As soon as the jaunty opening credits song begins, you know that "The X from Outer Space" is going to be an adorably silly guy-in-a-suit monster movie. The music is so out of place one might think someone switched tapes in the final edit (and that somewhere in Brazil, someone is trying to dance to an ominous monster-march). The script (or the subtitling - I don't speak Japanese so I don't know who to credit/blame) is over the top: the spaceship is christened the "Astro-boat" (which, although perhaps a legitimate translation of the much cooler term "starship", sounds like some kind of space scow) and the flying saucer is described as looking like a "half cooked omelette". The monster predates "Alien" for burning holes in the floor (creepy) but then leaves an acidic footprint resembling a chicken's (goofy). The final monster itself is memorable: a beak surrounded by cheeks like Gary Colman's set in a triangular head (with BOTH antenna and some kind of horn (more of the flugle type than the pointy type usually associated with monsters)), which is perched on an enormous scaly body propelled by immense chicken-like feet. Plus, it shoot fireballs out its mouth and eats radioactivity (no surprise there, most kaiju eat radioactivity) AND turns into a flying ball of radioactive fire! The miniature work, especially the space port and moon station are excellent and the "Astro-boat" is imaginative (similar American movies would just use stock footage of V2s - forward for takeoff, reversed for landing). The spaceship crew is a classic mix of stoic captain, sexy female scientist, comic-relief guy, and cowardly guy who panics when the going gets tough. As well, there is a little romantic intrigue between the astronaut eye-candy and the moon-base eye-candy, which helps soften the scenes of carnage as the Guilala (the eponymous X) wrecks Tokyo. On the IMDb 1 – 10 scale, this is a '-1' for regular viewers but an '11' for hard-core diakaiju fans (and for viewers who have to peer around their bong to see the TV screen) so I'll give it a 6 (because I lean toward the diakaiju fan side of the equation).
Review of The X from Outer Space
