Invasion Of Astro-Monster Review

We are in a very exciting time right as we are about two or three weeks away from the release of the latest Japanese Godzilla film. Well I thought that i'd take a look back at another one of the films from the King Of The Monsters heyday and what better then the film that saw him and Rodan take on King Ghidorah in outer space however this is also the film that had Godzilla do some sort of jumping dance as well and so then join me as I review the film that as was mentioned has Godzilla do a jumping dance of sorts with the film in question being called simply just "Invasion Of Astro-Monster" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when two astronauts land on Planet X they reach a deal with the local population that they will lend them Godzilla and Rodan to take care of there monster people and the aliens will give them the cure to cancer only for the aliens to have something more sinister in mind something which involved both Godzilla and Rodan and King Ghidorah. 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 int his very film was in all honesty not that bad. To be fair to this film whilst it's plot isn't as good as earlier Godzilla films it's also not as bad as some of the more kid friendly Godzilla films either. With this films plot being a mixture of the more serious plots of the earlier films by having the human characters genuinely wanting to do something good for the planet but also the more goofier plots of the later sixties Godzilla films by having Godzilla do some pretty goofy stuff in it while the goofy aspects of the films plot aren't done that badly as they usually last for one scene before never being seen or mentioned ever again they do at times feel at odds with the films more serious plot elements as the film will go from having for example a serious plot driven scene with Godzilla and Rodan under alien control destroying Japan to a more goofy scene with the humans and sometimes its the other way around the with the human characters having a serious scene and the monsters having a more goofy scene, to the films credit tho it does spend alot of time just focusing on the plot but in saying this tho this film still feels like the plot was made secondary to everything else in the film with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Akira Takarada as Kazuo Fuji , Nick Adams as Glenn and Gorō Naya as the voice of Glenn. Also starring in this film is Kumi Mizuno as Namikawa , Jun Tazaki as Dr. Sakurai , Akira Kubo as Tetsuo Torii , Keiko Sawai as Haruno Fuji , Yoshio Tsuchiya as The Controller Of Planet X , Takamaru Sasaki as The Chairman Of Earth Committee , Gen Shimizu as The Minister of Defense , Yoshifumi Tajima as A General , Nadao Kirino as A Military Aide , Kenzo Tabu as The Commander From Planet X Earth Unit , Koji Uno as Namikawa's Associate , Somesho Matsumoto as A Buddhist Priest . Masaki Shinohara as Rodan , Shoichi Hirose as King Ghidorah and Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla.

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 int his very film was in all honesty not that bad. The fact this this acting is about as OK as it gets is something that really isn't all that surprising given the fact that the sixties Godzilla films aren't really known for having good or even great acting in them and while the acting in this film isn't that bad it's also not that good either as they choose to oddly enough dub over an English speaking actor for this Japanese cut of the film with the voice that they give him not really sounding right at all with alot of the performance from the human characters not being all that great either. With he best actor in  this film being Nick Adams as Glenn as even tho his star had fallen quite far since the fifties due to him being in alot of low budget science fiction films he does still turn in a good performance in this film with him quite clearly trying to turn in a good performance and while it is odd that his voice was dubbed over for the Japanese and subtitled version of the film it was kept for the English dubbed cut of the film with him playing one of the likable heroes of the film and doing so really well as you can see that he was still a really good actor who unfortunately for him just got typecast as being a star of low budget science fiction films with his own charm and charisma really coming through in this film. With the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just s bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Much like with alot of the Japanese Godzilla films no one is going to film expecting the characters to be all that good and given the fact that this film is good as well as spoofing cheaply made science fiction films even down to having a once being name in the film the characters are about as well as you'd thin k that they would be. As yeah they are just as bland as they normally are in these early Godzilla and this is fine as nobody is going to a Godzilla film to see the human story we're going to see Godzilla destroy stuff in fun and new ways is it nice when we do have interesting human characters yes of course it is but it's not something that is needed to make this film and heck one could argue that not having interesting human characters does go with the fact that they are spoofing cheap American science fiction films. However tho it would have been nice if the makers of this film did put some level of thought into the films characters as there really is nothing about about any of the films human characters that make them interesting and while this is something that does make sense as Godzilla and in this case both Rodan and King Ghidorah should be the main focus of the film as they are who we are going to this film to see but that doesn't mean that the human characters have to get the short change as they do nothing memorable with the human characters outside out of having the American hero think that he's seen the love of his life on Planet X and that's really it and even that's not that memorable as it doesn't effect who he is as a characters with the other one even being a bit of a control freak when it comes to his sister which again doesn't affect him as a character.

For those of you that are wondering this is the film that sees Godzilla jumping up in the air after he defeats King Ghidorah. While that moment is a goofy moment in the film as it seems out of character for him to do something like that given the fact that alot of kids were starting to see the Godzilla films and see him more as being the hero of the film then the villains of the films that he was originally it does make sense somewhat that the makers of this film would have a moment that is goofy involving Godzilla be in the film but tho this is the start of the downfall for this series as all of the sixties Godzilla films after this would get more and more kid friendly and would have more and more goofier moments with the character. Whilst it is a harmless moment to have in this film knowing just how kid friendly the rest of the the Japanese Godzilla films would get in the sixties even getting to the point where they made the King Of The Monsters a father it is odd that it would be started of in this film due to how serious the rest of the film is heck the film even has the evil Xilliens killing of one of there own due to the fact that she fell in love with Glenn that's dark stuff and yet it's in a film where Godzilla does a goofy dance for literally no reason whatsoever, this is something that did need to be thought out alot more as the kids would have still have came to the rest of the Godzilla films regardless of if it was being made for them or not much like how they came to this film as kids will still go and see films if there good not because of the fact that they film is being targeted towards them and while showing Godzilla does have a more goofy side to him doesn't effect either the film or his character at all it is something that does feel out of place in this film.

