This is one of the first Godzilla movies I saw, and when I see it now after seeing almost all of the other movies, it still holds up pretty well. The main problem is, of course, Ebirah. Definetly Godzilla's worst foe. I mean, really, A GIANT LOBSTER!? But, other than that, the film is quite good, following the usual trend that the Godzilla movies tend to have much better plots than their american counterparts of the time. Here we have a young man trying to find his brother taking his friends with him to look at boats. When they board one to look around, they find a man with a gun to greet them. He claims to be the owner and allows them to spend the night on the boat. When they wake up the next morning, however, the young man has taken the boat to find his brother. It's wrecked in a storm and they are stranded on an island where they discover a secret organisation called the Red Bamboo is using slave labor to make nuclear weapons. Ebirah, a giant lobster, prevents boats from entering or leaving the island, and Okondoru, a giant condor, prevents planes from arriving. The man who claimed to own the boat, Yoshimura, turns out to be both a thief and the most resourceful member of their little group (which now also includes an escaped slave played by the wonderful Kumi Mizuno). They discover that Godzilla is sleeping on the island, so they wake him up in order to stop the Red Bamboo. He trashes the base, defeats the two other, ahem, monsters, and the slaves and group are all saved by Mothra (who really isn't looking to good by now). The thief, Yoshimura, is definetly my favorite character in this, and the special effects are pretty good at times (he may be a pathetic monster, but Ebirah looks great). As a bonus, it also makes for a great MST3K episode.
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Bob_Tanaka28 March 2004
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kergillian26 April 2001This is actually on of my favourite Godzilla films. While on one hand it has one of the worst enemy monsters, Ebira (although it also has Mothra, but he only appears at the end and doesn't really do anything) it also has a neat story. It's not as cool as the original, but I think it sure as hell beats the cheezy alien stories which are so ridiculous and unbelievable that even their cheeze value is threatened. As well, most Godzilla movies spend *way* too much time and focus on the monsters fighting and rampaging (Godzilla vs. Gigan is a perfect example of this), but this one had more of a plot. The takeover didn't seem as implausible and it was more tongue in cheek. It's also one of the best dub-jobs I've *ever* seen in a Godzilla movie (or any of the other similar ones).
Overall: this is one of the more fun Godzilla films. It's still silly, but in an enjoyable way. It's not ruined by being overly stupid and it's cheeze factor is definitely amusing. 6/10. -
framptonhollis27 July 2015Yes. I'll admit it . This is a bad movie. A bad movie that I've watched over and over and over and over again! It is weird how much I like this movie. You could say I like it ironically, but not really, because I believe it has a type of charm that I find intentional. The monster fights are fun, and I like the plot. I totally understand people that hate this entry in the series, but I find it to be one of the most fun Godzilla movies out there!
On my Top 10 Godzilla Films list, it is actually included. Here's the list: 1.Gojira 2.Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 3.Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 4.Godzilla: Final Wars 5.Mothra vs. Godzilla 6.Godzilla vs. Destroyah 7.Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla 8.Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack 9.Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster 10.(this film.) -
gigan-9213 April 2009This was one of my child-hood favorites. It's Jun Fukuda's first chance to direct and he actually did an okay job. Masuro Sato scored the film and while its intention was to provide something new to the series, it was too "Hawaii-Five-o" for me. Several Toho stars are in this flick, among them Kumi Mizuno, who looked finer than ever! Akihiko Hirata and Jun Tazki both played bad guy roles as commanders of the secret terrorist organization the Red Bamboo. Akira Takarada was a bank robber who later decides to "go straight from now on." All had interesting roles and like the human characters and the story is a fun one at best. Most of the SFX look good, all EXCEPT for the low budget Godzilla suit. And this time no stock footage at all is used, yeahhhh!! Starting from when Godzilla attacks the Red Bamboo base, the suit looks like straight up *&^%! Excuse me, but I could've said worse. You can see damage from the pyrotechnic explosions from "Invasion of Astro-Monster" and the face is repulsive. The shoulders are a real pity and the overall posture and baggy look of the suit, plus the pants- like legs, create the worst suit of the Showa era. The story was actually intended for Kong after the success of "King Kong vs. Godzilla" back in 1962. This explains why Godzilla is revived by lightning and attracted to Dayo (Kumi Mizuno). He doesn't pick her up and climb onto the nearest tall building, but he does fight some jets. Of course, he massacres them, one of my favorite scenes in the film.
