December 13th: Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

I’m still of flu but I’m a lot less grumpy about this film in this series. Yes, Fukuda is still at the reigns, so it isn’t a return to the tone that spiced things up for me, but this one ends up going so far into being silly and ridiculous that it becomes kind of charming. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) steps away from alien antagonists, replacing them instead with the people of Seatopia, a kingdom of people whose civilisation has been forever damaged by human’s nuclear testing. In retaliation they awaken Megalon, and steal Jet Jaguar, a robot invented by a human, in order to destroy the earth. While the humans try to get Jet Jaguar back to fight on their side, they also rely on the main man, Godzilla, to save them from another monster.

Is it obvious to you all at this point that these films are basically always the same. Some sort of other civilisation wants to destroy or takeover the earth so awakens another monster to help, leaving Godzilla to defend the world. And when a good chunk of them are directed by the same guy, it is hard to write new reviews which bring anything new to the table. Technically, tonally and visually you know what you are getting with a Fukuda Godzilla film at this stage, so I won’t bore you with treading over old ground. What I will say is that while this is still one of the weaker sequels, it is at least an improvement on the previous film. Most of the issues I had with that are lesser here, although the tone is still not me for me. But it flows better, the story is more interesting, and the final fight is so ridiculous that it is one of my favourites. Basically, I don’t massively recommend it unless you really like this series or are a completionist. If neither of these statements apply you can give it a miss. But what I will recommend is on particular scene. Just one moment, that almost makes this film worth a watch. And that moment is when Godzilla drop kick Megalon, gliding on his tail, before running it back and doing it again. It is so stupid, so dumb, and absolutely hilarious. A genuine top highlight of the series so far, for quite the opposite reason the other highlights have made my list. I have added photo evidence below but I promise this does not do it justice.