A Princess goes missing after an assassination attempt, and turns up in Japan, claiming to be a 5000 year old prophetess from outer space (Venus in the subtitled version, Mars in the dubbed). She predicts that Rodan will rise from a volcano, Godzilla will destroy a ship, and a space monster named King Ghidrah will destroy the planet. With assassins hot on the princess’s tail, and a reporter and her policeman brother aiding her, the princess/prophetess saves two fairies, who summon Mothra to attempt to persuade Godzilla and Rodan to join forces against the new monster.
It’s all about Ghidrah. By any standard inherent in twelve-year-old-boys, and any of us who remember being twelve-year-old-boys, Ghidrah is cool. He’s a three headed, winged, golden dragon that lays waste to everything with bolts of electricity (supposedly gravity waves, but nothing in the film indicates that). Ghidrah is all the destruction that an giant-monster-action movie should be about.
As for the rest, well, it is barely palatable, and only because there’s always Ghidrah in the wings. The plot is a collection of loosely related events that happen for no particular reason. Godzilla returns, because he does. Rodan wakes out of his long sleep at the same moment, without explanation. A princess somehow activates an innate human survival trait of channeling dead Venusians and the Venusian happens to be an expert on King Ghidrah, which is handy as a meteor falls to Earth that either contains Ghidrah or generates him (it’s not clear which). The fairy priestess from Infant Island (also call Easter Island in one poorly subtitled moment) have chosen this time to completely sellout their heritage and appear on a cheap pop TV show, so they can call Mothra. (There’ss only one Mothra grub now even though there were two at the end of the previous movie. Do you think one ate the other?) The coincidences keep happening, with everyone, human and monster, running into each other far more frequently than even Lotto players could accept. Other things happen or are mentioned that are just strange and irrelevant: the meteor is intermittently magnetic; a doctor decides to carry out a complicated procedure while giant monsters are fighting outside his door (of course, this is a doctor who says that his “complete exams” could hurt the princess—which makes him really creepy).
Does all that harm the film? It doesn’t help it. But what really is damaging is the amount of time spent on the nonsensical human plot. This is a Godzilla movie. If there’s going to be nonsense, it should involve a guy in a rubber suit. The princess/cop/assassin/reporter storyline goes on and on, without ever being engaging. It fills time. A lot of time.
That just leaves the monster battles. That is the reason for the film, and Ghidrah comes through like a pro. But the other monsters don’t do so well. Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra all look like shaved rejects from a sub par Muppet movie. The eyes and necks are (for Godzilla and Rodan; Mothra looks bad in every way) painful to watch and there are far too many close ups of these offending areas. The fight between Godzilla and Rodan involves rock volleyball and a lot of kicking. It departs from anything exciting, sidesteps funny, and drops squarely into silly. The big four way climax is better, but still involves too many tossed rocks and too much failed humor aimed at kids.
Ghidrah, the Three Headed Monster is entertaining, but it also signals real problems for the Godzilla series. Terror and theme had vanished after the first film and now excitement was going as well. The series was being remade for children, by adults who didn’t understand what kids enjoy. Godzilla vs. Mothra was an excellent children’s movie. There was no need in this film to make the monsters laugh, and chat (yes, they have a long chat, translated from monsterese by the fairies). Ghidrah gives the film just enough of a “cool” factor to make it all work. Just barely enough.
The film is also known as Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster and in later films, Ghidrah is more often called Ghidorah.