There are two major things, besides the music, that really bring this film down: Ebirah and the Giant Condor. A giant shrimp and a giant bird. This was a very pathetic sense of creativity on Sekizawa's part. Let's do better in the future (he only does to a degree). None the less, the giant lobster looked good in the Toho pool and his duels with Godzilla were entertaining. The best part is Godzilla ripping off his claws obviously. The music really doesn't match the film here ( or anywhere for that matter) And how I wish so dearly Ifukbe had scored it! The Giant Condor is just an annoying pigeon that gets fried pretty quick, nothing much to talk about. Mothra manages to star in the film and when Godzilla attacks her it shows he still isn't a hero quite yet. Plus there we're no low blows, but Godzilla kind of 'dancing', and some brief boulder volleyball. Damn,...
I couldn't enjoy the destruction of the Red Bamboo base because Godzilla was so damn hideous and yeah that pretty much sums up this movie. From here, not including 1971 and'68, the series will go lower and lower till its reprisal in 1975. Although I can't judge "Son of Godzilla" because it's the only one in the original series I have yet to see. It's a rehash of this film; Godzilla on an island with slightly better monsters but Minilla arrives . Oh, *&^% I can only assume I might be a wee bit disappointed... -
This is the second Godzilla movie to this point that wasn't directed by Ishiro Honda (first being Godzilla Raids Again), and was directed by Jun Fukuda. Fukuda chose Masaru Sato to compose the music instead of Akira Ifukube, and overall contributes to the lighter touch. Shinichi Sekizawa's screenplay continues on the trend of humanizing the monsters, and Ebira's pose before the battle is a caricature of the then popular professional wrestler Toyonobori, and Godzilla rubbing his index finger on his nose is a caricature of Yuzo Kayama's character in Wakadaisho series which usually played at same time as the Godzilla movies as a double feature. The cinematography is noticeably brighter and the characters are also bit more easy going than Honda's version of Godzilla movies.
Ryota (Tetsu Watanabe) who lost his brother in the South Pacific in a fishing boat accident believes in the prediction made by a spiritual medium in Mt. Osore that his brother is still alive. He comes out to Tokyo to look for a way to get to his brother. There he meets few college students and later a thief named Yoshimura (Akira Takarada) in a sailboat they've snuck into. While everyone's asleep, Ryota sets sail to the south pacific to search for his brother. In a stormy sea the sailboat runs aground on an island occupied by a gang who calls themselves the "Red Bamboo". Red Bamboo is kidnapping the residents of Infant Island (Mothra Island) as slave labor to further their cause. Dayo (Kumi Mizuno) a girl from Infant Island escapes into the jungle and meets Ryota and Yoshimura's crew. There they hide in a cave to escape Red Bamboo's pursuit. Unbeknownst to them, that cave contained a hibernating Godzilla. Yoshimura comes up with a novel plan to wake Godzilla and turn it against the Red Bamboo.
In this movie, the fairies that talks to Mothra also changed from The Peanuts (Emi and Yumi Ito) to another twins Pair Bambi (Yuko and Yoko Okada - born 4/19/1944 Nagoya Japan). They were already 15 year veteran in the show business when they stared in this movie. Originally, Noriko Takahashi was to play the part of Dayo, but fell ill to appendicitis so was changed to Kumi Mizuno at the last minute. Mizuno who was 29 at the time played the role written for a 19 year old girl. Takahashi 6 month earlier played a similar role in Tsuburaya Production's Ultra Q series as a native girl who lost her brother to a giant octopus.
In the mid to late sixties, Godzilla movie started to slide to a lighter stories. This movie took the formula one step further from the previous Godzilla move the "Monster Zero", and continues the humanization of Godzilla and the monsters. Jun Fukuda's directing isn't up to par with Honda's and the props look cheezy by comparison which took away from the story, but most likely the movie was intended for kids and this was part of their production plan. The good in this movie was Akira Takarada and Kumi Mizuno that brought character to acting. Overall the movie succeeded because these two characters kept the focus. Good entertainment from the '60s Toho studio. -
michaelRokeefe11 August 2001This is a most unusual Godzilla flick. To be exact a low budget affair with no big city to destroy with Godzilla doing his battle on an island. The story line is a little James Bond-ish, but we know Godzilla is the reason we are watching. The story line is of no real concern as long as Godzilla does his thing.
