Godzilla vs. Hedorah / YMMV

Awesome Music: "Taiyou Kaese"/"Save The Earth", a piece very reflective of late 60s, early 70s music.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- The random cartoon moments and the fish heads in the club come out of nowhere and do nothing for the plot.
- During the pollution protest party on Mount Fuji, the film suddenly cuts to a group of creepy-looking old men watching the teens from the bushes. No explanation is given for their appearance.
- Godzilla flying. The DVD chapter is even titled "Something You Don't See Every Day."
Contested Sequel: Being one of the just plain weirdest Godzilla films out there, it's also one of the most divisive titles. To some fans, its darkness hearkens back to the original, and its bizarre, dreamlike storytelling presents one of the most unique and creatively enjoyable experiments in the franchise. To others, it's a barely-coherent mess with lackluster presentation and wasted potential, emblematic of a very unfocused and tired point of the Showa series. One aspect almost everyone can agree on is that Hedorah is an awesome monster, and represents some of the most impressive special effects in the series thus far.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Hedorah was created to push an environmentalist message, insinuating that human pollution will result in a monstrosity such as himself. However, given that he's Creepy Awesome and ridiculously overpowered, wouldn't people want to bring him to life?
Ensemble Dark Horse: Hedorah himself has become a very popular kaiju among the fanbase, thanks to his unusual origin, extreme strength and the fact that he's one of Godzilla's strongest opponents in the entire franchise, having nearly killed the King of the Monsters several times during this film.
Fridge Brilliance: Throughout most of the film's fights, Godzilla doesn’t seem to be intentionally attacking Hedorah at first, with him "dancing around" as some put it. Only during the final fight does he truly go at it with Hedorah. This was also true of Mothra in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster when she tried to get Godzilla and Rodan to stop fighting with one another. Godzilla isn’t trying to fight Hedorah, but instead convince him that he doesn’t have to be destructive with his powers the same way Mothra did to him before. It’s only after their second fight that Godzilla realizes he can’t get through to Hedorah and must fight him directly.
Hilarious in Hindsight: With the vertical eyes and tentacles, Hedorah looks weirdly like an Ood.
Narm: Godzilla flying backwards with his atomic breath.
- During their first encounter, Godzilla and Hedorah spend some time staring each other down and growling at one another. As Godzilla is taller than him at this point, and Hedorah is crawling on his hands, it looks like a man telling off his dog.
- Godzilla's theme. It's meant to make him sound grand and triumphant, but the use of blaring horns makes it sound less like Akira Ifukube's traditionally intense leitmotif and more like Godzilla is a drunk fat guy who just stumbled out of a laidback circus.
Narm Charm: Typical with a Godzilla film but a special case is the Japanese 'Save the Earth' theme. The chorus of 'save the Earth' is weak during the movie's opening but by the end has grown in a strong and passionate chorus.
Nausea Fuel: The sludge in the bay, which was mostly real.
Once Original, Now Common: Many modern critics dismiss this movie as silly and cliche with its overwrought Green Aesop. What they forget is that films like this movie, along with Tokusatsu shows such as Spectreman and Return of Ultraman brought the environmental movement to the thoughts of a rapidly-growing young audience in Japan. In 1970s Japan, pollution levels were far worse than in the United States due to rapid post-war industrialization with little to no governmental checks. Despite its silliness, this movie was as relevant to the concerns of the Japanese public in The '70s as the original was to the fear of nuclear warfare Japan felt during The '50s and The '60s. Along with countless other factors, the Green Aesop of these films and shows can be seen as a cog in the machine which eventually led to Japan becoming one of the cleanest countries in the world, an impact most people aren't aware of in an age where Green Aesops are a dime a dozen.
Signature Scene: Anyone who knows anything about this movie knows about Godzilla's flight sequence.
- The hallucination scene with the fish masks on the partygoers and the singer, it's one of the many reasons why this film is deemed the trippiest of the Showa era films.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While fan opinions are still split on its overall quality, one thing that is agreed on is that it’s leaps and bounds much better than All Monsters Attack.
This Is Your Premise on Drugs: The Big Lipped Alligator Moments, Godzilla FLYING, and the general hippiness are what happens when you give weed and LSD to Godzilla.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
- Hedorah, particularly in his final form. He looks vaguely humanoid, has creepy movements and can produce an impressive high-pitched Evil Laugh, all of which are way too human-like for comfort. And, his eyes are positioned vertically in all forms, which also gives it an inherent wrongness.
- The infamous hallucination scene with the fish-head masked people. The masks have eerily dead looking wide eyes while distorted to look unnatural.
Uncertain Audience: The film's really inconsistent tone is a large part of what made the final product so controversial among audiences. Produced during the period when Godzilla as a whole was skewing towards child audiences, it puts great attention on its human youngsters as the protagonists, the pointed, but greatly simplified Green Aesop narrative, and occasional outright wackiness, especially regarding the representation of Godzilla himself. Despite this, it can get really dark, featuring plenty of gruesome and disturbing imagery when it isn't just being psychedelic and strange, which isn't exactly expected from a Godzilla film either.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Hedorah is arguably one of the better-portrayed monsters of the Showa series, with the movements of the monster himself eerily alien-looking. The ample amounts of set-trashing sequences that follow him around aren't bad either, especially since it seems particular attention to detail was given to Hedorah's semi-fluid, amorphous physiology and abilities.

YMMV / Godzilla vs. Hedorah

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