Monster Hunter

We've done it. The Year of the Kaiju, 2022, has come to an end. And today we're concluding this blog with one of the most recent kaiju movies made, this one directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Monster Hunter stars his wife, Milla Jovovich, and Thai superstar Tony Jaa. This is the second film we've covered on this blog inspired by/based on a video game, so apparently giant monsters and video game films go together like lamb and tuna fish.

Paul W.S. Anderson apparently developed an interest in making this film after being introduced to the series in 2008. This one was a long time coming, with rumors for development happening as far back as 2012. Amusingly, when the video game Monster Hunter: World was a major success, some studios poked around to get the rights to make a film but were surprised to learn that Anderson had already done it long before. That's about as far as it goes for background info: this movie is the culmination of a man living his dreams and that's cool.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- In a reality called The New World, a ship sails across the desert, and the sailors onboard are attacked by some unseen beast. In our world where we don't have ships that move on sand, Natalie Artemis and her UN security team are consumed by a giant sandstorm and transported into the other world.

- Shortly after arriving in The New World, the team is attacked by the giant Diablos and barely escape with (some of) their lives.

- Regrouping in a nearby cave, the remaining team is attacked by giant spider-like creatures called Nerscylla which capture Artemis and kill the remainder of the team.

- Waking up in the Nerscylla nest, Artemis mounts a daring escape and finds her last remaining squad member before realizing he's infested with Nerscylla eggs and they hatch out of his body.

- Barely making it out alive and now braving the barren desert by herself, Artemis is confronted by The Hunter, a local from the area who is willing to teach her how to survive this New World. After several exchanges where they attempt to kill and also save each other, they make peace and form a fragile alliance.

- Hunter's plan is to use Nerscylla venom to poison the Diablos, allowing them to make it across the desert to the obelisk which seems to be the key to returning Artemis home.

- After a dramatic battle, Hunter is badly injured but Artemis stands victorious. With the path to the obelisk (The Sky Tower) wide open, she instead chooses to carry Hunter back across the desert and resuscitates him.

- Making it to an oasis, Artemis and Hunter manage to relax for a bit before a Rathalos arrives and scares the local animals enough to cause a stampede which endangers them. Hunter's crew from the first scene arrive to help, rescuing them both before taking Artemis captive.

- Making a plea for her case, Hunter is able to convince his captain (The Admiral, who can speak Artemis' language) to free Artemis. He explains that the Sky Tower allows her people to come into the New World, and he believes Artemis' people pose a real danger to his own. If he gets her through the gate again, he can destroy the tower behind her and protect his world from hers.

- They all team up to get Artemis to the Sky Tower, the bad news is they'll have to endure the giant Rathalos to do so.

- Once at the tower, the Rathalos predictably attacks. Everyone puts up a valiant effort and Artemis is thrown from a cliff as the Sky Tower activates and she finds herself back in her homeworld.

- Just after arriving, a rescue team discovers her and brings her back to safety. Just as they take off in a helicopter, the Sky Tower activates once more and the Rathalos flies through and crashes their helicopter.

- The collected military units retaliate, but the Rathalos wreaks havoc upon them. Artemis, remembering the one weakness she was told they have, regroups and collects weapons.

- Confronting the Rathalos, Artemis does a fine job until she's ultimately outclassed by the giant dragon. As it prepares to finish her off, the Rathalos is finished off first by Hunter using explosive arrows.

- The Admiral has followed Hunter (and the Rathalos) into the portal, and explains that the Sky Tower is now wide open and monsters from The New World are coming into Artemis'. 

- They make a plan to shut down the Sky Tower for good, but first they have to fight their way through all the monsters now coming through. The movie ends on a cliffhanger as the 3 attack another dragon looking monster.

Kaiju Notes 

- Diablos is an intimidating beast, some sort of combination of dragon and demon with black coloration in all the right places. It breathes fire, impales with its horns, and has a tail which is useful for whipping any fool who gets in the way. It's basically being a walking disaster for any who cross their path, especially because the guns that the military unit were using against it seemed entirely ineffective, meaning that without using the (largely melee) weapons of the homeland it basically couldn't be harmed.

- The Nerscylla are pretty boring giant spider monsters, but the scene where the eggs hatch out of one of the soldiers is pretty effectively gruesome. They're still spooky because spiders are spooky, but their apparently horrific lifecycle is what really makes 'em gnarly.

- Rathalos is really just a dragon, even down to breathing fire. Dragons are super cool, so it's not like Rathalos lacks coolness, but it's not the most exciting final boss (even if it is the most logical).

There is one notable element of this movie that I wanted to address first: the two main characters can only barely communicate. I actually really like this aspect of the film and it should really be utilized more in mainstream stories. Artemis and Hunter being functionally unable to speak makes the story much leaner than most would be, not spending whole scenes on exposition and nonsense while also building a relationship between two people naturally. In a movie with a distressingly thin plot already, it's an interesting touch that could be used to much greater effect if people filmmakers would just embrace it.

