (now confirmed by science and mysticism), but that he has a choice, which is very Matrix: Revolutions, and badly presented in that film, as well.



Kaiju begin to wreck cities across the globe, with a similarity to the Kilaak invasion Destroy All Monsters. Anguirus, Rodan, King Caesar, Kamacuras, Kumonga, and even American Godzilla stomp on cities. Zilla, American Godzilla, is a weird sort of nod to the much-reviled 1998 film. Creature designer Patrick Tautopolis was gratified to be included in the Toho Godzilla canon, even though his creation was treated with a certain amount of contempt. Kitamura was determined to embrace as many films in the Toho library as possible, leaving out only Megalon, Destroyah, and King Kong.



Kitamura goes so far as to have an obnoxious, chocolate-mouthed American child call his turtle toy (which looks suspiciously like a Tirtouga Pokemon) a loser, attempting to compare itself favorably to the Gamera franchise. We've seen this behavior before: in 1999 Yonggary, Kraa the Sea Monster, and Gamera, Super-Monster. All these films have the same thing in common: they aren't particularly good, and they only demonstrate their own insecurity by calling other films and franchises names.



The M-Squad is deployed to take down Ebirah, the giant lobster we haven't seen since stock footage in the 1969 All Monsters Attack. Six mutants are deployed with shoulder weapons. There are a lot of pointless explosions, when the team are running, or standing still, or firing theit weapons. It's like each one is a John McClain, and their passing just causes things to explode in their wake. There's a lot of wirework which is well integrated into the miniature work, but it just feels like the director is trying too hard to be exciting, confusing motion with progress. There's a lot going on on-screen, but it doesn't engage me. A cinematic fight should be a story in itself, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is no progression here, nothing learned. Just weapons deployed, running, firing, and then it's all over except for the quip.



The monsters, it turns out, are being controlled by aliens, the Xilians from Invasion of Astro-Monster to be precise. They tried to be subtle, in the Japanese alien invasion thing, trying to be friendly, returning the UN secretary to humans. When he doesn't recognize his own dog, the jig is up. Subcommander X shoots the mission commander, promoting himself. The aliens, he announces, are there to make humanity their supply of mitochondria.



X is best described as a tantrum-throwing child, who will literally spazz out every time one of his monsters is defeated. He's an angry, drama-addicted, short attention-span sort of guy, exactly the sort to blow all his advantages and screw up an invasion.



The remains of humanity's defense rests with Captain Gordon and the Gotengo. Gordon decided the situation is desperate enough that he's going to unleash Godzilla, giving the TV Trope of the Godzilla Threshold its name. Godzilla then spends the last half of the film having very brief fights with all the world's monsters. Which is a pity. The technology was available to make these much more engaging and interesting fights, but because Godzilla had to get through so many opponents, each one is truncated.



Only the final fight has any sort of length. Godzilla, having knocked down six different kaiju, now comes up against Monster X. Monster X is an odd creature we haven't seen before, humanoid, with a head beam that also comes out of its shoulders. Now where have we seen a kaiju that has three breath weapons before? After he initial clash, each gets reinforcements, and Mothra faces down an upgraded Gigan.





Meanwhile, X monologues about Keisers, a mutation that happens to one in a million mutants, making them the most powerful creatures like ever. X is one, and so is our mutant protagonist. What a coincidence! Once awakened, he finds his inner Neo, stopping yellow bolts of light, burning with power, and declaiming about choice.



He defeats X, and this causes the alien ship to self-destruct. Monster X grows two new heads, and is revealed to be Keiser Ghidorah, with some very delicate blue among the golden scales. For the first time since the first Rebirth of Mothra Ghidorah has four feet. It no longer has any of the previous Ghidorah cries, and instead, some sort of strangled scream similar to Destroyah's. Other than that, the creature design is likely the best in the film.





It is immensely powerful, stronger than its last form, and Godzilla isn't doing so well until out mutant buddy focusses his psychic energy through the Gotengo, Godzilla receiving it through his spines. With the extra power, Godzilla smashes Ghidorah. He is not a grateful victor, however, and immediately uses his atomic ray on Gotengo. The upcoming massacre is forestalled by Minilla's arrival. Only children can stop the cycle of violence. Godzilla walks away through the devastation that was Tokyo, his offspring following.



