Customer Reviews

Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla

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2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First off, as someone who has been a Godzilla fan for ages, I know all the films by heart and can tell you why each one is good and bad in it's own various ways. Now for the DVD. This particular release is a new HD transfer of the international release print done by Sony Pictures as all of their DVD's now feature HD transfers. The original Japanese audio comes from the recently released Japanese 50th anniversary DVD collection so it sounds wonderful while the English audio is taken from the original international print and while neither one has real directional sound, oddly enough, the Japanese track sounds the best as the English one is poorly balanced. I guess it comes from the poor ADR dialogue techniques often used with dubs. The video is a pristine anamorphic transfer of the international release print and is as good as it can get without digital restoration considering the fact that the film has held up well this long. I would really love it if each of the classic and 84-95 films were restored using the Lowry Digital Imagining software and techniques as they would really bring out the true beauty of these films. Anyway, if you like your Godzilla DVD's done the right way with quality, buy this one!

This movie has everything a good Godzilla movie should have--monsters, fights, spies, scientists, aliens, the works. You don't even have to wait until the end of the movie to see a fight because the action starts early in this one. First, an old cave is discovered with mysterious artwork on the walls and a unique statue in a cleft, and a young woman has a prophecy that a monster will come to destroy the earth. As if on cue, Godzilla pops up, but he is immediately attacked by Anguiras. Right away, you know something's fishy because Anguiras is Godzilla's sidekick. This Godzilla is ruthless, and I am still upset about the injury poor Anguiras receives at his hand. Before long, Godzilla shows up, the two Godzillas fight and the impostor is exposed as a cyborg. Godzilla takes a pretty good beating and disappears, but MechaGodzilla is also forced to retreat and seek repair. Aliens are controlling MechaGodzilla, but they need the help of a brilliant Japanese scientist to make the necessary repairs. They capture the scientist and coerce him into helping them. Meanwhile, the good guys are running around trying to figure out the meaning of the strange statue found at the start of the movie. They find out that King Seesar, a guardian monster of sorts on Okinawa, is portrayed on the statue, so they must race to awaken Seesar to fight MechaGodzilla because they do not know if Godzilla is still alive.

The battles in this movie are quite good. MechaGodzilla has everything but the kitchen sink in his arsenal, and he even flies. King Seesar is a little weird, basically looking like a giant dog of some sort mixed with who knows what. The explosions, laser weapons, fiery breath, and general mayhem are very good, and many models are blown to bits. One of my favorite parts, though, is the song that is sung to awaken King Seesar--I have no idea what the words mean, but it is a great song I sometimes listen to just by itself. Interestingly enough, I assume the song is in Japanese, yet it is still dubbed (and rather badly in places).

In conclusion, this is easily one of the best movies in the original Godzilla series. If you don't enjoy this one, you almost surely won't enjoy any of the others, so this is a good litmus test for Godzilla newbies.

Who is Godzilla's greatest enemy? While some may vote for the three-headed King Ghidora or the soaring Mothra, to me that honor will always rest on MechaGodzilla, the star of no less than five Godzilla films, more than any other monster. Here, in the 1974 "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla," we have the first appearance of that mechanical menace.

Filmed as a 20th anniversary celebration of Japan's most famous monster, "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla" is a bloody and violent entry in the Godzilla series, with MechaGodzilla being a merciless killer, tearing the dinosaur-like Angirasu's jaw in half in the opening battle scene, then stomping off with bloody hands. The vanguard of an invasion, and controlled by a clan of ape-faced aliens from outer space, MechaGodzilla rampages throughout the unhappy island nation of Japan, and Godzilla is powerless to stop him. In order to stop the mechanical terror, an ancient, sleeping deity, King Seesar, is awakened and brought into the fray. Together, Godzilla and King Seesar withstand the assault of missiles, ray blasts, and a host of other weapons in the arsenal of MechaGodzilla.

If you like Godzilla films, than you pretty much know what you are getting yourself into. Big stompy fun, with giant monsters treading on toy tanks and beating the heck out of each other. "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla" has all of these traditional delights, with a bit of a harder, more violent edge than the more-campy releases. It is still brilliant, Sunday morning fun.

This DVD release is one of the best available Godzilla flicks on the US market, but still not complete. The Japanese language track is included, which is an absolute must. This is an 85 minute version, rather than the full 97 minutes of the Japanese release. However, it is superior to the original US "Godzilla vs the Cosmic Monster" version, which ran 80 minutes.

Jun Fukuda's GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA is one of the most popular of the original Godzilla series. It's the best of the Godzilla films released in the 1970s, and possibly one of the best of the entire original series. The plot involves a group of apelike aliens (PLANETS OF THE APES, anyone?) which build a cyborg Godzilla to conquer Earth. Can Godzilla stop the cyborg? What do you think?

For me, the highlight of the film is Masaru Sato's kooky score. Akira Ifukube's music makes the monster battles seem horrifying, but Sato's music makes them seem like a major rumble, more like a major wrestling match than an epic battle of beasts. This was Sato's last Godzilla score; he'd previously written inventive and unusual scores for SON OF GODZILLA and GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER, both directed by Jun Fukuda.

