Possibly my favorite Godzilla movie to date is Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla. If you missed the title of this post allow me to explain that that means that I have some high expectations of this film. I am not a person who believes you can always capture lightning in a bottle, but if you're going to try you have to try hard! There's not a lot to explain for the background here: after trying some unique ideas in the beginning of the Heisei era we are now firmly entrenched in the "rehash of old monsters/ideas" portion of the Heisei Godzilla films, and hoping it pays off. Financially, it has, so it's difficult to complain that the creators keep remixing when the great idea that was Biollante wasn't appreciated for what it was.
Directed by Takao Okawara, who made the previous (very enjoyable) film Godzilla vs. Mothra, Kenpachiro Satsuma returns to the Godzilla suit and Wataru Fukuda plays his titular enemy MechaGodzilla (having previously been the man behind Godzillasaurus). With both real and fictional technology upgrades behind it, the new MechaGodzilla should be a sight to behold. Let's get to beholding.
If You Haven't Seen it Before
- The very first line of this movie is "Finally we have it... a robot to kill Godzilla."
- Using technology both human-created and cultivated from the Mecha King Ghidorah from the previous film, Japan has built a 2nd MechaGodzilla to finally destroy that terrible lizard once and for all. There is another fabulous robot named Garuda which is considered outdated in comparison to MechaGodzilla II.
- A UN unit named G-Force is formed to study and learn to destroy Godzilla. We watch a student go through the program.
- Rodan is back!
- Godzilla is also back, and he and Rodan engage in a traditional duel. Except Rodan can fly, so it swoops in and attacks Godzilla from behind a lot.
- Having found an egg, we are also witness to the birth of the new baby Godzilla. He's non-aggressive and eats plants, so the humans are excited to possibly have this creature on their side.
- There's a lot of disparate things happening in this movie.
- When Godzilla returns to attack the city, MechaGodzilla II is sent to fight back.
- MechaGodzilla II absolutely brutalizes Godzilla for quite some time until Godzilla manages to send some of its energy back at it, disabling the robot long enough for the organic monster to get some licks in.
- The robot and its crew manage to barely retreat, and Godzilla lashes out against the city and the military since he is now unopposed (and pissed).
- Back the G-Force base, they concoct a new plan: kill Godzilla by destroying the second brain in his thigh. They discovered this second brain's existence by studying baby Godzilla.
- A song by psychic children (don't ask) gives Rodan new life, empowering it and making it the more powerful Fire Rodan.
- Confronted by MechaGodzilla II, Fire Rodan battles it out with both the robot and the flying ship Garuda. It can shoot heat beams now!
- After taking down the Garuda, the crew of MechaGodzilla II are pissed and nearly kill Rodan. Rodan is critically wounded in the fight, gurgling up blood as Godzilla arrives and engages with MechaGodzilla II.
- Godzilla wins relatively easily this time, but the Garuda is back in action. This gives MGII time to recover. Turns out these 2 machines can combine into Super MechaGodzilla, giving the already daunting MGII the beam cannon and added maneuverability of Garuda. This is awesome.
- Super MechaGodzilla wrecks Godzilla before launching their new G-Crusher weapon into his hip to destroy his 2nd brain. This plan works and Godzilla collapses as he loses the ability to control his body.
- As Godzilla is being finished off by the humans, Baby Godzilla seems to sense this and get upset. He breaks out of his confines and roars, which wakes up his friend Rodan. Rodan is shot down as it approaches, but lands on Godzilla and heals him with the last of its energy. This regenerates Godzilla's destroyed brain, allowing the big lizard to rally as Rodan finally, truly dies and fades to dust.
- Empowered by Fire Rodan's power, Godzilla turns on Super MechaGodzilla with a vengeance, destroying the robot in a final display of his singular overpowering might. The crew does manage to stay alive despite the robot being completely disables/destroyed.
- Godzilla and Baby Godzilla leave Japan together.
Kaiju Notes
- New Rodan is a vast improvement on all previous designs, which were ugly. It's still ugly, but in a way animals can be, not in a "ew what a weird brown bird/bat/dinosaur" way. This is true of both Fire and regular Rodan, as Fire is essentially just a red version of the same suit used earlier in the film.
- New Baby Godzilla is also a significant improvement. The old one was a horrific mutant that clearly emerged from the nightmares of a haunted man, and the new one is relatively cute. With large eyes and lacking most of his teeth, he manages to appear friendly and immature while still seeming as though he could grow to be as fearsome and powerful as Godzilla.
