Kaijû Daisensô |
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 • Japan / USA • 1965 • 94m •    • Directed by: Ishirô Honda. • Starring: Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Jun Tazaki, Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Keiko Sawai, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Takamaru Sasaki, Gen Shimizu, Kenzô Tabu, Yoshifumi Tajima, Nadao Kirino, Kôji Uno. • Music by: Akira Ifukube.      Aliens from the mysterious Planet X, which resides on the dark side of of Jupiter, come to Earth asking its people to help them save their world from the dreaded King Ghidrah by letting them "borrow" Godzilla and Rodan. The aliens are actually planning to use the three monsters to take over our planet.
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Simply put, "Invasion of Astro-Monster" does not feel like a Godzilla movie. Too much of the running time is devoted to the humanalien conflict, and while this does lend more substance to the human portion of the narrative, it's still clumsily constructed as in any entry of the series. Various ideas are either truncated or plumb never capitalized on, such as the Xiliens' deception, which is made blatant both to the audience and some of the heroes, and explorations of the Xiliens' culture are mostly limited to throwaway details. The pacing is nothing to emulate. Scenes on Planet X seem to go on forever for the sake of imitating "Forbidden Planet", and the multiple trips between Earth and Planet X seem unnecessary.
The point is, "Invasion of Astro-Monster" never gives us an alien invasion plot capable of carrying an entire film on its own, and this issue magnifies the already fundamentally disappointing decision of reduced monster action. If one is to endure the downplaying of the monsters in a monster movie, it's only fair to demand something superb. But, it's difficult to not make comparisons with other alienspace exploration features (e.g. Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers). The conflict with the Xiliens, with its lack of outstanding qualities, needs the monster element to stand out, and that is unfortunately what the film fails to capitalize on.
Treatment of the monsters is, on the whole, poorer than in the previous entry. While their destruction scenes are adequate, if repetitive, these guys always feel like mere appendages to the plot rather than focal points of concern; they're regarded as assets rather than creatures. Say what you will about the incipient goofiness from "Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster", but at least these guys had an established presence in that movie, with actual signs of personality. Here, they don't even get a proper send-off, instead suffering from that head-scratchingly unceremonious ending.
There are some good moments, though. Namikawa's sacrifice is moving, and the self-destruction of the Xiliens is certainly dramatic. Additionally, Akira Ifukube delivers a great new rendition of one of his themes from Godzilla (1954), which can be heard over the opening credits. Even so, as far as I'm concerned, this is a pretty middle of the road effort for the Godzilla timeline spanning the 50's, 60's and 70's. It's strengths elevate it above utterly disposable products, like "Godzilla vs. Megalon" and "Godzilla's Revenge", but time has not been very kind to it; later films would incorporate aliens in more ingenious and entertaining ways.
Review by jephtha from the Internet Movie Database.
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