Saturday, October 21, 2017

Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (Hoopla Digital Video)

Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster by Yosuke Natsuki [Hoopla Digital Streaming Service] 

If you haven’t seen a Godzilla movie before this could be a good starting point because it’s got four monsters in it; however, Godzilla is not really the bad guy here as he is in other movies. Even though this is called Ghidorah, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra (in caterpillar form) also appear. Not everyone who watches giant monster movies really cares about the humans; sometimes I’m like this and sometimes not, but in this one it’s pretty entertaining. There is a princess in danger of assassination that flies to Japan, where she’ll supposedly be safe. While in route, she seems to become entranced and jumps out of the plane seconds before it explodes. She’s presumed dead, but then starts appearing on the news claiming to be from Mars and predicting the future. She says the world is doomed because the space monster Ghidorah, who destroyed her home planet, is here on Earth and will destroy it too. Meanwhile a team of scientists are examining a strange new meteorite impact out of which eventually comes Ghidorah. The Martian Princess also says the monsters Rodan and Godzilla will return soon. She’s right, and after all the monsters come out, it’s fighting time. First Godzilla and Rodan fight, then caterpillar Mothra (summoned by twin fairies at the request of the Japanese government – this is not a joke) tries to stop them and get them to join in its fight against Ghidorah. The fights are absolutely hilarious. Rodan, pecks at Godzilla’s head, Godzilla throws and kicks rocks, there’s tail biting and all kinds of goofiness. Its people in large rubber suits fighting, so there’s only so much they can do. It’s not a movie to take seriously or else you probably won’t like it. If you want a laugh, that’s what this is. It’s not trying to make a statement, it does not have character development, the plot is weird, there is no impressive computer graphics, it’s just a movie pretending to be scary and serious and failing miserably. It’s greatly entertaining and is available on Hoopla to download or stream, either via the app or their website hoopladigital.com.

[If you enjoy this, more giant monster movies are available on Hoopla, including but not limited to: Gamera the Giant Monster, Gamera vs. Gyaos, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Rodan, Godzilla’s Revenge and Destroy All Monsters] [ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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