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The Seatopians, a secret human race living beneath the Ocean floors,
feels threatened by us surface dwellers constantly testing atom bombs (and
can you blame them), so they want to send their monster Megalon up to
destroy Tokyo. But since they haven't been on the surface for centuries,
the Seatopians need a guide for their monster to show them directions. So
they kidnap Jet Jaguar, inventor Goro's (Katsuhiko Sasaki) newly
developped man-sized robot, to do just that - and it works great at first. However,
Goro is unwilling to give up his robot, so he, his kid brother Roku
(Hiroyuki Kawase) and their friend Jinko (Yutaka Hayashi) do everything to
retrieve it ... and eventually succeed. However, as soon as they have Jet
Jaguar in their power, it just takes off on its own. Why? you may ask. Because
Goro gave the robot a will of its own that only kicks in at times of
utmost emergency, so it can save the world without outside commands
(really). Jet Jaguar flies right off to Monster Island to fetch
Godzilla, and tells (?) him what's going on, and Godzilla agrees to come
for help. However, while Jet Jaguar is able to fly, Godzilla has to swim
all the way to Japan, so Jet is the first to arrive with Megalon - and out
of the blue, it grows to giant size to take on the monster one to one. Jet
Jaguar doesn't do too badly, but then, out of space, the chicken-like
spacemonster Gigan arrives to lend a helping hand to Megalon, and the two
of them almost beat Jet Jaguar to a pulp before Godzilla finally shows up
on stage to even the odds, and he and Jet Jaguar give the two baddies a
thrashing they are not likely to forget. After the monsters are chased
off and the Seatopians have sealed shut all exits to the upper world, Jet
Jaguar shrinks to man-size once again and becomes the loyal servant he was
intended to be once more. First things first: Godzilla vs
Megalon is not a good film, it's sloppily executed and based on a very
silly and simplistic script. Plus, Jet Jaguar's robot costume really looks
shoddy. And it's so cheaply made the monsters don't even get to destroy
too much cityscapes, and the landscapes they do their battle in are very
limited in range and look completely boring. Also, the whole thing is
accompanied by an awful score that sadly misses all of the greatness of
Akira Ifukube's usual Godzilla-scores ... and yet, there's
something about this film that's appealing: Maybe it's its undisguised
focus on monster tag team wrestling, maybe its many silly yet inventive
wrestling moves, maybe just a robot shaking Godzilla's hand, I don't know,
but beneath all the garbage this film undoubtedly delivers, there is
something a trashfilm-enthusiast like myself can't help but love ...
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