Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) review

(4/10)

   Standing as a grave improvement over Godzilla's Revenge, this movie has a lot more potential to be a great monster movie. However, the movie focuses too much on an overly-preposterous plot and less on the monsters that made the franchise famous, also with a handful of awkward, unnecessary faults in plot execution.

PLOT: After Godzilla destroys Mechagodzilla once more, a group of scientists scavenge the ocean to find all of his scattered parts and discover the dinosaur, Titanosaurus, who's control was harbored by traitorous scientist, Prof. Mafune (Akihiko Hirata), and his cyborg daughter, Katsura (Tomoko Ai). As it turns out, these scientists are actually aliens seeking revenge on Godzilla and the human race, and they're planning on rebuilding Mechagodzilla to ensure dominance over Tokyo. Unless Godzilla steps in and beats the two opposing monsters, Tokyo may be doomed to alien domination. The plot is truly quite preposterous. The writers couldn't leave the plot with the threat of Titanosaurus and Mechagodzilla but had to include a nonsensical story for alien domination. The plot, though preposterous, had some potential. However, the possible potential was squandered on too little of the monsters on camera and too much of the drama with the aliens. Katsura, and Prof. Mafune. It makes no sense to focus on a nonsensical plot when one could focus on the action.

ACTING: The performances in this movie are actually pretty okay. Even the American voice dubs are pretty good and well-matched. Unlike Godzilla's Revenge, the American voices matched up to the Japanese mouth movements more accurately and didn't sound so overdramatic. The best performances and voice dubs come from Tomoko Ai as Katsura and Akihiko Hirata as Prof. Mafune; they didn't do too bad. The acting isn't the saving grace of the movie, but it makes it a bit easier to watch.

SCORE: The score in this movie isn't anything special. You get a few dramatic, action themes but nothing unique.

EFFECTS: The effects in this movie were a tad cheesy at times, but suited the movie overall. The flame effects, monster costumes, and blood effects were pretty cool for your basic Godzilla film, only if that's all you tend to expect.

OTHER CONTENT: This Godzilla movie had the potential to become something great but wasted away on the plot and various awkward quirks. Some scenes were awkward, unnecessary, and unintentionally funny. If not for these fatal flaws, this would be a great Godzilla movie, especially with the always-entertaining monster fights that brought in and closed out the movie.

   All this movie ended up being was wasted potential. The performances were good, the monster fights were entertaining, and the concept was excellent, but they over-exaggerated the plot and left out the pieces to making the movie most worthwhile.

Godzilla's Revenge (1971) review

(3/10)

   As with most older Godzilla movies, this addition to the franchise is not to be taken seriously. The plot twists, voice dubs, and overall motion of the movie is cheesy and laughably bad. However, with the older Godzilla movies, that is only to be expected. The traditional monster effects and monster fights were pretty entertaining to watch at the least.

PLOT: Young schoolboy Ichiro (Tomonori Yazaki) has been dealing with a couple pressing struggles in his school life, such as his parents always being busy and bullies teasing him on his way home from school. Ichiro also idolizes the monsters on Monster Island, including the great Godzilla. After a rough day at school, Ichiro takes a nap in his older friend's, toymaker Inami (Eisei Amamoto), office. While asleep, Ichiro fantasizes himself on Monster Island seeing the many monsters fight each other. He also meets in his dream Godzilla's son, Minilla, who is also dealing with bully troubles from the other monsters and he can't quite get brave enough to face them. Ichiro has these dreams constantly, encouraging him to be brave, and with the local bank robberies going on, that may be just what he needs to avoid danger. The plot is very juvenile, but if done right, might have been fun to work with. However, the execution of the plot was very poor, with awkward dialogue, the traditional, over-dramatized fight scenes, and unnecessary plot twists that make very little sense. Something could have been made out of this, but instead, it leaves its entertainment factor up to laughter.

