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Review by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
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USA Release: March 1977 Toho Toho Company, Henry G. Saperstein Enterprises Inc., Paramount Rated: N/A |
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The movie begins and KA-Boom! Explosions! Godzilla is fighting against ... Godzilla? One of the Godzilla's sees a torn patch of skin as he locks battle with the other. Under the torn skin of one Godzilla its ... silver and shiny?
Godzilla breathes his fiery breath on the other Godzilla, burning the flesh off and revealing... A robot Godzilla! Well you know what that means!
It's Mechagodzilla!
The two behemoths rejoin in battle and both fall into the ocean.
Is that it? Well what the hell was THAT all about? Sequelitis or just another day in Japan? The latest Japanese supersub goes underwater to investigate and is destroyed.
Now what the hell happened?
Looks like we have another monster on our hands. This one is Titanasaurus, and what a ruckus he makes. But there is more to this than meets the eye. More than a Godzilla which transforms into a Robozilla - er - Mechagodzilla, anyway.
This was during Toho's silly period when they were trying to make their kaiju movies more accessible to kids - cuz' kids means toys and to drive that point home, Toho would feature kids playing with their Godzilla toys IN their Godzilla movies! However, their box-office suffered for it and it is now seen as a bad move. A bad move that George Lucas never knew how to reign in during his turn at the box office, and now he doesn't own his most famous and personal franchise anymore.
So anywho...
There is this mad Japanese scientist, Dr. Shinji Mafune (Akihiko Hirata: GODZILLA, RODAN, THE MYSTERIANS, THE H-MAN, BARAN: MONSTER FROM THE EAST, THE TELEGRAPHED MAN, MOTHRA, GORATH, VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE, ATRAGON!, GHIDORAH: THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER, GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER, ULTRAMAN, SON OF GODZILLA, GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA). He's mad, you see (not merely upset), because no one believed his theories.
In fact he's hopping mad and is given to cackling madly, which is kind of sad because Akihiko was actually a good actor and better than this script.
Mad Mafune was thrown out of science circles because he said that he'd discovered a new dinosaur, a titanasaurus and what's more (the part that got him thrown out of the Science symposium after-hour parties) he could control its mind!
Well that was 15 years ago, movie time, and these days, some secret Japanese aliens are keenly interested in Shinji's work. Yep, here we go again with the aliens set on ruling earth. What's the matter? Their own planet ain't good enough for them? Their planet is their home!
Are they too good for their home?
Meanwhile, Interpol Agent Jiro Murakoshi (Katsumasa Uchida), who drives around in a really cool American Camaro musclecar (and it's a government car yet!), along with his college chum, biologist/agent Akira Ichinose (Katsuhiko Sasaki: GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, GODZILLA VS. BIOLANTE) try to find out all they can about Dr. Mafune and wind up going to the old man's house.
There they meet the mad doctor's daughter, Katsura (Tomoko Ai). Katsura says her father is dead but she is LY-ING! She covers for Pop because he's working for the people who saved his daughter's life. What Dr. Mafune doesn't realize is that them ain't folks what saved his daughter, but aliens from outer space!
As much as the Mad Mafune is upset with earth people, he isn't sure that he wants to throw in with a bunch of foreigners from outerspace set on world domination. This causes some rather awkward moments between the Doctor and his benefactors, particularly alien leader Mugal (Goro Matsumi: DUEL OF THE GARGANTUAS, GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA). The fact that Katsura is tickled by Akira's attentions doesn't sit well with her father or the aliens either. They've been working on this whole Rule the Earth plan for years!
Earth years anyway.
So these aliens have a whole new and improved Mechagodzilla ready to roll out; do the whole earth conquering bit alongside Titanosaurus, and suddenly the Doctor is getting scruples and the daughter is falling for dashing earth agents.
Man these aliens can't get a break!
As silly as TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA can be, it is a better picture than GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA, released a year earlier. Under the direction of Ishirô Honda (creator of GODZILLA) and a script by Yukiko Takayama, THE TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA is full blown kaiju fun!
3 Shriek Girls
This review
copyright 2007 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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