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A new satellite circling Jupiter has been discovered, and earth
scientists are quick to imaginatively name it Planet X. Astronauts Glenn
(Nick Adams) and Fuji (Akira Takarada) are sent up to Planet X, a barren
rock where they are attacked by the three-headed monster King Ghidorah in
no time at all but saved by the locals, a bunch of computer-controlled
aliens, who ask earth for a favour: They want earth monsters Godzilla and
Rodan to defeat King Ghidorah in exchange for the cure for cancer. Glenn
and Fuji don't like it for whatever reason, but they agree. Back on
earth, inventor Tetsuo (Akira Kubo), the fiancé of astronaut Fuji's
sister Haruno (Keiko Sawai), who still has to prove himself in Fuji's
eyes), has invented some weird alarm system that emits an especially
ghastly noise - which against all odds is bought by a big toy corporation,
but then Tetsuo waits for the money for his invention in vain, so much so
that he follows one of the representatives of the corporation, Ms Namikawa
(Kumo Mizuno) to its secret headquarters, only to have to realize the
corporation is run by aliens from Planet X and be captured and
incarcerated by the aliens. As coincidence has it, Glenn is Ms
Namikawa's boyfriend, but upon paying a second visit to Planet X, he has
to notice that all women there look like her, and thus she must be an
alien. Back on earth, he confronts her with his knowledge, and she
confesses to being an alien, but also confesses her undying love to Glenn,
for which she is soon shot by her fellow aliens, but not before slipping a
note to him pointing out the aliens' Achilles' heel. Of course, the aliens
make Glenn their captive and throw him into a cell with Tetsuo, but as it
happens, the sound emitted by Tetsuo's alarm are the aliens' very
weakness, and since Tetsuo carries a prototype of his alarm with him they
are out in no time, and immediately pay a visit to the army with their
newfound knowledge. The army of course is in dire need of a weapon
against the aliens, because the aliens have not only started to attack
earth, they have also returned Godzilla and Rodan but put them under
mindcontrol to help them, and have imported King Ghidorah as an extra
bonus. However, the amplified sounds of Tetsuo's alarm quickly shoot the
aliens' UFOs out of the skies, and once the mind control over Godzilla and
Rodan are broken, they quickly take care of King Ghidorah and chase him
off earth ... Not one of the better films of the Godzilla-series,
this movie still has quite a few things to go for it: The
pseudo-futuristic spaceships and the interiors of the alien base are
endearing, most of the miniature work is brilliantly done, and the silly
script is hilarious in a good way. The problem of this film quite simply
is that there are not enough monster fights in there: Most of the movie's
running time is eaten up by human subplots, which are actually a bit
boring and childish, and it isn't until halfway through that Godzilla
makes his first appearance. Only in the final quarter of the film are
Godzilla and pals allowed to do their worst to whatever comes in their
way, and these scenes are really well done (some of the destruction scenes
are actually quite breathtaking) - but unfortunately that's too little too
late. Still a trashy but fun trip down memory lane, just by no means a
classic, even within the realm of monster movies.
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