Rodan

Rating:
Summary: roDAN!
Review: I bought this DVD at WAL MART for five bucks. I can safely say that it was probably worth half of that. I think that I seem to be missing all of this mystery that everyone else speaks of when they describe roDAN! I know that special effects were not in their prime back in roDAN!'s days, but seeing the same tank roll by in a scene three times isn't doing it for me. Also, the exact same jet airplane was destroyed at least four times. I don't know much about Japanese cinema, but their dialogue proves to be uninteresting and ponderous. The only thing that kept myself and my friends going during the movie was shouting roDAN! The monsters were overly plastic and the model towns were obvious. If we are going to be that fake, I would at least want a little camp. In mechagodzilla it was funny to see this beast fly by essentially standing horizontally and moving across the screen. Here roDAN! is taken too seriously. I say we need less boring dialogue that doesn't contribute to the plot and more action for roDAN!

Rating:
Summary: It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Rodan!
Review: I love Japanese monster movies, and I've always been quite fond of Rodan, but this film actually leaves me rather nonplussed. Naturally, it's the testing of atomic weapons that is to blame for the unleashing of Rodan upon Southeast Asia. Whereas radiation basically helped create Godzilla, in the case of Rodan it merely creates the circumstances wherein large prehistoric eggs deep underground are given the right environment in which to hatch. All of this happens deep in a coal mine, where several men are mysteriously mauled by giant insects. When both Rodans hatch (yes, there are actually two Rodans, apparently mates), they do the humans a big favor by eating the killer insects, yet the humans still seem determined to kill them. Here's my real problem with this movie: the Rodans don't really do much of anything. Sure, they destroy a few cities here and there, but their heart really doesn't seem to be in the job. Rodan's one and only weapon is his set of wings, which are capable of generating hurricane force winds. It's fun to watch buses and houses blown across the landscape, but one soon yearns for a good fight, the type of fight the army is incapable of giving the giant flying reptiles. The special effects are fairly good overall, but on a few occasions (such as the shots of jets unleashing their missiles) they are clearly seen to feature models of a somewhat unimpressive variety. The ending is actually rather boring in a way, as the fighting is essentially of an indirect variety. At just 72 minutes long, Rodan just doesn't offer the types of thrills that most Godzilla movies present, and its only remarkable element in my mind is the poignant and downright sad meditations offered on the heels of the final conflict.

Rating:
Summary: Sora no daikaijû Radon
Review: I originally saw this movie at an all night Japanese monster movie feast at a local drive-in. Ecology at it's finest. Rodan has a pterodactyl feel. You can not worm your way out of this one. I do not like to compare this to movies like "Mothra (1962) ASIN: 6303257720," however the formula is similar. Unlike the USA 'bug" movies, you can feel sorry for the creature. Sense Tokyo is already destroyed, how about making it a game preserve?

Rating:
Summary: Subtitles? Original Japanese language track? Didn't think so
Review: I've always been a big fan of all the Toho monster movies and had been awaiting this DVD release with baited breath. Would this be the one to finally feature an option to watch the movie in Japanese with English subtitles? Evidently not. I'm tired of these great movies being reduced to cheap B flicks by virtue of awful dubbing, re-editing and the deletion of music cues. It's time they were seen as originally intended. I've been lucky enough to see subtitled copies of many of the Godzilla movies... all of them brilliant.
But these tacky dubbed versions drain all the soul out of them... and are an insult to the great filmmaker's who put them together in the first place. I'm tempted to learn Japanese and buy the official Toho releases.

Rating:
Summary: Rodan as Ancient "Fast and Furious" movie!
Review: In the age of "blame it on Atomic bombs" just post World War 2, an ancient "Chevrosaurus" cranks up the Octane to take on Japanese Sabre Jets in a type of airborne "Too Fast Too Furious" farce. Miners unleash this dynotopic double trouble that produce their own "divine wind" leaving several towns with serious insurance issues. As usual, the military is ineffective despite 200,000 rounds of ammo and Rodan quickly becomes Japan's greatest air ace as he knocks down one plane after another in games of "Chicken" in the air. Hilarious in some respects and representative of movies that kept Japan going along with Baseball after the war. Shows what happens when you "Dig up the Dirt" on the past! Why are all those big monsters drawn to Japan? VACATION!

