TALKBACK #14: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

[kiryugoji04]

[klen7]

[Giganfan]

This is the third Godzilla movie I can remember seeing as a child, along with the New World Video release of Godzilla vs. Gigan back in 1988. I was, around five years old at the time, and so this film has tons of sentimental value to me. Teruyoshi Nakano brought to life is masterpiece, the Mechagodzilla, in what would be a solid effort by Godzilla's second-string director, Jun Fukuda. To me, this is Fukuda's most..."vintage", or "signature" film in the Godzilla series, though his first two are clearly better. Cosmic monster, as I like to call it, contains all of the traditional hallmarks of what one would associate with a Jun Fukuda production, lightning-fast fight scenes, secret INTERPOL agents creeping around everywhere, a slippery, sadistic bad guy, played to perfection by Goro Mutsu (he would reprise the role, as a signature Honda villain in the next movie) and an undeniably entertaining Masaru Sato score. I swear, that guy is genius, because you really want to hate the music in this film, and cannot. Case in point, the piece he wrote for the fight scene between Masaki Daimon and the Simian thug in Hiroshi Koizumi's living room, it just sounds like a bunch of random, off-the-wall sounds being mashed together, but it is so complete, and jaunting, and bouncy and all-around fun to listen to. The whole score is really terrific. He wrote a perfect seventies-era Godzilla theme to go along with a brilliant, jazzy, battle theme that I think every Godzilla fan agrees is great. And even though I am a fan of the two movies that came before it, Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster is like a breath of fresh air to the Godzilla series, because it doesn't rely on stock-footage, or stock-music to pad out the running time. Fukuda and Nakano were very smart about the budget, and made sure the film was rich in production value.Overall, I think it's a good, slightly underrated Godzilla movie.

[Benjamin Haines]

[eabaker]

It just occurred to me the other day, this is one of maybe only two Godzilla movies (the other being the '93 GvsMG) that I basically watch exclusively for the monster scenes.

That's not to say that these two have the worst human drama in the whole series, as I'd give that dubious honor to Tokyo SOS, but I don't even watch that one for the monsters; it's really only valuable to me as a sleep aid.

I don't dislike the human story in the '74 flick (other than the action sequences, which I find pretty terrible), but I basically nothing it.

Thankfully, those monster scenes (and the score) are great, despite the utter pointlessness of the monster that all the human characters spend the whole movie running around trying to revive.

[lhb412]

^I don't hate the human characters of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, but I do think that if they were stronger it'd easily be my favorite '70s movie. As is, that honor goes to Godzilla vs. Gigan, which has a delightful cast.

[DannyBeane]

Nanbara the Interpol agent is one of my favorite Godzilla characters. I always hoped if Toho ever decided to do a mishmash retelling/reimagining of some of the showa films, he would be a returning character in charge of investigating aliens/the red bamboo.

[Benjamin Haines]

[battrafan]

I guess I'm just not as high on this film as most others.

Yeah, Mechagodzilla is cool, the film is visually beautiful, villains are great, monster sequences are terrific(I love the production quality of the refinery scene)....but human parts/characters with the exception of some of the scenes on mount fuji/when the good guys get captured are just so boring I can't really sit through the film without skipping through.

Gigan is miles above it in regard to the human characters/scenes.

[eabaker]