I thought the dinosaur suits were excellent, with some of the dinosaur effects being effective with close-ups of victims being attacked and chewed on by the Plesiosaur. The special effects are no better or worse than any other Kaiju film from the seventies. The opening music started out creepy but then went into icky disco music. The music by Masao Yagi is a seventies disco theme which to me was inappropriate for a science fiction horror movie. The acting is decent enough, but the characters are not all that engaging, as the dinosaurs are the real stars, which is why we watch monster movies. The dinosaur fight is as amusing as it is awkward and poorly staged as neither creature has arms, so they attack with their heads and tails and is unconvincing. Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds for me is a guilty pleasure as I know it’s far from a classic, but I love it anyway. The climax has both dinosaurs battling each other during a volcanic eruption in Mount Fuji with Takashi and his partner Akiko Osano (Nobiko Sawa), a swimmer and former lover, smack in the middle of it. Later, a Rhamphorhynchus egg hatches and the beast flies around attacking the community. While the search is on for the eggs, a Plesiosaur starts to attack, eating people and animals.
A geologist, Takashi Ashizawa (screen legend Tsunehiko Watase, Battles Without Honor and Humanity, The Incident, Virus) hears about the fossilized egg and goes Mount Fuji to find it. A young girl who was wondering around the area and fell into the cave was a witness to one of the eggs hatching and talks about it on television.
The film basically is about two prehistoric dinosaurs that hatch from giant eggs that were buried in the caverns in Mount Fuji. The Toei Company had also produced House of Terrors, Yongary, Monster from the Deep, and The Green Slime on their resumeprior to Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds so you know what to expect! In 1977, Toei distributed Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds, known as North America as The Legend of Dinosaurs, which falls somewhere between decent and cheesy. During the 1970’s budgets for Kaiju films had plummeted to the point where the movies were made as cheaply as possible. I have always been a fan of giant monster movies, whether they are classics or cheesy, especially the ones made in Japan.
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