The military is treated very differently from other Godzilla films. They are not incompetent, or lionized, but actually working against humanity. The Mutants who make up the Defence Force are actively working against mankind, and only those who choose to do so, mavericks and rogues, stand with humanity. The flying sub commanders who stabnd against the alien invasion are outlandish types, with dreadlocks, long blonde hair, or Captain Gordon.

Eschewing the traditional orchestral soundtrack, the rock sondtrack feels out of place and occasionally intrusive. It does not do the film any favors.

The experience of Godzilla Final Wars is something akin to watching Destroy All Monsters while watching The Matrix on the same screen. Gone is the traditional mystery story structure, in which the humans investigate and uncover and eventually solve the plot problem (in this case, an alien invasion). Instead, we have a group of superhumans who defend the Earth against the kaiju fighting. Drawing from a lot of anime, Kitamura manages to jam a lot of anime cliches into a number of overblown kaiju cliches and nods to previous films. The result feels like he jammed a bunch of movies in a blender, then reassembled it from whatever pieces he could salvage.



Next up, Peter Jackson's take on the Big Ape. All two hundred minutes of it.

Powering up Through Song: Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II

With the success of Godzilla vs Mothra, and the further impetus of a pending deal with Tri-star, Toho resurrected not one but two old enemies for Godzilla. The next truly new monster in the series This would be Destroyah, but even that had its origins in the 1954 Godzilla film. Given the popularity of giant mecha in Japanese culture, it's no surprise that Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II was made. As a small aside, the title is really just Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, but the II makes it weasier to distinguish from the 1974 film with ape-like aliens and King Seesar.

Buoyed by the success of the Super X series, of flying tanks, and salvaging the futuristic technology of Mecha King Ghidorah, the Counter G Bureau will create their own Godzilla to fight the original. This is in line with the increased militarism of the Heisei era, and a huge difference from the original mechagodzilla, which was created and run by aliens. But the similarities are striking. Mechagodzilla has an astonishing amuount of firepower that it can out downrange; a wide variety of beam weapons, as well as missiles.



Before the construction of Mechagodzilla, G-Force's main machine was Garuda, another iteration of the Super X flying tank concept. But Mechagodzilla rules the roost now. It's kind of interesting to see the training of the Mechagodzilla pilots. It's a bit like the combat training in Pacific Rim, specifically with martial arts and information lectures, and time in a simulated cockpit.



Meanwhile, a group of geologists have discovered an egg on a volcanic island inhabited only by Rodan. TRhe egg was discovered near the broken shell of another egg, which the professor is certain hatched Rodan. And, of course, it's been radiated. How he knows this... well, some questions don't lead anywhere productive.



But where there's one giant mionster, there's likely to be another. Godzilla shows up a little after Rodan does, and the two have a quick fight. Rodan shows a breath weapon similar to Godzilla's, but he never uses it against Godzilla. Instead, there's a lot of body-slamming, which was very absent from the previous film. The physicality of the fight makes it much more satisfying that the director's previous effort. As the titans fight, the scientists make off with the egg.



Any egg introduced in the first act must hatch in the second act. This introduces us to Godzilla Junior, a much more palatable scion of Godzilla whan Minilla was. The plot involving Junior is quite similar to Gorgo and Gappa. The child of the monsters is taken by humans, and the parents wants to get it back. But Junior seems to be the product of a mixed marriage, unlike the baby Gappa. Godzilla and Rodan stop fighting only to take on threats to the young monster. Junior will appear in the next two Godzilla films



Pursuing his child, Godzilla makes landfall in Japan and Mechagodzilla is deployaed. Like all future Mrechagodzillas, this one can fly, allowing it to be rapidly deployed. It has a hovering action that is very similar to Space Godzilla's in the next film. The big weapon, the one deployed from its belly which suspiciously a telephoto lens, is called the plasma grenade. I have no idea why. It's an energy blast, just like all the other weapons. It is, however, powerful enough to knock Godzilla on his ass.



It also has a taser-like weapon, again, likely inspired by Mecha King Ghidorah. And the first fight against Godzilla goes well until Godzilla uses the nuclear pulse to send energy back up the shock cables. Mechagodzilla is thus disabled.



