A direct sequel to 1993's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II", this film follows a number of the same characters as a space-born clone of Godzilla flies in to threaten Earth. There is a lot of talk and racing around on motorcycles before the action picks up, so if you are not engaged by the characters, the first half of the film is not that interesting. In keeping the 'multiple monsters' shtick, Godzilla and Space Godzilla are the targets of the U.N.G.C.C.'s latest unlikely looking flying tank, a vaguely penguinoid mecha called M.O.G.O.R.A. (no relation to the bird-like robot 'Moguera', in Toho's 1957 classic tokusatsu "The Mysterians"). Not surprisingly, cloyingly-cute 'Baby' has grown into an equally cloyingly-cute 'Little Godzilla. I can usually suspend my disbelief and accept the 'reality' of a suit-mation monster but "Little Godzilla' is just a guy in a lizard costume who looks more like a mascot for a candy company than a kaiju in the making. As for the adult monsters, I was not too impressed with the new Godzilla suit. The upper body and head were fine but the thighs were immense, making Godzilla look either morbidly obese or like he's suffering from elephantiasis. The design of Space Godzilla was interesting, the head and teeth were great but the massive shoulder 'crystals' didn't look very crystalline. The film's special effects were variable: the miniature cityscapes were quite good as were the pyrotechnics but the asteroids that M.O.G.O.R.A. passes through were completely unconvincing. Some of the matte shots were outstanding, seamlessly integrating the monster into the background of scenes with people or objects in the foreground (the reciprocal shots, in which the monster is in the foreground were generally less effective). The music was a bit of a let-down. Other than a few moments of Akira Ifukube's iconic Godzilla and Mothra themes, the score (by Takayuki Hattori) is not great, especially the chipper playground tune that accompanies Little Godzilla, the cheesely-heroic music that backdrops M.O.G.O.R.A., or the sentimental final coda Touchy-feely new-age psychic Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka) is back and is upset that people want to kill Godzilla, either ignoring, or rationalising, the fact the Godzilla has (presumably) killed thousands of people when he levels cities ('presumably' because, regardless of the destruction, this series of movies never shows any actual death). Her spiritual interactions with miniature Mothra-spirits and the tiny 'Cosmos' girls slows the movie down and (IMO) adds little to the story but, like "Little Godzilla", are elements not targeted at viewers in my demographic (i.e. 'old guys'). The dubbed script was OK (despite an excess of clichéd tough-guy soldier talk, especially by M.O.G.O.R.A.'s crew) and dubbing itself was OK, although there were the frequent mid-sentence pauses, mismatched body/voice combinations, and odd choices of idiom, all of which are often lampooned in parodies of the genre. Typical of the franchise, the plot is driven by improbable science, prescient guesses, and the occasional inconsistency. Considering that, over the years, Godzilla has taken innumerable bullets, shells, and missiles in the chest, some fired at close range, from a variety of small arms, tanks, artillery, ships and planes, I was 'surprised' when embittered Yuki (Akira Emoto) announced that there was a "weak zone" in the monster's torso that could penetrated by a rifle. All in all, number 21 in the franchise is undemanding fun and the slow start and mushy new-age sentimentality is balanced a great climatic kaiju brawl.
Review of Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
