Invasion Planète X

Now here's a good entry to the franchise starring everyone's favorite fire-breathing dinosaur. Godzilla, having terrorized humanity in the past and battled his first few enemies, had just earned his title of being a hero having helped save the earth from his nemesis King Ghidorah (with some help from Mothra and Rodan). This left him open to being marketed more towards kids and it was time to keep the King of the Monsters on a role to being Japan's defender.

Plot: A new planet has been discovered near Jupiter and soon humanity encounters its inhabitants, the Xilians. The Xilians promise to give to humanity a secret formula to cure diseases provided that they let the aliens borrow Godzilla and Rodan to rid their planet of the menacing King Ghidorah. However, not all is as it seems. They tricked the earthlings and using magnetic waves send the three monsters on a rampage to help conquer the planet. Can our scientific heroes find a way to free the monsters and stop the alien menace? Can Godzilla and Rodan's combined strength rid the Earth of King Ghidorah? The fate of the world hangs by a thread.

There's a lot to like about this flick. This is the first time an alien race has been featured in a Godzilla movie and for the most part the Xiliens are pretty interesting. You don't know whether to trust them or not. All the monster/action scenes are great to watch with plenty of destruction, despite being unfortunately kept to a minimum screen time. Godzilla, along with the other monsters, is given a more lively personality, which allows him to express emotions more effectively. Surprisingly, the human characters are pretty likable, with Nick Adams delivering an amusing performance, and they are all more involved with the story. there's a good deal of realism to the science of this flick and the movie itself has a fun and somewhat mysterious atmosphere.

Overall, this is a nice edition to the Godzilla series. It has all that you would like in a sci-fi creature feature plus a little more. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you're a Godzilla fan. All hail the King of the Monsters!

I always thought "Monster Zero" (along with the one after, "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster") was a bit underrated in the Godzilla film list. King Ghidrah makes his second appearance, and it is a lot more fun and interesting than his first ("Ghidrah The Three Headed Monster" from 1964).

This definitely isn't the fastest moving Godzilla film, but there are a lot of cool things to look at as the plot goes along slow at times. And the alien invasion/takeover plot is pretty decent if not overly original. The aliens look pretty cool and their hardware is 60's sci-fi retro, you gotta love it.

Nick Adams is pretty decent enough and gives the film a certain flair. It's a shame he had to leave us so soon, as it would have been a blast to have him return in a future Godzilla film.

The special effects are totally mid-60's Godzilla, with all the obvious miniatures being stomped on by the guys in the monster suits. There's one great shot where a doll of an astronaut gets lowered onto Planet X via an open elevator outside the spaceship, and as the doll is lowered to the ground in one lengthy camera shot, you can't help but laugh a little realizing that there was no attempt whatsoever to make that shot look real, or to hide the fact it's so fake with quick silly editing. But that's part of the charm of the early Godzilla films.

I always thought it was odd when, on Planet X underground, as the leader shows the astronauts the screen showing Ghidrah wildly attacking on the surface, that Ghidrah is in essence attacking nothing but rocks and dirt because that's all there is on the planet's surface. And also how Ghidrah flies past that huge painting of a planet in the distance a few times.

Godzilla and Rodan eventually save the Earth and that's what it's all about in a 1965 Godzilla film. Godzilla by this time was definitely all hero protecting his home planet. It's such a shame that unless a movie looks like a silly music video, so many kids won't watch it. Hopefully a lot of parents are introducing their kids to these old Godzilla films via DVD and video, because they sure aren't on TV much anymore.

The other day I found this movie at a nearby video shop by chance. Contrary to my anticipation, I found this movie quite fun. The movie I saw was in Japanese and Nick Adams' voice was dubbed, but his acting was pretty good, though he pulled up his pants a lot.

This brought me good memories of Mr. Adams. As a kid about ten years old at that time, my father (who was the USA representative for Toho and manager of the Toho La Brea Theatre) and I went to the LA airport to see him off. He was going to Japan to take this movie. He was very friendly and relaxed, he was with his wife and his little boy, he looked very happy and energetic. I remember asking him, Mr. Adams, how are fight scenes taken in movies? He replied with a nice big smile and with a fighting gesture, we really fight and punch! Gasshou! meaning I join my palms together for Mr. Adams and for my late father.

This film is close to the last of the quality Godzilla films where a budget is evident, and the future of the series became apparent. This film is a sequel to GHIDDORAH: THE THREE HEADED MONSTER and story elements went into the classic, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Goji completely went into his Earth defender mode in this story of alien domination against our planet.

This film is a great representation of the series and and Japan's desire and attitude for the times, coupled with our realization that everything is completely impossible. The best way to watch any Godzilla film is to believe that you are watching an alternate universe where all nations are equally powerful and those future dreams of the past did become possible.

For Godzilla fans, there is a lot of love about this film. There are interesting characters and many consider this Nick Adams' best film; which may not be true, but his co-star is BIGGER. For me, it is the images of the two monsters being lifted from the lake and hauled off to Planet X. The battle on the planet is now considered a classic moment too, as Goji does a victory dance(referred to as The Godzilla Shie). Godzilla always seemed to have a personality, but that dance cemented this notion, as he also demonstrates emotions in this story.

The fact that you are reading this review, demonstrates that you may have your own ideas and feelings about this film. This review is for the cinefile who believes in Godzilla and many of the other movies that came from Toho Studios. My recommendation is that you watch DESTROY ALL MONSTERS after this film, and then go play the two Godzilla video games that are now available.

Some astronauts(two to be specific...one of which is Nick Adams) leave planet Earth and fly to planet X. Once there, they discover life underground that supposedly lives in fear of King Ghidorah. They ask Earth to send Rodan and Godzilla to their planet to fight Ghidorah. Earth agrees, and the aliens send a tape back with the astronauts after their second voyage that tells Earthlings to submit to the alien will, or King Ghidorah, really their own private monster, will destroy them. This is an interesting film in the Godzilla series that has some pretty good sci-fi elements blended with good ole Godzilla fun. The monsters are what you would expect and the acting is pretty pedestrian as a rule. Adams is an unwelcome addition as his acting ability is somewhat suspect, and he tends to stick out like a sore thumb. Nevertheless, the film zips along at a nice pace. My only major criticism is that the monsters, and in particular Godzilla, have too few scenes. Inshiro Hondo directed this one, and it has many of his distinctive touches.