With Mechagodzilla out of the way, the standard military tried to engage. It works out about as well as it always does.

Again, Pacific Rim seems to have drawn heavily from this film, since this is the only film to target Godzilla's 'second brain.' In this case, the G-Crusher plan is to paralyze Godzilla.

Rodan, who has been absent since the slug-out with Godzilla, is awakened and powered up, somehow, by a song which reaches it through Godzilla Junior. It's at this point that he gains his atomic breath. I guess part of the point is thast everyone powers up during the movie?



Unexpectedly, some complex emotions are evoked in the film. Miki Sagusa objects to the military using Godzilla Junior as a lure to get Godzilla clear of Japan. They're putting Junior's life in danger, yet at the same time, this action may save the lives of others. Miki suffers a similar moment of doubt as she is the one who activates the G-Crusher and paralyzes Godzilla. How can the audience's sympathies be divided beween the humans and the gigantic monster bent on destroying all humans? Yet this film understand that Godzilla is a sympathetic character, even if it's destructive, and this film captires that contradiction.

The fights, especially the final one, is immensely satisfying. It begins with Rodan, who manages to take out Garuda, the flying anti-Godzilla weapon. It takes out one of Mechagodzilla's eyes before being hammered with the Plasma Grenade. Godzilla can't deal with Mechagodzilla's ordinance, Rodan doesn't stand a chance.



The battle between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla takes place on a larger stage than any of the previoud Heisei films. There's a lot of room for the camera to pan, to catch the monsters in longer shots.



Godzilla gains the upper hand almost immediately, as Mechagodzilla overheats after and shuts down. But Garuda is able to distract Godzilla, and the two merge into Super Mechagodzilla confguration.



This is too much for Godzilla. The combined and sustained firepower knockes Godzilla down and keeps him down. It's then up to objector Miki Sagusa to deploy the G-Crusher, which will cripple Godzilla.



Godzilla screams in pain as the energy from the wires lashes at him. Miki pulls the trigger, and the nerve bundle that's been targeted explodes. It's a hard scene to watch.

Fortunately, Rodan isn't as dead as we thought he was. Awakened by Godzilla Junior, it lands on Godzilla, and gifts it the rest of Rodan's life. This repairs the nerve bundle, and Godzilla is back in action. This raises an interesting chain of events. Rodan was first reawakened by song. It therefore follows that Godzilla has just absorbed the power of song. Which is kind of weird.



Godzilla is more powerful than he was. He crackles with electricity, his heat ray has gone from blue to red. As Akira Ifukube's familiar Godzilla march plays in the background, Godzilla gets back to his feet and destroys Mechagodzilla. His power, already increased in the last film, is even greater now. It doesn't just blast Mechagodzilla, it turnes the supposedly heat-proof robot into a blazing inferno. Once again, by interfering, humanity has just made their Godzilla problem worse.





As with Gorgo, the solution is to send Godzilla Junior back to its parent, and the two walk out into the sea. Miki says farewell to both Godzilla and Godzilla Junior. While she may not like what Godzilla does, she no longer wants him destroyed.

This is one of the better Heisei Godzilla films. The monster action is pretty constant, and there's a little more heart to it than in most other Heisei films. There is no obvious homage to other films, and despite cute, young Godzilla's appearance, it's not nearly as irritating as the previous version of Junior Godzilla.

Godzilla + Space. Should be awesome, right?

Flying Destruction: Rodan

I'm playing a little clean-up, plugging the gaps in my history of giant monster movies. Rodan, from 1956, is the first Toho kaiju film in color, and the first Toho kaiju to to star in a film that wasn't Godzilla. Rodan would go on to be a popular costar with Godzilla, teaming up with Godzilla to defeat Ghidorah in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and Destroy all Monsters. Rodan appears also appears in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II 1993, and of course Godzilla Final Wars.



Like the original Godzilla, Rodan is a vehicle for social criticism. The film begins with coal miners. They have a dangerous job, yet they are the foundation on which civilization depends. Some of the hazards of mining are shown early in the film, and the Meganulons can be seen as a metaphor for the dangers of mining. Screenwriter Takashi Kimura often had a more somber tone than the other long-term writer of kaiju film Sekizawa. Mining is shown to be a dangerous task.



