GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (1955)
Tagline: The Most Magical Adventure Of The Year
(Sci-Fi, Action, Godzilla Stomping Everything To Smithereens) [G]
Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but given that this is a bit tamer than the original, this one would have probably also been a G. This review is based on the Japanese version of the film. The United States version didn’t come out till 1959, but I found a few of the American voice actors so bad that they almost ruined the movie for me by distracting from the serious nature of the film.
That's right. The hydrogen bomb test awakened Godzilla. Now, Ankylosaurus has also been roused.
In this one, a Japanese spotter looking for fish ends up crashing his plane on the same island that Godzilla is on. His friend comes to rescue him, but they encounter an Ankylosaurus in a fight with Godzilla. Upon getting back to the authorities, they report what they have seen. It is determined that Godzilla is on a course to Osaka with the Ankylosaurus known as “Anguirus” following right behind. Can Japan overcome yet another Godzilla attack as GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN!
First off, there are some pretty goofy "rights" things going on with this movie. It was introduced in the United States by Warner Bros as "Gigantis, the Fire Monster". There are a couple of reasons for this floating around out there, but the producer said it was because they didn’t want people to confuse this Godzilla for the original. However, in Japan, this movie was always meant to be a sequel to the original. The writers approached Godzilla like it was more of a “species” than a “one-time” atomic anomaly.
I don’t watch a ton of Japanese movies in Japanese, just because I don’t love subtitles and I don’t speak Japanese. So when I review Godzilla films we are mostly looking at the American version, but to be honest, the U.S. version of this film is pretty damn bad. Aside from a seemingly pointless prisoner escape sequence, most of the tone in this one is pretty serious. We do get a few funny lines, but they are few and far between.
Once the destruction starts it’s just all-out nonstop model crushing and it’s really well done for the most part. There is one scene where planes are flying over Godzilla on the ice and it’s clearly just a wind-up toy that isn’t even moving. This is one of the few movies where Godzilla’s spikes don’t light up before he fires his atomic breath. If you count GODZILLA (1998), then it’s the second movie where that happens, but you shouldn’t. That wasn’t Godzilla, that was just a giant iguana that TOHO was so ashamed of that they renamed it “Zilla”.
Overall the soundtrack and pacing are fine, but the main battle in the movie seems like it happens too soon. There is also a bit of a love story thrown in which helps this thing move along a bit, but also feels a little like filler just to give us a backstory for one of the pilots that doesn’t end up with much screen time, on top of that there is another segment that is about 15 minutes after the big battle where pretty much nothing is happening. Back in the day this movie was better received in Japan than the original GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS movie, but it doesn’t quite live up to that standard for me or anything we’ve seen in the Legendary MONSTERVERSE.
I give this one a 5 out of 7. It’s still very good. The U.S. version lands at a 3 out of 7, so just keep that in mind if you are going to check this out.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TOHO COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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