Review: Terror of Mechagodzilla

Aliens have nasty plans in store for Tokyo, and enlist the aid of an embittered scientist who hates humanity (Akihiko Hirata). They still need to use force however, to get him to re-build Mechagodzilla, who in conjunction with the monster Titanosaurus, will be unleashed on Tokyo. Humanity’s only hope? Godzilla, of course. Tomoko Ai plays Hirata’s daughter, whom the aliens have rather bizarre plans for that need to be seen to be believed.

Popular with quite a few franchise fans, this 1977 kaiju flick had Toho bringing back director Ishiro Honda at the helm. Surprisingly for someone who directed several of the best kaiju films ever made (“Gojira”, “Destroy All Monsters”, “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero”), I think the results are quite shoddy. The elements to make a fun film are actually here, they’re just not plentiful enough or assembled in overall working order.

We start well with the Akira Ikufube (“Gojira”) theme over the credits featuring a series of images of the title character and Godzilla, possibly footage from their previous encounter. It’s a great way to start us off, and early on we get an absolutely awesome dinosaur called Titanosaurus. It’s a blood-thirsty mixture of Godzilla, a fish, and a super-sized seahorse. Good performance by old pro Akihiko Hirata though, a rather dark characterisation from him.

The fuzzy end of the lollipop? Most everything else I’m afraid, starting with some surprisingly shoddy miniature work on a submarine craft. The film is rather gonzo at times, but not in any interesting way. For the most part, the film is boring and choppy and as great as Titanosaurus is, it can’t do all the work here. It’s cool that Titanosaurus can move both in the water and on the land, but aside from it, there’s nothing to distinguish this film from all the other alien invasion/conspiracy “Godzilla” films, and this is far from the best of them. Mechagodzilla essentially being a cyborg should’ve provided fun, instead it provides prosthetic nudity and a lot of tedium. With under 20 minutes to go the title character and its rainbow rays are on full display. I especially enjoyed a funny riff on the usual bit where Mechagodzilla gets decapitated, but this time it just shoots lasers out of its neck instead. The head is apparently just window dressing, I guess. Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus make for a formidable tag team in the action finale, but I had lost interest by then. It’s good that for once Godzilla seems in legit danger against its opponents, but the film is 5% monsters (4% of which is Titanosaurus) and 95% weird but boring human shit.

Like the later “Godzilla: Final Wars”, this appears to be a “Godzilla” film made by someone who doesn’t like Godzilla films. Since it was directed by the man responsible for most of the best films in the franchise…it’s bizarre and disheartening. One terrific monster and one rock-solid performance can’t save this rather cheapo effort from being towards the back-end of the franchise. It takes forever for the title character to turn up, and by then it’s too late. Scripted by Yukiko Takayama, this is proof that being bizarre isn’t guarantee of being fun. Massive disappointment from a director who should know better.

Rating: C