Director: Ishiro Honda
Year: 1964
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: San Daikaijū: Chikyū Saidai no Kessen; Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth
Genre: Kaiju
Plot:
Following an abortive assassination attempt, the Princess of a small nation appears in Japan, claiming to be a prophetess. A detective is assigned to protect her due to the resemblance, and his sister helps him when a series of attempts are made on her life. When she warns that a series of monsters will appear, first Godzilla and then Rodan appear, lending credence to her claims. Excavating a fallen meteorite near Kurobe Gorge, a geologist finds that it is the protective shield for a space monster, a three-headed menace identified as Ghidrah. When it starts to attack Japan, Mothra arrives to force Godzilla and Rodan to help it, and after an initial fight, the three monsters team up to battle Ghidrah for the fate of the planet.
Review:
This here is one of the better entries in the series. One of the better efforts here is that the script is one of the best ever, introducing new and innovative ideas with an action-adventure scenario intertwined with the monster action. The idea of a personality change in the princess by seeing the personality switch from the meek princess to the more assured and confrontational prophet that she becomes is a strong one, taking an incredibly strong touch to a character as she becomes far more interesting as a result. It ties into the political angle on the sidelines as there’s a fun touch about the conspirators looking to take her out for their own machinations that are taking place in the country which are given just enough of a touch to be quite worthwhile, as well as continuous assassination attempts by the hitmen squad and an alien invasion which are pretty clever. The various other subplots thrown in here are quite exciting and move the film along at a great pace, never bogging down on a specific idea and keeping the momentum up, allowing it to be one of the series' best.
As well, a lot of what makes the film work goes to Ghidrah, one of the greatest monsters devised and one of the greatest looks ever. The dragon-like heads, huge wings, devastating powers, excellent proportioning, and menace all combine into an incredible design, and the creature gets a lot out of its appearance. His birth scene is quite spectacular, as the golden meteor explodes into an enormous fireball that slowly takes the form of the monster, and is dynamic as a lead-in to his spectacular flyover of Yokohama, raining gravity beams down into a whirlwind of debris and flying objects as buildings explode and general panic ensues, and it's later destruction of the Fuji village, complete with the gravity beams taking down an archway entrance to a temple being quite stunning. In effect, all the monsters get treated to a spectacular entrance, as Godzilla slowly emerges out of a surging sea and sets fire to an ocean liner in a giant fireball, and Rodan slowly causes the rocks surrounding him to fall away, the head protrudes out and utters a spectacular cry as it takes to the air, flying over the fleeing, screaming tourists to the volcano.
They also dominate the great scenes with the best being the quite exciting battles, including a great one between Godzilla and Rodan in a lake that eventually carries out into the surrounding forests with several impressive and creative tactics and even comes with a benefit to the humans unknowingly caused by it. The final battle, which contains all four creatures on-screen at the same time, is stunning and quite spectacular that clearly shows that all three are necessary for accomplishing the task with several great moments including Rodan ramming Ghidrah in mid-flight and Mothra climbing atop Rodan to provide an aerial platform to spray the silken cocoon, which are both realistically executed and logical in the context of the story. Not to be outdone, the human drama also comes up with several great scenes, including a spectacular shootout with criminals inside a hospital and a brawl inside a hotel room that are both exciting and a little suspenseful, intruding into the story slightly and coming across as being needed in the events alongside the monster fight and sends it out on a real high note. All told, this is one of the better ones around.
There are only a few minor problems with this one. The biggest one is that monster humor has been injected into an otherwise serious story. Godzilla and Rodan engage in a bit of rock-throwing volleyball during their fight, the Earth monsters hold a with each other in their own language, each monster laughs at the others when they're in distress and Godzilla hops around in pain when he's shot in the back with Ghidrah's ray. While they are fun to watch and allow a little sympathy from them, to see them behave in such a manner is a little hard to swallow during such a serious story. Godzilla's appearance also suffers a little here, with the eyes shifted into the center of the openings making the evil impression from before compromised and making him seem dazed rather than alive. Rodan also is a little disappointing, with the suit having a neck too long and then, making it seem like it’s bopping around more than normal with a head that lacks the evil features of before. These keep the film down somewhat but aren't that distracting.
Overview: ****.5/5
A really great addition to the series, with only a few minor problems to keep it from the upper echelon, this is still one of the more enjoyable entries in the series with just those drawbacks keeping it from the upper echelon of the series. It is highly recommended to fans of the series, as well as those who enjoyed the more kiddie fare later in the series, yet the fans of the older portions of the series will find a lot to like here as well.
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