- Directed by Jun Fukuda, Yoshimitsu Banno, Ishiro Honda
- Written by Jun Fukuda, Tekashi Kimura, Shin’ichi Sekizawa
- Stars Katsuhiko Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 18 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leqmMWzVJNI
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one has an interesting start, with a futuristic 1970s sort of world. The beginning is the most entertaining part, with surface people versus an undersea empire. This time around, Godzilla has an ally in a humanoid robot Jet Jaguar that can enlarge to his size. Once the big creature battles start, there is quite a bit of reused model footage we’ve seen before, and the guys in rubber suits fight to the point of tedium that goes on too long. We didn’t enjoy this one as much as some of the others.
Spoilery Synopsis
A narrator talks about an underground nuclear test that went very badly. They felt the impact as far away as Monster Island, and we see the monsters there upset at the yellow smoke. Credits roll.
We cut to a child riding a paddleboat in a lake. Goro is on the shore taking pictures of Rokuro, his little brother, and hanging out with friend Hiroshi. There’s a sudden earthquake, and the lake starts smoking and bubbling. Goro shoots a rope out and pulls the little boy back in before it’s too late. The three make it to safety just as a whirlpool swallows the paddleboat.
Soon, the lake is gone. It’s all drained into a sinkhole that just formed on the bottom. On the drive home, they hear about more fissures opening, and the radio blames it on the nuclear test. They talk about Lemuria and Mu, great cities that sank after earthquakes buried them in the sea.
When Goro and Rokuro get home, they find men inside who beat them up. Hiroshi comes in just in time to save them. After they recover we see that Goro is an inventor of the science-fiction variety. The place is a mess, but they didn’t take anything. Meanwhile, Horishi chases the bad guys in his dune buggy. They drop a fire bomb out of the car, and get away.
They do find some strange red sand on the floor of the house. After some testing, they find that it’s from a very far off island in the Pacific.
Goro is working on a robot, and he’s finally finished it. The bad guys kidnap Rokuro and make him open the door to Goro’s lab.
These two baddies are agents from the hidden land of Seatopia, and they want the robot. We cut to Seatopia, where there’s a whole ritualistic dance thing going on. The Emperor of Seatopia says the men above have declared war by blowing up their northern province with their nuclear tests. They call upon their monster, Megalon, to destroy the surface dwellers.
Megalon is a giant monster with metal claws, wings, and some kind of electrified horns that glow. The agents program the robot, who also flies, to assist Megalon in his task by guiding him.
Hiroshi is tied to a chair in the robotics lab as the agents explain everything to him. Goro and Rokuro are tied up in a container that’s headed to Seatopia. Hiroshi escapes and chases after Goro and his brother. This soon turns into a car chase down a mountainside. He loses them.
Megalon findally arises from the lake bed, and the agent orders him to attack Tokyo. The robot leads the big monster to the city. The military mobilizes and prepares for the worst.
The hired bad guys are about to dump Goro and Rokuro off a cliff when they see the monster approaching. The monster accidentally frees Goro and Rokuro from the truck before it’s too late. They recognize their robot, Jet Jaguar. Goro made a tiny remote control that he can use as long as the robot is in visual range.
The army and Megalon fight, Goro retakes control of the robot and tells him to fly to Monster Island and get Godzilla. The Emperor of Seatopia calls Nebula M and requests help from Gigan as a backup.
Jet Jaguar reaches Monster Island quickly and signals to Godzilla, who understands him completely. Meanwhile, Megalon is flattening Tokyo.
Jet Jaguar stops taking orders from anybody; he’s on his own now. He confronts Megalon, and we see that he can grow huge himself (his determination makes him big). Now an equal, he and the monster fight.
Gigan arrives, teaming up with Megalon to beat the robot. That goes badly for Jet Jaguar until Godzilla finally arrives. Soon, it’s a four-way battle between the kaijus and the giant robot. There is a great deal of roaring, wrestling, and throwing things away. This goes on for two or three days, or so it seems.
Eventually, after a long battle, the bad monsters are dispatched. Jet Jaguar and Godilla shake hands, they are besties now. Goro, Rokuro, and Hiroshi wave goodbye to the helpful monster. The robot shrinks down to normal size and goes home with the boys. With his mission accomplished, he’s just a mindless robot again– until next time!
Brian’s Commentary
There’s a lot of stock footage and reused footage from previous films with the army and evacuation stuff.
There wasn’t much monster action until the final half-hour, and then it was nothing but men in rubber suits wrestling. It started out well enough, but there was just too much monster fighting, which gets old very quickly.
Kevin’s Commentary
The citizens of Tokyo in this universe must get mighty tired of all these dang kaiju busting up the city. I thought the creature battles were the weakest, least interesting part of this one. Once those started it felt tedious – like wrestling where you know ahead of time who’s going to win.