SuperMegaMonkey
John Averick: ChronosCat: ChronosCat: ChronosCat: ChronosCat: |
1994-12-10 21:55:42 Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzillaI've seen this called the worst of the Heisei Godzilla movies, but others must be judging it by different criteria than we are. This move a) has a monster for Godzilla to fight and b) the monster is not an immobile flower. Hence ergo ipso facto this is not the worst Godzilla movie, q.e.d.. That said, he's not a particularly great monster, and this certainly isn't a great movie. It really does move things back into a campy Showa territory, and in a scene in the beginning of Godzilla trying to get onto an island to see his son, i can almost hear the surf music from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. But this movie is missing the playful heart of the Showa movies; it's still the slow and angry Godzilla. So it falls into a weird gap of not being serious enough for the Heisei series while being too serious to match the tone of Showa. There is definitely something here for fans of Godzilla continuity, though. This movie plays explicitly off events of both Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. Mothra, and it shows the growth of Godzilla's son as well the continued evolution of Miki's character arc. And it has a callback to the non-Godzilla Showa film Mysterians by introducing Counter G's replacement for Mechagodzilla: M.O.G.U.E.R.A. (Mobile Operation Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aero-Type, obviously. For tracking purposes i'll just be calling him Moguera for consistency with the Showa version.). All of that makes this an awesome movie even if it isn't a "good" one. The movie begins, as these movies so often do, with an asteroid landing on Earth and waking up Godzilla. This asteroid has an unusual shape, though. Although later it'll be a little unclear if this is the asteroid that actually lands on Earth at this time. We then get to see Moguera. And we meet our supporting cast, which again includes Kenji Sahara as the Defense Minister, Akira Nakao as Commander Takaki Aso, and Koichi Ueda who's been promoted(?) from General to Deputy Commander Hyodo. We've got a new white guy, Ronald Hoerr, replacing Dr. Asimov from the previous movie. This guy's name is Dr. Mammilov, some kind of Wooly Mammoth/Isaac Asimov hybrid. Here's what we get to see of Moguera so far. Note that there are separate pieces. Like Voltron! They better have different colored uniforms this time. Meanwhile, Miki is having doubts. She says that "Project T" is a waste. Oh, Miki. That was not a good choice for a haircut. Trying to convince her otherwise are Professor Chinatsu Gondo (played by Towako Yoshikawa) and Doctor Susumu Okubo (played by Yosuke Saito). Min took one look at Dr. Susumu and said "bad guy!". Miki says that Project T won't work, and they're not going to be able to control Godzilla. Professor Chinatsu tells Miki that Project T is better than Project Moguera, which intends to kill Godzilla. She also uses the convincing ploy of saying very slowly exactly what Project T was for those of us who don't remember that Miki is a telepath and didn't hear Miki when she said "control Godzilla". Even if the audience needed a little exposition on what Project T was, Miki surely understood what it was at this point, so it's awkward dialogue. In any event, the more pressing argument is that the project is going forward with or without Miki, so if Miki refuses to participate than the government is just going to use one of the kids from her institute, and Miki doesn't want that. Are these kids orphans? Do they not have parents or guardians? The government's just going to come and snatch them away to work on some Godzilla project, and they think the public's going to be ok with that? Man, your government sucks. Meanwhile, out in space, we see Mothra still flying out to take care of the asteroid that is going to hit earth in 1999. But as she's traveling, she starts shedding little glittery versions of herself. Do all the Heisei monsters just poop glitter now? Godzilla's not going to put up with that shit. We then meet two members of G Force - Jun Hashizume as Lieutenant Koji Shinjo and Zenkichi Yoneyama as Lieutenant Kiyoshi Sato - who have been assigned to an island that looks a lot like Infant Island. We have a dubbed version of this movie (at least it's widescreen), and i swear dubbed movies just make us hate the characters. The dialogue between these two G Force characters is so inane and goofy, it's just horrible. The fact that we're introduced to them with one dancing around in a