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This review is for the standard DVD edition of 'Invasion of the Astro-Monster' otherwise known as 'Monster Zero' released by Classic Media.
This release includes both the American versions and the Japanese versions. The differences are minor.
TIMELINE: This movie is the 6th overall Godzilla movie out of 31 live action movies as of February, 2019. This is the 6th of 15 movies from the 'Showa era' (1954-1975) of Godzilla movies. The Godzilla featured in this movie is the second Godzilla and the same one that appears in movies 2 through 5 in the 'Showa' era.
6TH GODZILLA MOVIE OR 2ND KING GHIDORAH MOVIE?...OR EVEN THE THIRD RODAN MOVIE? Whether you use the
American title or the Toho International title, this movie is still named after King Ghidorah. Godzilla appears in this movie less than in any other Godzilla movie. He is in it for a little over 5 minutes. I suppose you can call it the 6th Godzilla movie but that would be like calling 'The Avengers', the third Hulk movie or 4th Iron Man movie. Godzilla and Rodan essentially appear for the same amount of time. This is every bit a Rodan movie as it is a Godzilla movie. For the record, I would call it the second King Ghidorah movie if you made me choose. I guess this is splitting hairs. It can be all of the above.
WHY IS THE TITLE TO THE AMERICAN VERSION MONSTER ZERO? The term Monster zero is used by the aliens. It is what they call Ghidorah. Their names for Godzilla and Rodan are Monster one and Monster two.
THE DVD: The pictures is standard definition and it is a very nice print. It is clean and you won't see much in the way of noise. The opening credit sequence for the 'Monster Zero' version is not clean and no restoration work was done. The opening credit sequence for the Japanese version has been restored. You get a bunch of extra's which include a commentary track. There is a biography on ......Tanaka. There is also a theatrical trailer. You get subtitles with the Japanese version but not the American version.
GODZILLA'S OPPONENT: Godzilla is allied with Rodan and is pitted against Ghidorah. However the real enemy is an alien race called the Xilien's. They come from one of Jupiter's moons and they wish to take over the Earth. Ghidorah attacks only because he is under their control.
*****WARNING - MANY SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT*****
PLOT/SYNOPSIS: The movie opens in the near future, within a few years of 1966. Glenn and Kazuo Fuji are two astronauts that are sent out to the area of Jupiter to investigate a mysterious planet or what is called the 13th moon of Jupiter (At the time this movie was made, there were 12 known moons of Jupiter. As of the beginning of 2019, there were 79 known moons of Jupiter). There have been some mysterious radio waves coming from the moon.
Back on Earth, Kazuo's sister, Haruno is in love with a would-be inventor named Tetsuo. Kazuo does not like Tetsuo because he doesn't think he is good enough for his sister. Tetsuo is trying to sell one of his invention's which is some sort of personal alarm. At dinner, Tetsuo reveals that he has an offer on his invention. Namikawa from the World Education Corp. shows up to offer a large contract for the invention. She tells him that he will be paid as the device is sold.
Glenn and Kazuo land on Planet X. It appears to be barren but they soon find out it is not. They are invited into an entrance into the ground. Here they meet Xiliens. They propose to give Earth a cure for cancer if they allow the Xiliens to borrow Rodan and Godzilla to help them defeat Monster Zero. Monster Zero is there on Planet X and he is supposedly a menace. Monster Zero is King Ghidorah. It was last seen on Earth flying away into space after being defeated by Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra in 'Ghidroah, The Three Headed Monster'. The astronauts agree to bring the proposal to Earth.
Back on earth, Tetsuo is getting the runaround from the World Education Corp. They are deliberately not producing his invention. It turns out that Glenn is dating Miss Namikawa. Shortly, the aliens come to meet the Earthlings but instead of coming from space they come out of a lake. They capture Godzilla and Rodan and put them in giant bubbles which they transport to Planet X. Glenn and Kazuo accompany the aliens back to Planet X. Tetsuo decides to follow Miss Namikawa since he is suspicious of her and her company. Upon following her to the World Education Corp. headquarters, Tetsuo is captured and put in a cell.
Now on Planet X, King Ghidorah shows up to fight Godzilla and Rodan. The battle goes as follows:
BATTLE #1: Ghidorah flies at Godzilla and Rodan with all heads firing their electrical bolts. Godzilla goes down. Godzilla hides behind a boulder and blast Ghidorah. Rodan drops a rock on Ghidorah. Godzilla throws rocks at Ghidorah and then jumps on him. Ghidorah decides to call it a day.