Further, Rodan, like Godzilla, begins with an element of mystery. But this one is much more human. After a mine disaster, a miner is discovered slashed to death. Is the man he was always fighting with, Goro, responsible? This is early in the Kaiju film, and they were still treated as serious dramas. The miner's wife weeps for her dead husband. Two rescue workers are pulled under water before our eyes. This is kaiju film as horror, not kids entertainment, as ripples of the deaths spread throughout the small community. We see the women of the community weeping as their husbands vanish or die.



More than any previouas film, the monsters in Rodan kill people. The Meganulon, which is really more of a standard monster than a kaiju, since it fits in a house. We are shown the bloody bodies of the two miners who are killed by the crawling meganulon.





Once the monster is established, the response is swift. The miners bring a machine gun down into the mine. The meganulon is, like so many other monsters, immune to bullets. But the Meganulons are not the major problem. They get a mining cart full of coal dropped on them. Everyone thinks the problem is solved, about half-way through the film, it's merely a precursor to the real threat, which eats meganulons; a giant pterosaurs. Rodan don't show up until thirty-six minues into the film.



And again, people are killed. The first pilot to track the monster is killed, and a discuassion held over his bloody helmet. A couple taking pictures vanish, the only clues of their fate the last pictures taken from their camera.



After than, through t's another fifteen minutes before we get a good look at Rodan. Because this is an Ishiro Honda film, Rodan is destructive because of its very existence. It flies so fast that it creates a wake that destroys what it passes over. This is a first movie for Rodan, so it is not presented with another monster to fight.



Honda tries out a couple of new ideas. One is we see Rodan from the point of view of the pilots attempting to take it down, rather than steadfastly watching the miniatures spitting fire. The flying chase of Rodan over Fukuoka is like a traditional car chase. There are tracking shots behind the jet formations.



Rodan smashes a bridge, which is successful and dramatic. Godzilla gets tossed into a bridge in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.



As much as the original Godzilla, Rodan also can be seen as a callback to World War II. With Rodan approaching Fukuoka, the air-raid sirens wail, and people batten down their stores and find places of safety. At the same time, Rodan evokes the Japanese familiarity with destructive earthquakes. Rodan comes from under the ground, and sets off minor earthquakes as it awakens.



Although the scenes of Rodan's destruction are brief, they are excellent. The shot of tiles being stripped off a roof by Rodan's hurricane-force wake is exquisitely well done. For the first time, tanks roll over small obstacles, like fences, to get a better shot at the monster.



This is also the only Showa film to show Rodan with a breath weapon. It is shown expelling some sort of mist from its mouth, but there doesn't seem to have a direct effect. Rodan's breath doesn't show up again until 1993's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.

One of the big twists in Rodan is that there are two of them. As Rodan is smashing Fukuoka, another one approaches. The military can't do anything to a single giant monster, what's it going to do against two of them?



The ending is unexpectedly sad. The Rodans nest in Mount Aso, and during a military bombardment meant to bury the creatures, the volcano erupts. The Rodans cannot seem to fight the instinctive need to return to the next. Ifukube plays a slow, mournful tune, and the end of the pair is sad, rather than the defeat of an enemy. Kiyo hides her face, as one monster burns. A second settles next it it, then ascends briefly, on fire, only to fall back into the lava. Consumed by fire, it still struggles as it burns. This is not a triumphant ending.





The King Brothers bought Rodan and brought it to American and English audiences. This proved such a success that they would later go on to bankroll thier own kaiju film, Gorgo.

Rodan s an early Kaiju film, and it shows. The tone is darker than the more lighthearted 60's and 70's films. The moral ambiguity, wondering which side is sympathetic, is creates a depth and shows the freedom that the creators had. Rodan's late entry into the film and the concentration of the plight of the miners feels fresh. Rodan is a classic of the ouvre, and rightly so.

Next, something unbelievable.

WHAM! POW! BASH! DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

Despite the massive number of kaiju films released in 1967, most of them aren't particularly memorable. Many were new entrants into the field by studios that had never endeavored to make a giant monster film before. Even Toho's franchise was running out of steam, with the disappointing performance of Son of Godzilla, as well as the flooded market. Godzilla just wasn't as special as he had been. To celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise in 1968, Toho decided to get the band back together.

