Rodan (1957)

One of my all time favorites.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Following atomic tests in the Pacific, mother Earth unleashes a devastating response. There is unease in the Japanese mining village of Kitamatsu. Something is haunting the dangerous shaft #8 which is going deeper than any other. Men are dying and some go missing. A bullet proof prehistoric insect attacks the village. The army is called in but it's engineer Shigeru Kawamura's bravery that buries the monster. He is haunted by a nightmare of swarms of insects and a giant egg. There is the supersonic flying Rodan, another prehistoric creature, that attacks the Pacific region.This is very much a 50's monster B-movie. The insect monsters are rudimentary but effectively campy and a little bit scary. Rodan is a passing shadow for the first half of the movie. The acting is stiff at times especially when the scientists talk. The last third has Rodans battling an army of miniatures while destroying a world of miniatures. This movie has some good camp value and campy destruction.

The R.O..D.A.N sequels all have Godzilla. They are all very good movies. This is the first R.O.D.A.N movie. It is the only R.O.D.A.N movie that does not have Godzilla. This is the best R.O.D.A.N movie of all. Mind you I can think Godzilla movies that did not have R.O.D.A.N that were better then this movie. The plot is that a nuclear bomb wakes up two ancient fire breathing dragons. They mean to destroy the world. This is a great movie see it. It is very scary. See it. See all the R.O.D.A.N movies. There are great movies Great movies Great movies. This is the beast one. See it. see it see it see it see it see it. Great movie great movie great movie. Old monster movies are so very very cool.

Rodan is one of the early successors to Godzilla... two years later actually. While it was nowhere as successful or as interesting, it still holds up on its own by having fairly good visuals and greater than bland main characters.Probably the best and worst thing about Rodan is that it is incredibly short. It has a running time of little over an hour; which means not much happens during the film. The premise is that Rodan is a giant flying reptile that was stuck in an underground chamber filled with prehistoric insects. The insects escape due to a mining incident and Rodan's wrath is sure to follow. Other than that, there isn't much to the movie. There are a couple nice military action sequences against Rodan and the building destruction is cool to watch. However, the movie doesn't have much to it. The characters aren't incredibly interesting and there isn't too much to talk about.Overall, it is good for people with shorter attention spans or people who don't want to invest much into an older monster classic.

A great monster movie, this time in color. A similar plot to Godzilla sees nuclear testing wake up an over sized Pteranodon. In a sleepy mining village a series of mysterious attacks lead to the discovery of giant killer caterpillar. Greater darkness soon arrives in the form of an extinct beast that can flip jeeps with the swoosh of its wings. The model work is once again astounding from Toho. Even in color this looks great. It mixes live action, puppets, models, for some truly exciting aerial combat. It has less human drama than the first 2 Godzilla movies, but there is still some from the wife of a man believed to be committing the initial attacks. Rodan is great in his swooping and screaming, and the aerial footage means we aren't just getting a repeat of his more famous cousin.