Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

- Gojira tai Megaro
Tag team monster action, 8 May 2007

The plot of a movie like Godzilla vs. Megalon hardly matters. The movie follows the same basic premise that most of these Toho monster mashes follow – A monster, for whatever reason, poses a threat to humanity. Godzilla is summoned from Monster Island to provide assistance in defeating the monster. The End. That's basically what you get here – Godzilla doing battle with Megalon with the fate of the world in the balance. Megalon, the giant beetle-like creature with giant rotating drill-like arms capable of spiting bombs, is joined by Gigan, a giant chicken-like creature with incredibly sharp talon-like arms. Fortunately for Godzilla (and all of mankind), he also has an ally – Jet Jaguar, a giant Ultraman style robot. It no-holds barred action as these behemoths do battle!

If you don't take this stuff too seriously, Godzilla vs. Megalon can be quite a bit of fun. There's enough interesting "filler" going on before the monsters do battle to make even the "boring" parts reasonably entertaining. As with most Toho films, this one includes some really nice miniature work. The scenes of Megalon destroying the dam are very nicely done. As an added bonus, Godzilla vs. Megalon features a few unexpected surreal moments involving the inhabitants of Seatopia. I wasn't quite prepared for a dance number in the middle of my Godzilla movie. And to top things off, the leader of the Seatopians looks like some sort of extra from a Bob Fosse movie. Bizarre!

6/10