Monster Hunter, is... fine. This movie almost certainly did not change anyone's life and everything about it is pretty standard for the genre. There's very little "meat" on these bones, but everything is competent. As someone not especially familiar with the game series it's based on, I really can't speak on the film from a fan perspective. But like Rampage, which we covered on this blog, it is a relief that we are finally past the point where every video game-based film is total shit. This isn't as fun as Rampage (or even Sonic the Hedgehog, which is also far from amazing), but it's not the nightmare that many video game movies are.

The weapons used in the film are obviously based on the game weapons, but I do appreciate the way that the film embraces the game's "keep what you kill, build on it" concepts. The machine guns that the military characters bring into The New World are basically completely ineffective, outside of the (obviously rare) grenades. But since the weapons and armor of The New World are made from the creatures within it, they're also the most effective manner of fighting back against them. As far as a reason why traditional weapons don't work against the kaiju of the movie, it's a fairly good one. Artemis doesn't learn how to use the weapons and wear the armor because she's in a strange place and decides to assimilate into the culture but because not doing so will get her literally nothing but killed. It is also a relatively graceful way to avoid the "wise native" trope of so many films before it, something that would have been extremely easy to fall into with a plot like this.

That's about it. As far as the final film covered for this blog about The Year of Kaiju (2022), I'd hope that it would be more polarizing, but here we are. The monsters are all quite monster-y and some of the more brutal elements are very effective. Nerscylla actually add an interesting horrific element to the movie in contrast to the "giant, angry, dangerous" vibes that the Diablos and Rathalos give off. If they made a second, I probably wouldn't watch it, but if someone turned it on at a social gathering I'd stick around.

Next: 2023!

Colossal

Kaiju movies can be funny. Death Kappa tried it, Shin Godzilla had some undeniable intentional comedic themes, and now we have Colossal. A dark comedy directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Colossal is a "lite-kaiju" movie for reasons you'll understand as you read on. The stars of this one are not really kaiju actors (especially not in suits), but instead the very famous Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis. Originally billing itself as "the cheapest Godzilla movie ever made" when it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, Colossal is a story about a lot of things: the kaiju being more metaphor than character in a manner we have not ever seen in any movie we've covered yet.

This film does have some interesting drama behind the scenes... That promo line, "the cheapest Godzilla movie ever made," alongside using some unauthorized images of Godzilla to bring in potential investors actually got the film in a bit of trouble. Toho, the copyright owners/creators of Godzilla, did not take kindly to the producers using Godzilla to finance their upcoming film and filed a lawsuit before the film even began filming. The resutling settlement that took place before the movie was widely released which caused the film's setting (for the kaiju elements) to move from Tokyo to Seoul and a promise that no Godzilla derivatives would appear. The greatest irony of all? Colossal had a budget of $15 million dollars, which is tiny for an American studio release but obviously quite a bit to most people. The original Gojira had a budget of 100 million yen, the equivalent of about $3 million today. Even Shin Godzilla, released the same year as Colossal's film festival premiere, had a budget equivalent to $15 million, making the fact that Colossal got in trouble for using Godzilla's image in its early stages and the "cheapest" tagline completely unnecessary because it wasn't even true! Hilarious. That all said, let's talk about this dark comedy.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- In Seoul, South Korea, we see a giant monster appear. 25 years later, we meet Gloria as she comes home after yet another night drinking. Her boyfriend breaks up with her and packs her things, so Gloria has little choice but to return to her hometown alone.

- Once back in town she coincidentally comes across old acquaintance Oscar. He owns a bar (perfect!) and offers her a job.

- Oscar shows signs of who he really is right away when Gloria almost smooches one of his friends and Oscar reacts very strongly but frames it as concern for her sake.

- Waking up to the news of a giant monster randomly materializing in Seoul, stomping through the city, and then simply disappearing into thin air, Gloria is shocked. She drinks to cope, predictably.

- Waking up to Oscar showing up at her house to offer her a TV they apparently discussed last night but that she doesn't remember, there's been another monster attack. 

- This attack being less severe with the monster mostly standing around looking confused, Gloria notices that the creature shares a particular gesture with her. It seems crazy, but maybe they're connected?

- Gloria conducts a test that confirms she is in fact the monster. While hanging with her drinking buddies (including Oscar) she drunkenly reveals her new secret.

- After accidentally crashing a helicopter into her head (in her defense, it did shoot her first) Gloria gets overwhelmed and ends up falling down. She wakes up panicked to find out how many people she killed when she crashed, but this news comes secondary to the reveal that when Oscar enters the park he also emerges in Seoul as a giant robot.

- Gloria decides to make an attempt at amends by having someone translate some Korean characters and writes an apology in the ground at her next opportunity. She stops drinking, trying to be better given everything.

