#8 Ebirah Terror of the Deep

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by Terickel

by Terickel

Honestly I knew it as Godzilla vs the Sea Monster for the most part. If I remember right there was this one time that my dad let me see a catalog of movies, turned to a section that had Godzilla movies and told me I could pick two and that led to my initial collection of this and vs Gigan. I had Gigan as a favorite and this was one I hadn't seen. I eventually added a few others to the VHS collection including Megalon. Then came adulthood and I own all the movies except for Returns/1985 now. I may get it so I can go through the series unbroken though.

Who doesn't like a good adventure on the high seas? Or rather, a safer experience of observing one through media because the only environments that hate our continued existence as living organisms are the most brutal deserts and space itself. I always enjoyed this one even if Ebirah was a bid underwhelming and Godzilla acted weird.

Finding out it was originally meant to be a Toho made King Kong movie really cleared things up for me. It's a shame they didn't rework the script a little more, but it's fine as it is. I watched it this time thinking about the whole way through and it feels weird to think that if the original plans had happened then this would have been the first Kong movie I liked, no need to wait for Skull Island. Even now imagining him getting clothes-lined by Mothra is a pleasant daydream.

These movies have such a loose continuity it barely counts as such – I've heard it said that it's possible to imagine all the Godzilla movies happen in the same universe as long as you accept multiple Godzillas but I seem to recall a few of the Millenium movies going to lengths to establish alternate timelines but I could be wrong. Still the thought occurs to me: how ballsy do you have to be to watch Mothra: destroy a city, beat down Godzilla, help save the earth from Ghidorah, and still go messing with her island and abducting her humans?

Ebirah makes a good threat early on, but unfortunately it just gets overshadowed by the way he ends the battle permanently crippled at best. I still like the nonsensical game he and Godzilla have. Tennis? Catch? Soccer/Football? I don't think it fits any exactly, so... pass the rock? Oh! Hot potato?

Anyway, despite a few issues this is fairly high on my favored Godzilla movies though that does probably have some nostalgia issues causing it.