Amazon.com reviews for
Mekagojira no gyakushu (1975) More at IMDbPro »

Terror of Mechagodzilla (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: In 1974, Inoshiro Honda, the original and best Godzilla director, returned after a five-year absence to direct this 20th-anniversary commemoration to Gojira (the original Japanese name for Godzilla, before the West Anglicized it). This is the fifteenth film in the Godzilla series, and the eleventh by director Honda. Yet again the aliens (from the third planet of the black hole, whatever that means; they don't really provide directions) stage a takeover of Earth, this time with the aid of Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus (they're just what they sound like). They owe the mad scientist Mafuni for the use of Titanosaurus, who in turn owes the aliens for resurrecting his daughter, Katsura, badly hurt in an accident, albeit now as a cyborg with the ability to control their two mecha-monsters. It shapes up as the fight of the century when Godzilla is pressed into service for our side. The battling behemoths afford the most dramatic and vivid fight scenes in all of Godzilladom in this one. Let's hope the aliens don't win; they're so smug. The DVD gives you no choice but cropped-frame (eschewing the more proper Tohoscope), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or Stereo, and some more extras. It is also available in a boxed set with four of the other best Godzilla flicks by director Inoshiro Honda. --Jim Gay

Terror of Mechagodzilla (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: The final Godzilla feature of the first series (his 15th feature in just over 20 years) picks up in the direct aftermath of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. The ape-men from outer space are back, cheesy makeup and all, and this time they've enlisted a bitter scientist to help them rebuild Mechagodzilla and bring another monster into the fray, the gargantuan sea serpent Titanosaurus, which the scientist has brought under control. This film reunited the Big G with veteran director Ishirô Honda and original composer Akira Ifukube (who revives his brooding score) in an attempt to steer the series from its juvenile course back to a more adult track. The result is an energetic, loopily engaging sci-fi fantasy, with the Godzilla back at his old Tokyo stomping grounds--only this time he's protecting the city. It's a giant monster turf war with plenty of destruction and a terrific battle to the finish with the mechanized menace, but when Godzilla wanders back into the ocean he has entered a 10-year hibernation, returning in time for his 30th anniversary in Godzilla 1985. --Sean Axmaker