Godzilla Series Discussion

Invasion of the Astro-Monster Discussion

Hey everyone and welcome in. On this page we're going to discuss Invasion of the Astro-Monster. Also known as Monster Zero or Godzilla vs. Monster Zero. Yeah one thing you'll notice about Toho movies is that they often have a bunch of various titles. I personally stick with the title Invasion of the Astro-Monster when referring to this movie because it's the most well known. The title monster Zero sounds more generic and calling it Godzilla vs. Monster Zero bugs me because for one thing the monster is King Ghidorah and it's not really just Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah but Godzilla with Rodan fighting Ghidorah.

An interest thing to note about this movie is that it's the first time Toho did an American coproduction of a Godzilla movie. Meaning that they'd work simultaneously on 2 versions of the film. They'd have an American actor (in this case Nick Adams) speaking English while the rest of the cast spoke Japanese. Then in post production (depending on which country it was showing in) the actors would get dubbed.

Plot: So in this one these Astronauts discover the hidden Planet X that is inhabited by this alien race known as the Xiliens. The Xilien planet is a baron wasteland of a planet and the aliens let the humans know that the people live in fear of monster Zero which the earthlings know as King Ghidorah. By the way I just love the hilarious costumes that the Xiliens wear in this movie. I mean just look at them.

Anyways the Xiliens ask the earthlings if they could borrow Rodan and Godzilla in order to fight King Ghidorah and in exchange they will give the earthlings a miracle drug that cures all disease. The humans agree and so Godzilla and Rodan are taken off into space to fight King Ghidorah. I'm not sure why the Xiliens didn't ask for Mothra. Again, It was due to budget reasons but for the sake of the movie my theory is that the Xiliens knew that if they also asked for Mothra then the twin fairies would have felt like something was off and said no.

So Godzilla and Rodan are taken off into space and arrive on Planet X....

This is the first and only time (as of right now) in the entire series that a Godzilla battle takes place on another planet other than Earth and it's pretty cool. Both Godzilla and Rodan are able to fend of King Ghidorah and Godzilla celebrates by doing this....

I just love this scene. It's so campy but beautiful. It's one of the most iconic scenes in the entire series and just brings me so much joy when I watch it.

Anyways after King Ghidorah is thwarted we find out that Xiliens are really evil and we're secretly controlling King Ghidorah. They then begin to control the other monsters and unleash hell on earth.  Yeah one thing you'll realize is that outside of Ghidorah the Three-Headed monster all alien races in the Godzilla series are evil.

[I don't know why I chose this video but I did so enjoy it i guess]

Anyways as you'd expect the humans find some way to stop the Xiliens along with King Ghidorah and the movie ends with the monsters crashing into the sea.

Overall this is a pretty fun little entry in the series. Nick Adams is a good lead in this and also in (Frankenstein Conquers the World). The Xiliens are decent villains (although I think they're better in Final Wars). And the Kaiju battles are pretty cool. This was also the first Godzilla movie where he was a "good guy" at the start of the film. Although he does become evil again via mind control before once again becoming good again at the end again.

Anyways, that's going to wrap it up for this part. I'll be back again either this week or next week to update this and give my thoughts on the next entry in the Godzilla Series. Be sure to let me know in the comments below what you think of this movie and we can continue to discuss everything about this movie in greater detail!