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Plot

In the film, the undersea civilization Seatopia has been heavily affected by nuclear testing conducted by the surface nations of the world. Naturally upset by this, they unleash their civilization's god, Megalon, to the surface to destroy the world. Agents of Seatopia attempt to steal the newly-constructed human-sized robot, Jet Jaguar, which they use to guide and direct Megalon. They also capture the robot's inventor, Goro Ibuki, his kid brother Rokuro and their friend Hiroshi Jinkawa. After Jet Jaguar is used by the Seatopians to lure Megalon to Tokyo and the Japan Self Defense Forces fail to defeat it, Goro manages to regain control, and sends Jet Jaguar to Monster Island to bring Godzilla to fight Megalon. An extended fight scene then takes place, with Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, the latter newly giant-sized and self-directed, fighting Megalon and Gigan in the hills outside Tokyo. The film ends with Megalon and Gigan defeated, Godzilla returning to Monster Island, and Jet Jaguar returning to his previous, human-sized state.

Production

Godzilla Vs. Megalon was originally planned as a non-Godzilla film, a solo vehicle for Jet Jaguar, which was the result of a contest Toho had for children in mid-to-late 1972. The winner of the contest was an elementary school student, who submitted the drawing of a robot called Red Arone, which superficially resembled both Ultraman and Mazinger Z. The robot was renamed Jet Jaguar and was set to star in Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon, which pitted him against Megalon. However, after doing some screen tests and storyboards, Toho figured Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry the film on his own, either in screen appearance or marketing value, so they shut the project down during pre-production. Nearly a month later, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka called in screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa to revise the script to add Godzilla and Gigan. To make up for lost production time, the film was shot in a hasty three weeks. The production time totaled at nearly six months, from planning to finish.[1]

According to Teruyoshi Nakano, the Godzilla suit made for this film (named Megaro-Goji) was made in a week, the fastest featured Godzilla suit ever made to date.

There are two notable deleted scenes. A scene towards the end of the film in which Antonio ponders aloud if sending Megalon to destroy the world above is really any different from what the people above are doing with atomic testing. Another is a roughly minute-long "conversation" between Gigan and Megalon that consists of quirky gestures and bodily movements.

There are, interestingly, no major female characters in the movie, making this the only Godzilla film without a female lead.

U.S. release

The infamous American Godzilla vs. Megalon poster.

In 1976, CinemaShares released a dubbed version of Godzilla vs. Megalon theatrically. Riding the coattails of Dino De Laurentiis' big-budget King Kong remake, poster art showed Godzilla and Megalon battling on top of the World Trade Center, despite the fact that no scenes were set in New York City.

To obtain a G-rating from the MPAA, CinemaShares cut three minutes of footage, including:

With this being the second of the three CinemaShares Godzilla releases, the publicity factor was high. Along with the poster, buttons with one of the 4 kaiju's faces on them were released. A couple of weeks before the release of Godzilla vs. Megalon, CinemaShares did have a comic book released to promote the film, but in the comic there are numerous errors like monster's names and locations and events, but staying at least loose to the film. The theatrical trailer for the film also contain these errors. Such an error is Jet Jaguar being called Robotman.

The press kit was poor also, with there being pics of Godzilla, Megalon, Gigan, and Jet Jaguar in cars. This is a reflection of the Aurora kits with Godzilla riding a race car. Along with the press kit was a vote Godzilla for president ad that if mailed in, you got a free ticket to the film.

Godzilla vs. Megalon was given a high-profile prime-time network premiere the next year, with an introduction and bumper segments by John Belushi in a Godzilla suit.[2]

Box office

In Japan, Godzilla vs. Megalon sold approximately 980,000 tickets. It was the first Godzilla film to sell less than one million admissions.Overall it made $3,000,000[3]

Critical reception

Godzilla vs. Megalon was released theatrically in America on May 9, 1976, though the San Francisco Chronicle indicates that it opened there in June, and The New York Times indicates that it opened in New York City on July 11. Oddly, New York Times film critic, Vincent Canby, who a decade before had given a negative review to Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (one of the more respected entries in the Godzilla series) gave Godzilla vs. Megalon a generally positive review.

In his review of July 12, 1976, Canby says "Godzilla vs. Megalon completes the canonization of Godzilla...It's been a remarkable transformation of character - the dragon has become St. George...It's wildly preposterous, imaginative and funny (often intentionally). It demonstrates the rewards of friendship, between humans as well as monsters, and it is gentle."

Legacy

Godzilla vs. Megalon has attracted the ire of many Godzilla fans in the decades since its original release. The film is largely responsible for the reputation of Godzilla films in the United States as cheap children's entertainment that should not be taken seriously.[4][5] It's been described as "incredibly, undeniably, mind-numbingly bad"[6] and one of the "poorer moments" in the history of kaiju films.[5]

In particular, the special effects of the film have been heavily criticized. One review described the Godzilla costume as appearing to be "crossed with Kermit the Frog"[5] and another stated that sneeringly compared it to Godzilla vs. Gigan, stating that it did "everything wrong that Gigan did, and then some." However, most of the criticism is of the lack of actual special effects work, as most of it consists of stock footage from previous films, including Godzilla vs. Gigan and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, and a few pieces of effects work has garnered praise, specifically a scene where Megalon breaks through a dam and the draining of the lake.[4]

The other aspects of the film have been similarly skewered. The acting is usually described as flat and generally poor, and as not improving, or sometimes, worsening, the already weak script.[4] One part of the film, on the other hand, has garnered almost universal praise: Godzilla's final attack on Megalon, a flying kick. It has been called the saving grace of the film[6], and was made famous by the mock exclamations of shock and awe displayed on Godzilla vs. Megalon's appearance on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Through the end of season three to the middle of season five, that clip would be shown at the opening of each show). Despite all this, the film is also one of the most widely seen Godzilla films in the United States — it was popular in its initial theatrical release, largely due to an aggressive marketing campaign, including elaborate posters of the two title monsters battling atop New York City's World Trade Center towers, presumably to capitalize on the hype surrounding the Dino De Laurentiis remake of King Kong, which used a similar image for its own poster.[4] These posters in particular have been greeted with some embarrassment by fans.[6]

DVD releases

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 10

Alpha Video

DigitalDisc DVD

Madman Entertainment

Footnotes

  1. ^ The Japanese Giant Monsters Festival American Cinematheque
  2. ^ "Review at "Allmovie"". http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll. 
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ a b c d Anthony Romero. "Toho Kingdom; Godzilla vs. Megalon review". http://www.tohokingdom.com/web_pages/m_reviews/anthony_r/godzilla_vs_megalon.htm. 
  5. ^ a b c Chris Holland & Scott Hamilton. "Stomp Tokyo- Godzilla vs. Megalon review". http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/g/godzilla-vs-megalon.html. 
  6. ^ a b c "Review at "Barry's Temple of Godzilla"". http://www.godzillatemple.com/movie13.htm. 

References

External links

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