Giant Monster Movies

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Rodan Movies

Rodan

Japan, 1956
Rodan
Starring Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata.
Directed by Ishirô Honda.

Honda's followup to Godzilla, King of the Monsters was filmed in color and has even better special effects. A miner finds a giant flying dinosaur deep underground. The creature reaches the surface and begins eating people. Then the first animal's mate shows up and the two monsters destroy a city before the Japanese military figures out how to destroy them.

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Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster

Japan, 1964
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster
Starring Yosuke Natsuki, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Akiko Wakabayashi.
Directed by Ishiro Honda.

King Ghidorah falls to earth and can only be opposed by three already established monsters: Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan. This sprawling story has destruction, huge battles, and lots of spy intrigue. It also has a hilarious real-sounding-but-made-up country called Selgina and conversation between the various monsters, who can understand each other's roars.

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Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

a.k.a. Monster Zero; Invasion of the Astro-Monsters
Japan, 1965
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero
Starring Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno.
Directed by Ishirô Honda.

Aliens offer to help us with our monster problems by taking Godzilla and Rodan to their planet to fight King Ghidorah. The twist is pretty easy to predict these days, of course. The aliens are lying and soon all three monsters, under alien control, are trashing Japan.

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero is pretty silly by any standard, but it is fun. You have to love the aliens' fashion sense and light-up saucers. There's more than enough monster action, and the cast features lots of faces familiar to anyone who watches Japanese fantasy.

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Destroy All Monsters

Japan, 1968
Destroy All Monsters
Starring Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yoshio Tsuchiya.
Directed by Ishiro Honda.

Destroy All Monsters was probably the last great Godzilla movie. In the year 1999, all of the world's monsters have been imprisoned on one island. Aliens release the monsters and demand all governments surrender to them. Earth's scientists release the monsters from alien control, but the aliens retaliate by unleashing King Ghidorah. The climactic monster battle is the most ambitious kaiju scene ever filmed.

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Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Japan, 1993
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
Starring Masahiro Takashima, Ryoko Sano, Megumi Odaka.
Directed by Takao Okawara.

The Heisei Godzilla never featured aliens, so this version of Mechagodzilla was built by the japanese to defend their country against the nearly constant attacks of Godzilla. Also in this film are a new version of Rodan, and Baby Godzilla, another member of Godzilla's species that would feature in the next two films.

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Godzilla: Final Wars

Japan, 2004
Godzilla: Final Wars
Starring Masahiro Matsuoka, Rei Kikukawa, Akira Takarada.
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura.

Allegedly the last Godzilla movie for the foreseeable future, Godzilla: Final Wars is a big budget blow-out with Godzilla and twelve other monsters.It was supposed to be in honor of the 50th anniversary of Godzilla (1954) but it's more in line with the 30th anniversary of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) in terms of goofy tone.

Giant monsters appear all over the world, overwhelming the Earth Defense Forces. Earth's salvation comes in the form of aliens from Planet X, who make all the monsters disappear and warn humanity that an astral body called Gorath is on a collision course with our planet. Are the aliens sincere? Of course not! When the aliens' true motives are uncovered the only force on earth that can stand up to them is Godzilla!

Among the classic monsters appearing (at least briefly) are Anguirus, Ebirah, Gigan, Hedorah, Kamacuras, King Seesar, Kumonga, Manda, Minilla, Mothra, and Rodan. There's also a new monster called Monster X which is revealed to be a new version of King Ghidorah.


A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Giant Monster Movies is a Stomp Tokyo production. All text is copyright © 2003 Stomp Tokyo. Movie stills and cover art photos are the intellectual property of their creators, and are used here for the purposes of review only.