#16- "Godzilla vs Gigan" (1972)

Godzilla vs Gigan slots in at a deserving 16th place in the countdown, and it is your classic tag team monster battle of the 70's. With strong hippy themes, not much stands out in this movie other than the introduction of a new adversary for Godzilla, the green skinned, razor bladed, bird like Gigan, who would make another appearance in the following year's film Godzilla vs Megalon. The movie starts with a cartoonist searching for a job, which leads him to World Children's Land, a themepark in the making featuring a massive life size model of Godzilla himself. However, WCL isn't all it's cracked up to be, as the main character and cartoonist Gendo and his group of investigators discover the owners of WCL are actually alien cockroaches from a far away dying planet, cleverly named Space Hunter Nebula-M. The aliens plan to colonize Earth and summon forth Gigan and King Ghidorah, who land nearby WCL. Godzilla and Anguirus arrive and the two duos do battle. However, the Godzilla tower turns the tide of battle with its special weapon, a ray beam that resembles Godzilla's. Godzilla gets beat up pretty bad in this one. Gigan draws blood multiple times using his stomach buzz blade to cut Godzilla's shoulder, and in another scene Gigan punches Godzilla between the eyes enough to bloody his face. It almost appears as though Godzilla will lose until Gendo and his group destroy the Godzilla tower, allowing Godzilla to recover and form a plan of attack with Anguirus that quickly dispatches Gigan and King Ghidorah, who flee back into space once again. This movie is entertaining through and through, and doesn't disappoint by any means, but it would've been nice to see Anguirus and King Ghidorah do more on the battle field; they basically just watch Gigan and Godzilla fight. Gendo's idea to destroy the Godzilla tower is way too over the top, in that he quickly draws up a massive sketch of himself and the group holding guns and tapes it up over some TNT, so that when the aliens open a door they are startled and shoot the fake people, exploding their own base. Gendo's investigator assistant eats corn on the cob in one scene and bananas in another, passing them out like candy. Another scene worth mentioning and one that is quite interesting is in the English dubbed VHS, there are three scenes where Godzilla and Anguirus actually talk with words to each other. Once on Monster Island where Godzilla tells Anguirus to go investigate the WCL, again as they swim towards Japan, and a third time during battle. It sounds like scratchy reverse played tape recording noises mixed with rough sounding English voices. This is the only time Godzilla actually talks in any movie. With a memorable final battle, Godzilla vs Gigan does just enough to satisfy any Godzilla fan, in special effects, characters, and story.

Gigan beats down Godzilla with his large talons.

Corn on the Cob was popular on the go back in the day apparently.