A group of young men take out on a sailboat in attempts to find a long lost brother shipwrecked and thought lost at sea. The would be rescue party ends up shipwrecked themselves on an island that is guarded by Ebirah, a giant mutant lobster-like creature, thus GODZILLA vs THE SEA MONSTER(USA title).Also on the island is a militia base that is producing nuclear bombs to overtake the world with. Godzilla is awakened from his nap in a cave to take on the sea monster and destroy the evil soldiers and their bomb factory.
My favorite scene is where Godzilla and Ebirah appear to be playing ping pong with a boulder during their showdown. Actually this is one of Godzilla's easiest foes to whip. Maybe to help in cutting production costs.
The low budget was due to the fact that at the time TV viewers were lowering movie theater attendance. This did not seem to effect the popularity of this particular Godzilla outing. -
Calaboss9 December 2010This movie featured the monster tennis match between Godzilla (Giant, mutant lizard with atomic breath capability), and Ebirah (Giant, mutant shrimp with ability to annoy). I was there, reporting this epic match for KOOK TV (channel 5). Here is the play by play as I called it back in 1966.
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Having just been awoken from a sound slumber by some blatantly prearranged lightning strikes, Godzilla came storming out of the side of a mountain, understandably ticked off. The big guy spotted Ebirah just a few thousand yards out at sea, and blamed him, incorrectly, for the whole incident (Note: Ebirah is known for his prank of putting sleeping, giant monsters hands into bowls of warm water. This has not endeared him to the other monsters).
Godzilla kicked up a huge boulder for his first serve. A high, hard, straight shot, right at Ebirah's head. Ebirah, looking intent, shot the boulder back with a right backclaw smash. Godzilla caught this and fired it back with a crisp two-handed throw. Ebirah tried another backclaw return, but it went off the edge of his claw and the boulder went wide and out to sea, almost hitting two Japanese spectators inexplicably swimming out at sea during a raging storm. Point Godzilla.
Ebirah started taunting his opponent by clapping his claws together, and Godzilla (never one to let a challenge go unmet) picked up another boulder and fired a mighty two-handed serve. Ebirah returned this with another hard backclaw. Goddy returned with a well aimed head butt. Ebirah, another backclaw. Goddy, a head butt. This looked like it was going to be a good volley. Alas, Ebie, caught this with his claw, in blatant disregard for the rules of monster tennis (Rules section 981(c), subsection iii, which states, "no sea monsters can catch boulders with their claws").
Ebie wound up and fired a hard one at Goddy, and the now enraged lizard backhanded this one away and into the stands, killing untold numbers of spectators. An angry Godzilla then waded out to sea to register a complaint, but Ebirah splashed him twice with his mighty right claw. This so infuriated Godzilla that he gave Ebirah a taste of his atomic breath as punishment. Or, maybe he just wanted some shrimp tempura. Hard to tell. (Godzilla refused all requests for interviews after the match.)
At this point a monster mêlée broke out as the two giants went at it hammer and tongs. Godzilla grabbed another boulder and started pounding Ebirah on the head. Ebirah punked out and swam off to sea. Godzilla threw up his arms and let out a huge roar of triumph, but this match went down in the record books as a double disqualification.
NOTE: Ebirah showed up later in the day for a rematch, but since their first match, Godzilla had been attacked by a giant bird, fighter jets with missiles, been electrocuted and shot at with machine guns. He was in a foul humor, and in NO mood for Ebirah. A fight quickly ensued, which ended when Godzilla ripped off both of Ebirah's claws, which pretty much compelled Ebirah to quit the tournament.
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And that's the way it was, April 23, 1966. And I know because, I WAS THERE! -
winner5517 September 2007This was obviously made because Toho wanted to discover new plot elements for their kaiju film formula, which was falling into something of a predictable rut (humans fight humans, humans fight monster, monster fights monster, sayonara). But simply limiting the amount of time the monsters appear on screen offers no improvement.
"Sea Monster" is one of the weaker entries in the original Godzilla series. Much of the film is directed as light comedy, a mild satire on the James Bond films. Actually, the comedy works pretty well; it's never knee-slapping laugh-out-loud, but it finds and sustains a level of humor most viewers should find fairly easy to live with.
