Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster Film Review

To say that Godzilla is a pop culture icon would be like saying that James Bond is a solid movie franchise. As even tho it's been a good six months since I last talked about anything to do with Godzilla the fact that he's still going strong to this very day with the character even having not one but two films currently filming with one being American and the other being the sequel to the mega hit Godzilla Minus One but even heroes need there foes and well I thought that i'd review the film that introduced the king of the monsters biggest foe and so then join me as I review the film that sees an iconic Godzilla villain get introduced with the film in question being called simply just "Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a princess jumps out of a plane she starts a chain of events that can only be stopped by Godzilla teaming up with both Mothra and Rodan as they take on there biggest challenge yet. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad as while there are some elements from the human characters plot that do feel familiar the plot on the whole is one that is quite good with the makers of this film treating this clash of giants as the big deal that it really should have been by having the main monster plot be the main focus and the plot with the humans trying to protect the Shobijin from an evil gangster being treated more as a side plot that is very loosely connected to the main plot of the film with the films plot being one that is as a strong of a plot that it was ever going to be given the fact that the early Godzilla films aren't really known for having that strong a plot to them which is something that does make sense as you don't go to a Godzilla film for the plot you go for the action but at the same time tho it would have helped to make this film even more better if the films plot was a little bit more stronger then what it already is as the plot of the film does kind of feel like the plot of a TV show that got stretched out to a feature film running time which does result in the films plot becoming all the more weaker as a result of it but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho. 

Starring in this film is Yosuke Natsuki as Detective Shindo , Yuriko Hoshi as Naoko Shindo and Hiroshi Koizumi as Professor Miura. Also starring in this film is You Only Live Twice star Akiko Wakabayashi as Princess Mas Dorina Salno , The Peanuts as The Shobijin , Takashi Shimura as Dr. Tsukamoto , Hisaya Ito as Malmess , Akihiko Hirata as Security Chief Okita , Kenji Sahara as Kanamaki , Susumu Kurobe as The Assassin , Ikio Sawamura as The Fisherman , Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla , Masanori Shinohara as Rodan and Shoichi Hirose as King Ghidorah.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films actors turning in some really good performances and really making what could have been seen as being really dull and lifeless characters somehow feel alot more alive with all of the films human characters being really well cast with the same thing even being true for the films monster actors as well as while Haruo Nakajima has played Godzilla since the beginning and pretty much is the character at this point in time the same thing cannot be said for Shoichi Hirose who despite only playing the character of Ghidorah once more after this film still does make an impression on us the audience with the films best actor being Akiko Wakabayashi as while it would have been super easy to go for either Haruo Nakajima or Shoichi Hirose due to the fact that there playing the more well known characters Akiko has a harder job to do in the film as while she is yes only playing the one character in the film she has to portray that character in two different states the first of which being when she's normal self and second of which being when she says she's from Venus and she has to make both of them seem believable and real and that is something that she does pull off effortlessly with the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Character wise this film does bare as well as you'd think that a Godzilla film would do especially when it comes to it's human characters. As much like with the plot of the film nobody expects the human characters in a Godzilla film to be all that good and yeah that's the exact same case here with this film with nine of the films human characters being all that interesting due to the fact that none of them are given all that much in the way of a personality with this not really being something that's helped by the fact that they are in the side plot of the film which is just basically the typical Shobijin plot and really nothing all the more then that and heck the films best human characters aren't even human as there The Shobijin themselves who play the exact same role as they always do in these film in that they act as a voice for Mothra and that's it and while that might not be much that's a damn sight more then what the actual human characters gets as even Naoko who is meant to be a journalist doesn't really get much given to her character with her job feeling like an excuse to get her to plot relevant scenes and not because it's something that her character would do with the same thing also kind of being true for Detective Shindo as well with it only being the Princess which even then is more due to the fact that something happens to her at the start of the fil that causes her to loose her memory and think that she's from Venus with her gaining the power to predict when things are going to happen which is a cool idea that the film does go all the way with but due to the fact that we've spent more time with The Shobijin those are the best human characters in the film as we've had that extra time to really get to know them as characters that are key to making any Mothra plot work.

What was shocking was that even tho we do get to get Godzilla pretty quickly in this film with him first showing up around the thirty minuet mark it's takes a good while to get to the films titular monster Ghidorah. Whilst this does make sense as Godzilla was still being presented as the main villain of these films at this point in time we should have gotten to Ghidorah alot more quicker just because of the fact that we don't have to set up Godzilla as a character but we do have up so much more about King Ghidorah and therefor it would have made more sense for him to appear alot more sooner then what he does in the film but with that being said tho the people watching this film are most likely watching it to see either Godzilla , Rodan or Mothra and therefor it does make sense to get to them alot more quicker and to the films credit it was fun seeing all three of these characters firstly struggle to get along but then be forced to come together for the greater good as then we get to have some character growth for the Godzilla character and heck it could even be argued that this is the film where we fully see Godzilla do a face turn as he starts out the villain of the film but then due to the fact that he does team up with two characters who are lesser then him interms of power and help them to save the earth he does become more of a hero something which the later Godzilla films would delve more in to with this being helped by the fact that all three characters do get a chance to take on Ghidorah one on one with them all being beaten pretty easily which shows of the fact that he is the strongest foe that Godzilla will ever come up against.