Hawaiian shirt on a boat doesn't help, and neither does the way that guy complains when they hike along the island. Isn't he supposed to be a military guy? He's just a big whiner. They eventually see a strange cluster of what can only be described as Sarlaac Pits. But then they meet their contact, Major Akira Yuki, played by Akira Emoto. It turns out that this island - which also seems to be the one where the asteroid hit in the beginning - is where Godzilla's son is being kept. Wait. Where Godzilla's son is being kept? Didn't we decide just in the last movie that Godzilla and his baby should be together? What the hell, people? And about those Sarlaac Pits - did the asteroid cause them? Were they already here? What the hell are they? They never do ask Yuki about the Sarlaac Pits. Instead they set up camp. At the Native American museum? We're then shown a horrible scene meant to take place in a space satellite somewhere. It's unfortunately very poor quality in terms of both the graphics used and the acting, but it's supposed to be a scene of the satellite being destroyed and the people dying a tragic death. It comes across more comic than tragic. It looks like a skit from 3-2-1 Contact. This scene is why i said earlier that it's not clear that the vaguely Godzilla-shaped asteroid we saw in the beginning was actually the one that we saw land near Infant Island. Obviously that asteroid is still out in space. Even G Force says "we can only speculate that it was some kind of huge monster". It'll still be a while before this monster makes it to Earth, so i guess the space station was pretty far away. After participating in the meeting regarding the destruction of the satellite, Miki, who wears Mothra earrings nowadays, is visited by one of the Mothra fairies (he means one of the glitter-poop mini Mothras), and she receives a message from the Cosmos. The Cosmos say that a monster from space is coming to kill Godzilla. "If Godzilla is killed, the Earth will be easy to conquer." You guys didn't seem all that bothered about killing Godzilla when you shot lasers at him last time. It's not said who wants to conquer the Earth. The monster itself? Or is it working for an alien race, or something else? In fact, it's not much of a message in general from the Cosmos, but the message convinces Miki to agree to join Project T. It turns out that the Counter G characters on the island - who are just so awful in our dubbed version - are there to prep things for Project T. Except Lt. Yuki seems to have gone stir crazy on the island, and he's completely off mission. He's developed a bullet full of blood coagulant that he intends to shoot in Godzilla's "weak spot" under his armpit, and he's also set up tear gas all over the island. The tear gas may actually be Counter G sanctioned activity (although everyone else in Project T is surprised by it), but we'll see later that it winds up just interfering with both Project T and Yuki's plans. The purpose of the tear gas seems to be to keep Godzilla away from his son. Which raises the question of how Junior got taken away from Godzilla in the first place; the last we saw of him, at the end of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, was Miki sending a telepathic message to ask Godzilla and/or Junior to go away together. But now Counter G has managed to separate Godzilla from his son (First the psychic kids, now Godzilla's son. Does Counter G do anything besides snatching children?), and are managing to do it with nothing more than tear gas. Seems like something that requires an explanation, but one will not be forthcoming. Miki is happy to see Baby again. Min would like to call out Miki's salmon suit. In fact, Min has issues with all of Miki's clothing during this film. I'm just saying, is that the kind of clothes you wear to a Godzilla island where you'll be sleeping in tents for some unspecified amount of time? Would Counter G not provide you with a t-shirt and some cargo pants? The movie keeps showing us the Sarlaac Pits but never has anyone say anything about them. Mebbe they want it to be a surprise. Meanwhile, our space monster is detected by the UN. He looks a lot like Godzilla except that he's stuck to a gigantic crystal, waving his tiny arms as he flies through space. Remember in the good ol' days when bad guys from space would show up in gems? That was kewl. G Force receives a request to destroy the monster using Moguera. When the objection that Moguera was intended for Godzilla is raised, it's said that Project T will takes care of Godzilla. When Moguera is deployed, all the military generals are pretty excited; they