Decision: Godzilla and Rodan by TKO when Ghidorah doesn't answer the bell. However, the fight was fixed by the Xiliens. Ghidorah took a dive.
The aliens seem quite enthusiastic about the result. Kazuo and Glenn decide to go roaming around without permission. They come across a few woman that all are identical to Miss Namikawa. The aliens forgive the two for wandering around and give them an audio tape which is supposed to have the miracle cure on it. Of course, when they get home, they find out that the tape tells Earth to surrender. Glenn confronts Miss Namikawa who bets Glenn to marry her anyway. The aliens vaporize Miss Namikawa. But not before she slips Glenn a note. The note lets Earth know that certain noises are deadly to the aliens. That is the reason why they bought Tetsuo's invention. They wanted to stop it from being produced. Glenn and Kazuo get thrown in a cell with Tetsuo. Tetsuo happens to have one of his noisemakers on him and they subdue the guards and escape. Since Earth is not agreeing to the demands of the Xiliens, they decide to attack Earth using Monster's Zero, One and Two, better known as Ghidorah, Godzilla and Rodan. Earth starts broadcasting the deadly noise and the Xiliens are defeated. Once control is broken, Godzilla and Rodan are confused. They decide to fight Ghidorah.
BATTLE #2: Well I forgot to take notes for this when I was watching the movie. It wasn't a very good battle. Just a little more of the same from the previous battles by these combatants. I do remember the ending well. All three go tumbling off a cliff and only Ghidorah emerges from the sea. He flies off into space.
Decision: This is either a Draw or a victory by Ghidrah since he emerges. That doesn't mean Godzilla isn't swimming away. Since Rodan doesn't surface, and he's not a sea creature, I'm going to have to give this victory to Ghidrah. He can't continue to fight if their is nobody left to fight.
Bottom line: Ghidrah by KO over Rodan. Ghidorah by Decision over Godzilla.
We are told that the monsters will be OK and that Glenn and Kazuo need to head to Planet X as ambassadors.
PRODUCTION: This movie was made in 1966 by Toho. It was not released in the U.S. until 1970. It was part of a double feature with 'War of the Gargantua's'. That movie was also made in 1966. By the time this movie finally made it to America, 3 other Godzilla movies had already been released.
-The movie uses stock footage from 'Rodan', 'Mothra' and 'Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster'.
-Kumi Mizuno, who plays the alien girl (all of them!) would become a fan favorite of Godzilla fans. She is sort of like the Japanese version of a scream queen. She would also appear in 'Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster' 'Frankenstein Conquers the World', 'Gorath', 'War of the Gargantua's' and 'Attack of the Mushroom People'. Many years later she would return to the genre in 'Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla' and 'Godzilla: Final Wars'
-Starting with this movie and continuing for a few movies, AIP, the American filmmaker, had some input into Toho 'Kaiju' movies. The financed part of these movies and this led to Nick Adams starring in a few. Adams, the American star of this movie also appears in Frankenstein Conquers the World'. He fell in love with Kumi Mizuno and proposed to her. She did not accept and married someone else. He would be found dead not long after he was done filming this movie.
-Both Adams and Takarada spoke their native languages. They were each dubbed depending upon which country the movie was shown in.
-In the International version of the movie, the cure the Xiliens offer is for all diseases.
-The musical score is done by, of course, Akira Ifukube.
-This would be Akira Takarada's 99th movie.
-Godzilla has an all new costume for this movie.
-Unfortunately, the usage of stock footage begins in earnest with this movie.
COMMENTS:
-I never figured out what that invention was supposed to be and what it had to do with education. It seemed like it was just a noisemaker.
-I thought Akira Takarada's character of the astronaut Fuji came across as a jerk.
-Since the Xilien's sent Ghidorah to attack Earth does this mean that they sent him to attack Venus also as he did in Ghidorah, 'The Three-Headed Monster' (or Mars if you are watching the American version)? One would have to assume so if these movies take place in the same universe, which they are supposed to. I guess we will never definitively know. It's not as if Toho ever worried about continuity.
-What happened to Mothra? The aliens knew that King Ghidorah had been defeated by the Earth monsters.
Why didn't they ask for Mothra also? I hate being cynical but this probably had something to do with the budget.
-Why would astronauts carry guns to a moon of Jupiter? To this day, I've never heard of such a thing as a gun in outer space.
