Talkback Thread #6: Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965)

[eabaker]

eabaker Wrote:
I think so. It has good plotting relative to similar contemporary films.

I'd say it also has good plotting relative to both earlier and more recent films of the same ilk. It just has good plotting period.

I guess it read like you were suggesting that film plotting in general has improved since the 60s.

Yeah, my bad. Should of structured it better ( My autism does not help in that department AT ALL XD )

No way, because of the steps Honda took to make it stand out during that era is one of the reasons why it still an absolute classic today. I would NEVER hold its time period against it, not ever.

Gotta love Honda and his subplots .

Honda and Sekizawa were a fantastic team. I feel like Mothra vs. Godzilla and Monster Zero really represent the heights of entertaining fantasy that the two of them could create together.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I watched this last week.

It's amazing how well the matte shots are done in this film. They blend seemlessly with the foreground, and some of them are truly beautiful (i.e. Rodan, Godzilla, and KG spread out across the screen in the countryside). This has to be one of the best monster rampages as all three kaiju are leveling everything in sight. It's a really fun movie loaded with all the 60's sci if stuff you could want, plus it has an incredible score.

It also looks far and away better than most of Godzilla 2000 (which I watched the night before). Though it was made over 30 years earlier, MZ has better matte shots.

[he-ba]

^I definitely agree. The only tiny problem I have with this movie is that there isn't a HUGE amount of monster action like Ghidorah, but I like to do a double feature, but with IoAM first and then GtTHM. I don't know why, but I like it that way.

[Hybrid Gojira]

The last third of the movie is basically all action. The city destruction scenes are especially well done in this movie (but you're right that the end battle between the monsters is short).

[Kubo]

The last third of the movie is basically all action. The city destruction scenes are especially well done in this movie (but you're right that the end battle between the monsters is short).

See, I find the city destruction scenes sorta underwhelming. On one hand, you have the destruction of the city pulled from the previous Godzilla venture, GtTHM. And that footage is jaw-dropping. Ghidorah's beams ravage the city and really show just how powerful he is. But on the other hand, you have the new footage, which, while not awful, definitely does not love up to the quality of the stock footage. The Gravity Bolts are dinky and they shred the corner of a building instead of blowing the thing to smithereens! It's a tad disappointing, and during it, I generally think about watching GtTHM instead.

That said, I do enjoy this movie better. It's just in that respect I find Ghidrah to be the superior film.

[Kaiser]

A lot of the city destruction scenes (I'd wager at least 25%) come from Rodan's debut movie back in 1956 as well. For all the crap later Showa entries would take for stock footage, it's a bit amusing that this movie is the first instance where they inserted scenes from a previous movie wholesale into another and not just a few seconds here and there. It gets a pass for that though, simply because this movie might be the finest work Eiji Tsuburaya ever did.

[he-ba]

I just wish Rodan didn't look so cheesy. I heard a rumor that the original Rodan suit's head caught fire and was destroyed, but I suspect that was made up because whoever made it up didn't want the truth of dumbing Rodan down to be heard. At least that's my opinion. I don't know where it originated, and now I'm going on and on and I should stop.

[miguelnuva]

I just wish Rodan didn't look so cheesy. I heard a rumor that the original Rodan suit's head caught fire and was destroyed, but I suspect that was made up because whoever made it up didn't want the truth of dumbing Rodan down to be heard. At least that's my opinion. I don't know where it originated, and now I'm going on and on and I should stop.

I believe the Rodan 64/65 suit are the same.

[he-ba]

^No no they are, I mean the '56 suit

[Hybrid Gojira]

The last third of the movie is basically all action. The city destruction scenes are especially well done in this movie (but you're right that the end battle between the monsters is short).

See, I find the city destruction scenes sorta underwhelming. On one hand, you have the destruction of the city pulled from the previous Godzilla venture, GtTHM. And that footage is jaw-dropping. Ghidorah's beams ravage the city and really show just how powerful he is. But on the other hand, you have the new footage, which, while not awful, definitely does not love up to the quality of the stock footage. The Gravity Bolts are dinky and they shred the corner of a building instead of blowing the thing to smithereens! It's a tad disappointing, and during it, I generally think about watching GtTHM instead.

