Godzilla vs. Gigan

This week we take a look at the debut of one of Godzilla’s more recognizable foes. And while Gigan might be a force to be reckoned with, while also possessing one of the best monster designs in the franchise, his first battle with the King of the Monsters is weighed down by the usual riff raff that makes me wonder if the Transformers movies tend to follow similar templates: aka little monster action until the final act while following crappy human stories.

When a struggling Manga artist gets a job designing monsters for the forthcoming World Children’s Land, he gets caught up in an intergalactic conspiracy.  Creatures from another world, disguised as humans, threaten peace with destruction as they summon two Space Monsters to wreck havoc across Japan.  Once more, Godzilla enters the fray to face his oldest foe, King Ghidorah, and his newest enemy: the fearsome Gigan.

 
Yeah, aside from the original Gojira, it’s hard to care about the human element of a Godzilla film when really, you just wanna watch a bunch of bad ass monster stomp the mess out of each other.  It’s even more difficult to care when the humans aren’t memorable and are pretty annoying.  Gengo, the Manga Artist, is a dull as they come and his naievete and luck throughout the film only last because the main villains aren’t much smarter than he is.  Yes, we have another Aliens want to secretly infiltrate Earth in order to conquer it plot and it’s so by the numbers that im sure many Godzilla films afterwards decided to reuse it.  There is some fun to be had in one of Gengo’s friendd being a cute martial artist who can hold her own against these invaders.  However, she’s barely in the film while the bulk of the first half of the movie is Gengo and his companions trying to solve a pretty easy mystery.
 
As for the monster portion of the film, yeah it takes a while to get going because while the mystery solving is going on, Godzilla and Angirus (who lets face it, is just happy to be here), are literally swimming from Monster Island to the mainland for a good thirty minutes.  Things look up when the titular Gigan arrives, bringing with him King Ghidorah cause theyre both space monsters and cause Ghidorah is the definitive Godzilla adversary (fight me).  With his hook hands, the buzzsaw in his belly and that cool visor, Gigan looks pretty ferocious and there are plenty of shots of him surrounded by flames and destruction.  However, if you’re looking for him to properly square off with Godzilla, you’ll be disappointed to know that their duel only ends up happening in the last 10 minutes of a movie titled Godzilla vs. Gigan.  Most of the fight is a rather one sided, tag team smackdown with Godzilla taking most of his damage from a tower designed in his image by his Alien foes…kind of embarrassing really.  The rest is poor Angirus being bounced back and forth between Gigan and Ghidorah like a spiky soccer ball.  It doesn’t help matters that the Godzilla suit looks so worn and terrible by now, as opposed to Gigan’s much fresh first appearance.  I think they might’ve changed Godzilla suits afterwards cause the only thing more embarrassing than a toy tower kicking Godzilla’s ass is the sorry state he looks like in the first place.  Oh and for the first time ever, we get text bubbles to show dialogue between Godzilla and Angirus…it’s freaking weird and im glad it’s the only movie where this has actually happened. 
 
Godzilla vs. Gigan doesn’t exactly live up to its name and continues to have the same problems that plague most Godzilla movies: crummy story, annoying humans, and action that takes way too long to get going and when it does, it’s a coin toss as to whether or not you’ll like it.  Gigan does make a killer first impression but I wish he’d gotten a proper duel with Godzilla to show off his power.  In the end, Gigan’s debut is the only memorable part about this otherwise “meh” entry in the legendary franchise.  The King deserves better than this guys.
 
4/10