Badmovies.org Forum

A couple of astronauts (one American, one Japanese) visit Planet X, which has just been discovered.  They discover a city and investigate.  Turns out it's populated by somewhat darker versions of Devo!  While the astronauts are conversing with the alien leader, an alarm blares.  The city is under attack by a giant monster!  And darned if it isn't a familiar one, at that.  As the American astronaut observes, "Huh ... dat's King Gidder-uh."

The Planet X guys want to borrow Godzilla and Rodan (presumably because those monster costumes were still relatively intact after the previous movie and wouldn't cost Toho anything to reuse) to destroy Ghidora.  Earth's leaders dick around for a bit, and agree to turn over the monsters just in time for the Planet X guys to reveal they had gone ahead and captured them already.  Dick move, Planet X guys.

Godzilla and Rodan adjust just fine to being on a completely different planet.  Neither is troubled by the lack of atmosphere - hell, Rodan can even fly in the vacuum, just like Ghidorah.  They fight Ghidora for awhile and the three-headed monster eventually retreats, prompting Godzilla to do a little dance.  The Planet X guys ask if they can keep Godzilla and Rodan permanently, just in case Ghidora comes back.  Earth's all like, "Well, sure.  It's not like we could take them back even if we wanted."

This was all part of the Planet X guys' master plan, however.  They actually captured Ghidora and put him under mind control some time ago.  Naturally, they thought of using him as a weapon to conquer Earth, but Godzilla and Rodan (and Mothrapillar) had already defeated him once before.  Hence, the whole ruse to get them both on Planet X.  With two of the mightiest monsters in the solar system, and Rodan, attacking it, Earth should fall like a house of cards!  Hahahahahahahahaha!  Naturally, the monsters are first unleashed on the cultural, economic, and political center of the entire world: Tokyo.

Can those two astronauts and some wacky inventor defeat the Planet X guys and free the monsters from their control?  If they do, will Godzilla and Rodan team up to fight Ghidora?  Wel, it would be an awfully crappy movie if they didn't.

This may actually be the last Godzilla movie Toho treated as an A-picture.  You can tell they spent some real money on it, as the special effects are pretty darn good, and the scope of the movie is pretty grand.  There are lots of extras in scenes that need them, high-quality model work in the city smashing scenes, a very detailed model of Godzilla's foot for close up stomps, UFO models, costumes for all the Planet X guys, and some top-notch compositing in the scenes where the UFOs abduct Godzilla and Rodan.  Hell, a significant portion of this movies takes place on another planet, the sets for which couldn't have been that cheap, regardless of how ... austere they may look.  Not even Destroy All Monsters looks this good.

After this movie, Godzilla became more and more of a b-list star of increasingly cheap (if also really, really fun) kids' movies.  But here, he got the full prestige treatment, and Godzilla vs. Monster Zero remains one of the very best Godzilla movies.

     I first saw this in Omaha, c.1970, on a double bill with WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS. It was great fun to watch, and as you said, probably the best treatment of the character for a while.

One the best kaiju films of the classic era; aliens, Godzilla, Rodan & Ghidorah..what else could a monster fan of that time ask for?  :smile:

This movie introduces the Xilians as their often called, and their probably the most iconic non-daikaiju creation from Toho studios.  I'd say only Mothra's fairies are a little better known.   They were the base for the Vortaak alines in the Godzilla games form the mid 2000's. 

Another interesting little scene shows that the Earth monsters still weren't completely seen as heroes yet.  Despite having saved the Earth last movie,  when they are left on Planet X, the one astronaut says they were still more trouble then they were worth. 

Also, in When you see it, you can't unsee it  when the house blows up at the end, there's a piece of debris that flies straight at the camera, spinning like a top,