Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Gigantis, the Fire Monster (1959)

Godzilla and Angilas are found battling on a remote island.  This battle takes them to Japan, where Godzilla "kills" Angilas and then mankind has to figure out how to stop him, again.  This time we manage to do it without disintegrating him completely with a weapon that doesn't bear up under close examination at all.

In the second Godzilla movie we have the first battle of giants in a city.  I don't think anything like this had ever been attempted before on the big screen.  It's not a great sequel due to the odd structure of the story, but they really didn't know what they were doing.  The characters are at least likable, and it's nice to see Dr. Yamane again.  The script does meander a bit, but mostly gets the job done.

Wow did the US distributors copy Rodan, even in it's opening narration.  Boy does that narration get old at times- it's not like we couldn't see some of the stuff that was also being said.  I like this movie quite a bit, even if it was the last First Series Godzilla movie I ever saw.  It's definitely a rushed movie, and after this Godzilla wouldn't appear for several years. 

The effects are pretty good, and the idea of trapping Godzilla in ice is novel and well realized.

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