By Joe Gibson
Welcome back to
Plan9Crunch, where, previously we gave a brief overview of the March Godzilla
film releases, especially how they intersect with one man, director Jun Fukuda.
Indeed, being directly responsible for the majority of the 70s Godzilla film
releases, he incidentally made three March Godzilla films, with Honda’s March
Godzilla film Terror of Mechagodzilla directly following up on Fukuda
characters and plots and Wingard’s two wacky Godzilla and Kong March movies
being spiritual successors to the themes and aesthetics. Consequently, March is
the best time to unpack the influence Fukuda had on this franchise for better
or for worse, and the best way to do this is to rank these March movies. (Note:
I have also previously ranked the Gamera movies and refer to my thoughts there
as analogies for some of the relationships of these movies. Reading that post
will not be crucial to understanding this one, but I will provide a link.)
Link to Fukuda Overview:
https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2025/03/introduction-to-jun-fukuda-plan9crunch.html
Link to Gamera Film
Ranking: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/11/joes-gamera-film-ranking-worst-to-best.html
6. Godzilla vs
Mechagodzilla 1974 directed by Jun Fukuda
In Godzilla vs
Mechagodzilla, the core human ensemble uncovers an artifact linked to an Okinawan
end times prophecy that teases the return of King Ghidorah but is actually
about a robotic version of Godzilla disguised in a skin suit that defeats
ankylosaur Anguirus before being stopped by a teamup of Godzilla and new
monster related to the artifact King Caesar (an Okinawan Shisa dog lion hybrid
that protects a specific royal family).
Having Godzilla vs
Mechagodzilla this low is definitely a hot take. This is a favorite of many
and, at first, appears to be a very strong film and showcase for Fukuda. As his
last Godzilla film, he would know what works and what does not, and, for the
most part, it is a great demonstration of his vision. The spy action is at its
most thrilling and constant, there is genuinely great chemistry in the cast,
and the campy underdog Godzilla is at perhaps his most compelling when
Mechagodzilla makes him bleed the most he ever has. There are just a few
practicality and plot considerations that make this a broken premise for me.
Least importantly,
Godzilla and King Caesar have negligible chemistry and cooperation in the final
fight in such a way that I honestly think is a detriment to both of their
characters. Similarly, the “I have to rescue my brother” Fukuda staple is at
its least compelling and most obligatory here (the lead’s brother gets
kidnapped late in the movie and rescued very quickly). Next least important,
the idea of a Mechagodzilla is such a bizarre thing for a smart and
technologically advanced faction that it does require some suspension of
disbelief (even stranger to first put it in a skinsuit that prevents it from
using most of its arsenal). More importantly, there is a switcheroo with the
artifact that results in the lead risking his life and literally almost dying
just to procure a fake statue that he made and no one else knew about. The
character survives due to outside intervention by a flamboyant James Bond named
Nanbara and otherwise would have died for incredibly stupid reasons. That
shatters much of the plot already. Most importantly, by the end of the movie,
Godzilla defeats Mechagodzilla by turning himself magnetic, which he is only
able to do because lightning happened to strike him earlier and for some reason
it did not hurt him like lightning was established to do in previous films.
This is a Gamera vs Viras situation where the movie is really good in many
categories but has intense low points too. The next one is a bit more like
Gamera vs Zigra (completely inept) but far more fun to watch in a way akin to
Plan 9 From Outer Space through how bizarre it is.
5. Godzilla vs Megalon
directed by Jun Fukuda
In Godzilla vs Megalon,
nuclear tests anger underground Seatopians, who wage war on the surface with
their monster Megalon but also humanoid agents that abduct Goro Ibuki and his
kid brother to reprogram inexplicably size changing robot Jet Jaguar into
guiding Megalon. Godzilla’s friend Anguirus falls into a sinkhole, so he makes
friends with Jet Jaguar, and the two battle Megalon and a returning Gigan
(we’ll get to his film soon enough). Here is a link to some video thoughts on
how bizarre this movie is: https://youtu.be/1HMV1hMPgzs?si=eRpmfGNYJ78gxfVJ
This is a movie that
does not make sense scene to scene. Goro Ibuki and the aliens espouse and act
on information that the audience learned from different scenes where they were
not present, Jet Jaguar somehow changes size and the Seatopians somehow know
the Nebulan aliens whose whole gimmick was that they were trying to help
destroy humanity to inherit the Earth (they’re cockroaches; it surprisingly
makes more sense than this entire film). So why is this film higher than
Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla? That is a good question. Really, I could go either
way on this, but it comes down to the fact that Godzilla vs Megalon is the
culmination of bizarre genius that, like all the best cult films, takes on new
meaning from its bizarre tendencies, while Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is almost
a really strong film that just was not able to stick the landing.
