JLRVancouver The seventh entry in the Godzilla franchise continues the trend toward 'secret agent' plots, diminished budgets, and light-hearted adventure, and because the story originally starred King Kong, the movie departs from the standard Godzilla story in a number of ways. Through a series of unlikely events, four men end up on an island housing a secret base run by a nefarious organisation known as "Red Bamboo" at which clandestine nuclear warheads are being produced and that is protected by the immense shrimp-like monster "Ebirah". By amazing coincidence, Godzilla is asleep in a cave on the very same island and one of Red Bamboo's captives is a young women from Infant Island, home of Mothra (now back in her winged form). Much of the movie is a monster-free adventure as the five try to evade capture and find a missing brother but eventually Godzilla awakens, with predictable results. Directed by Jun Fukuda, the movie has the look and sound of a '60s science fiction TV show, including tilted camera angles like those on the immensely popular "Batman" (1966) series and up-tempo music that has none of the grandeur of Akira Ifukube's scores. The Ebirah suit is quite good and the scenes of his giant claws rising from the ocean are the best in the film but the Godzilla suit is a step down from previous versions, with bigger eyes, a pronounced brow, a frog-like face, and the eyes of the actor within are clearly visible at times. Mothra is not bad but discrepancies between the painted background version and the puppet version are quite noticeable and her twin fairy ambassadors are now played by "Pair Bambi" who are neither as musical nor as charming as "The Peanuts", who previously played the role. In keeping with diminished budgets, Godzilla spends a lot of time in desolate, undetailed regions of the Island, and although there are some reasonably effective underwater shots, no amount of suspension of disbelief will help with the scenes where he attacks the Red Bamboo base: it's just a guy in a rubber suit stepping on toys. Anthropomorphisation of the kaiju continues: battles include a lot of rock throwing (including 'wind-ups' and 'headings'), there are a number of undignified shots of the big guy sitting down (even dozing off at one point), and in one instance he ironically rubs his nose (apparently a reference to a popular Japanese character). By this stage in the history of the franchise, the films are youth-oriented, light-hearted adventures featuring a heroic, at times almost 'friendly', monster, a trend that will continue until the end of the '70s. Strictly for the fans or students of the genre, and the kids.

MisterWhiplash There are times when Godzilla vs the Sea Monster looks to be one of the more compelling and entertaining 'Zilla' movies from the 60's, this despite the fact that the big green guy doesn't show up until 55 minutes(!) into the proceedings. I think what I responded to most positively were two things, and one of these could have been something of a negative but it isn't: first is that it isn't about monsters fighting over a city, and it doesn't involve those aliens or other beings that popped up in the few entries before this one (i.e. Monster Zero), and would show up later again in things like Mecha-Godzilla.But the other thing, and this may be an aspect viewers won't fully appreciate amid the "B-movie" adventureness of it, is that Godzilla vs the Sea Monster is the first one in the series since, well, could it be the first one(?) that deals with the issue of nuclear energy. The enemies of the film are scientists from some rogue organization - are they affiliated with the government, or more of a Dr. Evil rogue thing, I'm still not sure, the story is only clear enough to get the main beats across that they're using an island to test out their ready-made disastrous weapons - and they make for good foils for our heroes, who make up stowaways and a thief and one guy on the look out for his brother, who is actually on Infant Island.Does it necessarily mean that director Jun Fukada and writer Senichi Sekizawa are out to make some profound *statement* about nuclear weapons and such? Maybe not. But I liked that finally we get the return of actual human beings - and sure, one of them has an eye-patch so that, you know, we know he's EVIL - and though they may be easily swayed away when, for example, trying to shine a spotlight at night on our main characters sneaking up to the nuclear weapon lab and they don't see anything despite the fairly bright lights Toho gives to even their night sets, they make for decent villains. The best? Also maybe not. But it is more about their story, how they're using and abusing the natives on the island as slaves, and that they don't know a literal sleeping giant is in their midst under some rocks.I forget how exactly Godzilla wound up there after the last entry, but no matter: using lighting (what is he, Frankenstein's monster? Actually, this was meant to be a Toho-produced Frankenstein movie, or a King Kong one, either makes sense), Godzilla is resurrected, and fights Ebirah, a giant crab monster. In a way the crab monster isn't even the real threat of the movie, despite that it attacks some people on a boat and fights Godzilla a couple of times. It's more about Godzilla being awoken to make trouble for the nuclear-testing villains, and they become his main targets. There's also a sub plot, kinda, sorta, where the natives on Infant Island keep doing their wondrous chants to Mothra, and it's only in the last ten minutes (barely) that she wakes up to join the fight... against Godzilla this time (?)I didn't like how they introduced Mothra here and spent so much time on the natives doing their prayer rituals. It was a lot of fun in the past, but here it seemed to be here more-so to take up some screen time. Of course it's always fun to see them at work, but by the time Mothra actually gets into action it's too little/too late sort of thing. And while Godzilla does get some fun screen time when he shows up, that also comes a little late into the movie which otherwise features this 'Sea Monster' of the title that is little more than a very slightly upgraded version of what Roger Corman cooked up in the 1957 quickie ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. It's enjoyable to look at Ebirah. For a minute. And then he/she/it wears out its welcome.But there are things to recommend this movie for, even as it's not the strongest of the 60's movies. I liked the actors playing the stowaways on the boat with the thief who end up becoming the heroes of their own story, they had believable deliveries and made the characters interesting enough (far as a Toho Godzilla movie of the period allows), and I especially loved the music that plays during some of the fights - in particular, during one of those "oh, they're doing THIS again?" moments when planes come around to fire at Godzilla, surf-Rockabilly grooves come up and it makes it... well, is *good* the word I'm looking for? Actually, yes, it's better than good, it makes for some iconic moments as far as a movie that is squarely in its time in 1966 and the surf music makes it unique.If only the rest of the movie was that way. But problems and all, Fukuda made a mostly entertaining entry, with some changes (on an island, so the lack of usual stakes made it something else as an adventure-action spectacle), just with some issues that were hard to overlook. 6.5/10