The monsters here are almost tossed in for deus-ex-machina plot devices, saving the day at the last moment. To be sure, it's amusing to see Godzilla sit around pondering what to do with the woman he's just saved from bad guys, but there really isn't much for him to do here. He zaps a giant vulture, pulls the claws off a lobster and smashes a nuclear power plant - and that's about it. For a minute towards the end, it almost looks like things will get complicated by a battle between Godzilla and Mothra, but this doesn't really amount to much either.
For Godzilla completists, it's a relatively harmless sub-par entry - it certainly doesn't scrape the same bottoms as "Godzilla's Revenge" or "vs. Megalon". But if you are not yet a Big G. fan, this should not be your introduction to the series.
Entertaining fluff, nothing more. -
bensonmum218 March 2007I never thought I would find a Godzilla movie where Godzilla was the weakest part of the film. In most these movies, the various scenes not involving Godzilla could generally be considered filler. They're there to pad out the film until Godzilla shows up and usually aren't very good. The filler in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster isn't any better or worse than any of the other Godzilla movies (though I must admit to enjoying the James Bond vibe and the groovy dance party), but it's better than Godzilla's moments on the screen. The problem is that Big G doesn't get the chance to do much. This is Toho "on the cheap". The usual rampage through the city is gone. It was cheaper to have Godzilla destroy a mostly deserted island with only a small science/military facility than it was to build an entire city of miniatures. And the few miniatures to be found don't even looks up to snuff. When not trampling the cheap miniatures, Godzilla spends an inordinate amount of time just sitting. That right sitting! And when he does finally do battle with the sea monster of the title, it's not much of a match. In no time at all, Godzilla rips off the overgrown lobster's claws and its over. Almost 90 minutes to see this non-event what a waste!
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"Hey Ebirah. You want to play ball?" I can just hear the fire breathing Godzilla saying that to the lobster like creature that comes out of the sea just after Godzilla comes out of his long winter's nap, revived by lightening, much like Frankentein's monster. Evil men with a goal of taking over the world have an island surrounded by the hideous crustation who flips over a boat and seems to have stabbed one of the men in the boat with its claw. Survivors decide to fight fire with fire and after finding Godzilla's body in a cave (much like how Frankenstein's monster was often discovered), utilize an approaching storm to return the creature to life. But will Godzilla be in a good mood when he wakes up to aide them in their quest to destroy this giant seafood meal? Or will he turn the islanders into appetizers with his fiery lungs?
Certainly, it is easy to root for the good guys, and you know who they are because they are all in different attire as opposed to the villains who all wear the same suit. Godzilla has a heyday here, and you keep your fingers crossed that he will know who the good guys are and who the bad guys there. Mothra makes a brief appearance as well, and there's a giant turkey like bird that attacks Godzilla much to its Thanksgiving dreading brain's dread. Yes, this contains all the silliness that you expect in a Godzilla movie, but there is so much to enjoy. The art direction reminds me of those Universal color adventures of the 1940's that starred Sabu, Maria Montez and Jon Hall, although the largest creature they had to deal with was King Cobra, not Emperor Lizard. -
NerdBat5 July 2018Indeed, this one takes me way back. I first saw this film on Disney Channels "Cool Nights" back in the late 90's. I recorded it on VHS and since then, I've rewatched it again and again. One part that I do like about the film is that it seems to delve right into the monsters, and that's something that any Godzilla fan can really appreciate. It's kinda weird though, soldiers who are apparently inherently evil are kidnapping natives of Mothra's island (who makes an extremely brief appearance in this film) and using them as slaves to grind fruits into a liquid. The soldiers use this liquid as a natural repellent against the Giant Lobster, Ebirah. To my knowledge, they never actually call it "Ebirah", they simply call it "the giant lobster". It contains a few interesting scenes not found in any other film. We have Godzilla fighting a Giant bird whose origin is unknown, and we also have a scene where a giant monster actually devours a person. It's really neat to see Godzilla fight underwater as well. I wouldn't put this as one of the top Godzilla films, but I would definitely say it's worth the watch.
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OllieSuave-00718 June 2001This movie was set on an island, where all the mayhem, action, destruction, battles and drama take place. A group of teenagers go sailing in search for a long lost brother and gets shipwrecked on an island. The island inhabitants are a band of people called the Red Bamboo, who are secretly making nuclear bombs in order to conquer the world. Islanders from Infant Island were kidnapped as slaves and the teenagers try to do everything they can to save the islanders and stop the terrorists. To add to the excitement, who would have guessed Godzilla would be seen sleeping in a cave on the island and that an over-sized Shrimp (Lobster or Crab in some reviews) is supposed to be guarding the island? A lot of humor in this movie, especially the lines "I thought you studied science?" with an answer "But I didn't pass the first year, one thing's for sure."
