YMMV / Invasion of Astro-Monster

• Awesome Music: Though it was used before in other films such as the original Godzilla film and Battle in Outer Space, Ifukube perfected the Great Monster War March, a staple track in the whole Godzilla series. It’s as triumphant as it is epic.
• Badass Decay:
  • Design wise, compare the fierce Rodan design in the original film to the goofier one here.
  • Ghidorah went from an unstoppable planet killer that took three monsters to stop to being Demoted to Dragon in this film, starting an unfortunate trend for the rest of his appearances in the Showa continuity.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Xiliens, so much so that they’ve been used in other Toho and Godzilla material outside the movies as the main alien menace against the Earth. Being brought back and revamped in Final Wars helps.
  • Miss Namikawa is one of the most iconic non kaiju characters in the franchise. Being a member of the already popular Xiliens who pulls a Heel–Face Turn, as well as her proactive personality and tragic romance makes her extremely memorable.
• Even Better Sequel: To Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Ghidorah was already one of the better-regarded films of the Shōwa period, since it featured the series' first Kaiju team-up, it was the first entry to incorporate elements of Space Opera into its story, and it introduced the Breakout Villain King Ghidorah. This film takes all the things that fans loved about Ghidorah and polishes them to a fine sheen: Godzilla and Rodan's fight choreography is smoother, the Space Opera elements are bigger and more ambitious, Ghidorah's puppetry effects are more refined, and the action unfolds on a truly epic interplanetary scale.
• Narm: From the American dub, three words: "A happy moment". Doesn't help that The Xilien leader was commenting on Godzilla's infamous dance.
• Narm Charm:
  • Glen's cry of 'you stinking rats what did you do to her!?' should be really ineffective and narmy but Nick's acting makes it work.
  • Godzilla dancing on Planet X to memetic levels.
  • The spaceship effects and the Planet X set are both far from realistic, but they're so damn cool to look at—and so unabashedly escapist—that you can easily forgive it.
• Older Than They Think: Godzilla's infamous dance was a Shout-Out to the Iyami's pose from Osomatsu-kun, Prior to 2015 however, that series was really obscure in the West so when most Westerners saw that dance they thought it was a Godzilla reference.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Once again, the great Eiji Tsuburaya outdoes himself with the effects work on King Ghidorah, pulling off the flying scenes and the puppetry on three independently-moving heads so awesomely that you can easily forget that it's a guy in a rubber suit. It helps too that, unlike previous films, Tsuburaya had a bigger budget to work with thanks to US producer Henry G. Saperstein.
• Villain Decay: While King Ghidorah is still seen as a huge threat, this movie started the trend of him being the puppet of an alien force, rather than an independent destructive being. A trend that would continue for most of the films afterwards.

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