Time to take a trip into science fiction b-movie madness with yet another Ishiro Honda film. This one might be more along the lines of When Worlds Collide than anything else, but I still have to cover it here. They do manage to sneak in a hilarious arctic creature feature moment during the third act, because why wouldn't they, but this is more of an Earth versus outer space itself kind of story. A story in which they decide that to avoid a rogue planet destroying humankind they have to... move the Earth out of the way. But the tone isn't entirely ludicrous by any means and this is generally a sombre effort that is often concerned with collecting together scientific minds and making noble sacrifices for the good the world.
Nowhere else is this theme more apparent that in the opening space mission, which sees a team of astronauts diverted from their journey to Saturn when a strange object is observed. Despite it being several times smaller than the Earth the object is far greater in mass and is steadily growing as it travels across our solar system. As a result of this the gravity generated quickly pulls in the rocket ship and the team who have no choice but to record as much data as possible before the end. The model effects might be quaint and the giant orange ball of molten lava might look silly, but it's all treated with a seriousness that manages to make it all feel pretty earnest.
Make no mistake this is a very silly film in which space craft interiors resemble submarines and atomic power is talked about as some kind of miracle energy source that can be cleaned away effortlessly. But there's always a kind of charm to the proceedings as top scientists put their minds together during a UN committee and quickly settle their differences to find a solution to the dilemma. Some suspension of disbelief might be required. After a little deliberation they plan to build a gigantic nuclear engine that will be sunk into the Earth at the South Pole to increase the speed of the planet's orbit. What else? After all this is the far flung future of 1979 when anything is possible with the right amount of perseverance.
What follows is a series of montage sequences as the two year mega-thruster plan goes into action, which of course means plenty of classic miniatures depicting the construction. There are a variety of set backs during the effort including tunnels collapsing and a giant monster being thawed about by the heat from the engines, but everything is manageable with the power of cooperation. The mixture of dour doomsday scenario and upbeat attitude is what gives the story it's most likeable quality. Well beyond all the cataclysmic destruction spectacle that occurs when things really start to heat up in the finale. There are some really impressive moments as Gorath causes mayhem both to Earth and to Saturn as it travels along.
Less impressive is the writing which seems to casually explain away all of this, suggesting that putting the Earth back on course after Gorath passes is no big deal. It's all a bit too relaxed and off hand, despite some of the scientists wondering whether they're against impossible odds. They try and touch on other themes such as the young and old generations of thinkers seeing things differently, but it's never really a focal point. Nobody even mentions the kind of tidal problems that will remain after the Moon is destroyed, which is peculiar to say the least. But then this is another movie where people call planets or asteroids 'stars' for some reason. I guess it's a translation thing since it happens in the original Gamera series too.
The human element elsewhere is a mixed bag with some soap opera style dilemmas for space cadet Tatsuma (Akira Kubo) and Takiko (Kumi Mizuno) the girl he's constantly pestering. Her boyfriend was killed during the first rocket mission so it's pretty odd that Tatsuma is so mean about to her about the whole thing when she denies his advances. In one of more over done moments he comes down with amnesia while collecting data on Gorath, and I was hoping he would just die rather than, inevitably, becoming the new romantic lead. Meanwhile Dr. Tazawa (Ryo Ikebe) is the more stoic hero of the piece as he struggles to gain respect from senior physicist Dr. Kono (Ken Uehara) while rallying the support of the UN nations.
Overall it's an interesting if uneven sci-fi yarn, one that replaces the typical fear of the atom with a different brighter future kind of vibe. They never explain just exactly how six billion megatons of power will be cleaned up, it's just taken for granted that with enough positive thinking things will be okay in the end. Which is a considerable change of tone from something like The H-Man and so many monster movies. The general feeling of dread and suspense the story creates is perhaps reduced by this forward thinkinh global outlook, but sometimes a change of pace is just what is needed.
3/5
BONUS REVIEW
ATRAGON (1963)
Elsewhere there's a different clash of ideals as the long lost continent of Mu tries to take over the world, and it's up to Captain Jinguji (Jun Tazaki) and his state of the art flying battleship come laser drill to save the day. The only problem is that the good Captain is a Second World War veteran hiding out on a remote island away from the modern world, and he only believes in using the machine to restore the glory of Imperial Japan. It's a strange direction for such a colourful adventure story to take, but it's an odd sort of tale involving lost worlds, fashion photographers and kidnapped geologists.
This mixture does lean into some interesting ideas about Empire building, with Jinguji feeling like an opposite number to the Mu nation's leaders who also want to restore a world power with colonial goals. Both sides are arrogant and self destructive, but in the end the Captain comes around and sees things in a new light with help from his estranged daughter Makoto (Yoko Fujiyama). It's a fun mixture of corny ideas and more serious themes, with a few espionage and suspense moments thrown in for good measure. The likes of Amicus might have tried similar films but they were never as ambitious as this in thematic terms. There are some shaky inclusions, particularly during any kind of exposition (the Mu Empress sends a handy slide-show for everyone to catch up on past events) but generally it's watchable.
However this is also a lurid monster movie. It's never as outlandish as something like it's nearest counterpart Latitude Zero which had similar island nations and undersea battles, but this does still have that whole flying submarine thing going on. The order to fire the 'absolute zero cannon' is top level cheese. It's light on creature feature moments but undersea god Manda is pretty cool with the whole classic Eastern dragon design going on. Somewhere somebody liked it enough to include in two Godzilla movies. The only major flaw is probably the finale which sets up a global conflict with a few neat matte paintings, but the actual conclusion is somewhat anticlimactic. Still, there's plenty of light adventure thrills to be enjoyed.
3/5