practically high-five each other. Is this the first time it was ever deployed? Maybe that should have happened in beta testing, before sending it out for the first time to fight a giant monster? Now that Junior has grown much larger in size, he's mainly shown standing behind a mountain or something. Hey, his eyes are red. Is he scared? If i was stuck on an island full of tear gas with these yahoos, i'd be scared, too. In the first two Heisei movies, Toho made an effort to show the giant monsters interacting more directly with the humans, using animatronics and giant models. It didn't look great but it was an interesting departure from the Showa films. Now we're back to the typical superimposed backscreen stuff. We do get to see the full Junior when he wanders out onto the beach, triggering the tear gas. The Project T people just kind of laugh at the poor monster. He's gonna call Godzilla, you idiots! He's in distress! Sure enough: By the way, Miki sensed Godzilla with her ESP, moments before he arrived. Not the most useful telepath in the history of fiction. You did your best, Miki. Great job. Really. It's also worth noting that Godzilla didn't come out blasting this time. And also that it must be a really sheer drop off the island shelf. Godzilla manages to sneak up on everyone on the island by staying under water, and he's still pretty deep in the water there. But seconds later: Also, Godzilla has been doing squats. Godzilla, you have to work the upper body as well. I know a lot of amateur bodybuilders only focus on the bench press, but you don't want to go in the other direction either. He hasn't been weightlifting. Look at those matronly knees. Godzilla makes a weird high pitched screeching noise in this movie; totally not the real Godzilla sound. Godzilla's arrival is actually anticipated, if a little ahead of schedule. It is time to initiate Project T. This requires the Counter G guys to ride around the island on a totally rad dirt bike and shoot Godzilla with a receptor/amplifier that will boost a signal that Miki sends telepathically through a computer. The problem is Yuki, who has his own agenda and keeps trying to shoot Godzilla. The others do nothing to stop Yuki. There's also, as mentioned, the problem of the tear gas, which makes it impossible for anyone to get a clear shot. Any time they try, Godzilla steps on another mine and turns around. Plus the Counter G guys keep saying they need to get behind Godzilla, but Godzilla is still coming up the beach, half in the water. So they drive from one side of Godzilla to the other, always in front of him, talking about how they need to get behind him, which would only be possible if their rad dirtbike was also a submarine. Yuki never manages to get his shot and eventually, for reasons unknown, Godzilla decides to turn around allowing the Counter G guys to shoot him with the receptor in the back of his head. At this point, Miki is able to use the "psychotronic generator" to send a signal to Godzilla. She says she's successful, and is able to make him walk. Prove it. He'd be walking anyway! Godzilla continues to roar, which either suggests he's either not really under control, is resisting control, or Miki is just having a lot of fun. It would be great to see Miki roaring back in the psychotronic generator tent. Meanwhile, it turns out that Moguera wasn't just sent to fight the space monster somewhere on Earth. It's actually sent way out into space, seemingly somewhere around the asteroid belt. This is big news. First of all, i really do hope the way the generals were cheering when Moguera was first deployed didn't mean that was the Mecha's first mission. Because you do not send people in an untested machine out to the asteroid belt to fight a space monster on their first mission. Second, holy crap, in the Heisei universe in 1994 they were able to do manned space missions way past Mars. And not only that, but they must have had a space station out there, unless the monster's been doing U-turns. In the Showa universe, somewhere around Monster Zero, due to all the advanced technology we were seeing, i became convinced that all the Godzilla movies either took place in the future or the universe significantly deviated from our own timeline thanks to all the alien visits. In comparison, so far the Heisei universe has felt relatively grounded. But the truth is that really isn't the case. Even as early as Return of Godzilla they had Super-X as well as a serious amount of FAHPs, laser tanks, laser heli-copters, and other anti-Godzilla technology. And then of course they explicitly reverse-engineered