A pretty native girl, played by Kumi Mizuno, is attracted by Godzilla, who gave a little love relationship to her-a love relationship more associated with King Kong (since the story of this movie was originally written for King Kong). Masaru Sato's music score is catchy and Jun Fukuda did a great directing job. Shinichi Sekizawa gave us an exciting story and Eiji Tsuburaya gave us cool special effects. And, Mothra has a cameo in this movie and her tiny twin priestesses also made an appearance.
Overall, it is a unique and exciting Godzilla entry with plenty of monster appearances and action, which is a plus!
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bkoganbing20 February 2011Of all the Japanese monster films that came out from the mid Fifties to the mid Seventies, Godzilla Versus The Sea Monster is the only one that seems to have taken a political stand on anything. The Japanese for obvious reasons are big on nuclear disarmament. This film involves Godzilla and two other giant monsters involved with the Red Bamboo who are a group conducting nuclear experiments on a deserted south sea island. Of course there was no such a group as the Red Bamboo, but the power across the Sea of Japan did have a Red Guard who were pretty active in those days. I think that was another political statement that Godzilla Versus The Sea Monster was making.
Anyway some 20 somethings who were involved in a dance marathon which opened the film, commandeer a boat that was to be the getaway vehicle of a bank robber to search for the brother of one of them who set sail southeast and was not heard from.
It's there that a storm washes them ashore on the island of the Red Bamboo. These dastardly folks are not only conducting nuclear experiments, they're making heavy water to use as nuclear fuel, but are using slave labor. The slaves are being taken from the island that Mothra resides, but he's sleeping and the natives are doing their best to arouse their friend and protector.
To discourage escape in the meantime, the island is guarded by Ebirah a giant lobster monster. The Red Bamboo controls him by means of the nectar of some exotic tropical fruit that acts as a tranquilizer.
When our heroes arrive, they discover that Godzilla is in some kind of coma asleep on the island. Needing an ally they look to get him awake to start doing his thing. Of course all three monsters battle it out in the end.
This particular all star monster spectacular is a cut above the others for its political statement wrapped up in the dopey way these films play. But I have to admit a soft spot in my heart for them. -
SnoopyStyle13 October 2019Talking to a spirit, a dance marathon, and a yacht jacking. The story doesn't really make sense as it stumbles from one situation to the next. All it really wants is a yacht and the monster. It could have gotten there a lot more simpler but it wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if it was well written. Four men are shipwrecked on an island after their yacht is destroyed by the monster. The island is controlled by terrorist organization Red Bamboo with the natives as forced labor. The quartet is joined by native girl Daiyo. They find Godzilla sleeping in a cave.
The franchise is getting more and more campy. The whole first act is a convoluted journey. Infant island is not always the most exciting but at least, it has the Shobijin twins. Only in this one, the twins are different and I don't like it. I don't really like a sleepy Godzilla either. It would have been better to have Godzilla trapped rather than sleeping. I also don't like the terrorists. The franchise seems to be losing its way. -
stevenfallonnyc19 March 2002This film, known mainly as "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster," is one of the better 60's G flicks. The plot is actually decent and flows nicely as you are waiting for Godzilla's appearance. The Godzilla costume is good and the battles are also well done. Not the best Godzilla film, but definitely decent enough to hold your interest.
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Daviddavecavemave25 August 2019The previous two films were great, This one not so much. Ebirah is a giant lobster under the control of a criminal enterprise using slave labor on an island to create weapons. Godzilla is eventually thrown into the mix and it goes from there. Sadly, Not much happens.
A majority of the film is based on the human side of the story and features little monsters. Mothra, in it's adult form, finally appears and that to me was the only highlight of this movie. -
Wyrmis20 August 2006Almost all Kaiju flicks involve two story lines, the story of the little guys and the story of the monsters. This is one of them where the story of the little guys is what really matters. A distinctly B movie, half-espionage and half-island-action, about a guy's search for his brother and getting caught up with a gang of various other guys and a beautiful native to stave off an organization's evil deeds in the South pacific. Pretty scenery. Pretty natives. Some fair jokes and some good 1960's style cheese action. Even Ebirah, a jumbo jumbo shrimp who guards the island, more or less, works well enough as a background piece. It is when the big piece of seafood tries to take center stage that things start slowing down.
