Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Plot Outline: Aliens trying to destroy Earth rebuild Mechagodzilla and make him even more deadlier than before. They also align themselves with a scientist who had previously claimed to have found a dinosaur, Titanosaurus, living at the bottom of the ocean. His theory had been mocked and now he wanted revenge. So Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus are sent out to destroy the world and only Godzilla can stop them.

The Review: Godzilla’s final film appearance for nearly 15 years is one of the best of the original series and that's because it tries to take itself a little more seriously than say Godzilla Vs Megalon. Of course you can't really take it totally seriously because it's a Godzilla flick, but that's beside the point. There are few of the comedic moments that plagued some of the previous films and even the monster fights are relatively seriously (no tag team wrestling or silly bits with Godzilla doing flying kicks and stuff!). What I didn’t get however was that Godzilla found it hard to beat Mechagodzilla in the previous film on his own before King Caesar came along to help him out. So why put him up against the same opponent AND Titanosaurus at the same time? It seems a bit unfair to me but at least they didn't pair another monster up with Godzilla and have another tag team match.. Anyway you can probably guess what is going to happen in this before you start watching but that doesn’t spoil any of this fun film. Titanosaurus shows up and does some damage before Godzilla comes along and kicks his ass. Then Mechagodzilla appears and starts to go on a rampage with Titanosaurus. The humans discover that aliens are controlling both monsters. Godzilla gets his ass kicked. The humans defeat the aliens. Godzilla then kicks Mechagodzilla's and Titanosaurus's asses. It's more or less the same plot thread that both Godzilla and Gamera films have followed for years. Why change a successful and popular formula? Miniature cities get stomped with some really bad rear projection at times when the monsters are walking around. There are some decent monster battles too, mainly the finale where the 3 monsters duke it out outside Tokyo. And the aliens are dubbed really badly again! Add in one of the best scores of the series by Akira Ifukube and we have a fitting send off.

Final Verdict: What more do you want from a Godzilla film? This is a decent if flawed entry (namely the obvious budget problems) into the series and was a worthy way to put the series on the back burner for as long as it was.

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