TALKBACK #6: Invasion of Astro Monster

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Dr Kain]

Man, all of this talk about the movie has me wanting to rewatch it again.

I think once I finish my review series I'm going just go back and rewatch a few of the movies I love just for the hell of it.

[jellydonut25]

[ebirahsmeg1]

Here's a nice, interesting article by David Kalat about GvsMonster Zero:

http://moviemorlocks.com/2015/06/27/uh-oh-monster-zero/

[GFan]

" " That was a really nice read.

This movie is LONG overdue for a U.S. blu-ray release!

[MekaGojira3k]

After much thought I believe this is not only my favorite Godzilla film but one of my favorite films ever. It just, it's a ton of fun and feels like the most polished of all of the films. Sets, Characters, Performances, Effects work, and score.

[Rodan]

I always come away feeling this is the slightly better film -- better shot, better edited, better sets, better score, more iconic -- but I enjoy Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster more. For all the hip quirkiness of this one, I feel it's a little let down by its pacing. Both are pure spectacle, too -- the real-world concerns of Mothra vs. Godzilla are gone -- so that doesn't separate them.

I have to thank this thread for providing the description of "Roman Holiday with Giant Monsters" for Ghidorah. That's hilariously accurate and definitely the way to sell that movie.

[lhb412]

[kaijukilla]

This is my absolute favorite G movie!! It was one of the first Godzilla movies I saw back when I was a lil kid (more years ago then I'd like to think about). Got to see this on the big screen at G fest XI and I'll never forget it. Such an awesome entry

[MekaGojira3k]

I missed out on that screening, and I've been kicking myself since. Wish Gfest would show more of the Showa stuff, but I guess it's not as simple as showing the stuff in the Sony library.

[lhb412]

[lhb412]

John Lennon does the dance!



https://twitter.com/ThatEricAlper/statu ... 0129816576

Ringo sees it being done, but does not indulge.

[lhb412]

Watching this on Svengoolie. Just noticed that The Controller's chair (throne?) is gold.

Yup, nothin' gets by me.

[battrafan]

One thing I don't get, and maybe I'm missing something is why did the Xians need to go through this elaborate ruse of needing Godzilla and Rodan to beat Ghidrah and the wonder drug? It's not like they needed the humans help to acquire and control the monsters.

I mean is there any logic to it or was it just a plot device built into the script?

They simply could have grabbed Godzilla and Rodan one night, and announced themselves the next morning with their ultimatum.

[lhb412]

^Yeah, the central premise of the movie doesn't make any sense at all... but, I think it shows how enjoyable an experience the movie is that people don't glom onto this revelation right away; it's usually something you realize later on.

[eabaker]

^Yup, falls apart in terms of 'fridge logic, but it doesn't actually hamper the experience while watching the movie at all.

[Benjamin Haines]

As a kid, I just figured the Xians were getting ready while humanity was still duped. The movie never does specify what getting ready entails for them.


Maybe the Xians never would have bothered with the ruse if humanity hadn't sent the P-1 spaceship to Planet X. Maybe they had been planning a more straightforward invasion and decided to improvise when they realized they had visitors.

[GFan]

Anyone else notice the super cool alternate shot of Rodan crashing into KG/Godzilla that's opens the Japanese trailer ?! I had never noticed it before.(Goji's back is on fire a bit too!)

[lhb412]

^ Man, it seems every Showa trailer has awesome monster shots not used in the final movie.

[Giganfan]

You want to know why this is hands-down one of the three best Godzilla movies, period (the other two being, of course, Godzilla '54 and Godzilla vs. The Thing)? It's because of the beautiful irony of how the story unfolds. Think about this. The people of Earth sell Godzilla and Rodan down the river, leave them stranded on the other side of the universe, in the name of "intergalactic-friendship" with their newly-discovered neighbors of Planet-X, only to discover that their new "friends" only wanted to unleash the fury and destruction of two VERY PISSED OFF, scorned giant monsters, and they even manage to get Goji and "Ra-don" (as Glenn would say) to kick Earth's ass, with the assistance of their sworn enemy of one film a ago, the appropriately-named "Monster Zero", the Zero, of course being the number your world's population is reduced to, if it happens to be visited upon by King Ghidorah!

And then, when the X-seijin plan goes to sh*t, and Ghidorah is left to his own devices, guess who has to save our sorry-a**'s from the Three-Headed Terror, AGAIN!?!

Yeah, Ghidorah was LEAVING Earth, after Godzilla and Rodan went double-kamikazee over the cliff with him. They won that fight.

I just finished reading the Honda biography by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski that i got for Christmas, and afterwards, this movie in particular flew off the pages, and off the screen in ways that I hadn't considered before. It really is a solid production from start-to-finish, with a very unique style all its own. And I've often regarded the score by Akira Ifukube to be the absolute best of all of his fantasy scores. The "Kaiju Daisenso March" is piece that Ifukube developed from the first Godzilla film, and clearly thought highly of it and over the years, refined it through a couple films, until it emerges here, triumphantly, along with a Godzilla, Rodan, Ghidorah, three-part-symphony of destruction that has really never sounded better. When I think of Tanaka, Honda, Tsuburaya, Ifukube and their collaborators, "The Great Monster War" just springs to mind.

These guys were one helluva-team.

[lhb412]

I love the shots using the big Godzilla foot prop so much. Any opportunity to destroy larger scale miniatures on-camera just delights me.