Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
"Gojira tai Mekagojira" (original title)

Godzilla's 14th film, his 20th Anniversary, is pretty good, better than the last two, that's for sure. Finally, we aren't bombarded with stock-footage, crappy monsters, and karate moves. The story was good, and so were most of the SFX. Plus, a reason of its own to give the film a star, it introduced MechaGodzilla, one of my favorite monsters! The story wasn't a rehash of the others and they actually brought back some of the best Toho actors, Akihiko Hirata and Hiroshi Koizumi! The music was all right for the most part, with its jazzy feel to it. The aliens are a bit of a disappointment, being monkeys, but they didn't ruin it like the cockroaches in "Godzilla vs. Gigan". This is the first film since "Godzilla vs. Hedorah", a whole three years (!!), for SFX director Teruyoshi Nakano to actually display something presentable and all of Mecha-G's rampage scenes are carried out nicely. But the doppelganger's chest ray looked too simple compared to his eye beams, which looked incredible. To the monsters....

Angiurus returns, now able to leap at his foes like Baragon in "Frankenstien Conquers the World", a bit odd but cool. His fight with Mecha-G is very physical, ripping Anguirus' jaws apart and all. Mecha-G was incredibly cool looking and all his weapons are brought to life fantastically. I'm glad he returns in "Terror of MechaGodzilla". King Seeser is actually a decent monster but I hate the fact that that braud had to sing for over a minute to awaken him! It was the Mothra song coming back to haunt us all. Godzilla is still the suit from "Godzilla vs. Megalon". The final battle was spectacular and fun goes to bloody levels never before seen in a G-film and the Monster King takes quite a beating. In this film Godzilla also doesn't do any goofy moves or that many human tactics. Of course, besides that scene where he missed his mechanical twin with his heat ray and seemed to snap his fingers in anger. The human characters all give good performances and a few espionage scenes, but the aliens' aluminum foil base wasn't that impressive.

I really enjoyed this movie and really think it's one of the better at a time when Godzilla films were really going downhill. The sequel surpasses this film, but the end of the original series I guess was inevitable at this point.