Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Directed by: Ishirô Honda

Starring: Katsuhiko Sasaki, Tomoko Ai, Akihiko Hirata

And we come to the end of an era. You see, hardcore Godzilla fanboys have split up Godzilla films into three different eras, which basically start over every time they rebooted the series. Everything from the original Godzilla to Terror of Mechagodzilla is in what they call the “Showa era”, and starting with the next film, the “Heisei era” starts. Nerd facts are fun!

As Terror of Mechagodzilla starts, Mechagodzilla is safely at the bottom of the ocean, dismantled and harmless… OR IS HE?! Turns out there were a couple aliens left over from the last invasion, and they plan on using both Mechagodzilla and a giant underwater dinosaur that a mad scientist discovered named Titanosaurus to destroy Japan and Godzilla. As opposed to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla where Godzilla needed quite a bit of help to take down his mechanical counterpart, this time he manages to beat both of the monsters himself (though, admittedly, Mechagodzilla’s only defeated because the cyborg lady who was psychically controlling him shoots herself to stop him. These movies are kinda weird).

Terror of Mechagodzilla really wasn’t all that good. Titanosaurus is a dumb monster and the final fight is kinda lame. On the other hand, you get a really great stereotypical mad scientist who even says things like, “NOW we’ll see who’s laughing!” and “They’ll pay… THEY’LL ALL PAY!!” I love mad scientist characters like that.