By the time Godzilla shows up, the movie suffers from the monsters. Not only does the original Japanese soundtrack have a habit of playing just about the most inappropriate music for all of his scenes (look, jets are coming, let's play surf rock...he's smashing a base, let's play slow horror mood music); but there is the distinct problem the director has in getting the transition from Godzilla as a monster to a potential hero down right. Too often, Godzilla's actions make no sense. He seems to like people in one scene. In the next, he is randomly destroying things again.
The movies final problem is the Kaiju fights sort of repeat themselves. Whether it be the two monsters throwing rocks back and forth more than once, or the exact same "flip" later on, it does seem a little out of place. -
lfdewolfe27 August 2020This movie has problems but I don't really mind it that much. One thing I don't like is that Godzilla barely has any screen time his foe in this movie is a shrimp. A shrimp! You think they could have come up with something better? Also, there's this one character that's supposed to be the comic relief but, one: he's not funny. And two: his voice sounds like Snark. Mothra barely has any screen time as well and is almost completely useless. Some good things about this movie are the human plotline which is usually the worst part of a Godzilla movie but in this one it's the best. The acting is good as well, although with the exception of the Snark guy. Only recommended for hardcore Godzilla fans.
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vtcavuoto20 May 2006I've seen almost all of Godzilla's films. This has to be the lamest giant monster out of all his foes. A giant Lobster? I wonder what the market price would be. The focus of the movie is the rescue of a tribe of natives from Infant island-the home of Mothra. The battles between Godzilla and Ebirah are comical. The miniatures are excellent as usual, the dubbing is decent and the overall story is good. The monster just doesn't present a legitimate threat to Godzilla. The plot is about a young man who steals a boat to find his brother who is missing. On the boat is a bank robber. A storm strands the young man, his friends and the bank robber on an island which is inhabited by an evil army developing atomic weapons. When leaving the island to and from Infant island(to capture slaves), a yellow liquid is used as a repellent to protect them against Ebirah. At the end of the movie, Ebirah is defeated and Godzilla escapes the island before an atomic bomb is exploded. If you're a Godzilla fan, it's an OK movie. If not,pass on it.
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boblipton3 June 2021His brother having disappeared at sea, Akira Takarada stows away on some criminal's boat, which gets wrecked in a storm. He and some friends wash up on the island where the natives worship Mothra, who's sleeping. They have been conquered by a criminal organization called "Red Bamboo", who are worried because a bunch of kaiju are around, including Godzilla, a giant vulture, and the latest addition to the list, Ebirah, a giant crab, all of whom Godzilla fights.
The point of this movie is to watch the kaijus fight each other, and for Godzilla to stomp the bad guys' installation in a manner suggesting a six-year-old with a rash doing the twist. It was the first of something like eight Godzilla movies that Jun Fukuda directed and he hated them all. I don't blame him, but wonder why he didn't go do something more dignified, like being a circus geek. -
omega0s5 March 2004This is actualy a fun film if you're a kid, and i loved godzilla when i was i think back to the days of watching those chessy B movies(i havnt realy progresed that far in 10 years) and this was one of my favriotes and now somthing that angers me is it having a 4 point rating i mean kids love this and its fun and next time you get a chance pop one of these in have a good laugh and look back at you're childhood you'll have more fun then you would think.Now that thats gone ill fill you with my memories of this film the specel effects are alright and about what you would expect. Plot? we dont need no stinking plot!!! so botom line if you're a kid you'll love it and if you're with friends and older and in serch of a laugh you'll love it for its chessyness.
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JoeKarlosi19 February 2005A step down from previous Godzilla films, but it occasionally has its moments. There has been some discrepancy as to what type of creature Ebirah the Sea Monster really is (a mammoth lobster? a giant shrimp? a humongous crab?), but I'd settle on lobster myself. Anyway, it's a really huge red sea beast with long claws that guards an island where militaristic bad guys toy with nuclear reactors and steal natives off of Infant Island (home of Mothra) to work as their slaves. Meanwhile, a tiny band of unlikely heroes, one of them a fleeing bank robber, board a boat and somehow manage to get themselves shipwrecked on the island. After a lengthy wait of over 50 minutes (!), the slumbering Godzilla is mercifully awakened by a lightning storm and delivers a much-anticipated water fight with Ebirah, which is both fun and funny. Mothra and her two twin girls make a token appearance, but theirs is not much to get excited about if you're a fan.