Rating:
Summary: Its a sort of good movie.
Review: It dosn't really have a story

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie, Terrible DVD
Review: Just as a warning, I am a pretty big G-fan...
This Rodan DVD seems to be the norm for the majority of kaiju DVDs released here in the States; the movie is good, classic kaiju eiga, but this DVD is barebones, and rather lacking in quality.

Movie

Rodan is a classic Japanese monster film released shortly after Gojira 1954, and the first of the Toho films to be released in colour. Basically two giant flying monsters wreck havoc on Sasebo and other parts of Japan. SFX are kinda cheesy in some scenes, and the scene where a jet is destroyed midair is repeated way too many times, but other than that the Rodans look pretty good flying around and causing havoc. Wires are occasionally visible, something I've never really noticed when I saw this on TV. There are a few times where the SFX were so cheesy I laughed out loud, like when the bug lunges 100ft at a policeman and kills him. Hehe... Pretty consistent with Toho's efforts. Akira Ifukube is responsible for the music, and Ishiro Honda returns as director. I doubt this is the uncut version...
4/5

Video

The picture is average at best; of course, some of this is due to the film's age (1956), but the transfer really isn't that great, and there are scratches and print damage all over the place. Given the awesome treatment Toho has given for many of their Region-2 releases of older kaiju films, there really isn't much of an excuse for such shoddiness on the part of Classic Media/Sony. Rodan, like Gojira 1954, was filmed in Full Screen, so a lack of widescreen here isn't a concern.
2/5

Audio

Sadly this DVD only offers English Dubbing; the original Japanese track is nowhere to be found. The dubbing is adequate for the most part, although there are some awkward moments, and appears to the be same dubbing in the version frequently on TV. The 5.1 track is absolutely terrible, echoing like no other, and is quite a pain to listen to. Stick with the 2.0 Stereo here, which is adequate.
2/5

Extras

Other than an awful preview for the Godzilla game for Gamecube, there isn't anything else.
0/5

Overall

The quality is low enough where you should only pick this up if you find it for $5 or less in some bargain bin somewhere; the $10 they ask for here on Amazon may be too much.
1.5/5

Rating:
Summary: Darker, more Menacing Toho Classic
Review: More so than later Toho offerings, Rodan is darker, creepier and takes itself more seriously. This is also the only one of their pantheon that gave me bad dreams as a kid after watching. The claustrophobic terror in the partially flooded deep mine 8 is menacing. The death of the miners at the hands of the caterpillars was then and now equally disturbing, mixing the chatter of the creatures and the cries of pain and terror. Twin Rodans are discovered once the final underground barrier is broken through, they dine on the caterpillars and soon begin hunting for human flesh. Another dark moment occurs when the two school age lovers are swept up and killed [eaten?]. Despite the wires I always enjoyed when Rodan lands on the building in slow mo during the city destruction scene, seems nicely choreographed. I do find the explosion scene a bit too long in the end, needs some editing down before the volcano kicks in. In all though, a great, nostalgic look back when Toho was still trying to push the morality button about what kind of backlash is unleashed by man's tinkering w/ nature. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Classic Kaiju
Review: Now, This flm, Rodan was the first movie to consist of the famous Rodan monster. and was also the first Toho Kaiju (Giant Monster) film to feature Color Video.

Rodan all begins when several miners are found dead, and then suddenly GIANT FREAKY monsters appear in the town, this all leads up to the hatching of Rodan, the giant prehistoric flying dinosaur, that is so big, when it flaps its wings it is propeled forward so fast it creates a sonic boom.

The film itself features a lot of human dialog, and there are not many Monster VS Monster battles, but we do get to see some interesting destruction scenes.

Without spoling anyone I would say that the ending was sort of cheap.

Overall would I sugguest Rodan to people? Yes, but not as much casual fans as fans deeper into the Giant Monster stuff. But if you like classics, and think you would like like a Giant Prehistoric bird flying around killing planes and sonic booming cities, then you probably will like this film

Rating:
Summary: GREAT!
Review: O.K this is a realy cool movie, as in that NO Godzilla collection is complet without the mighty RODAN! This monster film ranks up with all those cool monster movies like Gojira; Detsroy All Monsters; Mothra; Gamera Gardiean Of The Univers. what ever you do, try to track down a copy of RODAN don't mind any price, in other words if you see this film for sale ANYWHERE grab it, you won't be disaponted!