Well, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is decent. But this is the last Heisei film where they put legitimate effort into it. Particularly the Kaiju fights.
The suitmation and puppet effects can be hokey at times. But I can give the filmmakers credit for at least attempting to have more physical Kaiju fights instead of constant beam-spamming like the films before and after it. Although there is still plenty of beam attacks, but I digress. Godzilla's fight with Rodan is brutal at times and a lot better than when their Showa predecessors duked it out in Ghidorah: the 3-Headed Monster. Godzilla's two fights with Mechagodzilla are also good.
I'm not too fond of some of the writing. Especially the ridiculous "Dinosaurs might make a comeback" speeches. I'm also not that wild about the characters. It would have been better and made a lot more sense for her arc if Miki Saegusa was Baby Godzilla's surrogate mother instead of Azusa Gojo.
The special effects are certainly the movie's biggest flaw. A lot of people like to bash Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla's terrible effects, but the ones in this film aren't that good either. The Green screen/composite shots are very noticeable and stick out like a sore thumb. There are tons of scaling inconsistencies with Godzilla. Especially when he's next to Baby at the end. The monsters' designs aren't that great either. Godzilla looks alright, but RadoGoji is probably my least favorite Heisei suit. Mechagodzilla looks decent, but not as good as the original design. Rodan is easily the best looking of the bunch. Baby Godzilla looks better than Minya, but that's not saying much.
Flaws aside, what the movie does well, it does really well. The "don't mess with nature" message is very effective. Every attack on a kaiju leads to a comeuppance. Rodan goes wild or comes to aid when Baby is in trouble and Godzilla wrecks Mechagodzilla as his theme song plays triumphantly. Plus, as always, Ifukube's score is awesome. Especially his music for Mechagodzilla which stuns you the first time you hear it.
The Kaiju action looks odd at times, but it's nice to see more effort put into them opposed to the half-assed fights in Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) - the worst of the Heisei films, IMHO. Godzilla chokes out Rodan, uses his nuclear pulse in a clever way, and throws Mechagodzilla into debris. And that's just a handful of the great fight scenes. Godzilla also has more screen time than any of his other films.
I used to not like this one as much, but it's grown on me recently. There's plenty to nitpick, but there's also a lot to like about it. My 3rd favorite of the Heisei series (behind Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Biollante).
The suitmation and puppet effects can be hokey at times. But I can give the filmmakers credit for at least attempting to have more physical Kaiju fights instead of constant beam-spamming like the films before and after it. Although there is still plenty of beam attacks, but I digress. Godzilla's fight with Rodan is brutal at times and a lot better than when their Showa predecessors duked it out in Ghidorah: the 3-Headed Monster. Godzilla's two fights with Mechagodzilla are also good.
I'm not too fond of some of the writing. Especially the ridiculous "Dinosaurs might make a comeback" speeches. I'm also not that wild about the characters. It would have been better and made a lot more sense for her arc if Miki Saegusa was Baby Godzilla's surrogate mother instead of Azusa Gojo.
The special effects are certainly the movie's biggest flaw. A lot of people like to bash Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla's terrible effects, but the ones in this film aren't that good either. The Green screen/composite shots are very noticeable and stick out like a sore thumb. There are tons of scaling inconsistencies with Godzilla. Especially when he's next to Baby at the end. The monsters' designs aren't that great either. Godzilla looks alright, but RadoGoji is probably my least favorite Heisei suit. Mechagodzilla looks decent, but not as good as the original design. Rodan is easily the best looking of the bunch. Baby Godzilla looks better than Minya, but that's not saying much.
Flaws aside, what the movie does well, it does really well. The "don't mess with nature" message is very effective. Every attack on a kaiju leads to a comeuppance. Rodan goes wild or comes to aid when Baby is in trouble and Godzilla wrecks Mechagodzilla as his theme song plays triumphantly. Plus, as always, Ifukube's score is awesome. Especially his music for Mechagodzilla which stuns you the first time you hear it.
The Kaiju action looks odd at times, but it's nice to see more effort put into them opposed to the half-assed fights in Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) - the worst of the Heisei films, IMHO. Godzilla chokes out Rodan, uses his nuclear pulse in a clever way, and throws Mechagodzilla into debris. And that's just a handful of the great fight scenes. Godzilla also has more screen time than any of his other films.
I used to not like this one as much, but it's grown on me recently. There's plenty to nitpick, but there's also a lot to like about it. My 3rd favorite of the Heisei series (behind Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Biollante).