This movie also features some groovy rock 'n' roll muzak as part of its soundtrack, and some amusing monster fights (you've gotta see the handball bit where Godzilla repeatedly bounces a boulder off his head while Ebirah keeps swatting it back to him). The series still has its 1960s charm and innocence, but this is one of the lesser adventures from that decade and is best appreciated by Godzilla completists only. ** out of **** -
eileenmchenry1 May 2004This is one of my favorite Toho monster movies. The action makes sense, the rubber monsters are terrific and the Kenny factor is zero. It also has the Twins of Infant Island singing a duet and, at the very beginning, a boss dance marathon. I often regret the fact that we have never gotten to see Ebirah (the MAMMOTH LOBSTER! as one character calls him) from that day to this -- Toho could profitably have spent years developing a vision of the world's oceans filled with crawdads the size of aircraft carriers, but for some reason they never went ahead with it. The showdown (or is it a handball tournament?) between Godzilla and Ebirah is one of the finest action-comedy scenes ever. This movie also features a spectacular safecracking scene in which the bank robber jimmies a lock on what looks like the door to a bank vault, the plucky castaways nip inside -- and then nip outside even faster, saying, "It's a nuclear reactor!!!" I would recommend this film to anyone.
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BandSAboutMovies25 March 2021This movie started as a vehicle for the Japanese version of King Kong, with the title Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah. It was rejected by Rankin/Bass Productions, the folks who created all your favorite holiday specials and who had the rights to Kong, producing a licensed TV show - The King Kong Show - which was amongst the first original cartoons to be produced in Japan for Americans. King Kong's role was replaced with Godzilla under the title Ebirah, Horror of the Deep*. It's the first of two Godzilla films - Son of Godzilla is the other - set on a South Pacific island instead of Japan. What most filmmakers have never realized is that no one cares at all about the humans in these stories. As a child and an adult, I do not care if people find their brothers that have been lost or if the Red Bamboo terrorist group sells heavy water weapons. I only care to see the monster crab named Ebirah and our friend Godzilla fight. Yet as an old man, I also feel for Godzilla, who just wants to hide in a cave and sleep after defeating the menace of Ghidorah. Instead, these kids make a lightning rod** and zap him to awareness before he has to kill a giant condo (which is totally a Rodan costume), knock down some jets and then set that big crustacean*** straight by ripping his claws off. Bonus points to Godzilla to remembering that just because Mothra**** is the friend of humanity, she and he are not on speaking terms. The movie ends with another big battle, an island getting blown up real good and Godzilla going back into the murky depths. Soon, he would meet his son, but that's a story for another day. This one has a really lower budget and reused the Daisenso-Goji suit. At some point during filming, the head of this suit was combined with the Mosu-Goji suit for episode ten of Ultraman to create the monster Jirass. That head was replaced with a different head that shows up after Godzilla fights the Red Bamboo and is noticeable for the bug eyes and raised eyebrows. A lizard with eyebrows. This is why I love Godzilla. *It's known by so many names around the world, but my favorites are Germany's Frankenstein and the Monster from the Ocean, Poland's Ebirah: The Monster of Magic and Holland's Mothra the Flying Dracula Monster. **Godzilla being powered by electricity is totally because the script was written for the Japanese King Kong, who is powered that way. It's also why he's so protective of Dayo, as falling for human females is a Kong characteristic. ***Ebirah's name comes from the Japanese word ebi. That means shrimp, so he's really one of those and not a crab, but he has crab claws, so...
****This is the last Showa-era Godzilla film where Mothra's twin helpers the Shobijin, appear. They're played by the same actress, Pair Bambi, instead of The Peanuts (Emi and Yumi Itô). -
DanteRiggs11 February 2021The movie's premise reminded me of the old Scooby Doo cartoons. Or the Godzilla cartoon from the '70. That, I kinda like. However, I expected something else. It is a little too juvenile (especially the soundtrack, sounds like a mix of Looney Tunes and surf music), Godzilla is way too anthropomorphised, there are some plot holes and overacting and the beginning of the movie isn't great. The film improves a little towards the middle and end, but not very much.