-Godzilla and Rodan are brought to Planet X. Do they need air? Is their air on Planet X?
THOSE CRAZY TOHO GUYS:
-What exactly is Rodan doing completely buried in a mountainside. How did he get there? How did Godzilla get into that lake without anybody noticing?
THE BEGINNING OF THE END: This is the movie that starts the downfall for Godzilla movies as being taken seriously in the 'Showa' era. After Ghidorah is defeated on Planet X, Godzilla does a dance. Yes, for real. This dance was copied from a children's show or comic. I'm not sure which one.
THOSE WILD AND CRAZY XILIENS:
-Why couldn't the aliens just ask if they'd be welcome on earth? Wouldn't it have been easier that way. There was almost nobody left on their planet. Water is the most abundant resource on our planet.
-Why didn't the aliens just use their gold to purchase anything they wanted on earth? They could have lived like kings with all that money and dominated earth politics and easily infiltrated. They look like humans so nobody would ever know what was up.
-Why announce your plans to earth? Clearly the aliens had the capability of taking Godzilla and Rodan anytime they wanted. They already controlled Ghidorah.
-Why make all your women look exactly the same? For that matter, why wouldn't the men look the same? Wouldn't you want some differentiation?
-Who programmed that computer?
-Why didn't they just pay Tetsuo to keep him off their backs? Again, with all their gold, this would have been easy. All they had to do was tell him they would go into production in a few months.
-Why reveal that they were already on Earth. Once again, this make no sense. They immediately stir up distrust by doing this.
-I don't get why they go through the charade of bringing Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X only to return them. I'd understand if the point was to get rid of them so they couldn't defend Earth.
SO THAT'S WHY... : I always thought that the monster control devices used in 'Destroy All Monsters' was a dumb idea. How ridiculous did it sound that humans just invented a device to control the monsters. But that was before I ever saw 'Invasion of the Astro Monster'. I only saw this movie for the first time in the past decade. I never realized that aliens had invented that device and it is the very same device that is used in the future in 'Destroy All Monsters'.
DOES GODZILLA WIN? It's hard to call Godzilla a winner in this movie even though Ghidorah takes off for outer space. He tumbles into the ocean and doesn't surface, very much the same way as he does in 'King Kong vs. Godzilla'. King Kong takes off for parts unknown, presumably for home. Godzilla was declared by most to be the loser. Doesn't Ghidorah do the exact same thing? In both movies, we do not see Godzilla surface. Of course, every Godzilla fan knows that Godzilla swims underwater. Bottom line is if Godzilla lost to King Kong then he lost to Ghidorah. I personally rate both movies a draw. Let's not forget about Rodan either. Rodan is definitely not a sea creature and is quite the opposite. We don't see him surface either. Almost as an afterthought, we are told that both monsters will be OK and the movie ends.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE XILIENS? They said they would return despite being defeated. Indeed they do return, but not for almost 40 years. For that matter, their return would be in another timeline altogether. They return for the very fun 'Godzilla: Final Wars'. Just in time before a long layoff for Godzilla.
CONCLUSIONS: This is a lesser effort by Toho. on the surface, it looks like a more expensive movie than it really is. This movie uses stock footage from Toho's own movies for several scenes. The plot was nutty and it has a weak ending to both the aliens and the story overall. The aliens are defeated by 'noise' of all things. This gets on the list of easiest ways to defeat an alien race along with water and bacteria. The ending was especially weak. Didn't we just see King Kong and Godzilla tumble into the ocean a few movies ago.
RATINGS:
Picture: 9/10 for the Japanese standard definition picture
Plot: 7/10 - The plot itself is zany but at least it's interesting. It's always good to have outer space aliens in your plot. That said, the ending wasn't very original.
The Monsters: 10/10 - Ghidorah is Godzilla's greatest adversary and one of Toho's best designs. Rodan is a classic Godzilla foe and ally and of course Godzilla, nuff' said.
The Battle: 4/10: To be honest, this was very weak. The battle was inferior to the previous movie and there isn't much new.
Overall: I'm giving this release 4 stars. I didn't like the movie very much but overall it's a nice release.
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Spike Owen
We need from you Monster Zero 1 and Monster Zero 2, Godzilla and Rodan.
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An Excellent Godzilla movie!!! Do Not Miss this film in the entry!!
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Godzilla defender of earth.
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I am very happy with it
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