4. Godzilla x Kong: The
New Empire directed by Adam Wingard
If you need a refresher,
Godzilla x Kong is the story of Kong finding others like him in the Hollow
Earth, including one evil dictator Skar King, whose control over an army of
apes and an ice dragon Shimo prompt a tripartite pact and teamup of Kong
(protecting a baby ape named Suko he found), Godzilla and Mothra. Also, the
humans have a subplot. You can listen to my review here: https://youtu.be/AI_FMxtTlIk?si=zwQoHpnG9JKFEoEx or read my review by
following the links here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-three-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html
Having argued GxK to be
a four (or five) out of 10 in three Plan9Crunch articles and a video, it might
be surprising to have it up this high. I am indeed the kind of person that
thinks there are more good Godzilla films than bad, but I am uniquely situated
in my poor evaluation of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1974 (and I think of
Godzilla vs Megalon as more of a pleasant fever dream than a movie). This is a
movie that starts really strong, but the cathartic moments in acts 2 and 3 come
at the cost of the storytelling’s internal logic…except for the stuff
pertaining to the baby Kong called Suko who has a believable redemption arc in
ways that enhance the characterization of villain Skar King and hero Kong. The
movie excels in its visual storytelling to an almost unprecedented degree, but,
as the creative team themselves articulated, they stopped caring about the
logic of certain plot payoffs and worldbuilding details midway through
production, consequently an uneven Best Worst Movie.
3. Godzilla vs Gigan
directed by Jun Fukuda
In Godzilla vs Gigan,
cockroach aliens seek to create “absolute peace” on earth through constructing
an amusement park that doubles as an attack command post. When a Scooby Doo
team forms to stop them (and Godzilla and his ankylosaur friend Anguirus arrive
to investigate), the aliens’ arsenal includes beam launching Godzilla Tower, a
new cyborg chicken Gigan and the return of King Ghidorah (last seen when he
died in a movie canonically set after this one but which came out four years
earlier).
If you are keeping
track, Godzilla vs Gigan was the last chance for Fukuda to top this list, and
it honestly could have if not for a couple of features. While a simple and
streamlined film grounded in the perspective of a Scooby Doo team consisting of
a young manga artist (with the manga aesthetic extending to speech bubbles from
Godzilla and Anguirus), his karate girlfriend, a corncob wielding hippie (I
will not elaborate, just watch the movie) and a young girl trying to find her
missing brother, it falters in its Nebulan alien villains who constantly reveal
aspects of their plan very stupidly (this is still vastly better than the
contrivances in Godzilla vs Megalon). Also, despite great characterization for
Godzilla and Anguirus in codifying their friendship dynamic, the technical
problems with the film are quite distracting, and those include the stock
footage changing a fight scene from night to day to night again, the Ghidorah
suit/puppet being unreasonably stiff, and the Godzilla suit literally falling
apart on screen (with the Anguirus water suit not looking much better). This is
the kind of movie that I think would work perfectly for me to review, so just
let us know if you want a more in depth review of Godzilla vs Gigan.
2. Godzilla vs Kong
directed by Adam Wingard
In Godzilla vs Kong, the
two title monsters fight but also shady humans manipulate events on each
monster’s subplot to arrange events to line up to their endgame. You can read
my review of it here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-godzilla-versus-kong-2021-remake.html
I recommend you read my
review of Godzilla vs Kong so that you can be on the same page about my
thoughts on the movie. To make things short, the movie makes a lot more sense
viewed through the implications of its visual language (i.e. Nathan Lind is the
Carl Denham of the movie because he is introduced through Denham University and
thus his climactic moment with Kong is the point of his story, which wraps back
around to his previous moments of characterization in pinch points which do
actually correspond to him gradually learning to take responsibility for and
protect Kong. Also, Mechagodzilla’s eye must be the consciousness of Ghidorah
deliberately luring Godzilla around because we see it glow whenever he attacks,
and dialogue from Walter and Ren confirms they are not the ones
responsible).
