DailySkew

Review: Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

After the success of 1954 Gojira Toho cranked out Gojira no Gyakushū with a different director, composer, and actors. It was so bad that Toho would not have Godzilla star in another movie until 1962 (no wonder he lost to King Kong), and when the U.S. released Godzilla Raids Again in 1959 they renamed it and recut it to Gigantis the Fire Monster. So…was it that bad (some people online say it is underated)? Yes.

Like a porn movie, monster movies tend to have too much dialog and non-action human scenes, and in GRA it seems as if Godzilla and his opponent Angilas get only 10% of the screen time.

Plot:

Set months after the original movie, a Japanese pilot named Kobayashi lands his damaged plane on the remote Iwato Island. He and his friend Tsukioka, who arrived to rescue him, witness a battle between Godzilla and another monster who looks like a giant Anklyosaurus.

The returning Dr. Yamane has one scene where he verifies that dinosaurs could exist, and that there is another Godzilla. The plan is to blackout Osaka, and set up light bombs (flares) to lure the Godilla away. It was working, but criminals break out of a police truck and accidentally start a fire, getting Godzilla’s attention.

Godzilla and Angilas wrestle each other and tear apart Osaka in the process, including Osaka Castle. Angilas is a tough fighter, but ultimately Godzilla rips his throat out and burns his body with his atomic blast.

After Osaka’s recovery is shown, Kobayashi and Tsukioka join the search for Godzilla and locate it on a frozen island. Kobayashi manages to start a huge avalanche- kamakazi style- and a squad of military planes help bury Godzilla completely under the ice. Kobayishi’s lady and the rest of the people at the office are very sad.

The Good:

• If nothing else at all, created the tradition of Godzilla fighting another monster (thus establishing kaiju battles in every other movie except Godzilla 1984).
  
• I love Angilas’s roar and look.
• Osaka looked great.

The Bad:

• There’s no sense of terror, fear, or uniqueness in this movie; the human subplots are about romance, joke making, celebrations, weddings, office gossip, tuna canneries, and flirting.
• The plot, acting, and pacing are too inconsistent. The pace is especially slow, and after Godzilla kills Angilas, the pacing just totally bottoms out.
• The seemingly unrelated (and long) scene featuring the escaped criminals was not shocking.
• Pretty boring- every scene is too long- and unable to compete with the original, kinda like Son of Kong.
• The actual battle scenes between the two monsters was sped-up, so it looks awkward. Also, they truly are wrestling- 1955 pro wrestling style (takedowns, headlocks, etc.)
• I had no emotional attachment to anyone in the movie, not even Godzilla.

Fun facts:

• Yes, folks, it’s official. The original 1954 Godzilla was destroyed, but there are more of them. The second Godzilla makes his debut in this movie.
• As I said in my King Kong vs. Godzilla review, I think they got Godzilla’s snow burial location wrong in the next movie. In KK vs G, he’s in an iceberg, not on a remote island under snow.

Conclusion:
This is not underrated at all. There’s a reason why it bombed in Japan and had to be redone in the U.S.- it is a shadow of the original movie. It seems rushed, and there is no fear. It’s a horrible sequel, more of a historical curiosity (how did they follow up the original?) Too bad the franchise jumped the shark with movie #2. I wonder how things would have been differently if they had a quality sequel.

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