Known in Japan as Gojira tai Gaigan (1972), this was the second Godzilla film, which was released during the difficult, psychedelic, cheap-budgeted, 1970s section of the Showa-era of Godzilla. Godzilla VS Gigan (1972), continued the idea of Godzilla being a superhero and protector of Earth. In the previous two Godzilla films, All Monsters Attack (AKA: Godzilla's Revenge -1969) and Godzilla VS Hedorah (AKA: Godzilla VS the Smog Monster - 1971), the main goal was to bring the audience down to the kids level, by making the main human character, a ten year old kid. That plot-tactic created a connection, between the imagination of a kid and this idea of a 300 foot tall, radioactive lizard, who protects the Earth from evil monsters. Plus, they had to compete with Daiei Studios, Gamera films, that were being released, every year at this time too.
In Godzilla VS Gigan (1972), the film producers decide to change that plot direction slightly, by making the main characters in the film, more college-age characters, who totally represent the early-70s student, in dress and style. Our main guy, Gengo (an actor I haven't seen before in a kaiju film, Hiroshi Ishikawa), is an advertising illustrator artist, who is asked to come for a job, at the new, enterprising theme park, known as Monsterland. It is a suspicious organization, who's headquarters, is incased inside a life-size replica of Godzilla. A mysterious tape appears in the plot, that holds the key to what these guys are up to and very soon we realize, they are another group of Japanese space-aliens, who want to wipe-out the human infestation of Earth, so they can have the planet to themselves. The problem is, they turn into cockroaches when they die. It is a pretty stupid character concept.
In fact, there are a handful of stupid moments in this film. Moments, so bad, that if you lived in 1972 and was watching this film, you would see the writing on the walls, that the Godzilla franchise was in trouble by this time. Economic and budgetary issues, continued to plague the qualify of these films in the 1970s. That economic issue was most evident, in the fact, that most of the monster scenes in Godzilla VS Gigan (1972), was stock-footage, from a bunch of the older, 1960s, Toho Studios, kaiju films. What is good about this film, is Toho Studios producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, brought back the music of legendary, Japanese film-composer, Akira Ifukube, but even that sounds, like stock media in the background of the scenes. In fact, none of the actors in this film look familiar. They all look, like the back-up actors, that Toho had in their budgeted stashes.
The desire to gauge these films towards the kids, was even as insulting to the kids, as it was to the adults. In an attempt to draw a contrast between Gengo, the artist and Godzilla's fight with Gigan, they have Godzilla talking this time, with Manga-type word balloons above the heads of the monsters. It looks really bad in the Japanese version. At least, for the American version, they had to remove the word balloons, so all you see are the monsters communicating, with terrible sound effects, that sound like their roars, are playing backwards. You thought the worst thing you saw, was seeing Godzilla fly in the last film, Godzilla VS Hedorah (1971)? No, no, no, movie-buffs. The worst is seeing Godzilla have a chat with Anguirus, who sounds in the English version, much like Paulie from the Rocky movies. This film was known as, Godzilla on Monster Island (1972), which was the title of the film in North America, all the way through the 1970s and 1980s. The title wasn't changed to "VS Gigan" in the states, until it was released on VHS in the 1990s, during the rise of the Heisei-era of Godzilla. The Godzilla on Monster Island (1972), English version, is the better version. I always say, watch the Japanese versions, with English subtitles of these films, but of you have to watch this film in English, try to find the version from Godzilla on Monster Island (1972). The current English version, that was made for the recent Blu-ray release, isn't as good.
Godzilla VS Gigan (1972), still has, the signature, 1970s-styled, pyro-techniques (at least the new footage, that was shot for this film) and, that great science-fiction/kaiju feel to it. The destruction of the miniature cities, the explosions and the monster wrestling, that was common for these films, still looks like the work of cinematic artists, who are working as hard as they can. However, the budget cut-backs, that Toho had to do, was killing a franchise and it is very evident in these early 1970s Godzilla films. With a very basic plot, silly monster confrontations, dizzying character profiles and a stock-footage itch, it is tough not to fail this film, but I will still give it an E For Effort (just barely), because I really do think the film would have been better, if it hadn't been made during the small financial collapse, that the Japanese film industry was going through, at the time the film was made. Godzilla VS Gigan (1972), still does look like something, that took a lot of work. Plus, even as stock music, I can listen to Akira Ifukube all day long. Did I even mention, that Gigan is assisted by King Ghidrah, in a big fight with Gojira and Anguirus?
4.5 (E) = 5 IMDB.
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