"GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER"
or is it "EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP" that's considered to be Toho's official English title?
Wait, wasn't the original English translation to the film's original Japanese title supposed to be...
"GODZILLA, EBIRAH, MOTHRA: GREAT BATTLE IN THE SOUTH SEAS"?
What does the poster say?
Crap, I forgot it’s in Japanese! Ok, when you're not entirely sure what the Japanese cut's title is supposed to be, already you're in trouble! And to make things even more confusing is the Japanese cut that I rented has the opening credits in English with the film's title being called "Godzilla VS The Sea Monster", which is obvious that the re-release of the Japanese cut decided to use the opening credits from the English dub, which is stupid and confusing. I mean seriously, you can't use subtitles to translate the Japanese opening credits like what they did in the other subtitled films. Well anyway, since the Japanese cut now has the English title for the film, I guess its best for me to refer to this film as...
"GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER"
So is the film as weak as Godzilla fans make it out to be; ON WITH THE REVIEW!
A brother of a man who has been lost at sea, decides to go looking for him with the help of his friends and steal a Yacht with the owner sleeping inside it. However, it turns out that the owner of the Yacht is actually a safe cracking criminal who was robbing the Yacht that has a brief case full of money inside a vault and I guess he plans to steal the Yacht as well since he decides to sleep inside it, instead of taking the money and running away with it. The robber though decides to help the men anyway with finding the missing brother. After many days of sailing, a storm hits and a giant monster destroys the Yacht, where the men are then washed on to shore of a tropical Island. On the Island the men find a terrorist organization that have captured Tribe members from the Island where Mothra rules slaving over the terrorists, as well as discovering Godzilla himself. So the set-up sounds good and does make the film start out interesting, but the execution is pretty weak.
Starting with our lead monster Godzilla, I must say that as I watch him in this movie, despite having the trademark roar, the blue atomic breath, and the same costume used in the previous film; there's something about his behavior that doesn't seem very Godzilla like. Yeah, yeah, I know they changed Godzilla's behavior in the last few films that I reviewed to make him appeal to younger audiences; but here, it just lacks the Godzilla vibe that I always get when watching these films. I guess the reason for that has to do with the fact that this film was originally going to star King Kong to fight the Sea Monster, but was dropped for legal issues, and as a result put Godzilla in Kong's place, while also giving him similar characteristics that King Kong has. When we first see Godzilla, he's sleeping in a cave, when in all the other films, he sleeps underwater. He's also awoken by the power of electricity which is exactly how King Kong awakens and absorbs the electricity in "King Kong VS Godzilla". Oh and just for the record about how these film's follow the continuity of Godzilla being immune to lightning and electricity to being affected by it in other films for unexplained reasons. Here, when he's awaken by the power of electricity he's fine, but later on when he gets caught in a electrical fence, it starts to hurt him. I am so confused right now that it's not even funny. Godzilla is also in love with a native Island girl who cowares and screams as Godzilla fights to protect her, again much like King Kong's relationship with the girl that fears him as he makes eyes at her, while protecting her. By the way, during the emotional moment that Godzilla has with the girl is a start of a subplot that is completely dropped before it could go anywhere; and the monster that Godzilla fights to protect her is a Condor and the way its shot, edited, and paced is done so fast that you can hardly see the fight. Though Godzilla setting it on fire with his atomic blue breath was pretty cool. What also makes Godzilla seem very King Kong like is that people are afraid that a nuclear blast is going to kill him, which is stupid because Godzilla feeds off of nuclear energy, when with King Kong on the other hand, he doesn't. Also the Sea Monster that Godzilla fights, whenever I watch this fight, I can't help but think of King Kong fighting this Sea Monster since we saw him fight a giant octopus in "King Kong VS Godzilla". The Godzilla suit does look good in many shots, but in many other shots he looks like a giant Monster Muppet because of how flattened and wrinkled his neck is connected to his giant head; and when he opens his mouth in these shots he looks almost exactly like how a sock puppet would open and close its mouth. It really surprises me that this is the same suit used in the last film, which looked fine in that movie. The scenes of Godzilla causing destruction sadly lacks the same amount of awesome and camp as the previous films had, and just seems ridiculous and lazy. For example, when Godzilla is fighting off Jet Planes in one scene, we for some weird reason hear Surf Music as Godzilla seems to be dancing as he destroys these planes; and the weird part of it is, the music suddenly stops and he's back to destroying these Jet Planes in classic Godzilla fashion. The transition from Godzilla dancing, to seriously destroying these planes just doesn't seem to work at all and just feels weird. There's also a scene with Godzilla destroying the terrorist’s base and the miniatures look really and I mean really toy like with the way its shot and how colorful and plastic the base looks. It’s like watching Godzilla destroy a little kid’s toy set, and aside from the explosion it’s just a pretty lame sequence since he just stomps on stuff with his feet and throws rocks at it.