the Futurian technology of Mecha-King Ghidorah between Godzilla vs. King Ghidora and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II when they built Mechagodzilla, who presumably Moguera is an iteration of. So i guess it makes perfect sense that Moguera can fly in outer space. But it definitely signals that the Heisei universe is a lot more fantasy/sci-fi than you'd first realize (even aside from all the giant monsters). Well, i just spent all this time talking it up, but the truth is that Moguera kinda sucks in this first encounter. It does sort of shoot at the monster with its eye and lasers. But they are ineffective, and the monster basically just rams it a few times and leaves it spinning off into the depths space. I actually wrote Moguera off entirely at this time. And that was the thing they were going to use against Godzilla? It's also worth observing that Moguera has what appear to be buzzsaw blades on its back, but they're totally solid and attached to the outer hull. They can't and don't move. Who designed this thing? I also wonder why it was designed for space travel if its mission was to fight Godzilla. How many cadmium shells or redundant power systems were left out in order to provide the necessary rocket fuel and oxygen tanks necessary for deep space travel? Anyway, back to the island where Miki is controlling Godzilla. Everything is working fine, and then suddenly Dr. Susumu announces that he's going to try to amplify the signal, and then he grabs a slider control and starts manhandling it back and forth. This causes a shortage that fries Miki. Bad guy! What follows is a very confused sequence that i am hoping makes more sense in the Japanese/subtitled version. Dr. Chinatsu calls the G Force guys back to the tent with the psychotronic generator where Miki got fried. I kind of assumed so that they could arrest Dr. Susumu or something. But when they get there, they ask what's wrong, and Dr. Chinatsu just makes a weird kind of noise, and then there's a long awkward silence. Then one of the G Force guys, the comic relief one, taps the other guy knowingly and then leaves. And then the scene ends. SO CONFUSED! And no one ever does anything about Dr. Susumu; he's not even scolded for his weird actions. Miki recovers, and says, "A space monster!". The G Force guy says, "What's that?". It's a monster from space, you idiot. But instead of expanding on her space monster vision, or telling anyone about what the Cosmos told her, she and the G-Force guy start arguing about killing Godzilla, as if it's even possible. Is anyone really worried that some guy with a gun is going to do what armies haven't been able to do for 10 years now? The argument is interrupted by the actual arrival of the space monster. It lands in the area with the Sarlaac Pits. The big cluster on his back disappears as he lands, leaving just a pair of crystals attached to him. Baby Godzilla, perhaps just curious or perhaps sensing something of his father in it, approaches. Don't do it, Baby! Stranger danger! The humans also note the creature's resemblance to Godzilla. But the interaction between the monster and Baby doesn't go well, and Baby gets scared, his eyes turning red. And Baby was right to be scared. The monster attacks. The space monster is shown to be both intelligent and evil, laughing and kicking Baby around instead of just killing it. But here comes daddy. Godzilla has never been one to hold back in a hostage situation, so he breaths his radioactive fire at the monster with no regard for his son's safety. But the monster's crystals reappear and act as a forcefield. The monster then breathes back at Godzilla. Godzilla falls the first time he gets hit with the blast, but to his credit he goes down breathing radioactive fire back in response. But he's clearly getting the worst of it. He falls a few times during the fight. Baby runs over to him for protection. Seeing Godzilla fighting an obviously evil monster and defending his son definitely makes him feel more like a good guy than at any point prior in this series. Godzilla eventually gives up on fighting and just tries to shield Baby with his body. But Godzilla is unable to defend Baby, who winds up getting pulled away by the monster's tractor beam... ...and put into one of the Sarlaac Pits. Now can we talk about these weird pits? At this point Godzilla uncharacteristically returns to the sea. And none of the humans go to try to help Baby, either. Assholes. Yuki decides that Godzilla has had enough of a bad day, and decides to not try to kill Godzilla any more for now. What a guy. In the aftermath of all of this. Dr. Susumu says that Project T has failed. No one says that it failed because he fried the computer (let alone the telepath). So they decide to pack it up and go home. Excuse me? First you kidnapped Godzilla's kid, then the kid gets abused and imprisoned by a space monster, and you're just going to go home? What kind of monsters are you? Except for Miki, who decides to stay on the island, who looks at the others with disgust. Miki hates all of you because you all suck. They look back with a "yeah, we do all kind of suck" expression. And, at the last minute before the helicopter pulls away, one of the G Force guys, the non-comedy relief guy, decides to stay behind, and he makes his friend stay too. Doesn't anyone have to follow orders around here? Yuki attacks Godzilla in complete contradiction of Project T's goals, and Miki and the G Force guy can just not return to base if they don't want to? Back at Counter G headquarters, Dr. Chinatsu announces that skin cells from the space monster match Godzilla's. I could believe that better if you didn't just take two completely different pictures and then overlay them on top of each other. Chinatsu says that they have exactly the same cells, and therefore, we have named it... SpaceGodzilla (note that the single word in CamelCase seems to be the accepted spelling). At this, everyone in the meeting room murmurs with surprise and approval, except Kenji Sahara, who looks pensive. "Back in my day, our space monsters had names like 'Gigan'. Seriously? 'Space' Godzilla? That's all you could come up with? King Ghidorah, Mothra, Moguera? Those are all ours from the Showa period. You guys come up with 'Space Godzilla'". Chinatsu says that there are only two occasions when Godzilla cells were sent into outer space. Only!? The first was when Biolante, itself a partial clone of Godzilla, dissipated into the atmosphere after biting Godzilla. And the second was when Mothra and Battra fought Godzilla and then carried him into the ocean. It's theorized that Mothra may have had some Godzilla bits on her when she flew into space. Flashbacks from each of these movies are shown while Chinatsu is talking. For the rest of the movie, i waited to find out whether it was from the Biollante or Mothra fight that Godzilla's cells went into space. But that is never clarified, and looking online people seem to hedge their bets and say that it was the cells from both encounters that formed SpaceGodzilla. I'm also not 100% sure if the idea is that the cells from the Biollante fight are the cloned Godzilla cells that were a part of Biollante, or if it was the cells from when Biollante bit Godzilla. The actual Biollante cells makes the most sense, but they do make a point of showing Godzilla getting bit during the flashback, and SpaceGodzilla is clearly not a flower monster. Tank goff! If you're wondering exactly how some Godzilla cells floating up into space can return as a SpaceGodzilla, Dr. Chinatsu has a very clear explanation for you: That's the theory? Any ONE of these things would be a tremendous hypothesis. The fact that she strung them all together into an explanation for SpaceGodzilla... my brain melted! We do have some graphics to go along with the explanation. Asked what they're going to do about SpaceGodzilla, Kenji Sahara says, "We're already trying to boost Moguera, buuuuut... if it doesn't work, i don't know.". He's right to not know. "Boosting" Moguera isn't going to help. It was barely functional, let alone anywhere near effective. How did it even get back to Earth? After the meeting, Commander Aso tells Yuki that Project T has failed, and he asks him to pilot Moguera. Based on facial expressions alone you can tell it's an awkward conversation. And then Miki, still on the island, is visited by the Mothra fairy again. This time it tells her, "Don't worry, if you have the power to bring about the meeting of minds, you can beat the space monster. This beautiful Earth is the property of every living being." Again, not very helpful. What is that sundress she is wearing. She knows she's not on vacation, right? I bet she's wearing inappropriate shoes. When the G Force guy walks onto the beach, Miki doesn't admit that she was talking to a moth. I'm not sure why that is. Everyone knows that Miki is a telepath. And i assume everyone is aware that Mothra is a real thing due to its very public fight with Godzilla and Battra not long ago. So why would she be secretive about talking to its spirit or whatever it is. "Hey, Mothra is worried enough about this SpaceGodzilla that it sent me a message from outer space. Want to help me figure out its fortune cookie messages?" But no. Instead she tells the guy, "I'm a little worried. Godzilla's vibrations are weak" and that sparks a strange conversation. The Counter G guy tells Miki that she should think about someone besides Godzilla. "For instance, someone you love very much [he means himself!]