Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Mechagodzilla is back and this time it's personal!

Godzilla has his claws full battling a refurbished Mechagodzilla, Titanosaurus, and the space aliens from the previous Mechagodzilla appearance. This time the aliens have a mad Earth scientist who can control the normally peaceful Titanosaurus to help them reach their nefarious goal of leveling Tokyo and making it their new home. Along for the ride are some Interpol agents and the mad scientist's cyborg daughter. Of course, one of the Interpol agents falls madly in love with the daughter in the five minutes he gets to know her. Godzilla movies have it all--even romance!

I thought the first Mechagodzilla movie was better than this one. Godzilla was almost relegated to a bit player here. He had a face lift since his last outing, making him look angrier. Thankfully, his eyes didn't look painted on by a fourth grader this time. Titanosaurus had the most screen time. I have to say I thought the design for Titan was very good and aesthetic, he made a formidable, if reluctant opponent for Big G. Mechagodzilla was back with some new weaponry and a few surprises.

Ifukube Akira's score was dark, ominous and at times thundering. I very rarely notice the music in movies, but I thought the score was nearly perfect, particularly for the opening sequence.

I would be remiss if I didn't make note that Honda Ishiro, the director for the first Godzilla movie, came out of at least semi-retirement to helm this movie.

The monster fights and city destruction were well done and didn't go over the line into the boxing camp of earlier movies. It did look like the same city block was destroyed several times, but given it's smallish budget that feels like nitpicking. My complaint is the same one I give in nearly every review, the humans were lackluster, including the simian aliens. The human element wouldn't be as important if they didn't take up so much screen time. I'm here for the big guy, not the humans he lets live on the island.

Terror of Mechagodzilla was entertaining, with a few dark elements thrown in, particularly near the end. This was a slightly above average 1970's Godzilla movie for me.

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