Director: Motoyoshi Oda
Year: 1955
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Gojira no Gyakushū; Gigantis the Fire Monster; Godzilla's Counterattack
Genre: Kaiju
Plot:
While on a scouting trip for a fishing company, a pilot gets stranded at sea where his friend has to come rescue him on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. While trying to get away, they notice Godzilla and another monster fighting on the island before disappearing, and after returning to the mainland reveal the news to the authorities who prepare for the creatures’ arrival when the monsters make landfall at Osaka. After a battle that leaves Godzilla as the sole survivor but destroys Osaka, they join forces with the military to stop the monsters and defend the country.
Review:
Overall, this is a bit of a disappointment over the original but still has a lot to like. One of the stronger features here involving this simple setup is the means through which it propels the film along at a frantic clip, introducing the characters, and the monsters, and moving on to the military attempts to deal with them dominating the middle of the film preparing plans of defense against the monsters usually involving the civilians to help them come to fruition. It’s not as dignified as the original with the pilots and their friends at the fishing company forming a decent enough social group before the monster action but the depth isn’t there with the time spent instead on detailing the discovery of the creatures and how everything comes together to stop them. As everything here is fast and brisk with the only deterrence to the story being a bizarre inclusion of a jailbreak that brings the monsters ashore for the climactic confrontation so it has a purpose, there could’ve been other means to accomplish that without the divergence.
The monsters are hit-or-miss but still manage to work well within the confines of the genre. The new Godzilla costume, slimmed down in the lower body with more traditional proportions, does provide a greater ease of movement with the monster convincingly able to grapple with an opponent but also comes at the expense of a realistic, heavy-set animal. It holds up far better than the main puppet used which is grossly inappropriate with a face that looks nothing like the full suit and an array of teeth pointed out at such an odd angle from the face it becomes distractingly comical the differences between them. The quadrupedal Anguuirus, resembling a spiky meat-eating Ankylosaurid dinosaur with a huge spike-filled back-plate, crown of horns on his head, and a single nose horn, leaves a better impression with how it looks and moves on-screen even though it also has the problem of highlighting the fact that the actor is crawling around on his hands and kneees instead of all fours like a traditional animal. Still, for this type of story, they both serve well enough and keep this one intriguing enough overall.
The best work here is undoubtedly the rest of the special effects as this comes off incredibly well. The island landscape where the monsters first appear is a fine enough locale where the camera angles peering through the cracks and crevices of a rocky cave where the monsters are fighting on the other side looks far better than it should as the brief, inconclusive fight is enough to get an idea of what’s to come later on. The second encounter in the middle of Osaka is a series standout, battling back-and-forth between the two as the populace flees in panic and the military tries to bombard the creatures to no avail. The choreography is great, with the creatures behaving like real animals stalking each other through the streets before charging, biting, and scratching at each other which results in tons of smashed architecture along the way. While it does includemomvement that’s overly sped up to appear as though it’s attempted by actual animals yet just looks silly and unconvincing.
As well, the military plans here also come off rather well with their construction and purpose fairly logical and designed for protection. The discovery of their attraction to light is a crucial one as that allows the Air Force to attempt luring the monsters out to sea with flares just before the inadvertent jailbreak and crash that results in a refinery explosion that brings the monsters back onto land and starting a fire that sweeps through the city just as the monsters begin battling and spreading the fire. The miniature work to accomplish this, especially the massive Osaka Castle sequence where the monsters crash through it and come out the other side landing in the moat surrounding it. The two-part battle plan finale on the iceberg island where Godzilla goes to rest up is incredibly fun and creative as the emotional stakes being raised in the first half lead to a thrilling second half involving fantastic model planes and wire-work to bring the idea to life in an ingenious manner to bring everything to a strong finish. It’s all enough to make it enjoyable enough on its own.
Overview: **.5/5
Perhaps a bit of a lower sequel but still managing enough to be watchable overall, this one is a better effort than its reputation even though there are still plenty of issues to keep it down. Give it a shot if you’re fine with the issues present or are curious about it following the original, while most others might want to heed caution if just going into this one as a standalone viewing without going for the original first.
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