Chikyû kôgeki meirei Gojira tai Gaigan

I'm a massive fan of kaiju movies so I come to these films predisposed to like them. I've seen most of the original GODZILLA series and am attempting to fill in a few blanks; one of those is GODZILLA VS. GIGAN, a late-entry instalment that pits Godzilla and his old foe Anguirus against new space-monster Gigan and an old enemy, King Ghidorah.

GODZILLA VS. GIGAN is plenty of fun from beginning to end, and the formula for that success lies in having a human interest story that's just as entertaining as the monster stuff. This time around, a group of environmentalists and employees investigate the mysterious owners of a new Godzilla theme park, soon uncovering some dark secrets which inevitably throw Japan into peril.

Godzilla is on good form in what is one of the grisliest of the series (who knew you'd end up seeing a Japanese blood spray in a children's film?). Anguirus is my favourite kaiju monster, purely because he isn't capable of much and it's kind of sweet to watch him getting beaten on so much, so seeing him here was a delight. Gigan proves a deadly foe - especially with that saw! - and King Ghidorah is, well, King Ghidorah. You can't go wrong with that combo, and inevitably GODZILLA VS. GIGAN turns out to be a colourful, action-packed romp.

Well the relationships of the Kaiju sometimes change with every other movie. So while Godzilla was fighting Anguirus the first time they met (in the second Godzilla movie that is), later they became allies. As in this one. And it is necessary they team and tag together, because apart from the new (mentioned) Gigan in the title, we also get King Ghidorah as an enemy of earth and humans - which means enemy of Godzilla too of course.

And while there was always communication between the Kaiju, mostly through their screams and cries, this time we get text bubbles with what they mean. Interesting choice and maybe related to the fact they tried to go kid friendly at the time. Also a nod to comics/manga in general? Very likely.

The monster on monster action (get your mind out of the gutter if it is there) is really something to behold - and fun to watch. Men in rubber suits wrestling other men in rubber suits. While humanity looks and hopes/roots for our beloved Godzilla. Obviously there is a lot of History here. Movie history that is. Something you can have knowledge of, but you don't need too. It just gives you more appreciation of what is happening on screen - and might make you understand why effects that seem dated now, where all the rage (no pun intended) back then.

Enjoy if you can, because this is quite the fun ride

Struggling manga artist Gengo (Hiroshi Ishikawa) whose children's stories involving homework and stern mother monsters are consistently rejected by editors takes a job with the company designing the new monster theme park World Children's Land. When Gengo finds an audio tape dropped by a young woman named Machiko (Tomoko Umeda), he stumbles into a conspiracy that suggests World Children's Land may be a front for more insidious purposes involving the monsters of Monster Island.

After the divisive reception to Godzilla vs. Hedorah (it's hard to know how well it did financially due to scarcity of sources on that point) producer Tomoyuki Tanaka sought to bring the Godzilla series back where he felt it needed to be. With Godzilla still seen very much as cheap kiddie fare at the time, Tanaka devised a premise he felt would entice people back while also being cost effective by brining back fan favorite King Ghidorah who would fight Godzilla along a new monster. Supposedly made for $1.2 million the film was allegedly better attended than Godzilla vs. Hedorah and made $20 million when factoring in foreign exports. Godzilla vs. Gigan is less ambitious than its predecessor and is visibly fighting against its kiddified status and budget, but assuming you can forgive the slow buildup and indulgence of stock footage it can be reasonably entertaining.

As with the previous few Godzilla movies, the human characters are more here out of obligation than for providing anything interesting and while there aren't any prominent child characters here that same feeling of childishness that many later Showa entries have seen is here in spirit. Gengo's bumbling and stupidly on the nose monster drawings based on "what kids hate" to an absurdly literal degree isn't as charming as it thinks it is, and the supporting cast aren't much more developed aside from being "hippie-ish" archetypes who are very Scooby-Doo like in their presence here. Given producer Tomoyuki Tanaka's hatred for Godzilla vs. Hedorah it's rather ironic that he not only recycles footage from that film, but also parts of the message as it is somewhat glanced over when the big "reveal" comes which is disguised with the subtlety of Snidely Whiplash or Dick Dastardly.

So how is the monster action at least? Half-good and half-assed. Starting off with the half-assed portion: the series continues its gratuitous use of stock footage with action scenes for Ghidorah lifted wholesale from Destroy All Monsters and Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster most prominently, and the movie does little to disguise it aside from cheaply applying a day-for night filter on it. It's pretty clear that the Ghidorah effects they have now aren't as mobile and dynamic as the early ones with the presence of older footage next to new footage exacerbating that point. With that said the climactic fight in World Children's Land that features Godzilla and Angilus/Angirus vs. Ghidorah and Gigan is pretty fun with Gigan a pretty visually interesting monster that looks like a mixture of a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica, praying mantis, and bird of prey and the fights have some pretty bloody impact scenes at points.

Godzilla vs. Gigan doesn't reach the Showa era's heyday but it doesn't exactly embarrass itself either (questionably suit quality at this point notwithstanding). Godzilla vs. Gigan is a comfortably middle of the road entry that while it has its annoying bits mostly gets those out of the way early enough that the ending is a pretty good time.

"Godzilla vs. Gigan" is perhaps the best of the 1970s Godzilla films that was aimed for children. It's definitely the most fun and enjoyable. Not as good as the first couple of Godzilla films, but better than others.

What I mostly like about "Godzilla vs. Gigan" is the lengthy and very entertaining four-way monster battle at the end. It's very fun to watch and I never get tired of it. Not to mention that this film was the one that brought Gigan to life, and Gigan is one of my top favorite monsters. King Ghidorah and Angilas, and of course, Godzilla, were great in this one also.

The music score is also very good. I love the dramatic music score that plays when it looks like Godzilla's going to be killed by the laser beams. Also, the drum score when Godzilla and Angilas are heading to fight the enemy is great.

Overall, a good fun Godzilla flick. I'd recommend it.

Right, well I hadn't really expected all that much from "Chikyû kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan" (aka "Godzilla vs Gigan") given the fact that the movie was from 1972. But still, I sat down to watch it with my 9 year old son as we are having a run through all "Godzilla" movies.

Turns out that the 1972 "Godzilla vs Gigan" was actually surprisingly nice. The storyline was adequate. After all, it is a "Godzilla" movie we are talking about here.

But what made it work so nicely was the sheer amount of destruction throughout the course of the movie and the excessive amount of kaiju fighting - which exceeded the contents of many other "Godzilla" movies. And you actually got to see the kaijus bleeding in this 1972 movie. But the destruction of buildings and such was just phenomenal. Sure, it was toy buildings and miniature scales, but still, it worked out so nicely. Especially because they had put so much effort into the miniature scale models that it was just amazing.

Man, I do love it when Godzilla gets frustrated and starts going into hyper-mode. That is just hilarious.

Two things about this movie wasn't overly impressive. First and foremost, the appearance of Godzilla. He looked atrocious in this movie, and it was a bitter pill to swallow. And then the fact that they reused footage from another "Godzilla" movie for the King Ghidorah vs. Anguirus fight. That was just a horrible thing to do, and it was definitely a slap in the face with a dead, cold fish for us that have sat through the majority of the "Godzilla" movies.

But all in all, the 1972 "Godzilla vs Gigan" was definitely a nice surprise and quite worth the effort of sitting through. I am rating it a solid six out of ten stars.