RODAN
Instead of summarizing the plot in one paragraph, I feel the need to kind of walk through the movie a little bit to state my opinions on this one. I don't usually do this, but I'm going to make an exception.
Before I move on to the story, the first thing I must point out is that this is the first Japanese Monster movie to be shot in color, and while I do miss the use of black and white that made the last two Godzilla movies dark and gritty (despite that "Godzilla Raids Again" was still campy), I actually do love how colorful it looks. I mean the color in this film is so bright and colorful that it almost looks like looking at a comic-book about a giant monster coming to life. Even when we're in dark areas with the characters (especially when we're in the underground mines) the lighting and sets still have a bit of color for certain things to make them stand out, while surprisingly maintaining that dark suspenseful monster movie feel. If that doesn't sound colorful enough for you, the opening credits even takes advantage of the film being shot in color by having a kaleidoscope like background as the opening credits role. While I'm not sure if the film was going for a comic-book look or just simply be a colorful giant monster movie, the color for this film still looks nice either way.
The first half of the movie mostly takes place in the underground mines and for me personally those scenes are my favorite part of the movie because the way it looks and the way its shot does give you a feeling that you're underground with these miners. When I was first introduced to these miners and the mines where they work, despite already knowing that something bad will soon happen to them, I couldn't help but feel a sense of interest working down below with them due to how cool the mine they work in looks, and how friendly these people interact with each other. That all however quickly changes once the miners start to disappear or be found dead; and I must say the suspense and build up to the creature that's killing these miners is done effective through the acting; the cinematography; the music; the lack of seeing the monster but feeling of its presence as it kills some of the miners; and hearing those creepy chirping noises from the monster. So I guess some of you are thinking that the monster that these scenes are building up to is our title monster right, actually no, the scenes in the mines are building up to a species of monsters called the Meganulons.
As much as I love the build up to these monsters, the pay-off is pretty disappointing. I like the idea to these bug like monsters and how big the costumes are, but it's a pretty cheesy looking monster. I mean there's no suspense (aside from the build-up); they're not gigantic creatures that destroy houses or cities; and the murders that they commit on screen are more hysterical, than they there scary or cool. My real big issue with these creatures isn't the fact that they look cheesy and lack any scares, but they pretty much don't play a big role in the film's actual plot. In fact, these creatures don't even fight our title monster, Rodan just eats them. Why are these creatures even in this movie? There's no need for them. It's almost as if Toho couldn't decide if they should make a film about a giant flying monster, or a film about giant monsters that look like bugs for their first color monster flick, and just decided to put both ideas together. The result is indeed a mess and honestly these two monsters and the way that their both set-up and built-up is good enough to give them both their own movie, instead of cramming them together in the same movie.
After a half hour of pretty much an entirely different movie, the film finally begins to build-up to our title monster, and just like the build-up to The Meganulons it’s just as great. For the first couple scenes when Rodan enters the film, you hardly see him at all, but you do know the monster is there from the people's reactions; the wind sound effects; seeing the contrail that it leaves in the sky as it flies around at supersonic speed; and even getting a tiny glimpse of the monster as it destroys a Jet. When we finally see the monster, we don't see it in present time as its flying around; we see it in a flashback as it hatches out of its egg, which makes for a perfect on-screen entrance for this monster.
Before I start talking about our lead monster, I feel that now is the appropriate time for me to talk about the human characters in the film. Now I can't say that any of the film's characters are interesting or memorable, but their acting does indeed play a major part in the build-up to both monsters, especially to our title monster. Just their reactions, and seeing and hearing them discuss and analyze both monsters isn't as boring or as over the top as you think it would be, it's quite interesting that's carried out by legitimate good acting. Yeah, there are some moments where the characters reactions towards the monsters are over the top silly, but the build-up is still great never the less. The performance for me that stood out the most is Kenji Sahara as the miner who suffered from amnesia after being trapped in the mines with the Meganulons. Ok, his character isn't memorable either, but the scenes when he suffers from having amnesia as he’s disconnected with the people he's been with, does feel real instead of over the top or corny; and when he regains his memory of what he witnessed inside the mines is so effective in terms of acting, visuals, and atmosphere, that you feel exactly what this character is feeling.