For a mid Japanese Godzilla film this film is pretty dark with alot of the human characters getting bloodied up near the end of the film. Heck even The Assassin gets killed of in a brutal way as in the films truly epic third act het gets struck by a landslide  which forces him of the cliff edge he was on where he falls to his death which granted is a pretty suitable death for a character that is the main villain of the human story as he's trying to kill The Princess but at the same time it's still a pretty dark ending even when you take into account that we see her body guard get very badly bloodied up when in a gin fight with him as well with this being something that does show you that these films were always meant to be more of a family film at best as that does allow for those more darker elements of the film to come into play where as the more later sixties Godzilla films would be more child friendly which does make sense given how popular that the character was with little kids at the time but at the same time tho it also sands off all of the edges that these film had so much so that even the American films lack any real dark moments to them where as films like this one and even the original Godzilla film prove that you can make a good Godzilla film that is both dark and appeals to little kids as there things in this film that kids will like as all kids like dinosaurs and dinosaurs fighting each other and that's something that all of these films but on top of that is the fact that the film has these more darker moments in them that won't scare them but might cause those same little kids to ask there parents to ask what's going on in the film and that's really it.

Ghidorah in this film whilst he is rightfully treated as being a big threat to the earth as he's the strongest foe that Godzilla will ever come up against. The fact that it does take the film a good while to even get to him in the first place is something that does lessen the impact that the character could have had in this film as if the makers of the film got him alot more quicker then it would have meant that we could have seen more of what he could do as a character and heck you could then have it be that him awakening was cause Godzilla and Rodan to awaken in the first place as he's just that strong of a character as things stand tho both Rodan and Godzilla awaken on there own and Ghidorah isn't even there which does make him feel more like an afterthought despite him quite literally being the films title character and yet he gets less screen time then Godzilla , Mothra and Rodan this is something that would make sense if he was a returning character and was already established in other Godzilla films but he's not with this film being his debut appearance and yet we find out nothing about his character and yet in both the debut films for Godzilla and Mothra we found out quite alot about them as characters including there origin where as here we get none of them with it seeming loke that the makers of this film were just relying more on his design being cool and then working out his backstory in a later film which given the fact that this film was rushed into production is something that does make alot of sense and it could be argued is something that did work as his design is a cool enough that you do kind of forgive the fact that we don't really find out his backstory but at the same time tho it would have helped the character out if we did find out what his backstory was in the first place.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty three minuets. Which to be fair to this film is the exact grand total running time that alot of the other Godzilla films do seem to have with this film even having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place but in saying that tho this is a film that really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the plot of the film isn't well developed with this being due to the fact that the film really doesn't take the time that it really did need to fully flesh out its plot and make the things that happen plot wise make a whole lot of sense and while granted the Godzilla films are basically fantasy films the plots still need to make sense and be fully developed something which can't happen here as it feels like that the makers of the film put alot more effort into it's action scenes into developing the plot of the film with the same thing also being true for the films characters as well as all of the films characters both human and not aren't that well developed and while characters like Godzilla , Mothra and Rodan aren't effected by this due to the fact that they've appeared in other films before now it's the rest of the characters that suffer the most because of it as characters like Princess Mas Dorina Salno and Naoko Shindo do come across as being very one dimensional this is despite the fact that the idea behind the Princess thinking that she's from Venus and can predict when a disaster is a good one it doesn't change the fact that she isn't that well developed as a character but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the makes of this film really putting alot more effort into this films action then really anything else in the film and my god does it really show as all of this films action does look really good which is something that does make alot of sense as you do come to a Godzilla film to see the monsters destroying things and we get plenty of that in this film with the films best action scene being the final third act as we get to see Godzilla , Rodan and Mothra take on King Ghidorah in a three on one handicap match and even then Ghidorah gives them all a good run for there money with him using his electric rays to cause some really damage and throw Godzilla into a bridge that destroys it but with the best hit in the whole fight has to be when Rodan distracts Ghidorah by taking to the air with Ghidorah chasing after him only then he turns round and flies right into him head on taking them both down to the ground in the process but even despite who good that this films third act fight is there's only so much that you can do with Ghidorah and Rodan fighting as there both air bound creatures and even Mothra who stays in her lava form in this film can't really do all that much which does mean that it's up to Godzilla to do alot of the damage and while he does do alot of damage to Ghidorah it makes having the other tow there feel pointless as they both can't really do all that much in the first place this is despite the fact that they both manage to cause some damage to Ghidorah in their own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this film is ne that is a truly entertaining film and one that does prove that Godzilla can work as either a villain or a hero and while Ghidorah could have been handled alot more better in his debut film then he is in his other film appearances he is still a really credible and powerful villain which does make this film one thats truly worth watching in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Wikizilla and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Wikizilla this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Wikizilla are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Wikizilla really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.