Halfway through the '70s, this was the point where the Godzilla series finally ran out of steam - and lay dormant until the big guy's revival as the bad guy in 1984's RETURN OF GODZILLA. I'm happy to say that they ended the series on a high note, with one of the most colourful and spectacular entries I've ever seen. The sci-fi plot is a fun one packed with action and strange characters and devices. Okay, so it may be rehashed and unoriginal, but it's still a whole lot of fun.Following on from the end of the previous year's GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA, this opens with a stunning battle between the two monsters, where Godzilla sprays blood everywhere and gets mutilated before ripping off Mechagodzilla's head. Sadly this isn't a sign of things to come. Once again, there's another alien plot to take over the world, and once again our heroes manage to defeat them. Along the way we have more hilarious dubbing, even more so than usual (I liked it when guards surrounded a prisoner, and said "You won't escape now. Shoot!"), and lots of amusingly bad fashions (this was the '70s, after all), complete with large sideburns and even larger collars. Especially amusing are the Interpol team who act as the film's heroes, who basically epitomise '70s coolness.The violence here is quite strong for a Godzilla film, with a couple of people being gunned down in slow motion. There's also a surprising scene of artificial nudity, a first and only in the series (it was aimed at kids, after all.). The muddled plot takes in a cyborg girl, a dinosaur living under the ocean, an alien base underground, Godzilla, and the return of Mechagodzilla as an even more powerful monster. It's fast paced, and the monster battles, especially the ending, are really spectacular, filled with explosions and many colourful death rays and beams. Mechagodzilla doesn't die when you rip his head off anymore either! Titanosaurus is a rather funny creature, a dinosaur who looks like a model I once had as a kid, no more realistic than that. All together, this is a fun film for kids and adults alike, with colourful spacesuits, costumes and sets, plenty of action and incident, and a great score once again.

Just as good as its predecessor, if not better. Last time we saw Godzilla teaming up to take down one monster. This time, he has to take down two, by himself. This is a great end to the original series, as it contains all the great elements. Awesome fights, which take us back to more inhabited areas. The country side had become a cheap alternative, but you can't beat city destruction. There is also a lot of heart, as we see a ridiculed scientist and his daughter struggle with their feelings. This film actually contains some human sacrifice. Making us and Godzilla equal again. Very impressed with something that could have been all a little much.

Things did not bode well at the start, with a seven-minute greatest hits sequence that never seemed to end, but by the time it was over I found myself grateful for so much action so early on. When the story proper started it was with some very impressive underwater model work (I couldn't see the seams at any rate).But what really marked this out as a superior entry is the plot. A reclusive discredited scientist is employed by aliens to use his thought-controlled pet Titanosaurus to destroy Tokyo along with the newly-rebuilt Mechagodzilla, their combined might certain to overcome that pesky Godzilla. Meanwhile an Interpol agent and a marine scientist investigate the disappearance of an exploratory submarine, the trail leading them to the scientist's beautiful but non-too-helpful daughter.It might sound like the usual gubbins on paper but there's genuine tension in many of the scenes, it's logical and exciting, and rather than feeling like drawn-out filler while we wait for the real action to begin it's successful on its own terms, even managing to pull off genuine pathos bordering on tragedy at the end.When it does begin it's hands down the best destruction I've seen so far in the series. They're right in the centre of Tokyo surrounded by skyscrapers ready to be demolished and incinerated. The camera pans across the cityscape as whole swathes of it are destroyed, and it truly is spectacular. What makes it even more powerful is that it's not a fight sequence for the most part - it's just two big boys laying waste to the city.Godzilla himself is given a wonderful entrance, and in those moments it's a thrill to see this (of all films) so overtly referencing The Third Man (of all films).They do escape to the country for the final showdown, but there's still the odd power station to be sat on and let's face it, we've already had our money's worth with the destruction of Tokyo. The fight is lengthy too, with Godzilla on the back foot for most of it, and while we're never unsure of the outcome it does get pretty hairy for the big guy.For the budget the special effects are often superb and always imaginative (like the alien technician walking inside Mechagodzilla's head or the shot that takes us from his massive, dormant frame as he's being worked on, through a window, and finishes with the aliens and doctor watching the progress from a lab).The music throughout is excellent, and the female lead is impossibly gorgeous.What's not to love?

While the previous mechagodzilla movie was better, this one is a poor excuse for a remake. Special effects are duller and the budget is (apparently) much lower. As with other such monster movies, they try to thicken the plot with many subplots, including a love story, submarine searches, alien invasion etc. In the end (being a bit more than 70 minutes), none of them develops clearly and -as with monster movies in general- are felt somewhat superfluous. Alien invaders from a planet victim of a black hole have rebuilt the disposed of mechagodzilla and plan to team it up with another marine monster called Titanosaurus. This second monster was the reason why an acclaimed scientist got fired from his job to end up in poverty. He's thus resentful & plans revenge. Both subplots will come in the spurious Go Nagai ( the Japanese anime/robot artist ) series Daiku Maryu Gaiking, where inhabitants of planet Zela want to invade Earth to avert their doom caused by a black hole. One episode features a once prominent scientist laughed offstage for his offbeat theories joining the spacemen resentful for the death in poverty of his wife&child. Godzilla does NOT appear from the first 50 (yes 50) minutes of the movie, besides stock footage from the opening titles. The scientist's daughter has been turned into a cyborg following an accident in her father's laboratory, and she's thus a puppet run by the aliens despite her kind feelings. Her path crosses with a clumsy interpol agent's later convinced of the truth in the old scientist's theories. Once all those subplots seem to clearly go nowhere, in fifteen minutes you get the alien base blown up, the cyborg girl, her father & some aliens die; other aliens die while trying to escape while men in rubber suit wrestle one another. Even the bond sets of the alien base look very cheap & stitched together from garage sales. The English dubbing is especially bad; Besides the voices, it's not very clear.. The only good thing is godzilla is still a positive character here.