Giganten der Vorzeit

Taking the formula established by the success of Jaws and combining it with the domestic kaiju film, Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds had a decent amount of potential but ultimately shot itself right in the explosive tank before it could fully realise that. The DNA of the film feels ripped right from Nessie, the tragically cancelled collaboration between Toho and Hammer, with climate anomalies and seismic activity reviving prehistoric reptiles to terrorise the residents around a legendarily monster-haunted lake. One of those creatures is a Plesiosaurus with the film even referring to poor Nessie at a few points during its runtime, Toei was evidently listening at the walls of Toho studios one summer day. Director Junji Kurata seems to have failed to fundamentally grasp the premise of a huge monster operating by stealth and picking off its victims individually in secret, regardless, his direction is nonetheless passable. The film doesn't allow you to bond with the characters, there's little reason to care for them beyond their base archetypes, however, the actors all turn in decent performances at least. The ill-fitting and often hilariously juxtaposed music by Masao Yagi is usually the film's talking point, combining a catchy mixture of disco, funk, and jazz. Despite a healthy dosing of gory violence and some great effects work, Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds is a really outlandish film, odd and sometimes surreal, it's at least capable of keeping your interest from beginning to end.

This is regarded as the worst kaiju eiga ever made. I believe people always have a right to their opinions but this is vastly underrated. This film, about an obsessed paleontologist(dubbed by Robotech's Greg Snegoff) who comes back to his home town in search of a plesiosaur living in the lake. A pteranodon also makes an appearance as they duke it out at the end of the movie. There is graphic violence in this film but it's used quite effectively in quick cuts sending a jolt to the viewer. Most notably is when we catch a glimpse of a girl's bloody thrown-up arm and a headless horse. The music by Masao Yagi is of the times but is often effective and very original. It's unheard of for any monster movie to have a stylish jazzy film score. The pre-credit sequence is eerie. The cinematography is atmospheric, showing the misty forests of the lake and MT.Fuji. I admit this is a bad movie, but one that should looked closer on artistic terms. However, the movie has some obvious logic missing. Why would the reappearnce of dinosaurs cause massive earthquakes? Why would the ever so dormant MT. Fuji erupt after such a long time? How could anything hatch from a petrified egg?Also, plesiosaurs and pteranodons ARE NOT dinosaurs. The best scene in the movie is when the ptreanodon attacks some villagers. The editing is top notch and the disco-esque music that plays over it adds to the fun. The most disturbing part of the scene is when the winged reptile picks up a victim, flies high into the air and sadistically drops him. The dubbing is also very good. If you're a fan of Kaiju Eiga or b-films, pick this up.

I saw this back in the late 80s on the USA Network (when it was still in its weird, still-trying-to-find-an-identity-among-all-the-other-basic-cable-channels days) on an edition of the sorely missed "Commander USA's Groovy Movies." My dad taped this movie from that show (like he did with many Godzilla and Gamera movies on that ancient, crappy VCR we had in the 80s). I think he regretted it for some time afterwards, b/c my mom was not happy.

Basically, this is probably one of the most violent kaijus ever made, and even though I'm not easily shocked, I watched that ancient tape again the other day, and was surprised how violent this movie is, and how graphic the violence is. It's also fairly unoriginal, as it's merely one of many Godzilla knockoffs, made cheaply to make a quick buck.

Still, if you want to watch a cheap kaiju knockoff with shock violence, it's worth hunting down a copy. I don't know if I'd let kids watch this, even though I saw it when I was 6 or 7 years old, I don't know if I'd let a kid that young watch it.

I guess it's kind of hard for me to really hate this movie, mostly because it's easy to see how awful the dubbing is. They're not even trying to match up the words with the lips. That could be more of the dubber's fault and not the movie's creators. I still knew that this movie would be really cheesy. The dinosaurs don't really appear until the end of the movie and it's at this point that you can easily see how bad the effects are. I can at least appreciate the attempt at character development. It's hard to believe this was made in 1977. It looks a lot more like the 1960's.

There's too much going on at the end. About the only good thing is that some of the explosions were cool. I just knew what would happen next. I knew that she would carry up an arm attached to a partly eaten body. It's easy to see how they use stock footage. This should have been shorter as you can tell they were trying to drag it out. I seriously wouldn't have been surprised if that fake dinosaur part was supposed to be the real one in the story. *1/2

I watched this movie as a kid and I recently got a copy of it. Aside from obvious plot holes, this is an enjoyable film. I love the music in this movie and the dinosaurs are cool. It's a great film, just as long as you don't take it too seriously. I recommend it if you like Japanese films or monster films.