Review of Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) by Genaro C — 09 Aug 2013

There seems to be an ongoing debate over the comparison of this film with its predecessor. Ishiro Honda returns in the director's chair, the final time he would do so for a Godzilla film, and demonstrates possibly more than before that he has a knack for directing giant monster action.

The big 3-way monster brawl during the final 20 minutes is the highlight, with plenty of explosions and some more convincing than usual evacuations. Mechagodzilla's arsenal is not drastically upgraded, but his missiles sound and feel more powerful and, given that the last film had its climax in a relatively isolated area, it feels somewhat innovative to see the machine level an actual city.

Godzilla gets to show off more of his crazy melee techniques and the filmmakers got a little creative in figuring out different ways that Titanosaurus fights. The main problem is that the rest of the story building up to this feels a little too rushed and stale, not having the sense of humor about it that the previous film had.

The last scene between Ichinosi and Kaatsura has some poignancy, more so than the typical giant monster movie, but everything before just feels too perfunctory. The appearances of the monsters are too scarce and the human scenes are not entertaining enough to carry the movie for too long.

While I consider it to be somewhat lesser than the delightful "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla", it is still successful in its own right and a fitting end to the original series.