Objectif Terre, mission Apocalypse

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.

After the interesting but none too successful experiments Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla Vs Hedorah,Toho made this film,which sometimes feels like an attempt to make a 60s Monster Zero-type film on a fraction of the budget. Obviously,it's not a good film in the traditional sense,but all the 70s Godzilla films,despite their childishness,cheapness,shoddy effects work,samey plots,and 'wacky' ideas {in this one ,Godzilla and his mate Angilas TALK to each other in the non-Japanese version,whilst the Japanese version has speech bubbles instead!}etc,are fun to watch,and Godzilla Vs Gigan is no exception.

The plot is the aliens-out-to-conquer-Earth-by-controlling-monsters one already used in Monster Zero and Destroy All Monsters and it would be used a few more times,but here it is reasonably successful,with some fairly intriguing ideas {though often badly done}and unusual human characters,although their constant in-and-out of the Godzilla Tower,the alien's base,becomes a bit tiresome. When the monsters show up,we have probably the longest battle in a Godzilla film,and one of the funniest,too,as Godzilla and Angilas engage in a tag team duel with the evil Ghidorah and Gigan. Sadly the movie is badly let down by excessive stock footage from previous films {Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster,Monster Zero,Son Of Godzilla,Destroy All Monster and probably a couple of others too!}. At least in Godzilla's Revenge the stock footage had a sort of context,here,it jars with the new footage. The worst bit for this is the lengthy destruction scene,where new,night time footage of a tattered,slow moving Ghidorah who can barely move, is intercut with older,daytime footage of Ghidorah,showing a fast-moving dragon in action.

Somehow all this adds to the film's quirky charm,a sometimes good,occasionally awful,entry in the series. The soundtrack is one of the best,it's all Akira Ifikube stock music,much of it from Godzilla films,but it has many of the great Ifikube tracks and a wonderfully rousing title theme.

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

The film does seem to drag quite a bit. It's not a bad movie, and Gigan is one of my favorite Godzilla monsters. He has a great design, and we even have him teaming up with Ghidorah, one of the monsters who (supposedly died in Destroy All Monsters but is somehow back) is one of the most popular and powerful Godzilla monsters. The creatures don't seem to appear though until almost halfway through the film, and even then, most of the destruction you see doesn't actually show that it's the monsters causing it. Some scenes do quite well, but not all of them. I also feel like they got kinda lazy with the designs for the alien invaders who control Gigan, it's like they just picked a roach out and said "oh yeah, there's a good alien". Toho could have done better than that I think. Overall the film concept is AMAZING but they didn't jump into it very well, a lot of crap goes on that is just unnecessary.

Second only to Godzilla vs Hedorah in terms of weirdness, this Goji flick sees a bunch of aliens trying to conquer the earth using a children's theme park as their base. No, seriously. The bizarre theme of the film also shows in several other ways. The human characters are a bit of an oddball crew. No brave explorers, psychics or secret agents this time. Just a budding manga artist (who comes up with monsters and plots so daft not even Toho could take him seriously), his karate champion girlfriend, a funky hippy and some others. The aliens are their usual ludicrous and badly-dressed selves (they wear orange two-pieces with pink shirts underneath. Heaven help us) and their whole earth conquest plan is utterly ridiculous, of course. Something about an answering machine that can summon two monsters from space, probably. Thing is, all the silliness seems right in place this time, as the whole movie doesn't take itself seriously.

Other good points include Anguillas being quite active, music by good ol' Akira Ifukube, and new baddie Gigan, who really is rather groovy.

But for all that, there's plenty to dislike as well. Godzilla himself looks terribly messy in this film. Small bits of rubber are litterally falling off him during the fight. The rubber suit was in pretty poor state, apparently. It ends up looking as if Goji's suffering from kaiju-dandruff of some kind. Then there's the disappointing use of stock footage a go-go, which looks very lazy in some scenes. The scene where Anguillas pops up at Sagami bay and then blatantly -runs away- from the puny millitary without even smashing up one single thing is really shameful (and is probably the reason why Anguillas is often regarded as a bit of a wuss). Finally, the only really serious flaw is that the big battle at the end has a poor structure. Godzilla takes a huge beating for about fifteen whole minutes, then somehow decides that enough is enough and begins to kick back with some help from Anguillas (who did fairly little so far). But just then, after a few good smacks, the two nasty monsters just turn tail and run away. Booh. It's doubly disappointing when you consider that a battle between four monsters, Godzilla and Anguillas on one side, and Gigan and Ghidora on the other, could have been so much more, especially with such cool-looking nasties.

So that leaves a bad aftertaste, but this is still an interestingly strange and silly kaiju movie that should please die-hards of the genre, or people looking for something hilariously odd. Worth watching once, just for it being so loveably off-the-wall, but you can find lots better if you want quality kaiju action.

The pinnacle of freakiness has to be the scenes where Godzilla and Anguillas -talk- to each other. Not only do we hear some utterly ludicrous distorted voices, but both kaiju are also pretty poor conversationalists (especially Anguillas). Wonder what they talk about when there aren't any big, nasty aliens around?