That said, I do enjoy this movie better. It's just in that respect I find Ghidrah to be the superior film.

I totally disagree on the city destruction scenes in MZ being underwhelming. They're spectacular, especially the matte shots of the monsters in the background and the people in the foreground. It works really well.

I do love KG's rampage in GTTHM - you're absolutely correct that the effects work there is stunning.

[Tamura]

[Mr. Xeno]

Bringing this to the appropriate thread because we were getting off-topic.

That line about control isn't in the original version, though, it's English dub only, and I don't think I need to point out how unreliable those tend to be.

I know it was different in the original cut, but the comment made was in the original version was in the same vein.

[miguelnuva]

It makes most sense that Ghidorah was only able to come under Control because Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan defeated him. Once the Xians discover what happened on earth they deicde to take control of Godzilla and Rodan as well as they can stop King Ghidorah. Mothra wasn't bothered to be taken because if she appeared she would have been killed anyway.

Also what ever the Xians did to Ghidorah is the reason the other aliens are able to later take control over him, his mind was broken. Or Ghidorah isn't so much controlled as he is simply a bullet in the gun his masters have,

[Kaiju no Kami]

I always figured Ghidorah was under their control in the beginning because they needed to show their plight. It was all just to get Godzilla and Rodan away from protecting the Earth.

[three]

Bringing this to the appropriate thread because we were getting off-topic.

That line about control isn't in the original version, though, it's English dub only, and I don't think I need to point out how unreliable those tend to be.

I know it was different in the original cut, but the comment made was in the original version was in the same vein.

i spent a while searching this page for NSZ's original post with the line you quoted...then i read the first line you wrote. moral: always read the whole comment.

and with that said, i think it makes more sense that KG was under control. i mean, logically, why would something so powerful that it presumably destroyed martian life obey the commands of a bunch of technologically advanced ape men? it could just blow them away, then move on. they had to have it under some sort of control.
it would run before defeat, too. while some people see that as an act of natural self-preservation, i look at it as preserving an asset. thus, it does make sense that the aliens would have been controlling Ghidorah this whole time, even in the face of what appears to be (on the surface) contradictory evidence.

[Mr. Xeno]

^
Like I said in the other thread, the water plant being damaged was either accidental (shit happens), or it was a coincidence and something else happened at the same time as Ghidorah's attack.

[three]

^
Like I said in the other thread, the water plant being damaged was either accidental (shit happens), or it was a coincidence and something else happened at the same time as Ghidorah's attack.

sure seems that way. the plot hole kind of just goes away, too, if the movies are seen as sequels (i know we've said that they'd be perfect together)...but much like this thread and the GTTHM thread, you almost can't talk about one movie without the other.

i mean this one has its own question answered right away: why take Godzilla and Rodan? because they beat Ghidorah once. what did the black hole aliens do when G beat MG? rebuilt and brought in assistance.

also, a question directed to anyone who might actually know (i'm gonna check the main page as well), is it ever explicitly stated that Astro Monster isn't intended to be a sequel? 'cause if it's up in the air, then i'm going to just make the radical assumption that what makes sense makes sense.

[szmigiel]

Not sure if anyone else saw the Turner Classic Movie showing of Monster Zero Sunday night (6/28/2015) as part of Movie Camp.

I was very disappointed by the commentary before and after the film by the hosts. It came off as a back handed compliment. Instead of just praising the films effects, they kept mentioning how it is just guys in rubber suits and miniatures. Mentioning how they’re effects that just about anyone can do. You would never hear the same kind of commentary towards Ray Harryhausen’s work.

[Mechagigan]

^ I watched that also, but the commentaries didn't really bother me. They just came off as how the general public sees older Godzilla moviees. There's obviously a bit more to the effects than the hosts implied, but to a non-fan eye, they're just straight up rubber suits and cardboard buildings.

Though I get what you're saying about how they particularly like to nitpick Kaiju movies; nobody would point out how choppy older Stop-Motion can be, or something like that.

They aired KoTM afterwards, too, but I didn't watch it.

[BlankAccount]

Happy 50th to one of my favorite G films of all time.