Look to be frank alot of this film is just forgettable be it from the film dropping key human characters for alot of it's running time for them even trying to mix in comedy. All of which is just forgettable as the films characters aren't that interesting and the films attempts at comedy are poor at best heck they even drop the Tetsuo Torii for a large portion of the films running time so much so that when the film does cut back to him you have to actually remind yourself that he was even a character in the film and yet he's meant to be a main character as its his invention that allows the humans to defeat the Xilliens in the first place and yet he barely appears in alot of the film heck it would be a stretch to even call him a main character as he's out of the film for that long that at best he feels alot more like a side character and yet he had to the potential to be a decent character. As for the films comedy it's just flat out bad as none of the lighthearted moments even work heck I even had to read the Godzilla: First 70 Years book to even find out that this film has comedic moments in it as none of them are funny ad fair enough this film is more of an action film and therefor it does make sense to to put alot more focus on that as that's what the auidence is paying to see but at the same time if your going out of your way to have more lighthearted moments in these films then make those lighthearted moments not only relevant to the plot as so it doesn't feel like your stopping the film to tell a joke and secondly make the joke that your telling funny that is the most basic thing needed to make a funny scene work and yet it's something that the makers of this film just didn't do.

The Xilliens in this film were a bunch of really good villains with the film doing a really good job of making the big reveal of them secretly being evil. With everything that we see with them near the start and middle of the film doing a really good job of making them look like a bunch of really good people who are just in need of some help with the fact that they even offer to give us the cure for cancer being something that does reinforce that idea and while it would have been nice to have scenes in the film that lay the idea that there not as good as there making themselves out to be this is something that would do more harm to the film then good as it would rob the film of a really good reveal in favor of outright saying who the actual villain of the film is meant to be in the first place. With even the fact that they use humans for testing of some sort on presumably on there home planet being a really good idea and while it's not that's developed all that well it really didn't need to be as it was only there to make it clear to us the audience what might happen to Glenn should he choose to go with them and that's really it and that's all it needed to do and while we don't get that much of a clear reason as to why they want to take over Earth one can assume due to what we see on Planet X that's it's due to the fact that King Ghidorah has pretty much ruined there planet with them looking for a place to live and while this is something that we do see in the film it still would have been nice if the makers of this film did give us alot more of a clearer reason to why there attacking Earth in the first place as it would give us more of a reason to really hate these characters out side of the fact that there attacking the heroes of the film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty four minuets and eighteen seconds. This is pretty much the bogstandard running time for these Godzilla films and to be fair to this film this is a film that really did need to be this long as it does have alot of things to set up just from the human side of the plot alone and to that in a shorter amount of time would do alot more harm to the film then it would good and as heck you could even make the case that with this films present running time that the film still does end up dropping the ball somewhat when it does come to this part of the film this is despite the fact that this film really does have more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of time in the first place. Yet despite this being the case the film still doesn't use its running time all tat wisely as the film still doesn't take the time that it does indeed have to fully develop its plot as the film does spend alot of time on just giving us pointless scenes as we don't need to see every single meeting that the characters have in the film as all of those scenes add nothing to the films plot and feel more like filler then anything and yet if the makers of this film did cut out alot of those scenes that the time saved could then be added to giving the film some plot development yet the makers of this film put alot more thought and effort into giving us alot of boring meeting scenes then they did into giving the plot some much needed plot development. The same thing is also true for the films character development as none pf the films characters be they human or monster and this case also Alien get no character development whatsoever yet this is something that you do have to expect from these Japanese Godzilla films and it is still something that the makers of this film really could have taken the time to do instead of just dropping characters for alot of the film running time yet the makers of this films seemed to put more thought ad focus into unfunny jokes then they did into the characters some character development 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 films action being the monster entertaining part of the film which is something that is to be expected as the one the thing that is nearly almost really good i all of these Japanese Godzilla films is the action as it will always be really good just seeing Godzilla and whomever he is up against level a small Japanese town or village with this film even going one step beyond that by showing us people getting caught up in the attacks which something that we really don't get to see all that much in these films. With the best action scene in this film of course being the three attack on Japan as we get to see Godzilla , King Ghidorah and Rodan all of whom are under the control of the Xilliens just attack several parts of first the world a King Ghidorah does land in America first and then later Japan and it is just so much fun to see as you can tell that the makers of this film had alot of fun to putting that entire sequence together and it is something that really does show in the film with us being able to see Godzilla using his breath to destroy a building while Rodan uses his wings to spread the debris and King Ghidorah causes hell from above by using his lightening to cause damage from above this is just a really good an fun scene to watch in the film and heck not only is it the best action scene in the film but it's the best scene in the film period with the rest of the films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall whilst this film isn't the best sixties Godzilla film out there as there other better Godzilla films made around the same time as this film this is still a really good film it's own right and while the story does leave alot to be desired it more the makes up for it with it's cool action scenes 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 6.5 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.