Rodan

1956 - Toho
Directed by Ishiro Honda
(American dubbed version)


SYNOPSIS


Nuclear tests near Japan unleash several giant caterpillars that terrorize a small mining town. A giant egg in discovered in one of the mines cracks, releasing a massive pterodactyl named Rodan who eats the catepillars like a snack and soon he and his mate threaten the entire country!

MY THOUGHTS

An entertaining Godzilla retread.

Like many of the Godzilla (or most disaster films) series, we're made to watch uninteresting humans that we never really care about and how they react to the crisis at hand.... all while we wish for more monster action.

Rodan also follows the formulaic plot of the 'man in monster suit' genre known as Kaiju --- 'monster emerges, threatens people, people strike back, monster strikes back harder, someone comes up with a successful plot to stop monster.' It's done no better or worse than any other. But starting the film off with another villain, the caterpillars, was a bit of a departure from the norm. Still, it just delayed Rodan's entry into the film.

Rodan is serious in tone, like the first two Godzilla films that proceeded it. This film lacks the original Gojira's anti-war and anti-nuclear message and chooses to not make any political statement at all. By the time Rodan and Godzilla would meet, in 1964's Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, the characters would be played for humor. The later films are 'more fun' but these early films are still cool. This was the first Kaiju film by Toho in color.

The miniature models that get trampled and destroyed by Rodan are some of the best I've ever seen. Recreating a small town, instead of Tokyo, seems to look 100 times more authentic. The miniatures are still superior to those in the 1990's and early 2000's Godzilla films.

The voice dubbing was better than the average Godzilla film as well and used actual Asian-American actors like Keye Luke and a young George Takei. This is great considering there's some Godzilla films where I've heard Japanese characters speak with thick New York accents!


Rodan could have used more Rodan, but otherwise is still an entertaining film for fans of Kaiju.