. Life would be very sad without love. Miki responds angrily, "NOT IF YOU THINK ABOUT FIGHTING ALL THE TIME!!! Don't you understand? He also has feelings. He has feelings like we do!!!" I'm embarrassed for everyone in this movie. After that outburst they stand awkwardly next to each other as the sun sets. That night, they're beaten up in their tent, and Miki is kidnapped. Dr. Chinatsu comes the next day to pick up the two G Force guys from the island so they can join Yuki in the search for Miki. It comes out that Chinatsu's brother was Goro, the guy who was killed shooting the anti-radiation bacteria into Godzilla's mouth in Biollante. And Yuki was his best friend, and he swore to Chinatsu that he'd kill Godzilla to avenge her brother. Continuity! It turns out that the Japanese mafia took Miki. The mob have high tech barriers set up around their headquarters. ...so Yuki and company have to go into a manhole to pass underneath it, immediately popping out of another manhole on the far side like they went into a Mario pipe. You don't know. Mebbe that's what Japan's sewer system is really like and Mario was based on real life. It also turns out that Dr. Susumu, the guy that messed with the dial while Miki was trying to control Godzilla, is working with the mob (Called it!). He's just out for power. "Power, that's what Godzilla is about, isn't he?" Meanwhile, Godzilla resurfaces, literally. And he comes out of the water blast first, like he does. Also arriving at the same time is SpaceGodzilla. It seems SpaceGodzilla's mere presence causes machinery to fry, which may explain the earlier non-battle between him and Moguera. This time it blows out the mafia's generator. And that basically makes the entire mafia plot a nonsensical interlude. Yuki and friends storm their base to rescue Miki. There's a scene where Susumu turns the table that Miki is strapped to on its side and uses it for cover. That would be pretty hilarious in its own right. But then she uses her powers... ...and causes the table to levitate so that G Force guy can shoot his feet. When he asks her what that was, she says, "Telekenisis. I've just never tried it before.". I'll tell your right now, if i ever thought there was even the possibility that i had telekenisis, i'd give it a try and not wait until i was kidnapped by mobsters. In fact, i'm trying it right now. Aaand... wait a minute... nope, it was just gas. Anyway, the point is that the whole mafia scenario is completely pointless since they have control of Godzilla for all of 5 seconds. Miki then senses that SpaceGodzilla is out and about, again providing about as much information as one could get from turning on the television. Yuki and friends are late getting back to Counter G headquarters. They arrive as the General is telling the back-up pilots (presumably the guys that fought the space "battle" with SpaceGodzilla) their mission. "Use ALL the capabilities of Moguera, and destroy Godzilla. That's your mission". Then Yuki and his two guys show up and the general wastes no time grabbing the helmets out of the original team's hands. Have i mentioned lately that dubbed movies are terrible? The latest offender is a reporter trying to explain to us what SpaceGodzilla has been up to. Something about setting up a crystal fortress for himself. But the dialogue is atrocious. Anyway, here's the fortress. He's Superman! We were a little confused because the reporter said that SpaceGodzilla had knocked down all the tall buildings in the area, but there's clearly a tall building behind him. That building will turn out to be left there deliberately, though. Meanwhile, Godzilla has to fight his way past the JSDF. Honestly, at this point, why not just let Godzilla pass? You know he's going to fight SpaceGodzilla. Is that so bad? In the meantime, you are back to shooting sideways across the screen instead of actually hitting your target, and you're just throwing lives away. I guess the reason is that Godzilla isn't exactly polite about getting to where he needs to go... ...but at this point you've had to rebuild your cities enough times that you should know to make the throughways wider for the big guy. Cereally. I mentioned above that in the first two Heisei movies especially, Toho was experimenting with ways to get the monsters to interact more directly