Continuing with our countdown, we have the reintroduction of Mechagodzilla, as well as Rodan and Godzilla’s son. Funny thing about this movie is that it was made the same year Jurassic Park came out. Toho must have been humiliated with their quality of special effects compared to JP’s.
Remember how in my Godzilla vs King Ghidorah review I said we would be seeing more of Mecha-King Ghidorah? Well, it’s half true. We get to see his remains in a giant facility after being lifted from the ocean. The Japanese are using his highly advanced metal alloys and technology to make their ultimate super weapon against Godzilla… Mechagodzilla! Now complete with a mega buster, laser cannons, paralyzer missiles, shock anchors, a plasma grenade, and a total derp face!!! Sure, his face might not look too spectacular, but overall, I like his new design. Mostly in the body, and from certain angles his face looks okay.
This actually has to be my favorite of the Heisei series. There’s a lot to nitpick, and I don’t feel like going in depth, because it would take forever, so here’s a short list.
1. The main character is insanely obsessed with pteranodons.
2. The so called “scientists” think pteranodons lay eggs the size of a couch, and actually think they’re dinosaurs, when they’re a completely different form of reptile.
3. Also, the scientists are completely oblivious to the 200ft pteranodon flying towards them until it starts wrecking the camp.
4. The girl watching over Godzilla’s son keeps calling him “Baby”. Not Godzilla Jr. or anything, just baby. It gets annoying real fast.
5. G-Force is Japan’s main defense force against Godzilla, but it just makes me think of talking guinea pig spies.
6. They make some of Mechagodzilla’s armor out of synthetic diamond… which is stupid, seeing how it didn’t have enough endurance on the Super-X 2 to withstand Godzilla’s atomic breath for too long.
7. When your several billion yen mecha-warrior is defeated by Godzilla, why would you send the military to fight him even though you KNOW they’re uneffective? Isn’t that why you were building the darn thing in the first place?
8. Apparently, Rodan can get atomic fire powers by the sound of girls singing.
9. The main character builds a flying bike shaped like a pteranodon to impress a girl, but all he manages to accomplish is make the scene extremely awkward.
10. The soundtrack is too freaking awesome.
Moving on, the plot involves the construction of Mechagodzilla, obviously, but the real meat of the story is with the discovery of an egg on an unknown Island. Rodan tries to eat it, but Godzilla shows up to defend the egg. The scientists take the egg to Japan, where it hatches into a baby Godzilla. I absolutely LOVE this design. It actually LOOKS like Godzilla’s son! Heck, it actually looks like a lizard, instead of that horribly disfigured abomination from 1967 called Minya. His feet are a little big, and when his eyes glow red, his face reminds me of those evil dogs from Ghostbusters.
Scientists study the baby to find out any weak points that could be on the adult Godzilla. They discover a second brain in his tail, going on the theory that dinosaurs needed two brains to function. As far as I know, that theory has been negated.
They assume Godzilla has the second brain as well, and devise a plan to draw him out for one final battle. It’s one of the best final battles of any Godzilla movie ever. Rodan gets the crap beaten out of him, Godzilla takes all sorts of punishment, and Mechagodzilla unleashes all his firepower. He combines with another anti-Godzilla weapon to form Super-Mechagodzilla. Oh, Japan, always combining two machines to make one big machine. Typical, but still pretty cool.
After it’s all over, Godzilla takes his kid back home with him, and the chief pilot of the destroyed Mechagodzilla leaves us with some final words… “Life always conquers”.... and that quote in no way resembles Jeff Goldblum’s “Life will find a way” quote from that other movie about dinosaurs released that same exact year.
This movie might have quite a lot to nitpick, but it is still awesome. As for the positives, I have to say the special effects are great. The miniatures are once again very good, and even convincing at times. I like Rodan’s new design, too. The only problem is that his wings are stiff, and have no articulation. They don’t look too good when he’s on the ground, but when he’s in the air, he looks okay. There are a lot less instances where I saw the strings, as opposed to the previous two installments. The best part is the explosions! The best explosions are when Godzilla uses his super atomic breath to blow up Mechagodzilla.
The camera work is impressive as well. Some shots of Godzilla walking through cities are great, and make him look huge again. The animatronics on Godzilla’s face are also good. He has more facial expressions. He is an animal, but Godzilla is still technically a character. When he fights Mechagodzilla for the first time, his frustration and confusion at his enemy’s strength is priceless. He looks surprised, and when he cripples him, you can see that look on his face that says “Hmm. That’ll teach ya. Now on with my rampage.”
Another prop I have to give this movie is the fact that people are no longer twiddling their thumbs and being shocked that Godzilla comes back to destroy them. They have an anti-Godzilla force to protect Japan now. It shows people enlisted in the force in class learning about the biology of Godzilla and doing battle simulators against stock footage. It gives the story more depth, and the idea of an army specially formed for fighting Godzilla and other kaiju is really interesting. But the characters which the audience views the world with are so… stupid. Godzilla movies were never big on character development, and I know that’s not what people watch these movies for, but in a lot of these movies, there’s at least one character that’s likeable. And the Heisei series has had better characters than this in previous installments like Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. Not great on development, but they’re still enjoyable.
The worst part of the movie was in the end, where Godzilla’s kid finally has to leave the care of the girl watching over him. It was supposed to be that sappy moment where the girl has to leave the animal she raised, and shows that they’ve been through so much, and it’s hard to let go, or some stupid $h!t like that. You know what I’m talking about. She gets emotional and says “Thank you, Baby”. Thank you? For what? That thing did not make you a better person, it did not open your heart to loving and caring for something, or anything else that would bring such emotions to the scene. She had it for about 2 or 3 days! I want my own baby Godzilla, too, but I wouldn’t get that attached to it in such a short amount of time!
In conclusion, while I do hate the humans, the film kept me satisfied with great action sequences, great special effects, and a great soundtrack. The wait between action scenes isn’t very long, and when they happen, they’re fun. I say to give this one a watch. It’s a good one. Still one of my favorites.
FINAL RATING: 37 / 50
STORY: 3 / 5
ACTING: 2 / 5
CHARACTERS: 1 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 4 / 5
ACTION: 5 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 5 / 5
TONE: 3 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 4 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
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