- Gloria makes a move on the cute guy in her friend group and wakes up in the morning with him to find that the Oscar-Robot is taunting Seoul with threats of destruction. She confronts him in the playground and even slaps him in the face to the cheers of everyone who thinks it's just two monsters fighting.

- Oscar begins to finally act out more obviously, using his power over Gloria as her boss and a threat to the people of Seoul to control her, constantly vacillating between apologetic/kind and abusive.

- During one of Oscar's episodes, Gloria remembers the incident that caused the kaiju connection, when they were hit by lightning inside the playground while carrying toys that look like their respective creatures. She realizes he's always been this way and confronts him just as the air raid warnings go off indicating the time to destroy or save Seoul is nearly upon us.

- The two have a fight in Gloria's house where she breaks all of her furniture trying to stop him, but he escapes and heads toward the park. They square up to fight in the park, but Oscar is bigger and stronger than her so takes her down easily. While she tries to get up, Oscar intentionally steps on several buildings while she begs him to stop.

- Saying he will do this every morning if she leaves, Gloria seems despondent until she comes up with a plan for the next morning. She flies to Seoul.

- When the air raid sirens go off, both parties prepare to confront the other. Gloria uses her human body in Seoul to manifest her monster body in the park, now able to handle Oscar quite easily since now she's bigger and stronger. She throws him into the horizon, finally bringing an end to his robotic reign of terror.

Kaiju Notes 

- Monster-Gloria is a pretty generic looking beast, resembling a goblin as much as it does any animal or human. Considering it's now really the point of the movie, it's difficult to really fault it for not being a complex design. It does have a relatively scary countenance, but it shows a degree of expressiveness that really helps Gloria's thoughts and intentions come across.

- Robot-Oscar is a little more intentionally designed, having a square head and a singular red eye surrounded by little robot horns. The singular red eye (and perhaps automaton-ness) help make it seem a bit menacing.

If it's not entirely obvious, and it should be, this is a metaphor about abusive relationships. Gloria really just goes from one to another, as her boyfriend in the beginning of the movie is clearly fed up with her alcoholism and antics but displays that same "fed-up-ness" even when she's in recovery and in a better position. Oscar, of course, isn't her boyfriend (and could only barely be called a friend by the time he starts acting out) but is the most obvious case of the abusive men Gloria has to deal with. Oscar is an abusive relationship that's primarily empowered by the kaiju connection he and Gloria share with the people of Seoul as his pawns. And it's not just Gloria caught in his tangled web of abuse, as his friends seem unable to do anything against him when either he acts out or turns against them directly.

Joel, the cute guy Gloria starts a little fling with, is the worst. He knows how Oscar behaves and the consequences of it and leaves Gloria to do all of the work in trying to prevent it. I have to assume there's some sort of reason behind why he does nothing and watches Gloria get beat up instead of just punching his so-called friend Oscar in the dick, but it definitely makes me hate him. He does watch happily the television when Gloria confronts him from Seoul, but he was the person most able to actually do something about the situation and it just infuriates me that he didn't.

Both of the lead actors are great. Gloria's growing confidence and subtle recovery comes across quite well, and Sudeikis is quite good at unpeeling the onion of Oscar's rage as we go, first seeming fairly normal before becoming more and more noticeably unhinged. Anne Hathaway in particular is putting in a lot of work by focusing her performance on her body language and expressions, not getting the chance to make the same monologues as Sudeikis but manages to show Gloria's raveling at the same time as Oscar's unraveling.

Colossal is not a complex film. Even this review (is that what I do here? Reviews?) is relatively short because there aren't GIANT COMPLEX IDEAS to be explored. Abusive relationships, metaphor, kaiju, go. Great performances. But Colossal doesn't need to be complicated: it's great. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Next: Godzilla Trilogy (Netflix)!

D-War

The same man who made the Yonggary film from 1999 is back for another shot at a kaiju movie: Shim Hyung-rae returns! While Yonggary did not go over well on this blog, we believe in 2nd (or 3rd or 4th or 75th) chances in this house! Like Yonggary, D-War is based in the US and stars mostly American (or at least English-speaking) actors. The most recognizable of these actors are Jason Behr and Robert Forster, but there's some other familiar faces in here too.

The monsters/kaiju in this one are almost entirely CGI, so there's no suit credit to be given. But it is notable that this film pulls from Korean mythology, with the premise being a dragon-like serpent called an Imugi transforming through mystical means into a proper Dragon. The movie spells this Imoogi, so that's what we're going with here. Another significant note for this film is that at the time it was released it was the most expensive Korean film ever made. So, hopefully that investment pays off when it comes to quality!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- Every 500 years, a woman is born who contains a mighty spirit. Pursued by both good and evil serpents/Imoogi because of her power to turn them into powerful dragons, our main character Ethan is sworn to protect this woman.

