Mekagojira no Gyakushu, or Mechagodzilla vs. Godzilla, Revenge of Mechgodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla, The Escape of Mechagodzilla & the version I saw called Monsters From an Unknown Planet are apparently a few of it's alternate titles, starts with footage from the previous Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster (1974) showing how Godzilla defeated Mechagodzilla. A team of scientists from the 'Ocean Exploitation Institute' are searching for Mechagodzilla's remains when they encounter a new monster, an aquatic dinosaur named Titanosaurus who promptly destroys their submarine. Interpol Chief Tagawa (Tadao Nakamaru) is on the case & teams agent Jiro Murakoshi (Katsumasa Uchida) up with marine biologist Akira Ichinose (Katsuhiko Sasaki) to figure out what happened to the sub. Just before the sub was destroyed the last radio transmission talked of dinosaurs so our agents make a connection between this & a Dr. Shinji Mafune (Akihiko Hirata) who had previously made mention of a dinosaur named Titanosaurus living in the area the sub was destroyed in, but no one believed him at the time. As our two intrepid agents unravel the mystery it seems that an alien race from the 'Thrid Planet' are trying to wipe out mankind so their race can live here, by themselves. They have persuaded Dr. Mafune & his cyborg daughter Katsura (Tomoko Ai) to help them as they control Titanosaurus, the aliens have also recovered Mechagodzilla's remains & repaired him. The alien's think that Mechagodzilla & Titanosaurus together will be enough to destroy humanity, these guys obviously haven't counted on Godzilla who once again must save planet Earth...
Directed by Ishiro Honda this is another fun Godzilla film from Japanese studio Toho & Mekagojira no Gyakushu was the 15th film to feature Godzilla, the last of the 'classic' Godzilla's before the next entry in the series 9 years later & was made between Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster & Godzilla 1985 (1984). The script by Yukiko Takayama is a little on the slow side at times, after the repeated flashback footage during the opening sequence Godzilla doesn't appear again until past the 45 miniature mark which is just too long without any monster fighting fun. We only get a choice of three monsters here, the main man himself Godzilla, the fishy Titanosaurus whom I actually quite liked & felt sort of sorry for as he is naturally peaceful but those nasty aliens are controlling him & the very cool Mechagodzilla who has to be one of Godzilla's best adversary's complete with metal body, rocket launchers, laser beams & an infinite supply of ammo! Unfortunately none of these monsters are used as much as I would have liked & the aliens taking over the Earth plot just isn't that great. For some reason the aliens wear silver suits & ridiculous looking helmets. Mekagojira no Gyakushu is a little more serious in tone than some of the childish Godzilla films that had preceded it, the character's are a bit more emotionally developed & it even contains nudity, some bare breasts no less. Technically Mekagojira no Gyakushu is as good as one can expect from this type of film, the special effects once again consist of men in rubber monster suits, model cars, planes & buildings. They obviously can't compare to today's mega budget CGI but they have that indefinable charm & personality, I think the effects look perfectly OK even if they aren't going to win any awards & as always I like to think that the filmmakers did the best they could using their imagination & resources available. The familiar sounding music, the cinematography & general production design are all acceptable considering Mekagojira no Gyakushu probably had a small budget. The acting is alright from what I can make out but the dubbing as usual is pretty bad with some terrible accents for secondary character's & some very silly dialogue exchanges, but it all adds to the fun in my opinion. I liked Mekagojira no Gyakushu but then I am a Godzilla fan anyway, it is a little slow at get going but once it does it's good fun & the climatic battle between Godzilla, Mechagodzilla & Titanosaurus is cool. Definitely worth watching monster fans!
Directed by Ishiro Honda this is another fun Godzilla film from Japanese studio Toho & Mekagojira no Gyakushu was the 15th film to feature Godzilla, the last of the 'classic' Godzilla's before the next entry in the series 9 years later & was made between Godzilla vs. Cosmic Monster & Godzilla 1985 (1984). The script by Yukiko Takayama is a little on the slow side at times, after the repeated flashback footage during the opening sequence Godzilla doesn't appear again until past the 45 miniature mark which is just too long without any monster fighting fun. We only get a choice of three monsters here, the main man himself Godzilla, the fishy Titanosaurus whom I actually quite liked & felt sort of sorry for as he is naturally peaceful but those nasty aliens are controlling him & the very cool Mechagodzilla who has to be one of Godzilla's best adversary's complete with metal body, rocket launchers, laser beams & an infinite supply of ammo! Unfortunately none of these monsters are used as much as I would have liked & the aliens taking over the Earth plot just isn't that great. For some reason the aliens wear silver suits & ridiculous looking helmets. Mekagojira no Gyakushu is a little more serious in tone than some of the childish Godzilla films that had preceded it, the character's are a bit more emotionally developed & it even contains nudity, some bare breasts no less. Technically Mekagojira no Gyakushu is as good as one can expect from this type of film, the special effects once again consist of men in rubber monster suits, model cars, planes & buildings. They obviously can't compare to today's mega budget CGI but they have that indefinable charm & personality, I think the effects look perfectly OK even if they aren't going to win any awards & as always I like to think that the filmmakers did the best they could using their imagination & resources available. The familiar sounding music, the cinematography & general production design are all acceptable considering Mekagojira no Gyakushu probably had a small budget. The acting is alright from what I can make out but the dubbing as usual is pretty bad with some terrible accents for secondary character's & some very silly dialogue exchanges, but it all adds to the fun in my opinion. I liked Mekagojira no Gyakushu but then I am a Godzilla fan anyway, it is a little slow at get going but once it does it's good fun & the climatic battle between Godzilla, Mechagodzilla & Titanosaurus is cool. Definitely worth watching monster fans!