Jun Fukuda isn't a popular name amongst most Godzilla fans because his films tend to be more silly than most (namely SON OF GODZILLA, though he also directed the series' worst entry, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON). I must admit that I love him. Granted, he's no Ishiro Honda, but his Godzilla films are very fun and amusing. Though most of GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA is what you'd expect from a 70s Godzilla flick, there are some moments of greatness, including some apocalyptic shots of Godzilla during a thunderstorm and of Mechagodzilla setting Tokyo aflame at night. There's also a great scene where Anguirus, in his final appearance until 2004's GODZILLA: FINAL WARS, rumbles with the skin-covered Mechagodzilla.

The writing, like most everything else in the film, has its moments, but for the most part is just silly. Sometimes it's quite confusing. The Godzilla suit looks ridiculous rather than terrifying, but that may have been the producers' goal, as the series had become more for children than anyone else by this point. Mechagodzilla is neat, but King Caesar seems out of place and foolish.

All in all, this is one of the most fun entries in the Godzilla series, and very likely the best Godzilla film to come out of the 1970s. The Big G returned for one last rumble in the direct sequel, TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA, before disappearing for nine years.

First off, anyone who buys these(this one in particular)movies for a small child needs to know these "childrens" Godzilla films were made for the Japanese market. At the time they were made, most of the nation was still scarred from the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is why Godzilla is a such a popular and poignant character in Japanese culture; he embodies the destruction and terror the atomic/nuclear age brought to this particular country. The threat was still prevalent, and if I lived in the only country in the world that had first-hand experience of its destructive power(and the aftermath of it), I would definately relate to these films, as did the people of Japan. The Japanese children at the time were aware of what had happened to their parents and their nation, and were accordingly less shielded to violence than American children. Aside from that, anyone who decides to show this to a child, remember; this is a MONSTER MOVIE and MONSTERS ARE SUPPOSED TO SCARE CHILDREN. So, please use your common sense before showing this to a 3-year-old, ok?

It's about time that these older Godzilla titles are given a proper release on DVD. This one, Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla is my favorite G movie of all time. It is the very first one I saw as a kid and has many of the qualities that attracted me initially to the series. This film ranks among the cheesiest of the series along with Godzilla VS Megalon and Godzilla VS Gigan. The "ape men" aliens, silly prophecies of doom, funky soundtrack and laughable effects all add to the inevitable charm of this movie. I still love watching it today, nearly 20 years after first seeing it.

One of the best Godzilla films of the original series (second on my list to GODZILLA VS GIGAN) this film was made to celebrate Godzillas 20th anniversery as a movie star. For the occasion, Toho has thought of a new enemy for Godzilla, and it is by far his most powerful opponent. Mechagodzilla, disguised the the real thing (if you're keen you'll notice that the beast fails to emmit Godzillas trademark roar) goes on a rampage and smashes buildings. Everyone's confused at first. After all, Godzilla announced his disposition as a good guy in 1965, with the defeat of Ghidrah. Angillas, who helped Godzilla defeat a pair of alien invadors in GODZILLA VS. GIGAN, makes a cammeo appearance near the begining of the the film, but he gets beat up by the disguised Mechagodzilla. The real Godzilla appears on cue and unmasks the virluent cyborg sooner or later, and after suffering a defeat, pulls himself together again and destroys the monster with the help of yet another new found friend. You'll want to applaud during these scenes. Honestly, this is one of the coolest Godzilla films ever made, and his greatest challenge yet.

I thought that this was an okay movie, not really one that I would want to watch over and over again. Maybe if King Seasa, Seasar, Seesaw, Shisa, whatever, had played a bigger role it would have interested me more. Does anyone get the whole play on Okinawa thing going on? He is a Shisa, one of those lion-dog palace guardians. So it is interesting that the person who can awaken him is the last descendant of the royal family. The Shisa in Okinawan belief can swallow evil, so it is appropriate that King See-Saw (when I was younger I thought it was spelled this way!!) can take in the energy rays from MechaGodzilla and shot them back. Overall, too weird of a movie to watch too many times. Maybe I'll get it again just to learn the King See-Saw song. Does anyone know that one!?

"Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla" is a completely enjoyable Godzilla movie, and, in terms of quality, probably the best of the 1970s Godzilla movies. Though aspects of it (like the silver-suited monkey aliens who want to destroy the world with the title mechanical Godzilla clone) are laughable, and the pacing is a bit uneven, the film feels a lot grittier and more mature than some of the previous entries. The monster fight scenes with Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, King Caeser (a rather bad idea for a monster, unfortunately), and, briefly, Angillas, are enjoyable as always, and things are a bit more lively than usual.
The DVD from Columbia Tristar is nothing short of a revealation. The film's brownish-red color palette looks brighter, clearer, and sharper than it has since probably its original theatrical release. Purists will be happy to know that, like Tristar's other recent Godzilla releases, both the Japanese and English-dubbed tracks are included. There are no extras other than some trailers (including one for Tristar's entire line of Godzilla movies and another for the Godzilla cartoon show).

I'd have to say I've never seen this movie as clearly as it's presented on this DVD. The opening Anguirus scene, which always seemed to me to be murky, is very clear. Sony for some reason also decided to change the Toho logo to the new version, but it makes no difference overall. I recommend this DVD to all Godzilla and kaiju fans.