And with immaculate timing, my DVD player has decided it no longer likes my copy. Pictures will come later, sadly.

Destroy all Monsters is the last film with the five original artists from Godzilla; Ishiro Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya (although only in an honorary fashion, he was very ill as this time), Tomoyuki Tanaka as producer, Haruo Nakajima in the suit, and Akira Ifukube writing the music. Some call this the end of an era, but to my mind, it's a Hercluean effort before economic and social forces turned the kaiju film into a cheap and poorly thought-out spectacle.

The year is 1999, and as in several previous films, Japan (or, really UNSC) has a space program. They have also managed to confine all the monsters to a location, Monster Land. The space program trope fades a bit after the excitement of the space race cooled off, but the Monster Island idea is one that stuck with the franchise until the end of the Shōwa era. Moonlight SY-3 is a stylish, almost art deco spacecraft, combining attributes of a high-tech jet as well as a rocket.

Ogasawara Island, called Monster Land, is the culmination of several ideas previous films, such as Mothra vs Godzilla and Ebirah, Horror of the Deep. Although the monsters are not under human control, they are at least confined. If Godzilla and the other monsters are still seen as a metaphor for nuclear testing, this may coincide with the rise of nuclear power in Japan, with the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant beginning construction outside Tokyo in February of 1967. On the other hand, this is the ultimate expression of Dr. Serizawa's desire to study the monsters. Now that they are controlled, they can be understood.

The Kilaaks, the alien antagonists, can control the monsters. Japan can never do so, merely containing the monsters, but alien invaders and terrorist corporations such as the Red Bamboo seek to control the giant monsters for their own ends. Ghidorah is, again, the puppet of an alien intelligence just as he was for the Xiliens and the Futurans. They are all female, all Japanese-looking (despite the more international bent of the film) but this is a disguise. They really look like slugs, and are made of 'living metal.' It turns out that they can control humans just as easily as they can monsters. This creates a paranoia in the film similar to the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Anyone could be a Kilaak agent (until they discover the transmitters which allow the Kilaaks to control humans and monsters).

Strangely, Mothra has shed her unique status as protector of Infant Island, and has been confined in the same way that the other monsters have. Also gone from this film are her twins, the Shobijin, Mothra's interface with humanity. She's just another destructive monster. She's also back in larval form. It's possible (pardon me while I fan-theory) that this is the other larva that hatched in Godzilla vs Mothra and didn't become the Mothra we saw in Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, which I assume is the peacemaker from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

The film is very much a retread of the tropes and ideas from Ghidorah. Alien invaders, all the monsters ultimately ganging up against Ghidorah, Godzilla pulling a turn from implacable enemy to unstoppable hero. But where Ghidorah has three monsters attacking the three-headed monster, some seven attack him here. More spectacular, sure, but not as challenging a fight. But more than any previous film, Destroy All Monsters takes a look at the international problem of monsters. Rodan attacks Moscow. Gorasaursus, unseen since King Kong Escapes stands in for Baragon, who was on loan to Tsubaraya's Ultraman. Which is why it is misidentified, as well as shows some rather unlikely tunneling abilities. We are told that Mothra attacks Beijing, and that Manda attacks London, but we don't see these. We do see Godzilla show up in New York harbor and blast the United Nations building with his radioactive breath. 1998 Godzilla is not the first time the big guy took a bite out of the Big Apple.

In the middle of the film (XXX minutes), we have a beautiful miniature of 1999 Tokyo. Small card move along her streets, an elevated train trundles along tracks. The set is large and took a lot of attention to detail. Ironic, really that the construction boom made Tokyo so much more impressive thirty years later. The destruction of Tokyo by Godzilla, Rodan, Manda, and Mothra is beautiful in its mayhem.

For the first time since Godzilla Raids Again, the camera pans over the charred and ruined city. This was one of the most effective shots of the original Godzilla film, and it's a reminder that these films aren't completely fun and games. But it's brief, and the devastation isn't as total as it was in 1954.

