Kaijû Sôshingeki |
  • Japan • 1968 • 89m •    • Directed by: Ishirô Honda. • Starring: Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kyôko Ai, Andrew Hughes, Chôtarô Tôgin, Yoshifumi Tajima, Kenji Sahara, Hisaya Itô, Yoshio Katsuda, Heihachirô Ôkawa, Ikio Sawamura. • Music by: Akira Ifukube.     Aliens have released all the giant monsters from their imprisonment on Monster Island and are using them to destroy all major cities on the planet. It is up to the daring crew of the super rocket ship X-2 to infiltrate the aliens' headquarters before the Earth monsters and King Ghidrah annihilate the planet.
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Review:
In the year 1999(do not know why they chose this year over 2000) all of the Earth's Monsters are contained on the Ogasawara Islands. This island they are on is named Monsterland. Giant gas emiting machines and force fields keep the monsters contained. A moon base is present on the Moon and it coordinates with Earth and Monsterland. Soon Monsterland loses power and the moon base goes to Monsterland to see if everything is OK. As it turns out all of the Earths Monsters are no longer on Monsterland and are attacking Major cities. It turns out that a race of aliens known as the Kilaak's has taken control of all of the Earth's Monsters and has let them loose on major Earth Cities. Scientists are able to discover that the Kilaaks are using mechanical devices implemented in the monsters minds to control them, Kilaaks soon start doing this with people as well. Earth must destroy the control the Kilaaks control of the monsters and put them back on Monsterland in order to save itself.
Overall the story in this film works. I could see all of Earth's monsters contained on an island so that they can not escape and cause havoc. It is cool how this film has a sort of futuristic touch to it, with the whole moon base and monsterland things going on.
The Kilaaks are a good evil race. Taking control of all of the Earth's Monsters and setting them loose on various cities is a pretty good plan.
There are 11 different monsters that appear in this film. They include Godzilla, Anguirus, Rodan, Mothra, Kumonga, Gorosaurus, Manda, Varan, Baragon, Minya, and Ghidorah. You would think that with so many different monsters that it would be hard to give them all screen time, they do an OK job with a few exceptions at giving each monster his time.
Godzilla is the main monster in this film. However Rodan, Gorosaurus, Mothra, and Anguirus also appear a lot in this film. Manda only shows up for a little bit during the attack on Japan. Ghidorah appears for one great scene where it is him against Earth's Monsters. Kumonga and Minya only show up for a little to fight Ghidorah.
Now an explanation on Varan and Baragon. I was excited to see this film because Baragon would be in it and he is my favorite monster. However he only appears for a brief second when all of the monsters are marching towards the Kilaak Base, and then for another few seconds when they show him on Monsterland. So my favorite monster only shows up for a few seconds. This is mainly due to the fact that I guess the Baragon suit was in bad shape due to being used in the show "Ultraman". At least they mention that Baragon is in the film, Varan shows up and they never mention him.
This leads me to another part of the film I should explain. After Gorosaurus attacks Paris, the newscaster gives credit to Baragon. Also as Gorosaurus is attacking Paris he makes Baragon's roar. What happened I guess is that Baragon was supposed to destroy Paris but they had to change to a different monster because of how bad the suit was. They left in Baragon's roar though. Why they chose Gorosaurus though, I don't know. It does not seem that he could burrow with his small arms, I would have choose Anguirus but whatever.
One flaw is that there are a lot of monsters, but after the attack all the monsters do on Japan, you really have to wait a while to see them. Waiting for monsters to appear when you know there are a lot is usually bad, but I think that the suspense build up is worth it in this film. SO it is not bad. Just a little odd that with so many different monsters there is a long period of time between them appearing on screen.
The final monster fight at the end between Ghidorah and all of the Earth's Monsters is one of the greatest fights ever in movie history. Although all of Earth's monsters show up, Godzilla, Anguirus, and Gorosaurus do most of the work. Rodan, Kumonga, Minya, and Mothra(damn) all help a little. Manda, Baragon, and Varan do not take part in the fight at all. But this fight is awesome. You get to see one of the most brutal fights, even Ghidorah chooses to use his brute strength more than just using his gravity beams like he usually does. The part where Gorosaurus kicks Ghidorah in the back knocking him down is easily the best part of the whole fight. A major reason this movie is so good is that they have Anguirus and Gorosaurus help Godzilla fight Ghidorah. If they had chose to show Rodan and Mothra help more people would think that they had already seen a fight like this before.
Also well done is the monster attacks on major cities. You get to see a lot of different cities get destroyed like Moscow, New York, Paris, and Beijing. That is cool how a different monster goes after a different city and then they all converge on Japan at once.
So this is the monster film of monster films. You get to see most of the monsters for a good amount of time. Great science fiction style story, lots of monsters, great monster fight, and lots of destruction. One of the best in the series and one that I will always recommend to people.
Review by jerekra from the Internet Movie Database.
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