Godzilla vs Monster Zero (1965)
Produced and Released by: Toho Co. Ltd.
Director: Ishiro Honda
By Dr Kain

Introduction

Toho introduced King Ghidorah in 1964, a three headed dragon that became quite popular and has appeared in every generation of Godzilla movies at least once. In 1965, Toho’s first movie since “Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster” featured the return of King Ghidorah, along with Rodan to help Godzilla battle this menace. “Godzilla vs. Monster Zero” was also the first movie to feature the reoccurring alien plot.

The Story

A rocket is launched into space, piloted by an American astronaut named Glen (Nick Adams) and a Japanese astronaut named Fuji (Akira Takarada). They are traveling to a planet recently discovered called Planet X. They report to the station to give their current situation and Fuji wants to talk to his sister Haruno (Keiko Sawai) before they leave, but she does not want to talk to him as a joke.

Tetsuo Teri (Akira Kubo), an inventor, finishes an alarm-like device that gives off a loud buzzing sound as he gets a call from someone interested in his work wanting to talk during dinner. Tetsuo takes Haruno with him, and they meet Namikawa (Kumi Mizuno), the woman Tetsuo spoke to on the phone. Namikawa also just happens to know about Haruno’s brother Fuji and his trip to Planet X.

In the meantime, Glen and Fuji land on Planet X and find an underground facility where they meet a race of aliens that look like humans. The aliens, called the X-Seijin, greet the two earthlings and ask them if they could borrow Rodan and Godzilla so they could defend their planet against the terror caused by Monster Zero, or Ghidorah. In exchange, they will give the people of Earth data on how to cure the diseases of the world. The X-Seijin’s let Glen and Fuji go back to Earth to discuss their offer with the rest of the world.

After they return to Earth, a press conference is called to discuss about the X-Seijin’s request. Some of the people are in favor of it, while others are not. Afterwards, Glen and Fuji meet up with Haruno and Tetsuo for dinner, who is depressed because he cannot get a hold of Namikawa. Glen leaves shortly to meet his new “lover,” which turns out to be Namikawa.

The army comes up with plans to search for Godzilla and Rodan. Hours later three UFOs surface from the ocean in the area where Godzilla is supposedly resting. One of them lands and the X-Seijins emerge from the ship to introduce themselves to everyone. They came to Earth to retrieve Godzilla and Rodan from their slumber, which they do. Glen, Fuji, and their boss go with the X-Seijins to Planet X. Tetsuo follows Namikawa after she leaves the site, it turns out she is one of the aliens, and then Tetsuo is captured.

Back on Planet X, Ghidorah lays an assault on the planet again, so the X-Seijins wake Godzilla and Rodan up to battle him. They fight the three headed dragon using some silly attacks which causes Ghidorah to lose and he flies away. Glen and Fuji disappeared during the battle to look around the base and they find that the woman all look like Namikawa. They are caught and taken back to the commander, who hands them a tape containing the information on how to make cures for all the known diseases.

After returning to Eath, another conference is held where they will play the tape to find out the secrets on there, but it turns out to be a trick because the tape is filled with an ultimatum. After some riots break out, Glen finds Namikawa and talks to her about her being an X-Seijin. She is killed moments later by her superior for falling in love with a human, and Glen is taking prisoner and becomes cell mates with Tetsuo.

A UFO appears at the space center and destroys all their ships and communicaton satellites so they cannot send anyone into space. From there they order everyone to surrender or they will send Ghidorah, Godzilla, and Rodan out to destroy everything.

Fuji and his coworkers devise a plan to create a jamming device that will block the X-Seijin’s frequency that controls the monsters. Meanwhile, Glen and Tetsuo escape from the prison thanks to Tetsuo’s alarm device he created earlier, and they return to the space center. The three monsters are sent to wreck havok upon Japan, but Fuji finishes the jamming device thanks to Tetsuo’s work and they use it to stop the X-Seijins from conquering the Earth. Godzilla and Rodan are freed from the alien’s control, and they battle Ghidorah until he is defeated and leaves Earth.

Review

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero is the movie that started it all. Ever since this one came out, there were multiple alien invasion plots done in the upcoming Godzilla movies. Some had interesting concepts, while others did not. The aliens here fight the time period of when they were designed, but when looking back at them today, they are just a bunch of freaks in halloween costumes. The whole idea gets stale after a while, but this movie’s aliens were the only true “human-like” ones since the later films used insects or animals for their true forms. The plot is not bad, but it's not the best either. It could be worst though, the biggest thing lacking in this one is monster action. Theones that are here feel very short and goofy. Right after Ghidorah flies away on Planet X, Godzilla starts jumping up and down raining one leg and arm in celebration for his victory.

The costumes appear to be the same ones used in the previous film. Actually, if someone were to cut the battles out of this movie, get rid of the alien scenes, and splice it into “Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster,” no one would probably notice because of this.The only monster missing is Mothra.

The X-Seijin’s designs are bad. The men wear thin sunglasses, have a hat-like hood over their heads with an antenna on top, and their suits are gray with a black sleeveless top. Their costumes also look like they have a black neck brace on with a gray outline. The women are just missing the hat, but they all have black hair that goes down to their shoulders. One could say they are the sixties' version of the agents from “The Matrix Trilogy.” The clothing the other characters were are a mixed bag, but look fine if they are wearing a suit and tie. The women’s business outfits do not look too proper without being stylish, which can be positive or negative depending on the viewer and their taste in clothing.

Since there really were not a lot of battles in this one, the special effects are minimal. Most of the time there are only explosions of UFOs or some buildings. Nothing that required too much money to do.

It is worth nothing that the actor Nick Adams had his voice dubbed into Japanese in the original version, while his original voice (which was spoken in English) can be heard in the English dub and the Japanese trailers. If you are watching this movie in Japanese, it is quite interesting to see a character having their voice dubbed. Sometimes you can easily tell, while other times you really have to be paying attetion to notice it.

Finally, as always, Akira Ifukube’s music is what helps to make this movie enjoyable. Honestly, if his score was not in the movie, it would probably not be that great of a film.

Conclusion

This is a decent flick, but there are better ones that have Ghidorah. Still, if you are a fan of Ghidorah, or even the other two monsters, this is a must see, even with its negatives.

I give it a 3.5/5 stars.

Dr Kain