When King Ghidorah and Gigan are summoned to Earth by sinister aliens who are posing as the creators of the new World Children's Land theme park, it will be up to a comic artist and his friends to sabotage their evil plot and aid Godzilla in defeating the marauding monsters! Jun Fukuda returns to direct another mindless monster romp in GODZILLA VS GIGAN, the twelfth entry in the series. After two experimental attempts that strayed from the standard formula, GODZILLA VS GIGAN returns to a more traditional plot line involving an alien invasion, which always proved popular in the earlier films. The one-dimensional characters and recycled story elements are bad enough as it is, but unfortunately the film also relies heavily on stock footage for the majority of the battle sequences. The mighty King Ghidorah makes another exciting appearance alongside the menacing cyborg Gigan, who is given a unique new design that is quite unlike any of the other monsters. Together, the two go on a destructive rampage through Tokyo using clips from GHIDORAH THE THREE-HEADED DRAGON to cut costs. What few miniature arenas were actually constructed for the showdown between Godzilla, Anguirus, Ghidorah, and Gigan do pay off in the explosive finale. Fans will note the considerable amount of bloodshed caused by Gigan's spinning blades, as well as the questionable moments where Godzilla and Anguirus are somehow given the ability to speak. Although it lacks any form of substance, GODZILLA VS GIGAN can be enjoyed simply for its excessive monster violence, especially while ignoring the alien subplot entirely.
Monsters: Godzilla, Gigan, King Ghidorah, Anguirus.
Rating: 6/10.
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Much of the destruction scenes are stock footage from earlier, better movies. The same applies to the score which contains cues from Ifukube scored films outside of the Godzilla spectrum.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a strong liking for this one. The end battle is one of the slowest of the entire series and most fans aren't too high on it, either. I'm not sad to own it, though, although I didn't buy the Sony release. Saw it on tv years ago under the title GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND.