With Godzilla becoming a hero for children, Toei decided adults needed some giant monster entertainment. They crafted Kyôryuu: Kaichô no densetsu (Dinosaurs: Legend of the Strange Bird). They failed miserably, creating two dinosaurs so phony, so fake, that audiences back in the 1930s would have picked out the flaws. Not all the violence and gore in the world disguises that this is an awful, miserable attempt at a giant monster movie.
This is one of those real oddities dinosaur and monster fans have to deal with. It's not very well known, and there are multiple reasons for that. The movie is, most obviously, a dull rip-off of Jaws. The Plesiosaur is a stalking beast, emerging from the water whenever someone is dumb enough to come close enough. There's a plodding, lumbering pace at work, and that has nothing to do with the dinosaur's immobility.
The science is absolutely hilarious at times. There's a classic line as a scientist attempts to explain just how the dinosaur is still alive after years of hibernation:
"We know that dinosaurs can only be brought back to life with a level five earthquake."
That folks, is brilliant schlock. As if the movie doesn't seem to care what it does, there's some brief nudity, and an amazing amount of blood. The few deaths would be otherwise mundane if it wasn't for the gore. The way it's directed is so odd it's almost calming. As the Plesiosaur begins to rip a girls leg off, he drops her, only to stand there and watch her bleed to death in the water, spliced with slowly panning close-ups of the gaping maw.
That's how all the deaths are handled, with varying degrees of blood. It seems as if there are two dinosaur models at work here. One is full size, and used for graphic close-ups of bodies being carried off. The other is used for poorly done rear projection sequences and the film's heinous finale.
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