Review Godzilla vs. Megalon film review by The King of the Monsters
Written By The King of the Monsters on 2014-10-04 17:48:55
Godzilla vs. Megalon is, for the lack of a better term, a guilty pleasure among Godzilla fans. It's hard to deny that this movie has one of the most juvenile and underdeveloped plots in the series, along with mostly poor effects and uninspired acting. Combine this with an incredible amount of cheesiness, and you get what is arguably the worst movie in the series. However, that is not to say that Godzilla vs. Megalon is not an enjoyable film. Like Godzilla vs. Gigan before it, Godzilla vs. Megalon makes good use of a long, entertaining tag-team monster battle to elevate the film's quality.
*SPOILERS* Inventor Goro Ibuki has just completed construction of his own robot, which he names Jet Jaguar. Shortly after completing his robot, Goro's lab is raided by a group of strange men who capture Goro and his nephew Rokuro and tie up Goro's friend Hiroshi. One of the men reveals to Hiroshi that he is an agent of the undersea kingdom of Seatopia, and that his race plans to lay waste to the surface world in retaliation for the devastation that nuclear testing has caused their home. Seizing control of Jet Jaguar, the Seatopians use the robot as a guide for their guardian monster, the giant drill-handed napalm-spitting beetle Megalon. Hiroshi breaks free of his bindings and defeats the Seatopian agent and follows after the man who took Goro and Rokuro. Hiroshi saves them from the trailer of a truck just as Megalon rises to the surface and begins his rampage. Using a remote control, Goro takes back control of Jet Jaguar and tells him to go get Godzilla from Monster Island to help. With these latest developments, the Seatopian leader Emperor Antonio calls the aliens from Space Hunter Nebula M and asks for them to loan their monster Gigan to help fight off Godzilla. The Nebulans agree and send Gigan to Earth. Jet Jaguar returns to Japan and decides to battle Megalon until Godzilla arrives. Altering his own programming, Jet Jaguar grows to gigantic size and engages Megalon in battle. The battle is even until Gigan arrives and double-teams Jet Jaguar. Before the two evil monsters can destroy Jet Jaguar, Godzilla finally arrives and enters the battle. After a long battle, Gigan retreats just as he did the year before, leaving the outmatched Megalon behind. After Godzilla and Jet Jaguar pummel Megalon a bit more, he too retreats and the Seatopians are forced to call off their attack. Godzilla and Jet Jaguar shake hands, and Godzilla heads back to Monster Island. Jet Jaguar returns to human size and rejoins his creator, having saved the world from annihilation. *END SPOILERS*
The plot of Godzilla vs. Megalon just isn't fit for a feature-length film. It seems more fitting for an episode of a Tokusatsu TV show. There are very few characters in the show and a very poor effort is made to give the film a broad scope and sense of urgency. The first forty five minutes or so of the film focuses on the Seatopians taking control of Jet Jaguar and summoning Megalon followed by at least ten minutes of Jet Jaguar fighting Megalon and then Gigan, finally culminating in a four-way tag-team battle between all four monsters. This plot structure is not handled nearly as well as it was in Godzilla vs. Gigan, and even in that movie it was less than excellent.
Godzilla vs. Megalon has a very small cast of characters, and unfortunately they are very forgettable, partially due to the acting. Katsuhiko Sasaki plays the lead Goro Ibuki and seems uninspired and confused in some scenes. He's not necessarily bad, just not very memorable. Yutaka Hayashi plays Goro's friend Hiroshi Jinkawa and is nothing special. Hiroyuki Kawase plays Goro's nephew Rokuro, and just seems like a typical annoying child character who gets into trouble. The only notable actor to work on this film is the multilingual and multi-talented Robert Dunham, who plays Emperor Antonio. Dunham is an exceptional actor, especially for a westerner in a kaiju film, but sadly his acting talent is wasted in the minimal role of Antonio. Thankfully, Dunham gets to utilize his skill as a stunt driver during the admittedly entertaining car chase sequence, where he portrays the Seatopian agent riding a motorcycle.
The monster scenes have both positive and negative aspects. For one thing, even more stock footage is employed for this movie than Godzilla vs. Gigan, which proves jarring in some scenes, especially the footage of Megalon firing his lightning at buildings, which switches to stock footage of King Ghidorah's gravity beams from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. A lot of stock footage of Godzilla and Gigan's battle from the previous film is also used, which is disappointing. The monsters themselves are interesting. Godzilla is given a new suit, which although in much better condition than the previous suit, features huge eyes, puffy pillow-like dorsal spines, and an overall cute appearance. Gigan's suit appears to be the same as before, but it has a few noticible cosmetic changes, mostly to the abdominal and face areas. The new monsters are okay. Jet Jaguar looks admittedly ridiculous, with his colorful body, ring-like arms, and eerie grin. Still, the lightness of the suit allows for more fluid and realistic fighting movements, which improves the battle. Megalon looks very bizzare as far as anatomy is concerned. He appears to be a giant bipedal beetle with drills for hands. When walking, Megalon's suit flops around a lot and when flying it appears as a stiff awkward prop. His abilities are unique and his fighting style is brutal, although not as brutal as his ally Gigan's. The battle between these monsters is entertaining and mostly redeems the movie, but it isn't at all an improvement over the battle in Godzilla vs. Gigan. Here, there is no compelling human action mixed in with the battle, so we are left with many consecutive minutes of monsters fighting in a pretty empty wilderness area.
The score for this movie is provided by Riichiro Manabe, who scored Godzilla vs. Hedorah two years before. Unfortunately, his score is very unpleasant to listen to and does not really fit this movie. Manabe does have a few good pieces, such as the main theme for the movie and the military march, but aside from that it is a lot of random trombones and loud disorganized crashing sounds.
Godzilla vs. Megalon deserves mention as one of the worst movies in the Godzilla series, along with All Monsters Attack. It still isn't a horrible movie and has some redeeming qualities, but that's about all I can say for it. Most of its flaws are due to Toho's incredibly low budget at the time and the ill-advised attempt to market the film toward children. Thankfully, Toho's next few offerings would be much improved.