- We get the story of the last woman born with this power, and see a tragic love story from 500 years ago where the woman and her protector/lover die after escaping from the evil serpent/Imoogi Baraki.

- Ethan, the reincarnation of the warrior who died with the previous Spirit lady, finds her reincarnation, a woman named Sarah.

- Tasked to bring Sarah to the Grand Cave on her 20th birthday, bad things begin to happen as the evil Baraki arrives in Los Angeles, and some mysterious and clearly evil human figure confronts Ethan (seems like a wizard or something).

- Escaping with Sarah and his friend, they are pursued by wizard guy but hit him with a car. He manifests armor and beats them up, but another car manages to knock him over and allow them to escape.

- Baraki's army rises to give chase, and now LA is under attack by the army in pursuit of Sarah (and Ethan).

- Not managing to make it out of LA before Baraki's army descends upon everyone, Baraki appears to be winning. Just in the nick of time, the military counter attacks and manages to fend Baraki off for a moment.

- We now get to watch Baraki's reptilian army battle the US military, and... it's kind of fun?

- Eventually, Baraki captures Ethan and Sarah and takes them to a ritual site. Once there, the good Imoogi emerges and tries to protect them, but is quickly felled by the powerful Baraki.

- Sarah realizes what she must do, and feeds her spiritual orb to the good Imoogi. She collapses and it transforms into a powerful dragon (even grows arms)!

- After another extremely quick battle, the good Dragon shoots a fireball down the throat of Baraki, who is reduced first to a skeleton and then to ash.

- Sarah is dead, but her spirit lingers long enough to tell Ethan she will love him for eternity.

Kaiju Notes 

- The Imoogi are giant snakes. They look like snakes and they act like snakes. Buraki is darker, so he looks more evil.

- The Atrox army also contains giant artillery bearing Dawdlers, the agile flying Bulco, and velociraptor/utahraptor like Shaconnes.

- Lastly, the Celestial Dragon is a very classic asian dragon creature.

- None of these kaiju designs are particularly creative, if you can't tell.

So, this is a very strange case. D-War is... horrible. And I love it. It starts out cheesy and weird and just doubles down over and over and over until a giant reptilian army is fighting with the US military. This movie has a distinct sense of humor but ultimately plays it straight, and I think its better for it. Despite how nonsensical every event is, the commitment to the bit makes it work despite never being anything resembling a quality film. It's a hard case, and it won't work for everyone. I waffle on whether I enjoy it myself. But at the end of the day for me it lands on the "so bad it's kinda good" side of things in that indiscernible way only movies of this kind.

Beyond that, there's very little that can be said about D-War. It sucks, but in a way that somehow makes it work? I could never possibly recommend it as an even "okay" movie, but find it entertaining. Whether it's giant dinosaurs launching artillery or dragons whipping US military helicopters out of the sky, this movie is just strange, terrible, and entertaining all at the same time. The acting isn't particularly good and the jokes are generally pretty bad but this shit makes me laugh every time. I have no way to explain it, so I'm not going to try. If you're into awful movies that somehow make it work, this is an example (unlike Death Kappa, which just sucks).

Next: Gamera the Brave!

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Today we're talking about the only film in Godzilla's Millennium series that is a sequel to another from the same series. While every Millennium series movie takes the original Gojira as a past event, none of them besides Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.has acknowledged any other film since 1999. Better still, this one also includes an acknowledgement of 1961's Mothra. So, if you haven't seen Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (or read the awesome blog post) you'll want to bone up before getting into this one.

On technical notes things are pretty much exactly the same as last time, Masaaki Tezuka directs, Tsutomu Kitagawa is Godzilla, and Kiryu returns. This time, however, Kiryu is played by Motokuni Nakagawa. There's not much stunning background info for this one except the fact that the director was presented with four screenplays to work with and found them all too "boring." So, he wrote the plot (screenplay?) for this one overnight and that is the movie we've got on our hands! It's an impressive feat, but the most important question is whether it pays off. So let's get to talking about Tokyo SOS.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- In the opening, the Japanese Xenomorph Self-Defense Forces (JXSDF) combats Mothra despite Mothra clearly focusing on simply getting away.

- Kiryu (MechaGodzilla) is still under repair from the events of the last movie.

- Mothra's representatives, the Shobijin, appear to MechaGodzilla scientist/engineer Yoshi and tell him that they must return the bones of the original Godzilla to the sea or Mothra will declare war on the human race. They don't want that, and neither does Mothra. If they do return the bones, Mothra will replace Kiryu as the protector of Japan against Godzilla.

- As an intimidation tactic? Mothra appears outsides Yoshi's house as this message is delivered, apparently meaning business. For context, in the continuity of this film Mothra was last seen 43 years ago and destroyed Tokyo (possibly a reference to the original Mothra movie).

- Yoshi's uncle who was present when the Shobijin appeared, tries to convince the prime minister but he refuses because both Godzilla and Mothra are both still (theoretical) threats.

