{"id":32444,"date":"2021-03-20T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=32444"},"modified":"2021-03-20T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T18:10:00","slug":"belated-movie-reviews-655","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/03\/20\/belated-movie-reviews-655\/","title":{"rendered":"Belated Movie Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Family reunion photoshoot, everyone!<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Space aliens have landed and, using projection, look like humans – but their shadows are of giant cockroaches. Nice, budget saving touch, that.<\/p>\n

They want peace, much like the Soviets wanted peace – strictly on their own terms.<\/p>\n

But they have one big problem.<\/p>\n

Godzilla<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“Mr. Gigan, is it true you have rockets up your ass?”<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

And thus is the plot of Godzilla vs Gigan<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (1972, aka Godzilla on Monster Island<\/strong><\/em> [American]), the story of how a bunch of cartoonish[1]<\/sup><\/a> Japanese characters aid Godzilla as Godzilla and his[2]<\/sup><\/a> trusty sidekick, Anguirus<\/a><\/em>[3]<\/sup><\/a>, upon sensing the broadcasts of the space aliens, come to investigate. But waiting for them are the space monsters King Ghidorah<\/em><\/a>, he of the snaky three heads and lightning breath, and the eponymous Gigan<\/em><\/a>, a Cyclopean plastic critter with a buzzsaw sense of humor.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the space aliens’ secret weapon, lurking in plain site.<\/p>\n

Yay, there’s a plot! Since the space aliens’ planet has come to the end of its natural life cycle, the space aliens have a reason to desire Earth and aren’t incomprehensibly evil, just a trifle provincial and randomly vicious. That makes this plot better – slightly – than a lot of members of the genre.<\/p>\n

But the space monsters, when traveling in space, were absolutely the pits. Not quite as bad as the monster in the badly sewn costume which is trapped in a cave in some other movie of which I refuse to remember the title. That was the worst – but our plastic space going models were their own kind of awful. In fact, there’s not much to like in the special effects department – the models are obviously models, and when stepped on by an inconsiderate monster, they crumble just like models would, with plastic inserts popping out in a most unrealistic fashion. The explosions and fires are well-done, true, but repetitive.<\/p>\n

But the real highlight is Godzilla and Anguirus talking. Yes, talking.<\/p>\n

Just like cartoon strips, with little conversation balloons.<\/p>\n

That’s unique in my experience of the genre.<\/p>\n

And it’s funny in that dreadful sort of way you’re imagining.<\/p>\n

So it was nice to have a plot, but the whole thing is painfully ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>1<\/sup> There’s a pun here, but you’ll have to see the movie to understand it. Perhaps you should just let it pass.<\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup> Does gender<\/a> apply to Godzilla? Or does that link prove too frightening in connection to Godzilla?<\/p>\n

<\/a>3<\/sup> Or, as my Arts Editor remarked, The pointy footstool!<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

By Source, Fair use<\/a>, Link<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space aliens have landed and, using projection, look like humans – but their shadows are of giant cockroaches. Nice, budget saving touch, that. They want peace, much like the Soviets wanted peace – strictly on their own terms. But they have one big problem. Godzilla. And thus is the plot \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32449,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32444\/revisions\/32449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}