with the people. But at this point we are definitely back to Godzilla being on a screen in the background or vice versa. When Yuki hears that Godzilla has re-emerged, he changes course, going after Godzilla instead of SpaceGodzilla. So the other two pilots knock him out and take Moguera back to SpaceGodzilla. They fire a pair of torpedoes at SpaceGodzilla... ...and the two bros are immediately like, "We did it!". It's going to take a lot more than that, guys. Uh...where did all those buildings come from? Didn't we just see him standing around a totally different set of buildings set farther away from him? They next try their plasma laser canon (compare to Mechagodzilla's identical beam, which was described as a plasma grenade). Godzilla is practically swimming through buildings to get to the fight. Then, and you knew this was coming, they move in close for a drill beak maneuver. I think it's dumb for them to get that close to SpaceGodzilla. But then any reasonable person should know that they need to destroy SpaceGodzilla's crystals, not fight him directly. Getting close does seem to be a bad move... ...and Moguera winds up having to blast its way backwards, which doesn't save it from getting knocked down. Godzilla finally makes it to the fight. But he continues to fall down whenever he gets hit with SpaceGodzilla's curvy breath weapon. Destroy the crystals! Then, the ultimate humiliation. Godzilla is lifted up by SpaceGodzilla's telekinesis/tractor beam... ...and tossed into a building. SpaceGodzilla's next move is to float all his crystals. And use them as missiles. I told you! I told you to destroy his crystals! This is all while using his breath weapon, blocking Godzilla's breath with his forcefield, and floating around, blasting Godzilla. The dude may look pretty goofy when he's floating through space with a giant gem on his back, waving his little arms. But when it comes right down to it, he's pretty badass. Godzilla finally issues his proper roar during all of this. But it's time for Moguera to get back into action. Yuki has woken up and all is forgiven. They've figured out that SpaceGodzilla is using that tall building that he's left standing (it's apparently the Fukuoka Tower) to channel the energy that he's absorbing, apparently from the core of the Earth. The Counter G guys engage Moguera's separation mode, becoming two separate units. The fact that SpaceGodzilla could just show up and do that makes me kinda suspicious about what sort of business goes on in the Fukuoka Tower. The part that Yuki is in, the flying part, is called Falcon. The other Counter G guys are in the part with the drill bits, and it's apparently still called Moguera, which can get a little confusing. While all of this is happening, Chinatsu and Miki show up, inexplicably wearing tinfoil jackets. The two Moguera units manage to drop a building on SpaceGodzilla, and then wind up re-merging. When given the choice between two vehicles and a giant mole robot, i'm going with the robot too. Moguera goes the full Mechagodzilla, blasting SpaceGodzilla with all it's got. And Godzilla gets in close. Yes! Tear off those stupid gems on his back! I know they offend you! The closeness of the camera work makes it hard to see the fight, exactly. But one weird thing is that Godzilla's dorsal fins are shown glowing just because he's expending effort, not because he's about to breath fire. While they're wrestling, Moguera fires more torpedos, this time targeting one of SpaceGodzilla's back crystals and destroying it. OMG it's about friggin' time. In retaliation, SpaceGodzilla blows off one of Moguera's arms. Moguera then manages to destroy the other crystal... ...but then SpaceGodzilla jams his tail into Moguera's plasma cannon hole. He lifts him and tosses him into a building. Awesome! So many buildings are destroyed in these fights! Yuki forces the other two out, intending to continue the fight alone. He says, "Remind me". *Remind* me?! Since they're no longer in Moguera, the other Counter G guys might as well go over and see what is up with the ladies' jackets. But no explanation is forthcoming. Yuki uses Moguera's remaining power to ram SpaceGodzilla. Yuki is trapped in the wreckage. One of the Counter G guys goes to rescue him, but he's stuck and Yuki says to leave him. Apparently answer is that SpaceGodzilla will explode when the energy overloads. Miki refuses to take cover out of concern for Godzilla, and she uses her new-found telekinesis to free Yuki from the wreckage. Then Godzilla gets the Rage power-up like he did last movie. With his powered-up red breath, he destroys