- A dead Kamoebas (giant tutrtle) washes up on the shore, and the only culprit could be Godzilla.

- Godzilla's back for more after the last movie, and he destroys a submarine before Mothra eventually confronts him. As she begins to lose the fight Kiryu, mostly operational but missing its Absolute Zero weapon, joins the battle.

- Mothra loses, as always, and sacrifices herself to keep Kiryu safe. Fortunately, she has laid an egg and two Mothra larvae emerge from it.

- Though the twin Mothra's attempt to support him, Kiryu is defeated and completely shut down when it runs out of power. Yoshi has a plan to restore power to the robot, however.

- With some help from the Shobijin, JXSDF, and Mothras, Yoshi makes it to Kiryu and has time to work his engineering magic. 

- Despite not being a Mecha G pilot, Yoshi is inside Kiryu when it reactivates and is now along for the ride

- As Kiryu turns the fight around and begins to win against Godzilla, the memories of the bones inside Kiryu begin to affect it and it loses the will to fight. Godzilla is weakened enough for the twin Mothras to encase him in their silk.

- Given an order to finish off Godzilla, Kiryu's pilot attempts to follow orders but Kiryu is no longer responsive. It approaches the helpless Godzilla and activates its rockets to take them both to the sea.

- With Yoshi still inside, Kiryu is headed to the Japanese Trench where it intends to sink both itself and Godzilla. Yoshi accepts his fate, being inside the robot which is on a murder-suicide mission.

- Fortunately for Yoshi, Kiryu has some affection for him and orients itself so that he can escape and be rescued by his comrades in the JXSDF before sending him a final message on its computer: Sayonara Yoshito (a nickname).

- Godzilla and Kiryu plunge into the Japanese Trench, the pressure almost certainly being enough to finish them both.

- The Shobijin thank Yoshi and the others for their bravery and close with the message that humanity should never lay theirs hands on the soul of other beings.

- In a surprise post credits scene, a DNA lab announces the commencement of a "bioformation" experiment with an extinct creature, as we see the collected DNA of the original Godzilla. dunDunDUN

Kaiju Notes 

- Mothra tech is at it's absolute finest here. Mothra has fully flappable wings for what I think is the first time! She also seems significantly larger than previous versions. Besides the advancements in Mothra puppet technology (or CGI) and the increase in size (or decrease in Godzilla's size?), Mothra looks exactly as expected. This isn't a bad thing, Mothra is dope.

- Because the kaiju in this movie are literally just the same ones as last time, it's a bit difficult to think of anything much to say about Godzilla or Kiryu that I didn't already. Kiryu's arsenal is still awesome, and Godzilla's Atomic Breath seems a little faster. Shrug.

- Having lost the Absolute Zero weapon from the last film, Kiryu does now have the Hyper Maser, which is essentially just an enhanced version of the maser cannons the JXSDF uses. It looks like some combination of lightning and/or King Ghidorah's gravity beams, and seems effective but nothing like Absolute Zero.

So, first things first: I mentioned in the Against MechaGodzilla post that that movie felt like a setup for a sequel. Tokyo SOS is that sequel. And... if we're being honest... it doesn't really deliver on the promise of that one. This is not by any means a bad film, but I was hoping for a sequel on par with the 90s series of Gamera films because each was unique and great while managing to stay connected. Tokyo SOS does not succeed in balancing that, both entirely reliant on knowledge from the previous film but refusing to use the potential that one set up to make something great. Kiryu being without its Absolute Zero cannon is a great example: the thing that made Kiryu such a force in the previous film simply being discarded in this one so that any victory Godzilla pulls off seems hollow. And Godzilla does win, the first round at least, but we know its against a for he's been beaten by before which is not currently at its best. One could argue that Mothra makes a kind of equalizer, but I don't see it. If Godzilla was going to get a win over Kiryu, it should've been 100% Kiryu.

That said, on its own terms Tokyo SOS is aggressively fine. The ending is actually quite fitting and good, with the classic story of a man and a robot falling for each other. Kiryu and Godzilla going to hell together is also an excellent cap on the story line set in the 3 move lineage, and so the film does stick the landing. It's just the "getting there" part that lacks luster. Mothra, as much as we love her here, was a wasted addition to a movie which not only could have done without her but would have been better without her. She distracts from allowing the film to deliver on the promise of its prequel and only comes into the movie to die and be replaced by its twin progeny. It's entirely predictable and utterly unnecessary. But when the movie is working (and Mothra is uninvolved), it works pretty well. It's just disappointing that we have to spend so much time with the middling Mothra plot instead of the legitimately fun and interesting developments involving Kiryu.

