ALL SCI-FI

[The Spike]

We need from you Monster Zero 1 and Monster Zero 2, Godzilla and Rodan.

It's one of those Godzilla movies where you fully understand why some fans of the "Zilla" series positively dislike it.

The big atomic lizard is only a bit part player here, and when push comes to shove the monster mayhem is in short supply. Considering we also have Ghidorah and Rodan in the mix is for sure a bit of a waste.

Yet this is one of the better sequels from Toho's original wave, and it quite literally has all the ingredients that made "Zilla" and the off-shoots so iconic.

We are in live action cartoon territory, a sci-fi story of bonkers proportions, yet engrossing all the same. The joyous model work synonymous with the series remains intact, the cardboard sets being obliterated are still fun to watch, and the divisive sight of "Zilla" doing the "shay" dance is in here whether you like it or not.

More fun, though, is watching "Zilla" boxing the three headed Ghidorah. That is comedy gold! If only the moody lizard had gone southpaw a bit earlier, then saving the world could have been achieved quicker.

Great fun, but could it have been better from a monster point of view? Yes, definitely, but this be a nutty fruitcake production from Toho and amen to that. 8/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

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The Spike is right, this movie ls a hoot-and-half!

It has ambitious specials effects that would really be impressive . . . if the designs of the monsters, the spacecraft, and everything else weren't so laughably.

And the inclusion of an American film star — Nick Adams from the Western series, The Rebel) — adds a familiar face to the production.

______________INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)