Objectif Terre, mission Apocalypse

After the interesting but none too successful experiments Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla Vs Hedorah,Toho made this film,which sometimes feels like an attempt to make a 60s Monster Zero-type film on a fraction of the budget. Obviously,it's not a good film in the traditional sense,but all the 70s Godzilla films,despite their childishness,cheapness,shoddy effects work,samey plots,and 'wacky' ideas {in this one ,Godzilla and his mate Angilas TALK to each other in the non-Japanese version,whilst the Japanese version has speech bubbles instead!}etc,are fun to watch,and Godzilla Vs Gigan is no exception.

The plot is the aliens-out-to-conquer-Earth-by-controlling-monsters one already used in Monster Zero and Destroy All Monsters and it would be used a few more times,but here it is reasonably successful,with some fairly intriguing ideas {though often badly done}and unusual human characters,although their constant in-and-out of the Godzilla Tower,the alien's base,becomes a bit tiresome. When the monsters show up,we have probably the longest battle in a Godzilla film,and one of the funniest,too,as Godzilla and Angilas engage in a tag team duel with the evil Ghidorah and Gigan. Sadly the movie is badly let down by excessive stock footage from previous films {Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster,Monster Zero,Son Of Godzilla,Destroy All Monster and probably a couple of others too!}. At least in Godzilla's Revenge the stock footage had a sort of context,here,it jars with the new footage. The worst bit for this is the lengthy destruction scene,where new,night time footage of a tattered,slow moving Ghidorah who can barely move, is intercut with older,daytime footage of Ghidorah,showing a fast-moving dragon in action.

Somehow all this adds to the film's quirky charm,a sometimes good,occasionally awful,entry in the series. The soundtrack is one of the best,it's all Akira Ifikube stock music,much of it from Godzilla films,but it has many of the great Ifikube tracks and a wonderfully rousing title theme.