As is often the case with kaiju films, Tokyo SOS is a mixed bag but relatively entertaining. I'll confess to finding this one overall underwhelming. That ultimately makes it disappointing on several levels: lack of followup from the previous film, Mothra's unnecessary addition making the movie relatively uninteresting on its own terms, and largely wasting the promise (and excellence) of Kiryu. Disappointing. If you're a completionist it's worth a look, but skipping this one would barely be noticeable.

Next: Godzilla: Final Wars!

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

The 27th Godzilla film sees the return of one of my personal favorite kaiju: MechaGodzilla. And I couldn't be happier, because now we're talking 21st century MechaGodzilla, the best century. Directed by Masaaki Tezuka, returning from vs. Megaguirus, we finally get a modern take on MechaGodzilla following GMK's version of Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Baragon. Still following the trend of rebooting the continuity, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla takes as a given only the first film in the series with no references to any other. Tsutomu Kitagawa returns again as Millennium Godzilla (is that ever not true? Spoiler: no) and Hirofumi Ishigaki makes his debut in the series as the new MechaGodzilla. There's not much else to talk about as preamble to this one: it seems fairly obvious to bring MechaGodzilla back, so they did. Most other things will be explained in the synopsis below, so don't miss it! One particular note is that like the previous film GMK, this is one of the relatively rare Godzilla films to embrace the supernatural, though in a different manner than GMK did. So let's get to the details and see what Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla has to offer.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- In this Millennium film, the original Godzilla attack in 1954 seems to have set off a chain reaction of other monsters coming to Japan, but never Godzilla until the opening of this film in 1999.

- Member of the Anti-Megalosaurus Force (AMF) Akane Yashiro is fighting back against Godzilla when a jeep of her companions crashes into her and falls off the mountain, being crushed by Godzilla in the process.

- Akane is demoted to a research section of the AMF, a lab specializing in placing robotic exoskeletons over existing tissue.

- The AMF decides to make a Godzilla-like anti-Godzilla weapon: a Mechagodzilla built over the top of the bones of the original Godzilla. This is Kiryu.

- In Kiryu's first confrontation with Godzilla, the new Godzilla's roar awakens the restless spirit of the original Godzilla inside the bones of Kiryu, causing the cyborg to go berserk and attack its handlers and other military.

- Kiryu eventually runs out of power and shuts down. The AMF reprograms it to ensure that this type of incident can never happen again.

- A child schools everyone on how they insist on violence when Kiryu clearly just wants to be friends, but because she's a child (and right) no one listens to her.

- Godzilla returns to do his dirt and Kiryu is sent out to confront him again because no better choice exists.

- Godzilla roars at Kiryu and this time it does not decide to turn against Japan again, so the two Godzillas can have a proper battle.

- Kiryu's control systems are damaged by Godzilla, and Akane decide that she'll have to pilot it manually if they have any chance of winning now. Akane and Kiryu team up!

- Akane almost dies immediately but eventually seems to connect with Kiryu and convince it to get back on its feet. When her AMF allies create a distraction, she lands a killer blow with Kiryu's strongest weapon and freeze Godzilla in the sea.

- Godzilla's breaks out of the ice relatively quickly, but now sports a nasty gaping chest wound.

- Rather than waste time fighting with this massive wound, Godzilla simply walks away as Akane-Kiryu runs of power and is unable to fight any further.

- Akane gets credit for saving some of her allies and the day, while Kiryu is taken back to base for significant repairs. And for the first time, Godzilla has actually been turned back even if they didn't manage to kill it.

- Movie end, but it's definitely set up for a sequel. Spoilers.

Kaiju Notes 

- Kiryu is badass. I love a sleek robot, and Kiryu is one of the sleekest kaiju of all time and a robot.

- Kiryu's abilities are traditional robot weapons: lasers, cannons, missiles, and a few body accessories including jetpack and a spike that also electrocutes. It's all fairly predictable, but sometimes good things are predictable. If lasers weren't awesome every robot wouldn't have them. Kiryu does have one devastating and unique attack, an ice laser called Absolute Zero which freezes and disintegrates multiple skyscrapers when it misses Godzilla.

The human stories really have improved in the Millennium era. While there's certainly still moments of "let's get to the kaiju," most of the human stories in the past few films have seemed necessary and valuable as connective tissue for the kaiju action. It's a vast improvement over other films where the human story is almost entirely disposable and thus mostly just wastes time. Akane isn't the most complex character, but her narrative arc makes sense and is easy to understand, as well as her motivations throughout the film. Her contribution to the goes beyond "pilots Kiryu" and into some actual character writing where she redeems herself but also considers her efforts a failure since Godzilla continues to live. Assuming she returns for the next one, Akane could go down as a pretty significant/great Godzilla character.

The connection between Kiryu/OG Godzilla and new Godzilla is an interesting and unexpected dynamic, which doesn't get enough time to be explored in this movie. Were it not for knowing that there is a sequel to follow, it would be a tremendous disappointment that this event was a simple one-off scene. Knowing there is a sequel I am assuming, but don't know, that it will be explored further, so it can be downgraded to a mild-moderate disappointment that this movie chooses to push this story thread to the side. 

