La Guerre des monstres

This is one of the more original Toho productions out there, and it's also one of the more frightening. The Green Gartantua is the bad one, and he is only too happy to eat people whole whenever he gets the chance. The classic seen in this movie is when the Green Gargantua comes ashore near a hotel/apartment complex and tears the walls off exposing people inside. Then he grabs one and pops them into this mouth, chewing with gusto! To top off this great scene he *spits out* the chewed clothes of the person he ate, sort of like a person would spit out a cherry pit.

This movie really needs a re-release on DVD!

This is certainly one of the better non-Godzilla kaijus. It has plenty of action and in some ways it has a love story within it. The character Akemi has a deep motherly affection for Sanda (the Brown Gargantua) and is willing to do anything to protect it from the wrath of the army who see him as nothing but a menace. In the meantime, Gaira (the Green Gargantua) is the true evil. He sees man as nothing but food and this brings him into conflict with his brother who is gentle in nature but results to violence as a last resort.

For monster lovers, this has to rank up there as one of Toho Studio's greatest and most satisfying giant monster movies. For those looking for it, there's plenty of nonstop monster mayhem and devastation on tap. However, it's hard for me to decide which of the two versions I prefer; the Japanese original (which calls our creatures "Frankenstein's" and is a direct sequel to Toho's own FRANKENSTEIN VS BARUGON, aka FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD) or the U.S. edition (which christens the beasts "Garganutas" and works better as a separate stand alone story). This may be a rare occasion where the American rendition proves to be more entertaining, for a few reasons...

One grisly sequence shows the evil monster chewing a woman victim up like a piece of meat and spitting something out; in the Japanese version it's a bouquet of flowers, while in America it works more effectively as the girl's clothes.

Another quality I prefer in the U.S. edition is some of the music. Just works better for me during the action sequences of the monsters being fought off by the army as well as when they're beating each other up.

In the American film, Russ Tamblyn is especially funny to hear while looping his own embarrassed voice into English. And no matter which version you settle on, you'll still get the treat of hearing a female nightclub singer belting out that horrendous and long-vilified classic tune with hilarious lyrics that include "the words get stuck in my throat"! Worth watching for this alone! *** out of ****

We'll give credit to TOHO productions, it is different from the Godzilla films, which I adore. It seems they just used different monsters while using the same scaled army vehicles and scenery. Having viewed Frankenstein Conquers the World, this "Sequel" doesn't quite add up to it's previous storyline which was a little vague, blame it on poor editing? Had they expanded on why and where these 2 monsters originated from, it would make more sense, while still leaving out human dialogue. I saw this film as a child, it scared me into believing there really were creatures walking around stomping on people! When you hear the lady singing on the cruise ship, and that poorly written song sticks in your head, believe me, you'll wish she had been eaten first. The movie is a classic, worth a look see.

You have to simply take this type of movies for what they are. It's quite hard to say anything serious about them because they are all looking very outdated, features some bad acting and of course also don't have the most clever or original scripts.

What makes this movie very fun and watchable is the fact that it's almost non-stop movie monster action. Halve of the time during this movie you're watching a bunch of guys in suits walking around at a set with miniatures but it's all simply fun and good to watch. Lots of things get destroyed and the army is basically using everything it got to stop the two Gargantuas from reaching Tokyo. At the same time the two Gargantuas 'brothers' are also battling each other, so we have some action coming from basically every angle here.

It means that the 'human' story of the movie gets sort of pushed to the background but this is not necessarily a bad thing. It only means that the movie decided to go for entertainment rather than depth. Also not a bad movie, considering that the acting in this movie isn't exactly the best. Russ Tamblyn's overacting is quite laughable.

The movie is not necessarily a sequel to "Furankenshutain tai chitei kaijû Baragon", since this one doesn't even feature any of the original characters from that movie. It means that you don't necessarily need to see the first movie before watching and enjoying this one. The movie is from the same director and pretty much features the same crew as well, who did lots of movies like this together. Honda is also the director of the first original "Gojira" movie.

This movie is simply good and entertaining for what it is.

6/10

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