Part of the bigger budget for this film shows in the miniatures. The military vehicles are a bit more fanciful, including tanks with missiles on their turrets and strange-looking radar antennae. It's as ineffective as the military always is, but it's a pleasure to see some fantasy deigns come from Tsubaraya's studio. There is also the implication, and a prescient one, that the tanks are drones.

The last battle happens, again like Ghidorah, in front of Mount Fuji, where the Kilaak base is. This is our only glimpse of Baragon in the fight, mostly through a thicket. We get a better shot of him in the farewell section, however. But you have to wonder what the Kilaaks were thinking when they deployed Ghidorah. Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra got rid of him last time, now Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Manda, Baragon, Varan and Kumonga (I'm not counting Minilla as a threat) are added to the team. It makes for a more impressive fight, but the outcome is pretty inevitable. Godzilla and Anguirus do most of the heavy lifting (the footage of Ghidorah flying with Anguirus firmly attached to one of its necks will be repeated a few times in later films) in the fight.

Once the fight is over, the Kilaaks deploy their Fire Dragon, a flying saucer burning with energy. Even though Godzilla puts an enormous foot through the Kilaak base, the Fire Dragon keeps coming. Ghidorah's inert body falls into the earth, similar to the way Frankenstein and Baragon ended. Only with more explosions, but it's up to the humans to solve the last problem. Which they do with Moonlight SY-3. This represents a major shift in attitude from Toho's previous films. Honda, who experienced WWII, had never allowed the military solution to be anything but show before this. And, although the conclusion is rooted in science fiction, Moonlight SY-3 fires missiles, causing the saucer to go down. The humans have taken the lead, controlling the monsters, no longer the ir helpless victims.

Destroy All Monsters was intended as a finale to the series, the end of monster films. However, it was so successful (admittedly selling only a hundred thousand tickets more than Son of Godzilla), but in a period of sharply declining attendance, this was seen as a major coup. And so the series continued, albeit with declining budgets.

Next up, Boy Scouts in trouble, and loaded with stock footage.

Ghidorah Rides Again: Invasion of Astro-Monster

1965's Invasion of Astro-Monster marks a sea change in kaiju films. Where before, these films were primarily horror, gigantic monsters destroying towns, cities, and lives, now they had begin to step more boldly into the realm of science fiction. Invasion of Astro-Monster monster begins with a space sequence, including a Japanese astronaut, aboard ship P-1, launched by the World Space Agency. In 1965, the world's attention was captured by the American-Soviet space race. On the 18th of March, Alexey Leonov from Voskhod 2 performed the first space walk. Toho has created a couple of space films, The Mysterians in 1957, and Battle in Outer Space in 1959. But space would become an element in many kaiju films.



Of course, where there are aliens, there will be an invasion. Planet X, where the Xilians are from, seems to be a moon of Jupiter, although the dialog paints it as its own planet. Whatever. Although Planet X is on the dark side of Jupiter, where the astronauts cannot get in radio contact with Earth, the scientists discuss Planet X being a source of strange radio waves. But I'll stop nitpicking.



Xilians are prototypical Toho extraterrestrial invaders. Where American alien invaders will smash famous monuments with their superior weapon technology, Toho aliens will start with a freindly entreaty, and then proceed to demonstrate their superior weapons technology. The American miniseries V is a rare exception to this trend. The Xilians do provide us with a particularly impressive dick move. On the tape that is supposed to contain the cure for cancer, the Commandant of the Xilians reveals his plans to destroy Earth and starts giving orders. For someone in such tight pants, the Commandant clearly has a serious pair.



Fortunately, the Xilasns havge a weakness, a particular sound, annoying to humans, fatal to Xilians and their equipment. With it, the Japanese manage to fend off the invasion. It should be noted that this was co-produced by Henry Saperstein, who also suggested edits to the script. Thus the film is more American, right down to the triumph of the military. While Godzilla and Rodan defeat Ghidorah (Kalat claims Mothra was cut for budgetary reasons), the Japanese military are the ones to take down the Xilian UFOs and base. The military is not useless, as it has been in previous Godzilla films, partially because of the introduction of a truck-based energy canon which interfered with the Xilians Godzilla control signal. This design is a precursor to the maser which we will see in many subsequent Godzilla films.



