kevinolzak Review of Godzilla vs. Gigan

Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

Weak human characters in stock situations offset by second half action

[4/10 · 20 February 2022]

1972's "Godzilla on Monster Island" ("Chikyu Kogeki Meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan" or Earth Destruction Directive: Godzilla vs. Gigan) came 12th in the original run of 15 Toho titles, longtime suitmation actor Haruo Nakajima donning the bulky costume for the last time. After Yoshimitsu Banno's disastrous "Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster," producer Tomoyuki Tanaka goes back to Jun Fukuda for his third outing in the director's chair, the overly familiar plot doing no one any favors in reteaming our protagonist with his very first costar, the spiny Anguirus from second entry "Gigantis the Fire Monster." A comic book theme is established immediately with starving artist Gengo (Hiroshi Ishikawa) finding work at a children's park featuring the likeness of Godzilla towering atop its main building, his new employers boasting of their endeavor to create peace by taking out all of Earth's monsters. Before long, Gengo learns that his two supervisors are lowly cockroaches from 'M Space Hunter Nebula,' fleeing a world in which human life extinguished itself through pollution (still lingering from "Smog Monster") while their more adaptable life forms sought a new planet to conquer, introducing the birdlike Gigan with his lone eye and buzzsaw stomach to participate with old nemesis King Ghidrah in luring Godzilla to his ultimate doom. Despite the plethora of mismatched stock footage depicting military maneuvers, the second half serves up a nonstop feast of action as both Godzilla and Anguirus take their lumps before righting the ship, their actual discussion in English fortunately brief (shown with thought balloons in the Japanese cut to further the comic book ambiance). Like Nick Adams' "Monster Zero," this item took five years to make its way to American shores, but the new moniker makes no sense at all, the big guns only firing on all cylinders after leaving Monster Island! The less heavy handed approach to environmental issues make this easier to go down than its immediate predecessor, paving the way for three more entries to close things out before the 80s revival.