#Atragon Rewatch

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Atragon (1963)

[catgirl-kaiju]

So, I'm doing a complete from the start rewatch of all the Godzilla movies from the films that inspired the creation of the original 1954 movie, up to the modern day, and for some of these more interstitial films, it's either my first time watching them, or my first time watching watching them in a while. So, running update on my opinion of these films:

The Lost World (1925): The stop motion really is fun, and very impressive for the time. Hasn't aged particularly well, mostly on account of the racism. Interesting for historical viewing, but not much beyond that.

King Kong (1933): It cannot be understated just how much of a technical marvel this movie is, while still managing to be very engaging on an action and story level. Much ink has already been spilled over how absolutely racist this film is both overtly and thematically, but something interesting to note is just how much of a different variation of racism this is from later adaptations. Like, the way that the natives are portrayed in this movie is SO racist, but at least they're people, which is far more than I can say of the 2005 Peter Jackson adaptation where they're just scary monster people covered in mud.

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms: probably one of the films with the most direct influence on Gojira 1954, it's kind of boring. It's very much a campy and bog standard 1950s creature feature. Harryhausen's work on the film is impressive as always, with some particularly fun immersive lighting effects, but otherwise just not a very impressive film. Worth a watch if you're into Ray Harryhausen and his work, or curious about Godzilla's artistic inspirations, but otherwise Gojira is leagues the superior take on this basic premise and it just lacks the same political bite for reas9that should be obvious.

Rodan: Such a strong opening half, with a really cool titular kaiju. It's a shame that it switches halfway from an intriguing creature feature in a small mining town, to just a pretty typical 1950s giant monster movie. I feel like movie could have been improved dramatically by tightening the focus onto it's small cast of characters in the small town setting as opposed to just basically letting military characters take over the second half of the film. A small town kaiju movie would have been a lot of fun, and it's a shame they didn't stick to their guns on that.

The Mysterians: First time watching this one, and I think it's a lot of fun. It has so much of what makes 1950s alien invasion movies fun to watch and a pretty impressive pacing and scale. It's also very interesting to me how much it lays the groundwork for future Godzilla movies that feature alien antagonists. The whole "we want to kidnap and marry your women for breeding purposes" thing is really weird and uncomfortable for whenever it's brought up, but it's brought up less than you'd think. Moguera is a really fun robot design, and I would have liked to have seen more of him, I feel like he was really underutilized.

Varan The Unbelievable: This movie is soooooo boringgggg. I completely understand why this one flopped so hard. Even watching the original Japanese cut, it's just such a slog to get through. The suit and design for Varan are impressive and I feel like you could still do some fun stuff with is kaiju, but nothing is being utilized well in this movie and the resolution feels so uninspired. This feels like it has all of the problems that Rodan has, but even more so, and with much less charm.

That's all for now, next is Mothra, which I remember quite fondly from my last couple of watch-throughs. And then the next non-Godzilla one after that would be Atragon which I haven't seen yet. Thanks for reading, I'll keep y'all updated.

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The Space Station from Battle in Outer Space (1959) shows up again in Atragon (1963), both Toho production, both with Shigeru Komatsuzaki serving as an uncredited designer (he also wrote of one of the stories Atragon was loosely based on)

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Atragon, prepping for launch

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There’s a man for everything.

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Fashion

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This is about the avatar sequels

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Today’s sorta rewatch

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Behold, the power of my subwoofer.