REVIEW: GOJIRA TAI MEGARO
REVIEW: GODZILLA VS MEGALON
REVIEW: JUN FUKUDA [ 1973 ] 81'
REVIEW: TOHO CO. LTD
CAST: KATSUHIKO SASAKI, HIROYUKI KAWASE,
CAST: YUTAKA HAYASHI, ROBERT DUNHAM
PERSONAL RATING:
CRITICAL RATING:
WTF-FILMOMETER: ROCKIN'

The seventies were a strange strange time for Japanese studio giant Toho. After cutting back on budgets for science fiction and fantasy films for years (beginning around 1965 with KAIJU DAISENO: MONSTER ZERO), much of their money in the 70's was going towards big budget disaster epics like NIHON CHINBOTSU (SUBMERSION OF JAPAN; 1973) and NOSTURODAMASU NO DAIYOGEN (PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS; 1974). Godzilla was little more than an obligation of Toho's at the time, as such the majority of the Godzilla films from the time period are truly substandard to those from earlier years. Many of them from 1969 to 1973 were heavily laden with stock footage, and almost all of them adopted a 'tag-team' budgeted approach to the filming of monster battles (2 on 2 in the case of this film and GODZILLA VS. GIGAN; 1972, 2 on 1 for GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA; 1974 and TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA; 1975).

These were the years when Godzilla films really began to get their reputation for being cheap and out of date. The special effects methods they utilized, once impressive, were now giving way to newer and more impressive emerging effects techniques. These films were geared more towards making profit to support larger projects than towards being models of good film-making. Despite their multiple flaws and meager budgets, the seventies Godzilla spectacles were still thoroughly entertaining. And unlike the Heisei and Millennium Godzilla films, all of these saw theatrical release in the States - including re-releases under a number of titles - as well as long time syndication on television.

The film being reviewed here is pretty much the bottom of the barrel as far as the 70's cycle of films goes. It featured all of the characteristics of a quick and cheapie Godzilla film - including the tag-team monster action and insane amounts of stock footage (much of it taken from MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA; 1964 and GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER; 1964 as well as 1966's WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS). The monster battle that takes up the final 20 minutes of the film takes place in a generally barren set with a few sprigs of miniature trees here and there and borrows a number of shots from the previous film, GODZILLA VS. GIGAN (1972). Cheap or not, it's still one of the most amusing Gojira films ever committed to 35mm.

The film starts with brief narration about a nuclear test that's taking place in the Aleutian islands west of mainland Alaska. The blast is powerful enough that it even effects Monster Island, via a horrifying and mostly stock-footage disaster. This leads to the explosive opening credits for the film. Back in Japan, Rokku-chan (Hiroyuki Kawase) is playing in the lake with a large fish-shaped boat thing that his brother, Goro (Katsuhiko Sasaki), has made for him. Along for the afternoon is racing buddy Hiroshi (Yutaka Hayashi). Without warning, large vents of steam begin pouring out from beneath the water of the lake and it begins to drain. Rokku-chan is saved just in the nick of time, but his fish-shaped boat thing is lost in a whirlpool. The lake eventually drains completely, revealing a gaping fissure in the Earth's crust.

Goro, Rokku-chan, and Hiroshi all head back home, cursing the recent nuclear tests that are believed to have caused the draining of the lake just moments before. Once entering Goro's snazzy bachelor pad, it is revealed that he is an inventor who's latest project - Jet Jaguar - is nearly complete. Only the head remains to be built. Waiting for them inside are two weird Caucasian men who beat up on Goro and Rokku-chan before being chased onto the road by Hiroshi. The high speed car chase ends when one of the two men tosses a grenade out the window, leaving Hiroshi cursing on one side of a wall of flame and unable to pursue them further. Back at the pad, Goro and Rokku-chan have discovered some strange red-colored sand that the two men left behind. Hiroshi takes it and a button taken from one of the fleeing Caucasians to a lab that identifies it as being from a strata well below the sea floor and just like that found on the uninhabited Easter Island.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to the Seatopians who are spending their evening praying and dancing in funny hats. Their leader (Robert Dunham, cloaked in a shiny silver toga and white tights along with a tiara with Megalon's head plastered on the front) gives a brief speech on how Earthlings have been destroying their country with nuclear tests. They will have no more of this, and awaken Megalon - a giant stag beetle with drill bits in place of hands. He quickly begins making his way to the Earth's surface via the fissure that the recent nuclear tests have conveniently opened for him. Back in Japan, Hiroshi is visiting Goro again and Rokku-chan is off to test the tiniest moped I've ever laid eyes upon. Inside we learn that Goro has finished Jet Jaguar - he gives a brief demonstration of how the robot works to Hiroshi. While riding through town, Rokku-chan is kidnapped by the two Caucasian guys and used to gain entry, once more, into the house.