And that last paragraph really does explain this entire movie: fine, but really relying on a sequel to deliver the goods. Even the kaiju action of Against Mechagodzilla is really just okay, with some highlights but nothing truly memorable being seen. But if the follow-up delivers, it could be something truly special. This film suffers from being a prelude, but one that will (hopefully) give much needed context to the next. So, consider this one a soft watch, for now. Let's see if it pays off.

Next: Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

We're making history here, fellas. With the longest title in the Godzilla series, there is also another distinction in this film, but we'll get there. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (or GMK from here on out) is another in the Millennium series but is also distinguished in that it's also one of the few Godzilla movies that fully embraces the supernatural. If you want to know exactly how, you'll have to read the synopsis! But let's talk about one other interesting facet of the movie: the titular monsters are all in a melee, but it is not the three-way fight one might expect. King Ghidorah is actually a heroic kaiju in this one, for the first time ever ole KG is one of the good guys. It's honestly a bit strange to consider, but here it is in all its glory. Mothra does remain on the side of the good guys, so she teams up with King Ghidorah (and one other monster) to try to bring down Godzilla in GMK.

Shusuke Kaneko directs, returning to kaiju movies after making the excellent Gamera trilogy in the mid 90's. Mizuho Yoshida retains his position as Millennium Godzilla, and Akira Ohashi is King Ghidorah. But the best credit goes to Rie Ota as Baragon, in the greatest performance of all time. Period. We love Rie Ota on this blog and in this life, end of. Let's talk about GMK.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- An American nuclear submarine has gone missing. While searching for it, the fun of a giant creature which resembles Godzilla is caught on camera. In this continuity, Godzilla has not been seen (officially) since 1954. While some sightings have been suspected, there's been no major attacks.

- A while later, Baragon appears on land and attacks. Many people assume this to be Godzilla's return, but we will discover this is not the case.

- A filmmaker/documentarian named Yuri Tachibana is our main human character, and she is given a book about the Guardian Monsters. These are Mothra, Baragon, and King Ghidorah.

- Elsewhere, a Mothra larva is woken up and kills several people when it capsizes their boat.

- Given a clue while investigating Mothra's awakening, Tachibana and her crew head to the supposed location of King Ghidorah. They find a mysterious stone and told that Godzilla is on its way to destroy Japan as punishment: Godzilla being either the manifestation of or fuelled by people who died during World War II, including soldiers, civilians, and .

- A man who was preparing to hang himself falls into King Ghidorah's cave, bringing all of our kaiju players into the story.

- As the human characters debate exactly what's happening and whether they believe the fairy tale of Godzilla being the manifestation of casualties of WWII and the Guardian Monsters awakening to fight him off, Baragon destroys the building they are in.

- While Baragon is initially mistaken for Godzilla, the true Godzilla appears on the nearby coast. The two monsters must now do battle.

- Baragon clamps down on Godzilla's arm and is simply tossed around due to his small size in comparison. After throwing Baragon to the ground, Godzilla simply stomps Baragon out and continues throwing him around the area before ending the fight with an Atomic Breath attack. This was not even close.

- With one of the Guardian Monsters dead and Godzilla destroying the country and the JSDF, Ghidorah and (Imago) Mothra return to the scene, finally fully emerging from their hiding places.

- Tachibana, always been closest to the developing story, warns the JSDF (and father, an admiral in the JSDF) to not attack Mothra or Ghidorah as they are actually allies of humanity.

- Mothra arrives, and attacks, first. Her speed proves to be a decisive factor and Godzilla can't make full contact.

- As Mothra gains an advantage by attacking Godzilla's neck and head, Ghidorah joins the fray and uses his three heads to bite at Godzilla and deliver Gravity Beams to his body. Unfortunately for him, having three necks means he has triple the targets and Godzilla clamps down on him.

- Ghidorah is defeated relatively quickly, Godzilla biting his neck and weakening him before aiming Atomic Breath at him for the finish. Fortunately, or unfortunately since she's been way more effective thus far, Mothra intercepts the beam and takes the hit for Ghidorah.

- While the Guardian Monsters recover, Godzilla is attacked by the JSDF and wipes them out too. Mothra attempts to sneak up on Godzilla and deliver some devastating attack but receives a point blank atomic blast for her troubles. She explodes into a golden mist which rains down on Ghidorah.

- Ghidorah, empowered by Mothra's sacrifice, rises from the ground and becomes 1000-Year Old Dragon Ghidorah, a powered up version of regular Ghidorah (with extra golden color!). He overpowers Godzilla in a Battle of the Blasts.

- Taking the battle into the water, Ghidorah seems to be winning. To take advantage of this opportunity, Tachibana's father plans to pilot a submarine to destroy Godzilla, expecting to die in the process despite his promise to Tachibana to return home.

