Godzilla Vs. Gigan
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Movie Reviews of Godzilla Vs. Gigan
Movie Review: Hippies, stock footage and a talking Godzilla!
Summary: 3 Stars
Any long running series has its ups and downs, and in a series as long-running as Godzilla those downs can be pretty low. This one isn't bottom of the barrel, but you can definitely see it from there.
"Godzilla vs. Gigan" ("Chikyû kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan" or "Earth Assault Order: Godzilla vs. Gigan ") is the 12th film in the Showa series, at a time when Godzilla had turned from a rampaging beast of fear and destruction into a kid-friendly beastie cheered by the citizens of Japan. Due to the hard times of the 70's Japanese film, the budget is tiny, and there is a heavy reliance on stock footage taken from previous Godzilla films.
The plot is somewhat oddball, with developers attempting to build Godzilla-land, a theme park built around Godzilla. Of course, the developers are secretly cockroach-aliens, and when a hippie and a failed cartoonist get wind of their plan, quickly summon the terrors of King Ghidra and Gigan to Earth to help in their nefarious plan. Godzilla and his stocky pal Angirasu are on hand to stop them.
Of course, the worst and most bizarre aspect of "Godzilla vs. Gigan" is the chatty Godzilla, as he and Angirasu exchange a few well-timed quips. This isn't so bad in the original Japanese, where the audio is growling sounds and the dialog appears as word-balloons, but in the English dub there is an actual Godzilla voice. A horrible decision on someones part.
However, unforgivable cheesyness aside, Gigan is a decent foe for the Big G, with his buzz-saw belly and sharp claws. He and King Ghidra make a nice tag-team pair, easily trouncing Godzilla and Angirasu to within an inch of their lives. Godzilla isn't quite so mighty here, and he seems to have forgotten how to breath his atomic fire, until the last possible moment.
While more kid-friendly, the series gets bloodier with this picture, as Godzilla starts spouting red, and gives some back to Gigan and King Ghidra. King Ghidra takes some nasty neck damage as well.
People attracted to the sillier aspects of Godzilla will love "Godzilla vs. Gigan." Those who like at least a little menace with their monster should probably give this one a miss.
Movie Review: Attack of the Stock Footage!
Summary: 3 Stars
The 1970's were for the most part a bad time for movies. Economic troubles amongst other such woes seemed to plague the entire world.
And the cinema had it no better. Again, for the most part.
See, for every Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and Star Wars, there always seemed to be a Giant Spider Invasion or Food of the Gods to make the average moviegoer queasy. Add the increasing popularity of television to the mix and well, you get the idea.
Seemed Godzilla was one of the lucky ones.
Well, yes and no. See, Godzilla managed to continue to be a mainstay in the theaters, but in order to do that, he would have to do an embarrasing amount of things most of us hardcore fans would soon like to forget. Like...
A. Use his breath to propel himself in the air.
B. Play second fiddle to Jet Jaguar in the following film Godzilla vs. Megalon.
C. Do a flying missile dropkick in said Megalon.
and...
D. Go from a walking doomsday device to lovable children's hero.
Which leads us to this film. See, having to weigh their budgetary options, Toho Co. Ltd, along with director Jun Fukuda, director of 5 Godzilla films, opted to use stock footage from previous Godzilla films like Monster Zero (which in itself used footage from Rodan (1957), also in this film), Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster, Destroy all Monsters and Son of Godzilla, as well as other Toho outlets like Frankenstein Conquers the World. The idea was by using this footage Toho could save money in visual effects. This decision was and still is not appreciated by fans (me, I liked it, considering that at least most of the footage was from good films), blaming Jun Fukuda for ruining the Godzilla legacy.
But it wasn't all his fault. In the days where there was no money, screenplays were written in a day and moviemaking was basicly a rushed, incoherent job, even Fukuda today fells like watching these films are like "opening old wounds."
