Godzilla, Rodan and Motra against the cosmic golden dragon Hydora King Kidora is a dragon-conqueror who came to Earth in a fallen meteorite, in which he was essentially a good half of the film. And when he finally appeared, he was actually extremely deprived of screen time - he has it here, it seems, much less than the main three monsters.
Having already pitted Godzilla against Motra, and even having arranged a battle of three monsters at once (twin larvae against the atomic lizard), the Japanese decided to add Rodan to this, and instead of opposing the "three powers" take and unite monsters against a common enemy.
There is an opinion that this children's and naive film is actually much deeper than it seems not at first glance. Mall Godzilla here personifies nothing but Russia with its powerful military potential, acquired for some reason the beak of Rodan is already a symbol of the American eagle, and Gidor himself - a golden dragon personifies some aggressor power such as Korea. Motra’s larva serves as Japan, trying to unite Russia and the United States, rallying them against the global threat.
If Motra's larva remained the same, she still, by the way, appears here the first of the monsters on the screen, then Godzilla changed his face to a more toy. Now he is something more “frog” and looks more like Corjik from “Sesame Street”.
Rodan's not a good situation either. He was given a beak, equipped with a studded belly, but the view became rather silly, childish and toy. Although the scene of his awakening in an extinct volcano is perhaps the most spectacular here.
Hidora is the only one who has succeeded. The dragon is made perfectly - three snake-shaped very mobile necks, not stupid-looking toothy snouts, as many as two tails with clubs at the ends, lightning from the mouths, in general, are severe to the whole coil and in fact is the main plus of the picture. Except that its magnetic properties do not find special application and instead of a dragon roar, he was given some voice squeaker.
Unfortunately, there are not so many scenes in the film with the attack of King Gidora on cities and human settlements, all the emphasis is on the battles of monsters among themselves. First, Godzilla fights with Rodan, and then Motra persuades them to join forces together against an alien conqueror who has already destroyed the civilization of Mars.
Godzilla’s battles with Radon have both positive and successful moments and outright follies. Both monsters are too “humanized” in this picture, and besides behave too childish, and sometimes frankly pull screen time, doing, it is not clear what. Not to mention the scene about the conversation between you Kaiju.
And although the script idea is not just once again pitting monsters against each other, but to arrange coalitions and unite old enemies is good, rare and quite original, this idea is not implemented as successfully as it could.
But if the tape managed to maintain a serious tone and it would be an old-fashioned disaster film about the invasion of an alien dragon that fell to us from a meteorite, if there were no Martian princesses, then a real masterpiece could turn out, causing a sea of delights.
What Honda did is still a pretty good and successful Kaiju movie. Yes, this is again more a family movie and a children's blockbuster than even a fantastic action movie, here the participation of the military is minimized - meetings and one scene with a ship. No tanks, cannons and exposed armies against monsters.
Giant monsters ruin cities, drag each other, lifting into the air, biting tails, dousing with webs. Godzilla did not even make an atomic beam, here it is again white steam, as in the first paintings, even without the slightest blue illumination.
Motra is represented only by a worm, that is, you can not count on a butterfly / moth and magic pollen, only a liquid sticky “web” from the mouth. This is Motra’s best weapon since the last film. It is a pity, of course, that only one copy remains, but two larvae will appear in Toho films at least once.
The human part of the plot suffers here no less than the delusional negotiations of monsters and their ridiculous costumes. In the center of the story is the assassination attempt on the princess of a neighboring country with Japan, which after the crash of the plane imagines herself as a Martian fortune teller.
Because memorable bright scenes in the film is not so much, if we talk about its most successful moments. But still they are enough for action and special effects this picture could be praised. In any case, this is the first film about Hydore, the first film where monsters come together, and, in general, not all that bad and even good, but just could be much better.
Yosuke Natsuki from Dogora again plays a bland policeman, but his boss is Akihiko Hirata himself, perhaps the best actor of the kaiju genre. From the first “Godzilla” in addition to him, Takashi Shimura came here – again for the role of a scientist, and Kenji Sahara for the role of editor. However, what is strange, the film is directly related to Godzilla vs. Motra, and all the actors and actresses involved in it play completely different roles here. Everything except the twins.
Despite the small amount of urban destruction, the ones that are, filmed wonderfully, both on their own and against the background of huge monsters. Except that mashups with fleeing people against the background of the monster are not really noticed here, but a lot of attention is paid to the kaiju himself. It’s more about them than about humanity.
If you take this picture, in the spirit of Godzilla vs. King Kong, a family entertainment film, you can have fun. He, of course, sometimes goes overboard when Godzilla begins to throw stones by hand or comically clings to a scalded ass, running away from Hidora, but in 1964 the kaiju-cinema has not yet turned into a fierce thrash nonsense and even a kindergarten.
With the advent of Hydora, who is still the most successfully made monster in terms of appearance, Toho films began to include ideas about aliens, sucking out of the finger the most ridiculous plots of all possible.
Therefore, against the background of the ongoing mess, "Three Monsters" is still quite sane movie. With its buffalo and unserious tone, for which it is especially disappointing after the wonderful and downright masterpiece "Godzilla against Motra" all the same 1964, but still it is still a good and high-quality product, just folding a little wrong.
This is far from the last successful Shova-era kaiju film, and many even call it the best or one of the best. But it’s clearly going to be even dumber than King Kong vs Godzilla, not to mention the really best paintings of the era. In any case, it deserves attention - after all, there are so many giant rubber monsters in one movie, and it's even nice to watch it again and again if you're a fan of the genre. With a lot of its shortcomings, it is still quite watchable and pleasant movie.
7 out of 10
Original