As for the Sea Monster that Godzilla fights named Ebirah, comparing him to all the other monsters that Godzilla has fought, this one is one of the least memorable ones. The build-up to this monster is cool. During a cool storm sequence with the Yacht (being the only model boat in this film that's shot up to size and scope) we see Ebirah's claw come out of the water as the human characters see it in fright as it then destroys the boat. That was seriously a great moment of build-up to the monster without even seeing it. Sadly however, when we finally do see the monster in a few scenes later, that's when I started to find myself disappointed with this film. All this monster really is, is a giant lobster which isn't as creative and cool looking as the previous monsters that Toho has created (Not counting King Kong). Its very silly looking and doesn't at all come-off as threatening or intimidating. I mean seriously, the giant Octopus in "King Kong Vs Godzilla" is way cooler and threatening than this, and it’s just a live Octopus made to look gigantic. This monster for some reason is scarred away by a yellow liquid that keeps people on boats safe, which is hardly addressed why he is and makes no sense at all. As for the scenes with Ebirah and Godzilla fighting, they're pretty unexciting. While the effect for the scenes of them fighting underwater is as cool as the underwater effect in the first film, it’s pretty boring and slow-moving, and Ebirah isn't really that much of match towards Godzilla. In fact, half of the time during these fight scenes between Godzilla and Ebirah, I expect Godzilla to crack him open and eat him. The only time I found myself entertained by these fight scenes are when they randomly play volleyball with a rock, that's pretty much it. The music in this film doesn't make the film feel awesome either since the score sounds a little too similar to the Surf music in the classic 60s Batman TV show, and the Bond theme from the 007 films. It just sounds very out of place for a Godzilla flick/ And whenever I hear the Surf music for when Godzilla and Ebirah fight, I expect a comic-book pun word to pop out.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Mothra is in this movie too and unfortunately she's just shoehorned into the movie. All she does throughout the film is sleep as her Tribe tries to awaken her with a chant for her to come and help them, which isn't as exciting as its supposed to be. She doesn't even wake up until the last 7 minutes of the movie and all she does is fly and for some out of nowhere reason gets into a fight with Godzilla, even though they became friends in "Ghindorah, The Three Headed Monster". This film sadly marks the final of appearance of Mothra in her Imago form for the rest of the Showa Era, which is sad considering how brief her appearance in this film is.
As for the human characters, they're mainly forgettable and not all that interesting. At first our 4 leads started out interesting as they go out on their voyage to find the missing brother, but after they discover the terrorist organization on the Island, that's when I started losing interest in most of them. The Native Tribe girl that these guys come across is as bland as the rest of them, and her character overall feels rather pointless since she does so little The terrorist organization that makes atomic bombs and captures members of the Tribe from Mothra's Island are also an uninteresting set of villains, which shocks me considering how well these film's executed the cliched greedy businessman villains that want to make money. Their motivation of making Tribe members slave over making the yellow stuff to lure way the monster as they make nuclear weapons is boring that leads up to a really and I mean really half-assed and last minute message of nuclear weapons that's not done as effective or smart as the first Godzilla film, or even "Mothra VS Godzilla" despite how corny that the film delivers its message at times! They even have guards that can't see what's clearly in front of them and love to shoot at random, which would be fine if something awesome came out of it, but no, it’s just stupid and lame! The only thing that stands out relating to these villains is their colorful base, that's it. The film brings back the Twin Fairies that Mothra protects, and the actress they got to play both characters sadly lacks the same enchanting charm and innocence that "The Peanuts" brought to these characters, despite how well she sings and how nice the effect looks. This is also sadly the last time we see the Fairies during this era. The only interesting and memorable human character in the film is Aikira Takarada as the safe cracking criminal. Just how smart, and fast he is with cracking safes, along with Takarada’s cool and laid-back performance just makes this character stand-out while having an interesting story-arc as we see this criminal turn into a hero as he and the group sneak around the base in a very Bond like fashion.
While some of the sets and effects are nice, as well as having an interesting character to keep your attention, the film is indeed weak. Godzilla's personality is so King Kong like that it feels more out of place than making him appeal to a younger audiences; the new monster that we get is silly; Mothra is just forcefully thrown into the movie as a tool; the fight scenes are boring and awkwardly silly; the majority of effects in the film aren't good; and aside from Aikira Takarada's character, all of the human characters are bland. Still as bad as the film is, I was at least entertained by it, as well as laughing at some of the stupid silly stuff that this film has. I don't at all highly recommend it, I mean there are so many other Godzilla films that you can be watching and be both entertained and amazed by, but it's something that you can sit through and be entertained by ok. Just like how I felt that "King Kong VS Godzilla" should get a remake with Toho and America banding together; I think this film also needs a remake, only this time it should be "King Kong VS The Sea Monster" instead.
RATING 2/5
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