Non-Horror Exploitation: Gojira tai Mekagojira (A.K.A. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla) (1974)

Old monster movies with minature buildings and guys in ugly costumes: they never manage to amaze me, if done correctly and entertainingly of course. A perfect example is Robot Monster (1953) - a disastrous example is Ape (1976). Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla lays somewhere in between. It's not terrible, but it's not great either.

Aliens intend to take over the planet and, just in case Godzilla tries to interfere, have built a mechanical version of him to put an end to his interference. The Earth humans summon the legendary King Seesar to assist Godzilla in the battle. 

I got tired of the Japanese and their superstitiousness fairly quickly. Luckily they did turn out to be right and Godzilla appears from out of nowhere (along with a bunch of other monsters). Unfortunately Mechagodzilla and especially Godzilla are extra's for most of the movie. In stead we mainly follow a group (that seems to grow bigger and bigger every second) of Japs trying to find out why Godzilla has risen. This causes the middle of the movie to be quite boring. I don't give a fuck why Godzilla has risen, I just want him and the other monsters to create havoc. Unfortunately director Jun Fukuda didn't agree with me and spends endless scenes trying to figure out who is behind the Mechagodzilla and why the other monsters have risen. As icing on the cake there's also a bunch of aliens (including shiny space suits) involved. Strangely enough these aliens also seem to have some kind of camelon-esque power causing them to look like any other Asian. When they die though, they turn into a strange man-like version of King Kong, which caused me to smile every now and then.

The last 20 minutes are used for the ''main battle'' between Mechagodzilla, Godzilla and King Ceesar (who moves way to smooth for a giant monster). The fights do look fairly cool. The highlight of the fighting is seen much earlier in the movie though, in a scene where Godzilla and Mechagodzilla go head-to-head in an oil refinery and destroy the whole place. This causes some great explosions and an overall great looking scene. The splatter-like scenes where Godzilla is shot to a bloody pulp is worth mentioning as well.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla turned out to be a mediocre monster movie. It could have definitely been awesome if it weren't for the mostly boring scenes. The fightingscenes between the gigantic monster do look cool, but please, we want more of 'em in a movie like this. Unfortunately the movie is mostly filled with uninteresting characters, an overacting grandpa and Asian space dudes in shiny gear.

Fun Facts (Source:IMDB)

In the German release of the movie, MechaGodzilla is called King Kong. The reason for this name-change is unknown, although it is likely that the German distributors simply wanted to ride on the actual King Kong's popularity. It is also possible that they have been inspired by the ape-like aliens who control the robot in the movie. 

This was the first Godzilla film, in its original Japanese version, to finally give onscreen credit to the suitmation actors with the names of the respective monsters they played. (Up to that point, suitmation actors did receive onscreen credit, but just as regular cast members.) All Toho-produced Godzilla films have since maintained this practice.