Julian R. White This film tends to be exceedingly rare on DVD and VHS, and I really wish it wasn't that way. This film was made more or less to prove a point, that pollution was beginning to become a major problem for much of Japan. With unique music and scenes, and a monster who obviously doesn't fit in with Godzilla's other enemies, it's a one of a kind film. It's a pretty awesome one, I've seen it again and again. It has a few scenes that seem a bit unnecessary though, groovy hippy like music and scenes of flashing colors don't really bring a lot to the plot or feel of the film. The monster though, is totally massive, nearly twice Godzilla's size when it's full grown. It's one of the best in my opinion, I really like it. I would say this is one of the must sees of the Godzilla franchise.

Goldn Guy Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, or Godzilla vs. Hedorah, is a psychedelic acid trip that remains one of the strangest entries in the franchise. Much like 1977's House, the film has strange editing and camera-work, all backed up by a very un-Godzillaesque soundtrack by Richiro Manabe (Godzilla's leitmotif in this movie, for example, always makes it sound like he's about to sneeze). Occasionally, the cinematography can be surprisingly effective, seen in the shot before the final battle with Hedorah emerging from the darkness with his ominous, pseudo-baby mobile leitmotif accompanying him; but other times the cinematography can be… strange? There are a couple instances where a wide-angle lens is used and I'm not sure what Yoshimitsu Banno was going for other than making the film even weirder. There's a less-than-subtle environmental message present throughout the entire film too, but it's all drowned out by the film's strange, occasionally dark tone. It's honestly kinda hard to talk about this movie in a basic "this is positive, this is negative" template because the film is all over the place in terms of quality; but I can still safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Even after all these years of regularly viewing it, I still find the film completely baffling, and that combined with the always-entertaining monster battles make this film a blast from start to finish. Six "things you don't see every day" out of ten.

Eric Stevenson This was the attempt of the Godzilla franchise to do a movie with an environmentally friendly message. For the most part, these messages don't go over too well as many people find them too sappy and clichéd. This movie itself is okay, mostly because it has a lot of strengths and weaknesses. For example, I actually did kind of get the feel of the original 1954 film when it talked about all the dead people. This film was apparently rated G. Wow, cities being destroyed in a G-rated film. Nowadays, given the exact same content, this would undoubtedly be rated PG-13. Anyway, the effects are pretty good.The main weakness of the film comes in the final battle. Godzilla actually uses his radioactive breath to float. They would later reuse this sort of thing in "Godzilla Vs. Megalon", a far sillier film with a far sillier way of doing it. The humans build a machine to weaken Hedorah and while I do like the idea of them helping to defeat the monster, it does seem off place. I think it's at this point we can safely say that Godzilla became a good guy. It was first really established in "Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster". **1/2

Michael_Elliott Godzilla vs. Hedora (1971) ** (out of 4)Better known as GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER, this entry in the Japanese series is considered by many to be one of the worst. I personally wouldn't call it the worst and I say this because the movie is so bad I couldn't help but laugh at it and have a good time. The people of Japan are polluting their land and soon all of this leads to the oozy Hedora showing up and spreading more pollution everywhere. Thankfully Godzilla isn't doing anything and shows up to help them destroy the creature. There's no denying that this is a very poorly made film and an embarrassing one because of its message that it keeps trying to pass off. As laughable as the screenplay is you can't help but some of this had to have been on purpose and this starts with the music score, which just doesn't fit the film at all. Another hilarious sequence deals with Hedora's ability to throw polluted mud pies at people and one of the funniest bits is when one hits Godzilla upside the head. Godzilla's reaction is priceless and had me laughing so hard tears were about to come out of the eyes. Even wilder scenes include strange animated sequences, wannabe hip Bond-like sequences and another strange sequence where Hedora flies over some people turning all of them into skeletons. The wildness doesn't stop there as there's constant puss flowing from the mean guy. The fight sequences with Godzilla aren't anything special but they did contain a fair amount of charm.