ATRAGON (1963)
Mu is a mythical lost continent whose origin is tied in with the fabled island of Atlantis. It's an interesting subject, and I'm sure that it could be the basis of a sparkling, imaginative fantasy film. Atragon is not that film. I'll level with you. I only showed interest in this Ishiro Honda machination because it capers underneath the "kaiju" umbrella. In truth, a disappointingly negligible percentage of the running time is devoted to creature carnage. Let's see, the plot. Tokyo is rendered immunocompromised by the startling discovery of the Mu kingdom, a subaqueous empire bent on global annihilation. Forced to retaliate, world leaders look to the aid of Captain Jinguji, a reclusive naval commander credited with the conception of an advanced submarine called Atragon.
The storyline is far more complicated than it needs to be, and I have taken the liberty of truncating the synopsis by approximately five hundred words in an effort to protect the integrity of this review. You're just going to have to trust me. Anyway, Jinguji is reticent to help, but his daughter convinces him that the Mu empress means business. Actually, this supposed "great race" is defeated rather easily. That might be the point, as the Mu dynasty is an allegory for Nazi Germany. Still, the climax could stand to gain from a lethal dose of conflict. At the very least, Manda should have wrapped itself around more miniature sets like a reptilian Tesla coil. Bet you weren't banking on a Tesla reference, were you? I slay me.
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