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Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The 1970s-era Godzilla movies were certainly entertaining: trashy, colourful, full of fight spectacle and insane plots featuring outlandish villains determined to destroy mankind. GODZILLA VS. MEGALON is a case in point, a thoroughly enjoyable follow-up to GODZILLA VS. GIGAN that sees the return of an old foe and the addition of a monstrous new one.The crazy storyline sees an undersea kingdom deciding to get revenge on mankind after their world is disturbed by nuclear blasts. To this end they send out Megalon, a giant insect-type creature who wreaks impressive havoc on some miniature sets. Thankfully, the scientist heroes have an ace up their sleeve: Jet Jaguar, an Ultraman rip-off who uses his robotic prowess to beat up on the bad guys.The child-focused storyline is fast-paced and inventive and leads to plenty of colourful set-pieces as various monsters battle it out for supremacy. The violent Gigan was a personal favourite of mine so it's great to see his return here, and Megalon too is a winner. But the cheerful Jet Jaguar is my favourite part of the film; this guy was apparently designed by a schoolkid as part of a competition, and it's a shame he only appears in this movie. The film descends into a lengthy and messy brawl at the end which is a real highlight of Godzilla action.

"Godzilla vs. Megalon" is one of the most insultingly bad movies of its genre. It is an almost entirely joyless and unexciting exercise, one that fails to be either kitschy fun or stir up nostalgic fondness from the people who tend to have a soft spot for the Japanese monster movie. It was clearly constructed with children in mind and (save for some swear words to be found in both the Japanese and English language versions of the film) is suitable. Keep in mind, 'suitable' means that it won't traumatize or disturb youngsters, not that it is necessarily a good thing for them to watch. But even with all its would-be razzle-dazzle and its cast consisting of four giant monsters, "Godzilla vs. Megalon" is an absolute chore to endure. Up until recently, I hadn't seen the movie in years. I was willing to give it another chance, now that I had the Japanese print in my hands. Sometimes, awful dubbing can break a movie. "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" was one of those cases for me. But this film is just as horrible no matter what language pops from the soundtrack.It's a shame, since there is some premise to go along with the dreck-elements. One of the titular monsters, Megalon, is a terrific premise for a monster: a biped resembling a stag beetle and featuring drill-like appendages for hands, which he can use to burrow through the earth or batter an adversary with. And the special effects used to create Megalon are fairly good. The suit has some good flexibility and yet some sturdiness: it appropriately does not move like a human being. Whenever he's not flying (where his wings are plainly not moving), Megalon is a visual triumph. He has a comrade to back him up. Gigan, the cyborg from the previous entry, "Godzilla vs. Gigan," makes a speedy return for reasons little more than budgetary. Gigan is a fascinating design; it's a shame that of his three appearances in the Godzilla franchise, one was a lopsided guilty pleasure and the others were two of the worst Japanese movies I've ever seen.But these two villainous monsters play second-fiddle to some obnoxious human characters and some even more obnoxious 'good monsters.' Godzilla has so little importance in the film; it's obvious he was thrown in for marketing purposes. But this is the absolute worst the fire-breathing behemoth has ever had it. Godzilla's come full circle as a hero, but not in a charming way as in the two "MechaGodzilla" pictures. Godzilla walks with a dancing sort of rhythm, beats his chest like King Kong, and plays charades with Jet Jaguar, the humanoid robot who is the real monster star. Jet Jaguar is not an attractive creature; in fact, with his narrowed glass eyes and permanent, mechanical grin, he looks rather creepy. Few things are more painful than seeing a disgustingly humanoid Godzilla holding hands with an annoyingly humanoid robot. The battle sequences with these four monsters are surprisingly dull. Only a handful of moments (such as Megalon blasting Jet Jaguar as he tries to fly away) stand out.The other big fault of the picture is its insistence on sticking with the human characters. Apart from being bland and completely uninteresting, they are rather obnoxious. Katsuhiko Sasaki has proved in two later Godzilla movies that he is a competent actor, but he's no more than a stone-faced bore here. I didn't mind Yutaka Hayashi as his, I'm assuming, best friend, but could not stand the performance of Hiroyuki Kawase as the kid brother. Mr. Kawase gave a much better performance in "Godzilla vs. Hedorah," as opposed to blubbering and whining throughout the entire picture as he does here. There are a lot of Meanwhile-in-Tokyo scenes involving these three principle characters as they attempt to fend off some secret agents from an underground kingdom, none of which are the least bit interesting.But perhaps the thing that turned me off the most about "Godzilla vs. Megalon," apart from the heroic monsters, was the unfathomably dreadful music score by Riichiro Manabe, a composer who I am thankful to report only spoiled the audio tracks for one other Godzilla movie. The music is amateurish and surprisingly unpleasant. The main theme, utilizing horns to the maximum, screams and deafens the soundtrack, occasionally mixed with irritating string plucks from what sounds like a Jew's harp. And just when Mr. Manabe's theme for Jet Jaguar seems it cannot get more irritating, it becomes louder and is accompanied by an obnoxious song. The only silver lining is we don't hear it until the end.Now, to be entirely honest, there were some things I did like. Most of them being visual tricks. I've already commented on Gigan and Megalon. I also really enjoyed the art direction used for a sequence where one of the monsters destroys a giant dam. The detail here is astonishing: the dam looks real, there are cars parked in the lots, the walls have detail, dust flies when the walls are broken, and the water pours with such velocity that the scene almost seems stolen from another movie entirely. Also, Godzilla's heat-ray looks glorious here, having been given a neon tint. It just leaves me to wonder how he can breathe these flames right after being too afraid to wander through a ring of fire before. Apart from that, I did enjoy a mid-movie car chase—the one scene where comedy is utilized effectively.This is the lowest part of the Godzilla spectrum. "Godzilla vs. Megalon" fails on all levels. And as a kid movie, it continues to flounder. A good movie for children can be examined by adults capable of remembering their youth. I like to think of myself as a young-at-heart person, but looking at this utter fiasco, I could not remember the joys of being a child. And besides, as far as I am concerned, the more 'violent' Godzilla movies are perfectly suitable for the youngsters.