Our lead monster Rodan is a cool monster with his design; ability to fly at supersonic speed; take what ever bombs that the army fires at him; and being able to destroy a city by simply just flapping his wings which causes a hurricane. The only thing that takes a bit of the awesome factor away from this awesome monster is the fact that it has another monster of the same species working by his side. Aside from the title being very misleading since there's more than one Rodan, as well as having a pointless bug like monsters that takes up the first half hour of the film, my problem isn't because that there are two Rodans. My main problem is the two Rodans hardly do anything when they're together. All they do whenever they're together on screen is fly; hide; and suffer the same fate that they're both destined to have. There's no scenes with them together cause destruction and chaos; the twist of being two Rodans just came out of left field, than being something awesome and exciting; and the supposed love story that these two Rodans have is so downplayed that you could probably go through the whole entire film and not pick up on it at all, or at the very least not at all feel the romantic connection between the two. Even their supposed romantic fate when you're supposed to feel bad for them was corny and stupid.
Moving on to the special effects they do indeed look fake. The green-screen effects are noticeably fake; we see the wires on the Rodans so many times that you know that it's not actually flying; and the sequence when Rodan is fighting the army in the city is so obvious that he's destroying a model as we see obvious model tanks fire at it that it doesn't have that gigantic size and scope as the first "Godzilla" film had; even "Godzilla Raids Again" seems more real looking with size and scope when compared to this film. But as cheesy and obvious as the effects look, this film is one of the first giant monster movie made by Toho that doesn't have Godzilla in it after his last apperance. Their first attempt at making a giant monster movie that wasn't Godzilla related is "Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman", that came out the same year as "Godzilla Raids Again". But the film was banned for how the Burakumins were portrayed. So their next giant monster film that doesn't have Godzilla in it this time wouldn't be a giant monster that walks on land causing destruction like the other monsters made from Toho, but instead a giant monster that can fly while also causing destruction. Holy smoke, instead of the studio deciding to play things safe by just simply having a giant monster walk the earth after their last failed attempt, they decide to give us a giant monster that can fly for their next attempt, that's pretty ballsy for Toho; and for a first attempt at creating a giant monster that can fly, as well as trying really hard to make the film better than their last attempt, the effort at creating this film does show! Sure they use a puppet for some of the scenes, but in plenty of other scenes they actually had a guy in a rubber suit that's attached to wires, and if you think wearing the Godzilla suit sounds infamous to wear, try wearing almost the same exact suit while being attached to wires! Give these people some freaking credit. Also despite the city models still looking like models, just like in in the other Godzilla films, you can tell a lot of detail and effort went into these models just so a guy in a rubber suit can destroy them.
"Rodan" does indeed play as an important piece of film when it comes to Godzilla and "Toho" studios. It introduced us to two monsters that will later appear in Godzilla films; it was the first Toho giant monster film to be filmed in color; and it was one of the first Toho films where they would experiment with different monsters without Godzilla being a part of the film, as well as being their first attempt at creating a flying giant monster! The film also offers some great suspense and build-up to our monsters; good acting that keeps your interest; and entertaining scenes of destruction. Yes, the effects aren't convincing or realistic looking, and at times do look silly and laughable, but at the same time, I do sense and appreciate the amount of effort that went into these effects, especially when being made during the experimental monster movie period for Toho, as well as taking a risk by giving us a flying monster for a change. The only things that I do fault the film for is the film feeling like two different movies mixed into one with its two different type of monsters that really don't do anything together on screen, nor does the silly looking monsters before Rodan play an important role; and the romantic relationship between the two Rodans which isn't effecting, interesting, or feel of any importance to the film's plot. Whether you look at the film as an important and groundbreaking experimental piece for Toho, or just a cheesy and laughable giant monster movie from Japan, it's still a fun and entertaining giant monster movie, and while it was close to getting my love or hate rating for the things that I criticized it for, I still feel the need to give it the second best rating for Toho stepping up to the plate and being an important piece to the overall franchise.
RATING 4/5
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