Godzilla-Tober- Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

Spoilers, and all that

On the one hand, these are honestly some of the best visual effects that the series has done thus far.

The fights scenes are the definite highlight of the film, with the battles between Godzilla and Rodan, and later those two and the Mothra larva from the last movie teaming up to defeat the titular monster, King Ghidorah. The fights were long enough, with a lot of good choreography, good blocking.

I really quite enjoyed the call back to the last film, where the Mothra larva attaches to Godzilla’s tail. Only this time, Godzilla is actually trying to help it by bringing it up the hill and having it spray down Ghidorah with webs.

Eiji Tsuburaya really outdid himself, especially with the Rodan model, the Godzilla costume (I saw the eyes move on it, which was very impressive), the way the roof tiles go off that one castle that Ghidorah flew by at high speeds and especially the sets that the monsters are, which are big and have enough manipulatives to make the fights interesting.

There’s also some good animation, especially the first scene of Ghidorah coming from the meteor and the lightning that comes from Ghidorah’s mouth.

Honda pulls back on the satirical bent of the other two films, instead making the tone closer to the seriousness of the film. It doesn’t reach that level, but it is a bit more serious than the previous two films.

You also see Honda’s growing preoccupation with the fate of the world itself. You have a great existential threat from outer space, and the only hope is for two big enemies to set aside their differences to combat it. Whereas the last film seemed to blame the growing corporate environment for the monster attacks, this has a more straightforward “force of nature” narrative.

In the context of the period it came out in, there’s a clear Cold War metaphor that could be made, with the bickering Godzilla and Rodan as the superpowers and Ghidorah representing the threat of nuclear annhilation. Mothra probably represents the peace movement, given it’s more maternal, heroic role in these stories (a little more used to the Shobijin, now that I know they are integral to Mothra’s story).

In the modern day, however- I made a joke about global warming last time, but it’s astounding how much you could make that metaphor with this film. Especially since the impetus for the plot involves an alien from Venus (possessing an Earthly princess) warning that Ghidorah had destroyed their native Venusian civilization. Notably, in the real world, Venus is an inhabitable hellhole because of the same greenhouse effect that’s currently threatening the Earth.

Speaking of the princess, that leads me to the weak point of the film, because her presence and the subsequent plot to assassinate her by some of her advisor feels out of place, and sometimes intrudes into the bigger more important matters. It feels like a completely different film, especially since they had little to do with the whole Ghidorah plotline.

In fact, the human plot is generally pretty weak. It feels perfunctory, just to set up why the monsters are all fighting and what the stakes are. It does a good job of that, but it also features way too many characters and subplots, and it’s hard to feel invested when you have to follow a lot, and some of it is tangential to the giant monster fights you actually want to see.

Not to say this is a bad film. It’s actually very entertaining, especially the actual fights themselves and the more serious tone, but because of the dull human drama and the bizarre assassination subplot, it’s probably the weakest of the five movies I’ve seen thus far.

Maybe Invasion of the Astro-Monster will change that.

(oh, forgot, but I realized watching this film how much this series, with its crossovers with and references to standalone kaiju movies and continuity with the other films, reminded me of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Make of that what you will.)