There is a level on which the most sophisticated of viewers can sit back and enjoy these Japanese monster flicks, paper mache sets and all. They certainly do tickle my palate.The undersea world of Seatopia is angry about nuclear tests because their world is being destroyed. What to do, but bring up the Megalon monster to do a number on the surface humans. What do the humans do, but get Godzilla on their side and the last third of the film is a wrestling match between Godzilla and Megalon and respective tag team partners.Godzilla gets a robot partner that supposedly is controlled by humans, but starts developing some independent thinking. All to the good, I might add and Megalon gets some other kind of creature the Seatopian folks unleash.You've got to love these films. It's like they're choreographed by Vince McMahon.

So here is Toho's bid to cash in on Ultraman. This movie really should have been called Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon, because that is basically what you get. Godzilla doesn't event really do anything until there is less than 20 mins. left in the movie.There is a serious bid to start a new franchise here, with the promise at the end that Jet Jaguar might be needed again, but alas this was not to be. Mostly, because this movie is not very good. Jet Jaguar did show up in a TV series, but that's about it.Story [* * . . .]The story goes like this: Nuclear underground testing has destroyed a part of an underwater civilization known as Seatopia. The Seatopians seek to gain revenge against those on the surface for the destruction, and at the same time acquire a small 6 ft. robot (Jet Jaguar) to protect themselves from their enemies. Wait, what??...since they already have control of Megalon,a giant cockroach, and have an alliance with aliens from the planet "M", who send them Gaigan for assistance, their need for this tiny robot to protect themselves makes little sense. Seeing as they also possess such advanced technology as to be able to create an artificial sun, robots should be child's play for them. At any rate, unlike some Godzilla movies, the story does keep moving, so it deserves credit for that.Level of Destruction [* * . . . ]Generally non-descript locations are destroyed, and relatively less destruction then later in the series. Apparently the budget for this film was tight, and most of it was put into a scene where Megalon destroys a dam, which is a pretty good scene.The fight scenes [* * . . . ]Without any doubt, later Show Series Godzilla movies are targeting young kids. With this in mind, the battle scenes are filled with goofy stuff like like Megalon circling Jet Jaguar until he gets dizzy and falls over. All battles are taking place in the middle of nowhere, so there is little collateral destruction going on during these battles. We do get a relatively famous flying kick from Godzilla, though.Yet, there are a surprising number of scenes that would seem to not be appropriate for small children, like blood shooting out of the enemy's face when hit with a RC plane, or some good blood gushing wounds from Gigan's attacks, so I'm not sure who this movie is targeting. Cheese factor [* * * . . ]After Jet Jaguar gets hit on the head, he gains self awareness, and decides to grow to 60 ft. tall. It all seems strangely familiar, and yet, at the same time, makes absolutely no sense. There is an attempt to show us what a cool scientist would be like, if such an animal existed, which adds to these cheese factor. The story is light and breezy, and has all the sensibility and depth of a Japanese 80's teen idol, but this is a late Showa Godzilla movie, and you get pretty much what you expect.Final Score [* * . . . ]It's a fairly bad movie, but the pacing is fairly well done. It's very rare that a plot in a Godzilla movie would make sense, but this one is worse than most. My biggest gripe is that there is far too little Godzilla in a movie where Godzilla is supposed to be the main event. If you like "B" movies, though, then this movie may be worth your time.(This review is based on the original Japanese version, so the US version may be quite different)