In this, the 13th film in the franchise, Godzilla movies hit rock bottom. The much maligned "All Monsters Attack" (1969) could be excused as (maybe) being a parable in which the kaiju are imaginary, but "Godzilla vs. Megalon" is a straight-up kaiju film and as such, is abysmal. Even taken as a kid's movie (although the word sh*t appears in the subtitles), the story is ridiculous, the music horrible, and the production sloppy. Briefly, Seatopia, an underground (underwater?) civilisation, is threatened by man's nuclear weapon testing and sends Megalon, a giant bug-like monster to purge the surface with help from Jet Jaguar, a flying robot that Seatopian agents have hijacked. After some pointless car chases etc., human control of Jet Jaguar is re-established and the robot is sent to Monster Island to recruit Godzilla. The Seatopians in turn contact Space Hunter Nebula M and request that Gigan be sent to Earth as a reinforcement. Needless-to say, much monster mayhem follows, interspersed by filler concerning the robot's inventor and his little brother. Although the opening scenes of a lake draining following an earthquake are moderately well done (as is the later destruction of a dam), the bulk of the special effects are dire (at least those that aren't just clips from earlier films). Even by suit-mation kaiju standards, Megalon is ludicrous looking, especially when inexplicitly hopping about (?!) or flying (the monster has wings but does not seem to use them when in flight). Gigan, who has a similar uncanny flying ability, is as ridiculous looking as he was in his first outing (Godzilla vs. Gigan, 1972) while Jet Jaguar is clearly a cheap knock-off of Ultraman and Godzilla has completed his metamorphosis into some kind of heroic, child-friendly puppy-lizard muppet. The fight scenes between the titular kaiju and their allies are staged once again on undetailed, cheap-looking 'rural' sets and are goofy in the extreme (with spinning robots getting dizzy, monsters shaking hands, clapping, 'high-fiveing' etc., and of course, Godzilla's infamous flying drop-kicks). Overall, the movie has few redeeming qualities and, as it is relatively well-known in the west, is likely a big reason for the general low regard with which the kaiju genre is viewed outside Japan. Note: because the film slipped into the public domain, multiple versions of varying lengths and qualities (mostly crappy) are in circulation - the version on which I am commenting is pretty good: the Media Blasters DVD (83 min.), which I watched in Japanese with English subtitles.
Review of Godzilla vs. Megalon