In either event, most of this footage was used again in Godzilla vs. Megalon, but I would reccomend watching this film at least once to get a glimpse of that infamous time in moviemaking.
Later!
Movie Review: I'm Going to Godzilla-Land!!
Summary: 3 Stars
So the basis of this film is that aliens once again want to take over the Earth, and this time, they plan on using Ghidorah and Gigan for their nefarious purposes.....oh, and they are also building a kick-ass amusement park with a Godzilla tower!! How the amusement park factors into the whole taking over the Earth thing doesn't make a lot of sense until you find out that the Godzilla tower has a very cool laser in it's mouth, one the could kill Godzilla...(you know..as long as Godzilla only stands in front of the tower and doesn't approach it from the side or rear???).
Yes, this is one of the goofier entries in the Godzilla series. The whole idea of aliens using monsters to take over the Earth had been done several times by Toho, and in more imaginitive ways. These aliens don't seem that bright, and the re-use of several action shots from previous films kind of shows that this thing was made on a shoe-string budget. To top it off, or heroes in this film are a comic book artist, his controlling wife...and a fat Japanese hippie!
Godzilla and Anguirus do have a scene or two where they "talk" to each other. I don't think it would have bothered me except that they basically say nothing! If you are going to go the route of having the monsters communicate, at least have them say more than "big trouble up ahead" and "come on"...
For all of it's faults though, I give "Godzilla vs. Gigan" a pass, and say you should add it to your collection simply because of the introduction of Gigan. This is one viscous monster, with hooks for hands, one big stabbing talon on each foot, and a buzz-saw on his belly, he slices and dices his way through Godzilla and Anguirus during the epic final battle. King Ghidorah is always fun to watch, so any film featured the three headed dragon is worth a place on your shelf as well. While this may be aimed at a younger crowd, it's not a kiddie film in the way "All Monsters Attack" is, though kids will like it. Simply leave your reasoning ability at the door, pop in the DVD and enjoy some classic Toho monsters slugging it out.
Movie Review: Gigan Is Awesome!!
Summary: 3 Stars
I saw this film probably once or twice as a youngster, but recently saw it again, seeing as I just bought the Sony DVD. Although it's uncut, re-mastered, and in Japanese, thank God, it is hopelessly devoid of any real special features. Any who, I'm here to elaborate on what is considered one of the worst G-films. I'll say right off the bat in my humble opinion you could do a lot worse, with the terribly unoriginal monsters of "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster" or the atrocious Musuko Goji suit of "Son of Godzilla".
The battles in this movie are particularly entertaining, but once again it is deterred y awful amounts of pathetic stock footage. Alas, it is up to Gigan to save this aspect of the film, which I believe he does. Gigan draws blood from both Godzilla and Anguirus giving the fight a true sense of brutality that was just plain awesome!For this in itself, along with the good choice of Ifukube themes, I highly enjoy the film. While still a dip in Godzilla's career, this piece is an intriguing, sometimes unintentionally funny, and enjoyable film that I recommend to G-fans.
Movie Review: Let's repeat the same shot over and over and over and over...
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm easy when it comes to Godzilla movies. I even like GODZILLA'S REVENGE and GODZILLA VS. MEGALON. But this one disappointed me a bit. I think because the final fight scene sucked so freakin' bad. There were a few signs of hope like a couple of bloody parts, but overall, it was quite bad. And as for his little sidekick, he was only a diversion. He didn't do a single thing until the very end basically. The first part of the fight was seemingly in slow motion and you couldn't tell what the heck was going on.
As I've said before about Zilla flicks is, you can't expect a good movie when watching this, but at least you can have a lot of fun watching it. For example, the acting was so bad in this, it was good. There was some JAPANESE HIPPIE somehow tied into the story and most of the movie he is gnawing on some sort of phallic food. Also, the two main ladies in the movie were quite appealing to the eyes as well. I would suggest this movie only to people that want to finalize there Godzilla DVD collection.