Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

''DAM sux! The peanuts are not here! It doesn't even have enough monster action!''

Guess who?.

its my second favorite, behind TMG. wish there would have been more of Manda and Varan. and where was Kong? that always bothered me? he could have teamed up with Godzilla and the two of them could have went a few rounds with Ghidorah. would have been great.

I like to put it on and begin playing from the beginning of the final battle scene. What a treat! And yes, Minya does a superlative job! But damn ADV Films for making me go 8x speed just to get there...

I especially like the redone rockin' trailer for DAM ADV has put out (I have it on the Daimaijin Complete disks) with a great sound track. I sometimes just play that trailer for its own fun, (that and the Daimaijin Complete trailer. wow!)

BobB
S.F.


We live in a political world,
a world of wine, women and song,
you can make it thru
without the first two
without the third you won't last long.
~ Bob Dylan

Growing up in the 70s, this was the kaiju to watch! Back then, I usually scanned through the pages of T.V. Guide to see which monster movies were playing, and if DAM was listed, then it was going to be a great day!

Great movie. Never got to see it at the theater though. The one thing that really hurts is the fact that the AIP dub is "missing" and has been replaced by that horrible international dub. Thank goodness I have the AIP one!

Meh. Hate to crash the party, but for a movie that's supposed to be the biggest kaiju royal rumble, it has a lot of talking and silliness.

riiiiiiiiiight. I'm starting to see certain letters appear from you, Cy... don't fall into a Jokingly Familiar Predicament! LOL
Of course, you are wrong, but that's OK.

^ How impartial.

*Puts hand up*

Personally, I LOVE DAM. It is quite a spectacle, and I don't mind the human bits that much. At least there is action.

I love this movie. I haven't seen the AIP dub and it's driving me nuts. From what I've heard, it would replace the cheesy atmosphere created by the horrible (but often amusing) international dub with one that can make it easier to take the movie seriously. But regardless of that, and the mostly dry human scenes, this is one of my favorite kaiju films. All the kaiju scenes are very memorable and the final battle is an absolute knockout. Not to mention Ifukube's magnificent music and the sheer spectacle of the whole thing.

"You let all the monsters loose while the chief was gone!"

Now in an attempt to get my old buddy Megaloman angered and willing to take an ax and try to chop off my head, I will try to list the reasons WHY DAM was a bad movie...even though they probably aren't really good ones to begin with. By the way, Musuko--reply to this.

#1: The final battle! I mean come on, just Ghidrah? Ghidrah ran off from Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra. And the so called "superior alien race" failed to remember such an occasion and sent Ghidrah to tackle ALL of the Earth's monsters who are ready to put a stomp in their plans? Idiots! Though the battle was cool and all, I still think if perhaps the other monsters got involved and say, more help for Ghidrah, then it would've been more enjoyable.

#2: MORE GUNFIGHTS! I mean, what's a movie that takes place in the future but doesn't have more gunfights. I mean there were a lot of gunfights to begin with, in yet...not. The more gun fights, the better! This is a Kaiju Flick, meaning there should be gun battles!

(I'm not used to trying to contradict myself, so don't blame me...I'm on a roll!)

#3: LESS MONSTER SCENES! I mean, there were a lot of human scenes and little monster scenes. I mean, WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?! This movie is called "Destroy All Monsters", so include more monsters! Wait...never mind. Musuko, reply to this!

#4: Why was Minya still--Minya?! Didn't the little critter age one bit? That alone degrades this movie....F!!!!!!!!!!


Okay, all in favor of agreeing that what I just said was the worst reasons of why this movie would be a bad movie? We shall see!

Anyways, I for one enjoyed DAM and thought Toho did a good job. The action and adventure never stopped and the battles were great.

Notices Megaloman still has gun pointed to his head...

I SAID IT WAS GREAT!!!! GREAT!!!

Gun is lowered...

But "The Return of Godzilla" is better!

Gunshots insue and TZ is never heard from again...

I'm not sure if you really liked the movie or not now! But be that as it may, I'll see if I can answer some questions (and this is a way better film than RETURN OF GODZILLA could ever hope to be, simply because of the music and the director, and the good actors and... well, I'll leave it at that).
1. Easily explained- this is a stand alone film, the Kilaak didn't know that Ghidrah was run off by only two monsters in the past- or perhaps it had been more monsters in this "continuity".
2. I thought the gunfights were cool, but actually I wanted lasers when growing up. Too much Star Trek, I guess...
3. I think my ol' pal JFP had TIMED the monster scenes, which I think he said were about 30 minutes of the 89 minute film. That's over a third of the movie, and it's not like the monsters are just in the last 30 minutes- it's nicely spread out.
4. See answer #1- stand alone film. If that's not good enough, who knows how fast Godzilla's grow? Thirty years isn't a long time for such animals at all, I'd bet.
I don't own guns- so you are safe that way!

Despite your accusations in the belief that "The Return of Godzilla" isn't better than DAM (which I think it is, but hey--it is an opinion after all), I was being sarcastic with my above comments.

This is my 2nd fave after ToMG as well. And despite alot of the lesser kaiju action being reckless Id say its among the 5 best made ones from the showa period (original, gvm, dam, tomg and g84 [just cuz 84 is still a showa year])This was also the showa g-film I was last to see. I dont think I found the aip print until 94 (that got taped over by my mom, so now all I have is the IP version on dvd). I didnt even know of its existance till I read about it on Mark meloons page that year. Thats when I found out about this one, and every film after G84 out at the time..GvB-GvMG(93).

Well I for one was dissapointed in the final battle, even though of course the realism of the situation is that an all-out melee battle would be a little too much to handle, but still...It just doesn't deliver on its promise. As Tomzilla sai, it's called Destroy All Monsters, and yet the huge monster-on-monster last one standing fight is nowhere to be found, and instead we get nearly a dozen monsters "fighting" Ghidorah (I say that with "quotes" because most of them just spectated and roared, as if to say, "Hey! I'm fighting too! Just...not right now!"

Also, I kinda wish it had been less monsters-vs-monster and more humans-vs-monsters, but that's just a personal thing.

Oh, P.S.: The SY-3 ROCKS! We need a revival of that and the Atragon in one movie.

DAM Is one of the G-Films that made me the G-Fan I am, tons of kaijus that on those years I'd never knew theyre existed (In that Movie I firts saw Gorosaurus, Varan and Manda, but I never knew who were they) anyway **** out of *****

This is simply one of the best Godzilla movies of them all. Considering the time at which it was made and where the series was going as far as budgets and mainstream popularity was concerned, I think Toho did the best that they possibly could. And even though its doesn't meet the unattainable heights that most fans had or have for it (understandably so, mind you), it's still the most "epic" kaiju film Toho ever did, or any studio for that matter (personally, I think the only movie that "could be" greater in scale is Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster, but I won't go into that discussion here).

This is where alot of people were introduced to a lot of different kaiju. Me personally, I knew of practially every monster in DAM, but had never really seen any of them in a movie before. Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Kumonga were the only ones that I knew well. I had seen Angilas in all of his other movies, but never knew his name. And the others, I had read about in the Ian Thorn book.

I give Destroy All Monsters **** out of four stars. A classic, if you ask me.