Once inside they put everyone to sleep with their weird gas-guns. The bearded of the two ties up Rokku-chan and Goro and places them in a large metal crate and hires two drivers to take it to the lake bed and drop it down the fissure - the Seatopians intend to use Goro to build them an army of robots like Jet Jaguar. The other, unbearded, Caucasian takes control of Jet Jaguar himself and uses him to guide Megalon from the fissure to various points in Japan that he should attack. The bearded Seatopian gets antsy and pulls a gun on the two drivers, who promptly kick him out of the truck and down the side of a hill - presumably killing him since he doesn't show up again for the duration of the film. Hiroshi kicks the crap out of the unbeareded Seatopian and runs off to find Goro and Rokku-chan. This leads to an impromptu car chase involving two cars, a motorcycle, some foam, and a rather steep set of stairs. Eventually Hiroshi catches up to the two men and a truck at a large dam just as Megalon makes his appearance. The two men take Hiroshi's car, leaving him to contend with freeing Goro and Rokku-chan himself.

Megalon destroys the dam and, in a round-a-bout way, frees Goro and Rokku-chan. After regaining consciousness, Goro discovers that the Seatopians are guiding Megalon around the countryside with his robot, Jet Jaguar. None too happy about this, Goro gets in touch with the military and manages to use his hand held control unit to regain power over the robot. The Seatopians are rather peeved and Megalon goes on an aimless rampage. Goro, in the meanwhile, commands Jet Jaguar to seek out Godzilla on Monster Island in hopes that he will come to help them fight Megalon.

This film is an odd man out for me, as far as Gojira films go, because I can really sympathize more with the supposedly evil characters who unleash Megalon on our unsuspecting world than I can with the heroes. With their country gradually being destroyed by underground nuclear testing on our part, the anger the Seatopians feel is pretty well justified. It's quite easy to believe that, had these tests never taken place and Seatopia itself left intact, the people of the country would have had absolutely no reason to do anything but pray to giant beetles and perform gratuitous choreographed dance while wearing funny hats. The way I see it they have every reason to attack (our wars have been started by considerably less, after all), though sending something other than the biggest doofus ever to cross the Toho block would have probably been a wise move.

Arguably the lowest point ever in the Gojira series, past or present, this film is not entirely without its merits. For starters, the portrayal of the monsters is positively hysterical. Megalon and Gigan's constant humorous takes on various changes in situation (most notably after Jet Jaguar and Godzilla escape from the circle of fire. Gigan drops his arms to his side in amazement while Megalon gives a classic wide-armed "What!?") must be seen to be believed and the teammate like relationship between Godzilla and Jet Jaguar is pretty fun too. For whatever these monsters may have lacked in monetary backing they certainly more than made up for it in character.

In spite of obvious budgetary shortcomings, MEGALON has several fairly effective special effects set pieces to look forward to. The first is early on, and involves a lake that is drained dry after a fissure opens beneath it as the result of a nuclear test performed hundreds of miles away. The other scene is the attack by Megalon on a large model of a dam. This scene is pulled off well, with several angled shots that establish Megalon as a very big and very ferocious monster. The rest of the effects are either simple or portrayed using stock footage. The musical score was provided by Riichiro Manabe, the same guy who did the score for GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER (1971). Most people hate the music for this movie (and SMOG MONSTER for that matter) for their various reasons, but I'm inclined to disagree. I find the themes quite playful and fitting with the total non-seriousness of the film at hand.

Now, with all of the good stuff out of the way, one can proceed to the bad. What works against GODZILLA VS MEGALON the most is perhaps the overall lack of Godzilla. After appearing briefly in the opening of the film, the King of the Monsters has perhaps 18 minutes of additional screen time in the entire film. That can easily be explained by the fact that the film was originally intended as a startup vehicle for a new show starring Jet Jaguar. Sadly that idea never got off the ground and we're stuck with a Godzilla film that's more than lacking in the Godzilla department. Also working against the film is the story - which goes a long way towards making no sense whatsoever. The inordinate amounts of stock footage, mentioned previously, also detract from the overall enjoyability of the proceedings.

I first saw this film in its syndicated form on an obscure television station in my very early childhood - this print cut out any of the graphic violence from the film, added a new title card, and even removed the opening credits. I'm almost ashamed to say that, as a child, I never really cared for it. The monster action was terribly unconvincingly done, the cinematography ugly and crude (remember that I was watching the pan and scanned syndicated print), the story difficult to follow, and the whole thing utterly ridiculous. It wasn't until I first caught glimpse of a widescreen print of the International version of the film that I really started to enjoy the sometimes (but often not) subtle and intentional hilarity of the proceedings. Since then it's become one of my favorite Godzilla films to watch, though I'll certainly never claim that it's one of the best.

The real pity of MEGALON is how confusing the rights situation with it is in the United States. A number of gray market releases on VHS and DVD have been made, including a short lived DVD release of the MST3K version of the film - all of them have been shot down by various rights issues. Until these are resolved there's not much chance of this film making its way to DVD in the US in its original form (or any other) any time soon. That said, the SciFi Channel - which has certainly gone downhill over the past few years - does tend to show a generally wonderful letterboxed copy of the International version of this film from time to time. Catch an airing sometime and record it for posterity and, if you really want a copy to love and behold, there's always the Toho R2. Highly recommended.