Recently, Shout Factory announced a new Tokusatsu Blu-ray Collection of films. I’ve heard the term tokusatsu, but didn’t quite know all of what it stood for. In simplest terms, it seems to be any live-action Japanese film, or television program that uses great use of special effects. I’m sure I’ve watched a fair number of films that fall under that umbrella term, but today I decided to seek one out that was specifically from this new collection. Invasion of Neptune Men has a short run-time of just 74 minutes, but somehow it manages to pack two movies in one. I’ll elaborate on that thought soon.

After watching the film, I went to Letterboxd to log my entry, and I was surprised, and disappointed to see so many 1-star ratings, all from people that watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) version. One person going as far as saying they can’t imagine watching the film without the MST3K commentary. None of these people have actually watched the film proper. The version of the film MST3K uses is not only poorly dubbed, and re-edited, but with the added jokes, and riffs, it ends up being very far removed from the original Japanese version. Now, that isn’t to say there isn’t anything to poke fun at, but on the whole, the movie deserves a better reputation than it currently has.

I would say there’s a a tale of two movies here. On one hand, you have a film where a bunch of meddling kids come upon a group of invading Neptunians, and suddenly a hero named “Iron Sharp”, which I swear they willed into existence, arrives to save the day. All of the parts with these kids, and Iron Sharp are more lighthearted, and even a bit silly.

And then on the other, you have a film that reacts to an attack in a fairly serious, and grounded manner. It even incorporates Cold War fears of the time with its initial suspicions of the Soviet Union being the culprit. After it becomes clear that the attacks were from outer space, the film focuses on scientific theories, and planning to thwart any future attacks. Everything here was done in a pretty methodical/bureaucratic fashion, even if the technology they discuss is purely fictional. I was actually reminded of the grounded approach that makes the original Gojira a cut above the rest. I can’t imagine what the MST3K people would be riffing about here.

So how do you meld a story with some kids, and their superhero that has a flying car, and a laser gun, with a story of a group of adults trying to save the world with a technology, and science? Not very well apparently. The two feel at odds with each other on multiple occasions. At times I wondered if this was originally a standard Sci-fi film, and they decided to add an extra sub-plot with the Iron Sharp superhero later on.

I knew Sonny Chiba starred in the film, but I was surprised to see just how young he was here. It’s one of his earliest film roles, with him being around 21 years old during its filming. Pretty impressive to see him handle roles like this so confidently at such a young age.

The special effects in this film were surprisingly good too. I was pretty impressed by how realistic the various demolished, and exploding sets looked. They even incorporated people into the shots of the buildings being destroyed. Combined with some nice editing, they did a nice job conveying the panic happening in the streets during the attacks.

Invasion of the Neptune Men is by no means a great movie. It has a jumbled mix of tones that hampers it somewhat. It’s at times fun, and entertaining, and other times intelligent, and sensible. Hopefully with Shout’s release of this original Japanese version, more people can appreciate the film in its originally intended presentation.