Let’s face it, Toho has made a lot of monster movies, and not all of them feature Godzilla, and indeed not all of them feature a monster one would consider "normal". Dogora is one such movie, something Toho made that is a monster movie, but features a monster that is a little less recognizable (in fact, it seems to change form from scene to scene). Still, the title suggests some kind of large monstrous thing from space that attacks cities, and that’s why there’s a review here.

There are basically two plots vying for attention here. One plot is about a bunch of international diamond thieves, the detective guy trying to get to the bottom of the thefts, and a particular fellow who’s true motives are always ambiguous. The other plot is about the mysterious space monster that has a habit of sucking up carbon material such as coal and, of course, diamonds. The two plots interconnect a lot and you have essentially two mysteries at once that need to be slowly resolved as the movie progresses. Along the way you get scenes of human-type action of gunfights and such, as well as monster action with the military shooting at giant space creatures coming down. The monster plot is of course resolved by finding the weakness in the creatures, and due to sheer contrivity, the plot with the diamond thieves is resolved indirectly because of it as well. Let’s just say it’s never a good idea to stand out in the open when the military is busy attacking monsters.

Overall the movie is more about the sub-plot then it is about the plot the title of the movie indicates. Not that it’s a bad thing, because the plot with the humans tends to be more entertaining then the plot with the monsters. In fact, this movie could have done away with those monsters entirely and you’d still have an entertaining movie. It moves about a good pace, has a lot of interesting twists and turns, has your requisite amount of action, and tends to throw in a lot of humor as well. The constant friendly rivalry between the detective guy and the "other guy" is the true highlight of the film, as they both constantly outsmart each other in creative ways. The plot with the mob-types is also pretty good, although you perhaps don’t have enough story behind them (then again, they’re diamond thieves, how complex do they need to be?). You also have your usual scientist types with their "know it all" attitude who are capable of solving just about anything due to a number of coincidences and leaps of logic (these monsters are from space because... well... where else could they be from?). There are perhaps a lot of overly-convenient happenings in this movie, but then again it allows for a lighter snack of entertainment value.

The monster itself, Dogora, which is named that because, well, they never said why, but the monster still pops up enough to have the movie named after it. Mostly it’s indirectly noted by watching coal flow upwards into the sky (no doubt accomplished by reversing the footage), and also by seeing a blue blob of sorts float across the screen and melt through a safe or something to get after diamonds. There is one very good scene with Dogora, as the huge (and I do mean huge) creature descends from the sky, gets shot at by anti-air artillery, destroys a bridge for no good reason, and then gets blown up. Of course that’s not the end of it, as now it undergoes mitosis and becomes thousands of little jellyfish-like thingies. The military eventually get the thing, of course, thanks to modern science and industrial might and all that good stuff, and that scene itself is also well-done. Good special effects as one would expect from Toho by now.

Overall, this is a good movie, even if you ignore the monster bits, but the monster bits are good to. Perhaps not enough monster for my tastes, but it’s still an entertaining movie. Not exactly on the "must have" list, but definitely something for Toho kaiju compleatists to go for, and not a bad purchase for casual fans of the genre either.

A thoroughly entertaining plot
Good special effects as always
Action, drama, comedy, everything you need
It may appear for only one scene, but the big Dogora was cool

You don’t see the monster much
The monster constantly and annoyingly change their physiology
Plot connections are sometimes rather contrived
Is it just me, or do these people never run out of bullets?

Credits