#invasion of the astro monster

[vermilllionsands]

Invasion of the Astro-Monster (1965)

[luffysfakebeard]

the UFO’s in this movie were too cute 😭😭😭

[fabiansociety]

invasion of the astro monster (1965)

my favorite kaiju movies are the ones that are horror movies and that's such a tiny percentage of kaiju movies

this astro-monster movie looks like a million bucks and the monsters ARE monstering, so that's all fine, but it's a sci fi action(ish? war?) movie, not a horror movie. things get bad, but there's never that sense of dreadful wonder that you get with horror. there's an entire alien civilization on a newly discovered planet/moon in this movie, and it doesn't present anywhere the same level of existential expansion that the mere existence of godzilla did in the first movie

some of that's just the problem with any long-running series with any kind of continuity; once you've adjusted your worldview to include godzilla, he stops being an unsettling presence, the same way that people got tired of superhero origin stories, the same way that you can't keep telling stories about falling in love with the exact same couple. but without yoking your story to time — letting your characters age and die and change — you just drift into a kind of eternal summer that loses the uncertainty that makes stories really hit

at ten movies or however many in, obviously giant monsters are a known quantity, both to us as an audience and diagetically to the characters in-universe, but i do miss the discomfort of the early movies. kaiju lose a big part of their grandeur when they're as normalized as an earthquake, when life just goes on in their shadow much as before.

the current rankings:

the actually good:

godzilla

mothra

gamera

the perfectly fine:

4. ghidorah the three-headed monster 5. mothra vs godzilla 6. dogora 7. invasion of astro-monster

the bad:

8. godzilla raids again 9. rodan 10. varan the unbelievable (more like varan the unbelievably boring amirite)

[cinemajunkie70]

Happy Godzilla Day!!! On this day on November 3rd, 1954, Gojira aka Godzilla was released in Japan. And the rest as they say is history!

[moviecinepelis]

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Godzilla in Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) // Emi in Ultraman: Rising (2024)

[mudwerks]

(via The Grim Gallery: Exhibit 4852)

Invasion of the Astro-Monster (1965) art by Yuji Kaida

[chernobog13]

The "Old Man" hanging out with Ghidorah between takes.

[gurumog]

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) 怪獣大戦争 Toho Co., Ltd Dir. Ishirō Honda

Shoichi Hirose as King Ghidorah

[kaijugifs]

[biorante]

invasion of astro-monster (1965)

[vermilllionsands]

Invasion of the Astro-Monster (1965)

[gojira-ekkusu]

[praiseslaanesh]

[cinemajunkie70]

A very happy birthday to Kumi Mizumo! Thank you Jay E Fife for the reminder!

[randomdeinonychus]

There's no real logical reason for this, but I have once again decided to try and figure out my top ten Godzilla designs. I can usually figure out my top 4 or top 5 without any challenge, but past that it becomes trickier so I decided to challenge myself to actually do a full top ten.

This may very well change in a day or two, but for today my top ten:

1. Godzilla 1964 (Mothra vs. Godzilla)

2. Godzilla 1965-66 (Invasion of Astro-Monster; Ebirah, Horror of The Deep)

3. Godzilla 2002-03 (Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla; Godzilla: Tokyo SOS)

4. Godzilla 1989 (Godzilla vs. Biollante, though you could also include Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah for the parts that use basically the same suit)

5. Godzilla 1962 (King Kong vs. Godzilla)

6. Godzilla 1984 (The Return of Godzilla)

7. Godzilla 2000 (Godzilla 2000; Godzilla vs. Megaguirus)

8. Godzilla Ultima (Godzilla Singular Point)

9. Godzilla 1955 (Godzilla Raids Again)

10. Godzilla 2014 (All the Monsterverse Godzilla designs in general kind of lump together as the same design in my brain, despite their notable differences, but 2014 is my favorite overall)

Like I said before, there are definitely some that might switch around in my brain depending on my mood, but this definitely feels closest to my heart.

There are some Godzilla designs I would also have considered, but that I do not feel "count" as Godzilla because they are different stages of his life cycle. Godzilla Terrestris or the Odo Island form of Godzilla Minus One are both designs I adore, but they are not "true" Godzillas, rather like Minilla and Godzilla Junior.