The surviving aliens from the 3rd Planet rebuild Mechagodzilla. With the aid of a bitter scientist and his android daughter, they gain control of the giant dinosaur, Titanosaurus, and send both creatures to destroy Tokyo. Godzilla, in his last appearance as a hero, stomps into town to defeat the bad guys.
A direct sequel to the previous year’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, this is the final entry in the initial series of Godzilla films. Nine years would pass before the big lizard would appear again, and then it would be in a film that ignored all but the original Gojira/Godzilla, King of The Monsters. As the end of an era, they could have done worse. The franchise had dipped to spectacular lows with Godzilla’s Revenge, Godzilla vs. Gigan, and Godzilla vs. Megalon—all children’s films that assumed kids were mentally deficient chimps. Terror of Mechagodzilla isn’t meaningful or innovative, but it isn’t a bad way to spend some time on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Of course, this is a rubber suit movie, and the suits are pretty sad. Titanosaurus is a man in a stretched-out chicken costume, with a broken neck (the man’s or the chicken’s, it is hard to tell) and a piece of wood nailed where its beak should be. Godzilla has looked worse, but he would have benefited from a lot more shadows. This is a suit where seeing less is much, much more. Mechagodzilla is the only critter that doesn’t look silly, but then robots are a lot easier to fake than living beings.
The story is typical spy and alien stuff—pretty old hat for Japanese monster films of the ’60s and ’70s. But the characters are more interesting than usual (perhaps not a strong recommendation). The scientist and his daughter add much needed drama, and the relationship between android girl and hero is almost touching. I might have been able to take it seriously if the aliens didn’t wear big jacks on their heads.
The giant monster melees (and that is what we are here for) are considerably better than what’s seen in most early Godzilla films. While there are plenty of silly wrestling and boxing moves, and even some gut-holding laughing by Titanosaurus, it is played as straight as Toho could manage at the time.
Terror of Mechagodzilla is a middling entry in the Godzilla series. If you’re a fan, you’ll want to catch it when convenient. If not, this isn’t going to convert you.