- MechaGodzilla II is a natural evolution of the first. It looks more advanced while still mimicking the appearance of Godzilla very roughly, but is stockier in all the right ways. Thicker legs and tail make it a more imposing figure, along with a more menacing head to seal the deadly deal.
- MechaGodzilla II's greatest weapon is technically it's Megabuster, a multi-colored laser from it's mouth, but the real secret is the jets inside that allow it to both hover and attack simultaneously. Considering Godzilla's natural trouble against flying creatures, MechaGodzilla II takes even greater advantage by not having to fly away, turn around, and return for an attack. As far as strategy goes, it's pretty great.
- MechaGodzilla II also sports horrific spears that first lodge themselves into Godzilla's body and then electrify him. This robot was not built to fuck around.
- Super MechaGodzilla is entirely awesome, no other way to describe it. I said outloud that the two robots should combine because I love to come up with ridiculous and badass ideas, BUT THEN THEY DID THAT. Beam Cannon + the Megabuster, along with plasma grenades and all manner of other weapons, makes Super MechaGodzilla pretty much everything I want in an anti-Godzilla weapon.
This definitely holds the record now for the most definitive Godzilla defeat. With his 2nd brain destroyed, Godzilla functionally fully died. While Rodan heals him, it is clear that without this bit of last-ditch effort Godzilla would not have ever recovered. It's a pretty bold move, as Godzilla has almost never truly been defeated in any movie prior to this one. Some temporary setbacks have always occurred, and The Return of Godzilla had him nearly die when his heart slowed down due to Cadmium missiles, but the military didn't have any weapons capable of finishing him off. Were it not for Baby Godzilla and Rodan's effort, Godzilla was entirely done for in this one, no ambiguity. While they never said this, it's actually possible he did die for a moment and was simply revived when Rodan gave its own life to help him.
I think it is with this film that Miki Saegusa has broken the record for the most human appearances in a Godzilla movie. She is a psychic who first appeared in Godzilla vs. Biollante and has appeared in every film since. In this movie she is critical in Godzilla's defeat, using her psychic powers to target Godzilla's brain and allowing MechaGodzilla to destroy it. She also has several adventures and side stories where she displays telekinesis and develops her powers. It's odd because her character, fitting because she was introduced with Biollante, doesn't really seem to be used to her potential. While she's able to communicate, or at least understand, the motivations and thoughts of the various kaiju, she displays empathy and understanding for them but always seems to be involved in yet another plot to kill them. Granted, she had some extremely light appearances in a few of the previous films so it would be hard to properly characterize her in the 42 seconds of screentime she had, but a tiny amount of resistance from her in the "recruit the psychic to kill Godzilla" scene might have gone quite far. Hopefully in the future, if she's going to appear more (she does), she'll have proper time to be fleshed out and have her character realized.
The plot is needlessly complex. Rodan dies twice, psychic powers are developed and used primarily for human related plotting that doesn't affect Godzilla at all (in fact, the powers she has at the beginning of the film would have worked just fine for the entire rest of it), MechaGodzilla is deafeated, rebuilt, victorious, defeated, powered up, and defeated again, and the introduction of Godzilla's 2nd brain seems an entirely unnecessary addition especially because it never truly pays off. Additional point: as always, this weakness of Godzilla is introduced, exploited exactly one time, and never mentioned again. We've now seen him defeated in multiple ways but none of the methods have ever been repeated, which seems a glaring mistake on behalf of the Japanese people in these films. There is, sadly, nothing to be done to fix this glaring flaw in movies written nearly 30 years ago, but it is somewhat frustrating that nothing really "matters" in regards to how to defeat Godzilla.
This movie is largely spectacle. While I can typically draw some sort of message or metaphor from the events of a kaiju movie, this is one of the exceptions. "People like MechaGodzilla, people like regular Godzilla, make them fight" seems to be the guiding principle and concept behind this one. And it mostly works! Despite the unusual and convoluted plot, the kaiju action is pretty dope and even the labyrinthine human story isn't a total waste. This one isn't going to win any awards in either an "all-time" or "Heisei era" category, but it's entertaining for the most part. MechaGodzilla II is actually incredibly badass, which is all really what anyone asks, and the battle between the two titular monsters is given adequate screentime and reasonable choreography. Overall, this isn't going to change anyone's mind if they don't already enjoy kaiju movies, but it's worth a shot if one enjoys such things. Mid!
Next: Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla!
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