However, this type of
reading must note the constant coincidences that Lind and Walter Simmons both
rely on, and, while I have argued that to be an intentional juxtaposition of
how much each character is willing to sacrifice for the others around them once
they are out of luck, I understand if you are reticent to adopt that. Moments
like Godzilla digging through the Earth into the Hollow Earth cave that just so
happened to be underneath where the action was happening are unfortunate and
should count against the film. I will defend the team Godzilla trio, but I do
have to admit that the trio at the heart of Godzilla vs Gigan’s Scooby Doo team
(the protagonist, corncob hippie and young girl looking for her brother)
carries out a more intelligent and better defined investigation. It was very
close between Godzilla vs Gigan and Godzilla vs Kong for me. If Godzilla vs
Gigan’s technical side were stronger, it might have gotten this spot, but
really the only bad effects moment in GvK is Kong’s shoulder clipping through a
building, which affects nothing.
1. Terror of
Mechagodzilla directed by Ishiro Honda
Terror of Mechagodzilla
is the direct sequel to Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla where the Simeon aliens and
Mechagodzilla return but also with the help of a disgraced scientist, his
cyborg daughter and new monster Titanosaurus. This is also notable for a moment
where Godzilla’s suit catches on fire while he is running through
Mechagodzilla’s full barrage, not a scripted moment but one that suit actor
Toru Kawai salvaged for an iconic moment.
While I understand the
optics of putting the one Ishiro Honda film above all the Fukuda and Wingard
films on this list might be a little poor (and is the main reason I would like
to conclude this trilogy of Fukuda posts with a YouTube ranking of just his
movies), Terror of Mechagodzilla is just that good. One of the main criticisms
of movies like Godzilla 2014 or Invasion of Astro Monster/Godzilla vs Monster
Zero 1965 is the small amount of Godzilla screentime. While Monster Zero
absolutely lacks Godzilla screentime (though the romance is strong enough to
completely offset that), G14 actually has more than its sequel Godzilla King of
the Monsters, despite the latter movie feeling like Godzilla is more relevant.
This is all to say that the posturing and buildup of Godzilla in any movie is
equally as important as his presence, and no film handles the expectation of
Godzilla showing up better than Terror of Mechagodzilla.
After Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, we know the stakes of the Simeons returning, and, with not only a stronger Mechagodzilla but also the new freakishly strong monster Titanosaurus, those stakes are even higher. Godzilla has long been the superhero by this point, and so the audience knows that once Godzilla shows up, everything will be alright. But then Godzilla does not show up, and our human hero is not a Fukuda esque Scooby Doo hero but frankly a pathetic man that gets overpowered and outmaneuvered by the villains, so we need a hero that we are not getting, which makes us more invested. The hero and love interest are in a tragic romance that is debatably better than that in Monster Zero but at the very least serves to humanize these stakes and show the cost of defeating the aliens. Indeed, in a sense, the success of Terror of Mechagodzilla is in reversing and deconstructing a Fukuda movie. It is not doing so maliciously because it still does keep Godzilla as this symbol of children’s hope when it would have been so easy to retcon him back to what Honda would have wanted, but Terror of Mechagodzilla respects the corners of the franchise that birthed it all while responding to the 70s Godzilla formula. (It is interesting that Mechagodzilla itself is also in three of these movies, one from each director.)
Conclusion
In conclusion, the
Godzilla films of March are very diverse all while being encompassed in a type
of vision of Godzilla. Here at Plan9Crunch we appreciate all the different
types of Godzilla there can be and likely will focus some attention over to
Godzilla Minus One once we have the space and time to carry out such a review.
But in the meantime make sure to catch our upcoming video where we rank all of
Jun Fukuda’s Godzilla films together with no Wingard or Honda films to get in
the way. Stay tuned for that.
