[HorrorScience] Godzilla VS Monster Zero (1965)

After a few weeks of rest, we return to the classic Godzilla saga with a film that we could consider one of the most influential in the monster's career, as several important sequels (Destroy All The Monsters -where almost all the company's monsters gathered- and Final Wars -which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Godzilla-) were undoubtedly based on it.

This film also has the honor of having taken Godzilla to new horizons, since during part of the footage the King of the monsters will find himself on a planet that is not Earth, thus continuing the unstoppable path towards the Space Opera started by the previous movie, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Dragon.

The title of this sixth film is Kaijū Daisensō, renamed in Spanish as Monsters invade Earth either Invasion of the astromonsters. Although it is probably much more popular by any of its other Western names such as Godzilla Vs Monster Zero, Monster Zero either Invasion of the Astro-Monster.

The fact that there are so many titles in English is due to the dance of rights and editions made according to the whims of the distributor. Despite this, This film did not undergo edits and modifications as brutal as some of the previous ones. of Godzilla. Perhaps that was because they already made it thinking about satisfying Western audiences by including an American actor in the lead duo who would also be the handsome and flirtatious one and would contrast notably with the Japanese character, much more serious and restrained.

After listening to the opening melody composed by Akira Ifukube, the film takes us to a rocket piloted by two astronauts (Glenn and Fuji) whose mission is to investigate a newly discovered planet, Planet X.

Once there they discover an extraterrestrial civilization that lives beneath the surface because a being called Monster 0 destroys everything on the surface, preventing the development of their civilization.

The monster turns out to be King Ghidorah, the three-headed dragon that appeared in the previous film, and for that reason the aliens ask humans to let them use Godzilla and Rodan to defeat him.

The request reaches Earth, where it raises doubts among humans: should we help the aliens? Would it be ethical not to do so?

At the same time we see how the human protagonists are reunited with their families, at which time we are introduced to Fuji's sister's boyfriend, an inventor named Tetsuo who cannot get the astronaut's approval to be with his sister, since his inventions are not successful.

Tetsuo thought that his latest invention (a tremendously annoying alarm) would be the one that made him famous, since it was bought by a businesswoman named Namikawa for a large amount of money. Unfortunately for the inventor, the woman disappeared overnight with her invention, leaving him once again a failure in the eyes of Fuji.

Fed up with waiting, Aliens take Godzilla and Rodan to their planet without humans' permission and once there the monsters manage to make the three-headed dragon flee.

Glen and Fuji suspect aliens so they decide to investigate and discover that the businesswoman who bought Tetsuo's invention is an alien from Planet X. Why would the aliens come to Earth once they have solved their problem with King Ghidorah? What will happen to Godzilla and Rodan?

Godzilla Vs Monster Zero It is one of my favorite films within the Showa Godzilla saga, but at the same time it is undeniable that it has almost all the flaws that made this saga go down.

For example, when it comes to negative things we have to The time the monsters spend on screen is quite limited. compared to the human characters, present throughout almost the entire film. Obviously everything is due to a cost-cutting maneuver (such as the use of scenes from other films) but it also makes the film more boring.

We also see an unnecessary repetition of monsters since not only No new ones are introduced, but those from the previous film are repeated. On the other hand, we once again see humorous moments in the monster scenes, they are few, but so notable that it is impossible to ignore them (especially Godzilla's jump for joy).

The good things are also worth mentioning. For example, the idea of ​​taking monsters into space and see them fight in such a different environment es un soplo de aire fresco a la saga. Las maquetas e interiores del planeta X son muy pintorescos y aunque a día de hoy sean tópicos y ridículos, no dejan de ser lo que muchos libros y películas de los 60 imaginaban al mencionar mundos futuristas.

La idea de que los humanos duden a la hora de ayudar a una raza similar y que esta tome cartas en el asunto es de lo más acertado de la película, pues creo que pese al tópico de que todos los extraterrestres son malos, deja caer que los humanos tampoco son precisamente buenos samaritanos.

En términos generales, las escenas de monstruos están a un buen nivel y el final de la película es bastante interesante. De hecho hay algunas películas que creo que se inspiraron en él.

Movie trivia:

• En la versión original,  los extraterrestres ofrecían a los humanos la cura del cáncer si les dejan a Godzilla y Rodan, en otras versiones se tradujo como que les ofrecían una cura para cualquier tipo de enfermedad.
• El tema principal de esta película es en realidad una nueva versión del tema de los militares de the first Godzilla movie. Curiosamente, este tema ya había sido modificado por Ifukube y utilizado en Battle in Outer Space  de 1959.
• La escena de Godzilla bailando de alegría se hizo muy famosa, existe bastante merchandising del monstruo en esa pose.
• En realidad el planeta X es la luna de otro planeta, de manera que es un satélite, de hecho existen algunos doblajes donde se le llama Satélite X.