Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (1962) Directed by Ishirô Honda

The previous sequel "Gojira no gyakushû" must not have been a great success, since it took no less than 7 years for the next sequel to appear. And it took another monster to blow new life into the franchise again as well!

In lots of ways this also definitely is more of a sequel to "King Kong" than to the Gojira series. The first half of the movie at least definitely feels more Kong orientated, as the movie takes place at his island, while Gojira is just doing his usual stomping, a few hundred miles away. Of course it's a great and unique thing for a movie to feature 2 great iconic movie monsters in it, from different continents. That at the same time is also the one and only thing that this movie has going for it, since other than that, this really isn't a great movie at all.

Quite surprised that this movie is directed by Ishirô Honda, who also directed the first "Gojira" movie. It's actually a totally different movie, not just because of the fact that this one is in color but it's also a totally different movie in its tone. This movie is far more entertainment and comedy orientated than the first "Gojira" movie and I can't say that that's a good thing though. I prefer my kaiju movies a tad bit more serious and this movie definitely is a bit too goofy for its own good at times. It of course takes away most of the tension from the movie, as well as all of the realism and it doesn't even adds all that much to its entertainment value. I mean, a movie involving giant creatures fighting each other should be entertaining enough of itself already and you just don't need any of the lame comedy and goofy characters, that unfortunately all is present in this movie.

The acting besides is absolutely terrible, which is taking the movie down even more. None of the characters in this movie ever work out as some good or likable enough ones, aside from the Kong and Gojira characters.

It's luckily still pretty fun to see Kong and Gojira cause havoc and having a go at each other as well. The special effects really aren't anything too realistic or impressive looking and it once again is very obvious that both King Kong and Gojira are 80% of the time played by guys in suits but at the same time, that's also part of the charm of these type of movies of course. Still disappoint to see how terrible unconvincing some of the miniatures were looking and it's also silly to watch how both Gojira and King Kong try to step on everything in their way. Just imaging you trying to stomp on every little leaf, twig, chewed out bubblegum and soda can that you come across when walking down the street. Besides, they are big and powerful and all but I'm sure it must hurt even them whenever they step on a large building, train, or other large object or it at the very least should irritate and feel uncomfortable underneath their feet. It's of course nothing that I'm holding against the movie, since it's what these movies are basically all about but it's just something I kept thinking about while watching the movie.

The story once again is pretty flimsy and basically the only goal this movie had in mind was to bring King Kong and Gojira together and have them fight each other at a point. Other than that, everything else that's happening and going on in this movie really isn't all that important or interesting and engaging enough to watch. It's disappointing how little effort and creativity went into the writing of this movie. It took them 7 years to come up with a new Gojira sequel and this was the best they could think off?

It's a far from great movie but it luckily still is an entertaining enough one, mostly thanks to its main premise. I just hope that the other sequels are better and some more creative ones as well.

6/10

Watch trailer