Rodan
Rodan
6.275%56%
Mining engineer Shigeru investigates the disappearance and death of his fellow coworkers when prehistoric nymphs are discovered emerging from the mines. After an attack on the local village, Shigeru heads deeper into the mines only to make a more horrifying discovery in the form a prehistoric flying creature. Soon a second monster appears as the two converge in Fukuoka.
Razorbitz reviewedFebruary 22, 2025
The debut film for the titular Rodan that told a stranger story than exected going in, easily standing above Godzilla's worst and falling solidly in the middle of the cinematic kaiju pantheon of movies. Despite the inherent ridiculousness of the plot, I found myself getting oddly emotional by the end and was glad to have watched Rodan, even if the pacing of the film suffers in the middle. Scenes from this one were ripped wholesale and put into later Godzilla films and it was fun to see their first appearances. Rodan's standalone is worth watching at least once for any fan of kaiju films, even if it doesn't make it into your regular circulation.
For those really deep into Kaiju media, it was also fun to see a lot of the actors who later went on to star in Ultra Q; a sort of twilight zone for giant rubber monsters that paved the way for Ultraman. A fun watch, and its not hard to see the similarities with Rodan and some of the episodes within Ultra Q--but unlike Ultra Q, brevity isn't really found here and that is to Rodan's detriment.