TALKBACK #6: Invasion of Astro Monster

[kiryugoji04]

[MekaGojira3k]

[lhb412]

Guys, they're both so great. Why this incessant bickering?

[kiryugoji04]

BECAUSE HE'S WRONG.

[MekaGojira3k]

[goji4ever]

Ghidrah has Godzilla vs Rodan..plus Rodans' great U-turn collision...so its tough to outright dismiss..
Monster Zero though is about as imaginative and fun as the series can get...

Instead of wasting time and resources to reimagine goji vs Mothra '64 they would have been better served retelling/updating this film

[Gwangi]

Now I realize there is a generation that grew up with the name "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero". If one likes it, then fine. Personally, I loathe that title.

When I first saw this movie, it looked like a Godzilla pic, but I was never sure because of the title. Later what a pleasant surprise to learn that Monster Zero was Ghidrah (whom I had only seen for the first time on 8mm home film). And of course, Godzilla and Rodan would show up as well. Plus the fact, that "Monster Zero" by itself is such a cool title. Just like hard-core Batman guys would probably not care for the name change of "The Dark Knight vs. the Joker" if it were reintroduced to a whole new generation.

It stays "Monster Zero" for me, and I was never crazy about the "Invasion of Astro Monster" moniker either. Glad American distributors had sense to rework some of names - "Frankenstein Conquers the World" "War of the Gargantuas", heck I will even take “Godzilla vs. The Thing” over its official Japanese title.

[Shanai]

Being my second ever Godzilla movie, there's a lot of bias, but this remains to this day my favorite of the sixties Godzilla movies. While most people consider this Godzilla to be too "Cookie Monster", I actually like the design a lot more than I did the 1964 look. Rodan was always Godzilla's "true" bro to me thanks to this movie, and not Anguirus. And of course, King Ghidorah is just fantastic.

I love how by this point, unlike the previous Godzilla movies trying to stick to some semblance of the "real world", they just went all out right from the beginning. Yeah, it's 196X, we can fly to Jupiter's moon in a matter of days.


I only wish there were an official copy (Hell, I'd settle for a fan edit, but that's kinda rare in this fandom) that gave us the original Japanese version with Nick Adams' voice in English. I never used to be able to stand watching this movie subbed because having his voice dubbed felt more wrong to me than everyone else being dubbed into English. Now though it's hard to go back to the dub thanks to the cutting of the Xilien language scenes.

[Inui Takumi]

[tbeasley]

People compare Ghidorah and Astro-Monster but to me Ghidorah goes better with Mothra vs. Godzilla and Astro-Monster to DAM. I still prefer Mothra/Ghidorah though.

[Gman2887]

[GFan]

[Xenorama]

in the words of the late George Harrison when guesting on the Simpsons...
"It's been done."

[kiryugoji04]

[Inui Takumi]

YOU NEED TO OCHITSUKE, BRO-SAN! ORE WA HANASHI MY OWN OPINION. BUT, I WOULD LIKE TO MIRU GHIDORAH AGAIN WITH YOU, SOMEDAY IN THE MIRAI, BRO-SAN!

[Hybrid Gojira]

Watched MZ tonight.

It's amazing how well the matte shots are done in this film. They blend seemlessly with the foreground, and some of them are truly beautiful (i.e. Rodan, Godzilla, and KG spread out across the screen in the countryside). This has to be one of the best monster rampages as all three kaiju are leveling everything in sight. It's a really fun movie loaded with all the 60's sci if stuff you could want, plus it has an incredible score.

It also looks far and away better than most of Godzilla 2000 (which I watched the night before). Though it was made over 30 years earlier, MZ has better matte shots.

[Legion]

I remember watching G2K in a theater on opening night and cringing at how bad some of those mattes were.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Gojizilla]

Do not watch this after viewing Mothra vs. Godzilla, it will look inferior. With that said, this film is the last picture until 1984 where the monsters seem gigantic. I think it's better than DAM, but I believe it's not as good as King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla. I think the weakness of the picture is the plot.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[DannyBeane]

[lhb412]

[DannyBeane]

So I watched Monster Zero this morning and I didn't realize how hilariously sarcastic and petty the controller was. He always seemed to have a passive aggressive comeback. I think my favorite was
Astronaut K. Fuji: [about King Ghidorah] Can't you drive it away?
Controller of Planet X: If you have an idea how to do it, won't you tell us?

[lhb412]

^It's even stronger in the Japanese version. Every compliment The Controller gives is a backhanded insult.

[walshiam]

Both films are undeniable classics but would have been better off without the ""monster debates" and the "victory dance" included. I never found anything to appreciate about these scenes and from what I understand, neither did Honda. Tanaka and Tsuburaya didn't seem to have a problem with it realizing that the appeal of these films were shifting to children. Tsuburaya understood this more than anyone.