Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I wanted to but couldn't!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Awesome Movie

I genuinely enjoyed this film. It's great to see the Godzilla Universe is expanding with this movie. What's interesting is that it starts off by showing this giant insect that's terrorizing everyone. Um, that's not Rodan. We do finally get to Rodan and it turns out there's actually two of them! Come to think of it, the 2014 Godzilla movie did sort of the same thing. I think the special effects aren't bad at all. It's especially nice to see the cities being destroyed and everything. Okay, it's not as good as the original Godzilla movie, but in terms of the first movie to introduce a giant monster to us, it's quite good.We get some good focus on the human characters as well. Alright, I still can't remember any of their names but at least they were somewhat interesting. I just appreciate the first installment in a series. Well, there weren't many stand alone Rodan movies, but it's great to see the introduction of a popular Godzilla character. I guess it is kind of sad to see them die at the end. Those two Rodans really did care about each other. So is the one that appears in Godzilla movies is another one of its species like the original Godzilla? ***

Japanese miners are killed by giant prehistoric insects awakened by nuclear testing. After dealing with the bugs, the military discovers an even bigger threat has been awakened by the tests. Yup, it's Rodan, a pterodactyl-like monster that flies at super-sonic speeds. Soon another Rodan shows up and the two wreak havoc. What in the world will Japan do?Great Japanese giant monster movie with anti-nuke message; a classic of its type. Not on the level of the original Godzilla (or Gojira, if you insist) but better than many of the cheesy sequels that came out later. It's cool that it was filmed in color. The special effects and action scenes are lots of fun. Love the music. It's a good way to pass the time.

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.

After the success of Godzilla's first film and the mediocre box office performance of its sequel, Toho had no idea they had a monster movie giant on their hands. Thus, they decided to keep pumping out new monsters. Rodan was the first one of these, a monster that would also go on to gross more money in America than the original Godzilla film. That fact is probably as much a surprise to you as it was to me when I found that out. Rodan's success propelled the Rodan monster to become one of the best known monsters at Toho.As a very brief summary, a huge insect attack a mining village. Upon trying to dispose of the insect, one of the miners becomes trapped and discovers that there are numerous insects in a secret cave like area. More importantly, there's a giant egg that hatches. Naturally, the Rodan infant is born, feeding off of the Meganulon insects. Not long thereafter, reports of a UFO in Japan and other countries emerges, so frequently that it is believed that there is more than one UFO. It turns out to be not one but two grown Rodans. Eventually one of the Rodans become trapped in a volcano. The other Rodan refuses to live without the other and thrusts itself into the lava with its mate, a most touching scene.Rodan is a very serious monster movie. The bloodied pilot's helmet, the young couple eaten by Rodan, the memorable death of the monsters, it all makes the movie emotional and extremely entertaining. I will say this, however. The character aspect of the plot is not very good. For a Toho monster movie, it's perfectly acceptable, but you won't walk away talking about the characters at all. This isn't to say that it takes away from the film; it just doesn't add to it. The special effects are good, and Rodan looks good. The Meganulon look pretty good, although their movements aren't natural. The miniatures look convincing, especially for that era.Rodan is a classic and fairly unique. For the rest of the Showa era, Rodan's appearances would be distinctly campy, funny as how his own movie is anything but campy. That's actually too bad, because they did such a fine job with this film. One question I left this movie with is where the second Rodan came from. The movie never touches on that subject. Overall, I rate this movie a 7/10, maybe even a 7.5/10.