With the close links between this film and the last, I wonder if the Xilians directed Ghidorah to destroy the civilization on Venus five thousand years ago, forcing the Venusian migration to Earth. The timeline seems a bit long, since I figure that the Xilians could have figured out that comets are water in that time. But perhaps it has taken the technologically-staid aliens this long to run through all the water they got from Venus. This tenuous thread is never followed up on.

The film was made in 1965, so there's a possibility that Gene Roddenbury's Star Trek was an influence, but this was the first time we see a protagonist corrupt an alien with love. American actor Nick Adams was apparently having an affair with his co-star Kumi Mizuno, who played alien spy Miss Namikawa. This may or may not have added any authenticity to their on-screen romance. They play opposite each other in Toho's Frankenstein Conquers the World (next up). But here, "Miss Namikawa" is a Xilian spy, who are supposed to be emotionless. But Astronaut Glenn provokes an emotional attachment, and she betrays the Xilians. Love conquers all, apparently.



The suit work is pretty standard, but the Planet X set deserves extra praise. The rocky, barren surface of Planet X is alien without being too fantastic. The beautiful matte painting features a gigantic Jupiter in the background, so the initial fight has an absolutely gorgeous backdrop.



Ghidorah looks even better than he did in the last film. I suspect it might be the same suit, but they seem to have worked the kinks out of working with it. There's a bit of weirdness where he knocks out the water plant on Planet X. But the Xilians can control monsters, so why the damage? I have two ideas, neither of which is supported by the film. One that it's entirely theater, which would be a pity, because it gavet eh first inkling to the astronauts that the Xilians were looking for something on Earth. Alternately, the Xilians let Ghodorah loose, and the damage is more than they initially thought it would be. Either way, Ghidorah is as nasty as he was in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.



Godzilla continues to evolve into a benevolent monster, a journey he started in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. He would become more and more human-friendly until the franchise reboot of 1985. The ultimate villains here are the Xilians, their Commandant is more the hands-off evil schemer as opposed to the direct threat that was Malness in Ghidorah.



Unfortunately, Invasion of Astro-Monster also begins the discouraging trend of recycling footage, both from itself, as well as Rodan. The special-effects spectacles were running low on money, and reached a dissappointing nadir with Godzilla vs Megalon. The use of previous footage is fairly subtle here, consisting mainly of repeated shots of tanks firing and Godzilla's gigantic foot crushing a town. Scenes from Rodan are spotted by the alert viewer because of the change in Rodan's suit color. The size of the city Godzilla crushes is much smaller than with previous, better-funded films. After this, and until Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, monster fights will happen in forested areas rather than Tokyo or Yokohama. But we have a reduced-size refinery here, and some excellent footage of Godzilla stomping buildings.



We are also treated to a few shots, real shots, rather than models, of cities. These are an unintentional time capsule of the day, and the smog is immediately apparent. And frightening.



The military attacks the Xilians with their sound assault, and Xilians immediately expereince technical difficulties, since the annoying noise incapacitates them and blows up their equipment. The Commandant's last line is an interesting one, with the potential to bring the Xilians back at some time, a possibility which took some forty years to come to fruition in Godzilla, Final Wars. No doubt due to the limited supply of tight silver jumpsuits and punk glasses.



Once free of the Xilian influence, Godzilla follows his natural instincts and attacks Ghidorah. The fight is satisfying. Ghidorah is demonstrably too much for either Godzilla or Rodan to fight alone, but together, they manage to get the job done. In a very post-King Kong vs Godzilla ending, Godzilla and Ghidorah fall into the convenient lake. But as with Kong, Ghidorah, the 'villain' of the piece escapes, and we are left wondering if Godzilla has survived. Rodan sort of floats off somewhere.



Invasion of Astro-Monster is a fun film. Toho was making a lot of sci-fi spectacles in the middle sixties, but their budgets were running a little thin. But the real cost-cutting wasn't here yet, and the Ishro Honda/Shinichi Sekizawa/Akira Ifukube/Eiji Tsubaraya/ Tomoyuki Tanaka machuine was still running pretty well.



Next week, I take a break from Godzilla, and we look at the first appearance of Baragon, and a return appearance by Nick Adams.