ACTING: The performances in this movie, both physical performances and the voice dubs, were quite terrible. With unrealistic motions, unfitting voice dubs, and annoying performing vocals, the performances literally create the stereotype of the old Godzilla movies to be off-sync. There was no saving this section of the movie.

SCORE: The score, though unfitting, was actually quite nostalgic. It gave one the feeling of watching an old monster movie, which this was. I didn't have too much of a problem with the soundtrack/score.

EFFECTS: The special effects were cheesy, as usual, but not too awful. If you like Godzilla and its lore, then it would be satisfying to see all of the many monsters, no matter how unrealistic or cheesy the costumes may look. I thought the all of the monster effects were actually pretty good except for the costume for Minilla. Godzilla's son should have looked more threatening and a little less like a worn-out Barney costume. If Minilla wouldn't have been so lazily done, I would be completely satisfied with the visual effects category.

OTHER CONTENT: Everything about this movie proved that the generic Godzilla movie has bad voice-overs and cheap costumes. However, the one thing that inspired a bit of pure entertainment value from this movie was the many monster fights not including Minilla. It's always fun to watch Godzilla beating up another clueless monster, usually brutally to a pulp. This movie is laughably bad and fun to watch only as ridicule. If you're a die-hard Godzilla fan, maybe this movie would fit you. Otherwise, prepare for a terrible treat.

   Most Godzilla movies are cheesy and only entertaining for a laugh. This movie is no exception. Awkward, juvenile and cheesy are just a few words to describe the feel of this movie. Though pretty terrible, I would rewatch this movie just to laugh or to mindlessly drool over the Godzilla fight scenes. My only source of real hate in this movie: Minilla.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956) review

(5/10)

   The film that started off the whole monster franchise may be a bit dated, bland in parts, and suffering from poor storytelling, but it remains a key point in the atomic age horror films as well as a nostalgic trip back to where it all began.

PLOT: Young American businessman, Steve Martin (Raymond Burr), is traveling to Tokyo, Japan, for overseas business when he realizes that strange things have been happening around him, including the random sinking of a Japanese ship, other disappearing ships, and retellings of a monster named Godzilla from the nearest island's locals. As Steve looks deeper into the story of this monster, he finds out that it indeed does exist and may be a prevalent danger to Tokyo and its citizens. As he also figures out, Godzilla is a result of an H-bomb mutation bent on destruction. While Godzilla terrorizes, Steve and his allies must come up with away to defeat the monster and preserve Tokyo. The plot is an interesting premise marking an important point in atomic age history, but its execution is let down by poor, non-creative, bland storytelling. It had potential, it just needed to be acted on more professionally.

ACTING: The performances in this film were nowhere above decent. Raymond Burr did a subpar job of weary American, Steve Martin. He could have done better, but his work in here suited the film just fine. None of the other performances really stood out to me, however, they were just as ordinary as Barr's. There wasn't anything to get extremely excited about.

SCORE: The musical score wasn't real unique or important. A few dark themes signaled the appearance of Godzilla or a dramatic scene change, but they weren't anything to download from iTunes, metaphorically speaking.

EFFECTS: The visual effects, like in most older Godzilla films, are cheap and quite dated. The slow-moving, almost-inanimate monster seemed everything but scary. However, the stop-motion effects, though dated, seemed rather cool and innovative compared to the rest of the visuals. If the whole film's budget had gone into visual effects, the monster might have inspired a few more scares in its audience.

OTHER CONTENT: This film may have many problems, including blandness and outdated methods of filming, but there is some worth in it. Besides starting off the whole Godzilla franchise, the film itself is a nostalgic trip back to the atomic age fears and beginnings of the creature feature era of horror. The film isn't exciting, but it is fantastic with the legacy it has left. It only takes a spark to create a fire; this is that spark.

   Godzilla's debut isn't the best monster movie or atomic age horror one would ever see, but it still holds a place in horror and film history. Though bland, its nostalgic charm helps it claim a place in the horror hall of fame.