Godzilla movies around this time were really starting to hurt, and this one's a letdown after the previous (and superior) GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH (1971). The plot concerns a young man who's struggling for a job as a cartoonist but gains employment at a newly-constructed children's theme park. Once present he begins to notice that something's not what it seems, and we have another set of aliens running the show who plan to takeover, but this time they turn out to be actual cockroaches who hide their identities under the guise of human bodies! That's pretty wild. The bad bug-men use the old standard three-headed space monster Ghidorah as one of their tools of destruction, but in this movie he looks terribly cheap and smaller than we've been used to (it's easy to compare too, as this installment over-relies on a ton of previously seen footage from past movies like GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, and others!). Mercifully, there's also the new title monster Gigan employed by the aliens -- a sort of metallic bird-creature who dispenses his opponents by use of a built-in buzz saw in his chest, which causes some slightly bloody damage.
By this time Godzilla and his pal Anguilus (or Anguirus, or Analus, or whatever name is correct) have swam over from the neighboring Monster Island to help defend the Earth. Anguilus has never been a very interesting monster and he isn't of much use, and Godzilla has his troubles here as well. But the monster fight scenes become rather boring and uninteresting, and in the U.S. dubbed version we actually hear a ludicrous English discussion with Godzilla and his partner! At least if we stick with the Japanese version their conversation is limited to what sounds like a static tape loop, instead of actual language. ** out of ****
By this time Godzilla and his pal Anguilus (or Anguirus, or Analus, or whatever name is correct) have swam over from the neighboring Monster Island to help defend the Earth. Anguilus has never been a very interesting monster and he isn't of much use, and Godzilla has his troubles here as well. But the monster fight scenes become rather boring and uninteresting, and in the U.S. dubbed version we actually hear a ludicrous English discussion with Godzilla and his partner! At least if we stick with the Japanese version their conversation is limited to what sounds like a static tape loop, instead of actual language. ** out of ****