SpaceGodzilla, reverting him to cells again. Hopefully they won't float up into space, into a black hole, out of a white hole, etc.. The funny thing about Godzilla is you can never tell if he's howling in happiness, rage, triumph, or what. I love that the main character in these movies is so ambiguous. Equally ambiguous is Miki, who rarely says more than two words at a time, and just wanders off without telling people where she's going. And when she happens upon Yuki, she doesn't call anyone else over to help. Luckily they make it there themselves. Yuki says that he no longer considers Godzilla his enemy. "Well, he's a great creatures after all." Miki surprises us by saying that even SpaceGodzilla wasn't so bad. I mean, i guess that's what she's saying. "SpaceGodzilla had the same feelings. So it did generate from the same G cells. If the universe is polluted, well then, another space monster will arrive, pretty soon. It was a warning to mankind." A warning to stop shooting Godzilla cells into space?!? While Godzilla is plodding back to the sea, Miki uses her telekinesis to remove the receptor from the back of his head. Godzilla turns as if to say thanks, maybe. The Mothra Cosmos show up to say thanks and goodbye to Miki. I still hate their shoes. "Your mission was a success. You saved planet Earth." Godzilla has defintiely transitioned to being a good guy again. He's frolicking in the water on the way home, so carefee. The movie probably should have ended there, but instead there's some inane banter between Miki and the Counter G guy she had the "moment" with earlier. She tells him to close his eyes, and she shows him a telepathic image of Baby learning how to breath fire, blasting himself in the foot. What a weird ending, but they always are. One characteristic of the Heisei films that this one conforms to is the fact that there's basically some inane plot with the humans that takes up about a quarter of the film, interspersed with set-up scenes and preliminary fights between the monsters. And then the second half of the film is basically a straight fight. Like, these huge, dragged out fights. In one sense, i'm more than ok with that. Giant monster fights are what we're here for, after all. But the problem is that Godzilla is such a lumbering monster at this point that the fights don't have the energy of the fights from the Showa series. There are definitely cool moments, but i feel like in the Showa era Godzilla would have ripped off one of SpaceGodzilla's gems and impaled him with it or something crazy like that. The fights are just a lot slower here. Still, i'd contest that this is the worst of the Heisei films. Moguera more than makes up for the fact that SpaceGodzilla is just a poor Godzilla doppelganger, and it's a crazy fun movie. Lying Cat says Dr. Chinatsu is a lying liar. Monsters Appearing: Godzilla, Godzilla Jr, Moguera, Mothra, SpaceGodzilla CommentsThis one better or more awesome than Biollante? Aw hell no. It took that Rulers of the Earth comic to redeem Space Godzilla and this Moguera for me. And this one does get points for having Godzilla team up for once with something else against a common enemy. Posted by: david banes | August 18, 2015 4:46 PM Actually I believe Godzilla actually impales Space Godzilla with a crystal in the manga addaption. I've heard the mangas, when they didn't wildly change the plot, helped clear up some plot points. I dunno I'm just not a fan of this one. Stock footage is a big no-no to me and I'm not a fan of Little Godzilla, better than Minya that's for sure. There is a deleted scene of Godzilla going over to check on his son before going into the water. I saw no reason at all why they cut that. I like Miki best from Biollante: she was the weird, stoic, creepy girl and I'm sad she's sort of grown out of that. Posted by: david banes | August 20, 2015 1:11 PM Some people actually consider this the worst of the Heisei Godzilla movies? I have a hard time imagining how anyone could consider this worse than Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. At least the over-all plot of this movie sort-of makes sense, even if a lot of the details are bizarre or unexplained. The part of Moguera with the drill bits is called the "Ground Unit" or "Land Unit" (I forget which) in the subtitled version. Incidentally it's rather ironic the top part of Moguera becomes the part that operates on the ground, and the bottom part the part that flies; it sure makes the combining and detaching a bit awkward... Posted by: ChronosCat | June 18, 2018 11:21 PM Comments are now closed. |
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