A follow-up to the 1964 four-way monster battle Ghidrah – The Three Headed Monster, the venerable Godzilla crew returns with this outer space epic one year later. Astro Monster follows a solid human story, even with a massive logic hole, that’s entertaining enough that the hold off the monster action until the finale. This is one of the best out of the lighter-toned sequels.
Nick Adams heads up a cast of Toho staples, including his love interest, Kumi Mizuno. The film wastes no time in making it to the first special effects shot as two astronauts fly into space to investigate the newly discovered Planet X. Once they landed, human-like aliens, decked out in iconic space wear, welcome the Earth’s ambassadors.
As with nearly every movie involving aliens, there’s a plot to take over the Earth. Yoshio Tscuchiya plays the alien commander (in one of his many giant monster film roles) with an expressionless, pale face that simply feels cold. Their plan is long-winded, if only for the purpose of creating intrigue amongst the Earth people.
In execution, the aliens go through a staggering amount of work for a superior race. Requesting Godzilla and Rodan from Earth to protect their own home world from an invasion by Ghidrah, they transport the monsters with the approval of Earth’s government. While the battle does take place, albeit briefly, it’s not long before the aliens are back on a defenseless Earth controlling all three monsters in a classic Toho rampage.
With their extensive technology, it’s rather obvious that they never needed to make an interstellar trip with multiple monsters in tow, or even communicate with humans. They could have just as easily taken control in a surprise attack, which would have been far more effective.
Gaping plot holes aside, this is still a fun, energetic monster movie. The final three-way monster fight is a classic, loaded with destruction and miniature smashing. Two of the suits are familiar for those who viewed Ghidrah one year prior, though the Godzilla suit has definitely underwent some extensive design alterations. It’s far too baggy, hanging off suit actor Haruo Nakajima instead of sticking to his frame. The holes in the neck are blatantly obvious at times, and tongue flops around whenever the mouth opens.
As the human drama plays out, there’s always a need to go back to it. In other kaiju epics, the dialogue-driven plot ends as the characters become nothing more than onlookers. While that eventually happens here, through most of the struggle, there’s an urgent last-minute attempt to save the planet from the invaders. It cleans up nicely without leaving questions, while still leaving things open for the next sequel.
Also, even with some ridiculous camp sequences (including the sadly famous “jig” Godzilla performs), the story still delivers a sense of dread. When the monster fight turns goofy, it’s not the drastic turn off it would have been without a strong build-up. This is what elevates Invasion of the Astro Monster above the franchises lower-end pieces. 
Both Japanese and English versions are contained on the disc. While minor variances of editing are present, the prints used look exactly the same. Color is bright, sharp, and full. While overly soft, there’s still a sense of clarity to the picture. Print damage is non-existent, even during multi-pass special effects shots. Grain is only evident during moments that use stock footage. Compression is wonderfully controlled.
Audio is unremarkable on both films. This basic mono effort preserves the sound clearly. The remastered 5.1 track from the Japanese DVD release has sadly not been included. 
Extras begin with a nice narrated look at Tomoyuki Tanaka, the man credited with creating Godzilla. His career and life are discussed at length, and this stands as a nice tribute piece. A photo gallery and trailers for other Classic Media Godzilla DVDs are featured as well.
A full length commentary from Monsters are Attacking Tokyo author Stuart Galbraith IV is mostly a discussion of the actors. He finds notable people who never speak a single line and lets the viewer in on the highlights of their careers, though after a while, it’s tiring. Some more information on the shoot, special effects, or the series would have been a huge help towards making this a successful commentary.
Godzilla’s next foray would be an oddball effort, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. The script was written for Toho’s adaptation of King Kong, but was switched with almost no changes to the. This leads to a number of oddities in terms of the giant monsters behavior, debatably more off the wall than his dance in Astro Monster.
Matt Paprocki is the reviews editor for Digital Press, a classic video game website which he called home after his fanzine (Gaming Source) published its final issue. The deep game collection which spans nearly 30 systems and 2,000 games line his walls for reasearch purposes. Really. He has also begun writing freelance for the Toledo Free Press.
