By Steve Biodrowski

This fifth entry in the Godzilla series is highly regarded among fans who first saw it as children on local television, but anyone looking for an awesome monster movie had best look elsewhere. By this time, the franchise had given up all pretense of serious science-fiction, opting for comic antics: this is the film that includes the infamous scene of Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla conversing in monster language, which is conveniently translated by the twin fairies from Infant Island. The result is that Godzilla morphs from villain to hero, abandoning his role as walking metaphor for nuclear destruction, when he teams up with his fellow Earth monsters to defeat an extra-terrestrial menace in the form of the titule King Ghidorah, a three-headed dragon that previously eradicated all life on Venus (Mars in the U.S. dub).

READ THE COMPLETE VERSION OF THIS REVIEW, INCLUDING DVD DETAILS, AT CINEFANTASTIQUE ONLINE.