Clay Loomis This movie featured the monster tennis match between Godzilla (Giant, mutant lizard with atomic breath capability), and Ebirah (Giant, mutant shrimp with ability to annoy). I was there, reporting this epic match for KOOK TV (channel 5). Here is the play by play as I called it back in 1966.************************************************** Having just been awoken from a sound slumber by some blatantly prearranged lightning strikes, Godzilla came storming out of the side of a mountain, understandably ticked off. The big guy spotted Ebirah just a few thousand yards out at sea, and blamed him, incorrectly, for the whole incident (Note: Ebirah is known for his prank of putting sleeping, giant monsters hands into bowls of warm water. This has not endeared him to the other monsters).Godzilla kicked up a huge boulder for his first serve. A high, hard, straight shot, right at Ebirah's head. Ebirah, looking intent, shot the boulder back with a right backclaw smash. Godzilla caught this and fired it back with a crisp two-handed throw. Ebirah tried another backclaw return, but it went off the edge of his claw and the boulder went wide and out to sea, almost hitting two Japanese spectators inexplicably swimming out at sea during a raging storm. Point Godzilla.Ebirah started taunting his opponent by clapping his claws together, and Godzilla (never one to let a challenge go unmet) picked up another boulder and fired a mighty two-handed serve. Ebirah returned this with another hard backclaw. Goddy returned with a well aimed head butt. Ebirah, another backclaw. Goddy, a head butt. This looked like it was going to be a good volley. Alas, Ebie, caught this with his claw, in blatant disregard for the rules of monster tennis (Rules section 981(c), subsection iii, which states, "no sea monsters can catch boulders with their claws").Ebie wound up and fired a hard one at Goddy, and the now enraged lizard backhanded this one away and into the stands, killing untold numbers of spectators. An angry Godzilla then waded out to sea to register a complaint, but Ebirah splashed him twice with his mighty right claw. This so infuriated Godzilla that he gave Ebirah a taste of his atomic breath as punishment. Or, maybe he just wanted some shrimp tempura. Hard to tell. (Godzilla refused all requests for interviews after the match.)At this point a monster mêlée broke out as the two giants went at it hammer and tongs. Godzilla grabbed another boulder and started pounding Ebirah on the head. Ebirah punked out and swam off to sea. Godzilla threw up his arms and let out a huge roar of triumph, but this match went down in the record books as a double disqualification.NOTE: Ebirah showed up later in the day for a rematch, but since their first match, Godzilla had been attacked by a giant bird, fighter jets with missiles, been electrocuted and shot at with machine guns. He was in a foul humor, and in NO mood for Ebirah. A fight quickly ensued, which ended when Godzilla ripped off both of Ebirah's claws, which pretty much compelled Ebirah to quit the tournament. ********************************************* And that's the way it was, April 23, 1966. And I know because, I WAS THERE!

tedg If you are surveying Godzilla films, this has two things that make it stand out. One is the twin priestesses, who I think are photographed better and longer here than elsewhere. The second thing is that this is dubbed more expertly than others I have seen.Otherwise, the interesting thing here is the same as for all the Godzilla films. If you want to appreciate Hayao Miyazaki and his fascination with nature sprites and monsters (and you are not Japanese) you need to touch base with something in this series. This one features four giant creatures: Godzilla who is a sort of prehistoric lizard; the people-friendly Mothra; its cousin, a giant condor; and new to this film a giant lobster.All of these were created or awakened by nuclear activity which was then burned deep into Japanese cosmology. The bad guys here? They are making nuclear weapons.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.