- Reporting on the events as they happen, Tachibana falls off a bridge after it's destroyed as collateral damage of the kaiju battle.

- The submarine nearly manages to hit Godzilla with their special missile, but the Big G is clever and instead turns so Ghidorah take the impact. When it flinches, he Atomic Breaths Ghidorah and knocks him out.

- Tachibana, close to the battle and falling from a bridge, drops the stone she found earlier into the sea where Ghidorah is and Ghidorah is revived once more. Now on his 3rd chance, he takes flight while Godzilla stays in the water.

- This doesn't work, and Ghidorah is once again hit with Atomic Breath, this time full exploding so there's no more question about whether he's going to come back.

- The spirits of the Guardian Monsters linger in the air and seem to make one last (spiritual) attack against Godzilla which sends him underwater. Admiral Tachibana seizes the chance to pilot his submarine into the throat of Godzilla.

- Seeing a vision of his daughter encouraging him not to let Godzilla win, the Admiral launches the special missile into Godzilla's open wound. It slows him down but doesn't prevent him from gathering his Atomic Breath to laser the nearby (younger) Tachibana to death.

- Fortunately for both Tachibana's the gaping wound means that Godzilla's atomic power instead rips through him and destroys his body. Godzilla is finally dead, and Admiral Tachibana pilots his submarine back to the surface.

- Everyone celebrates, but as a final shot we see foreboding image of the still beating heart of Godzilla at the bottom of the sea.

Kaiju Notes

- Baragon is the cutest, bestest boy. While he's in this movie only very briefly, he's got beautiful floppy ears, a cool horn, and coloring we don't often get to say (reddish). He has no real powers worth mentioning considering how quickly he got his ass whipped, but we stan Baragon on this blog. His roar is a bit shrill but distinct. It's got nothing on what will always be his true roar: Rie Ota.

- Godzilla's appearance has changed somewhat from the previous Millennium films, and he is more menacing this time. His teeth are less jagged, his dorsal fins seem less pronounced and more orderly, and his eyes are all white at all times which gives him an aura of being possessed. While every element is actually less "wild" than his previous incarnation, this actually makes it seem like Godzilla is more designed for maximum efficiency rather than a wild animal. His Atomic Breath also causes mushroom clouds to longer where he uses it, really driving home the World War II connection.

- Mothra has been given longer legs and purple eyes, but otherwise looks very similar to every other Mothra design we've ever seen. She also looks more realistic than she ever has, the previous Mothra puppets having a certain "stuffed animal" feel to them.

- Ghidorah's necks have been shortened, which probably makes the suit much easier to manipulate. The golden color is muted because his only scenes are at night, but when the light catches it just right it looks quite good. 1000 Year Old Dragon Ghidorah gains fangs and some extra golden glow, but otherwise looks about the same as always.

Early on after the monsters begin to appear, there is a moment where, after Godzilla uses his Atomic Breath, a Japanese school teacher sees a mushroom cloud in the sky after a brief flash of light. Especially given Godzilla's origin story being directly tied to World War II, it's a genuinely affecting moment. The movie does not linger or dwell on this instance, but that is perhaps what makes it worse (and more effective). In perhaps a meta-commentary on it, whether intentional or not, the Japanese don't have the luxury of dwelling on the situation.

In one hilarious moment the military is watching the battle from a skyscraper which Mothra has used as a base from which to launch attacks. When she returns to the building at one point, Godzilla is trying to Atomic Breath her and we watch the soldiers inside realize they're about to explode as Mothra flies straight toward them before shooting up to the top of the building. If we didn't know better, we'd have to assume she did it on purpose because she hates soldiers. She might!

On the previous point, while I found that one example somewhat amusing, this film does a better job than many in the series of establishing the consequences of Godzilla's various battles. Rubble falls onto people, occupied buildings are destroyed, and people get caught in the crossfire while the kaiju battle it out. It's a small but underused element, in my opinion, in kaiju movies in general. Dwelling on the deaths of humans isn't really the goal, but making sure the audience can feel that these events are truly significant for more than just property damage makes the movies seem more relatable to me. It's the same effect as "kaiju destroys tanks and ships" versus "actually watching people react to their impending doom". It hits very different.

Godzilla is the literal manifestation of the casualties of World War II, apparently attacking Japan particularly because of their refusal to account for their own crimes during the war. It's an oddly pointed metaphor for Godzilla to embody when kaiju movies which bother with metaphors at all often go with the environmental or anti-nuclear message, but now we have the physical embodiment of the sins of war (both committed on and by the Japanese). It's not really clear whether that means Godzilla is supposed to be a consequence of mankind's fondness for violence or a simple monstrous representation of it, but the undying heart of Godzilla at the end somewhat implies the latter. It's also the first example of Godzilla's origin story being explicitly supernatural, and one of the relatively few Godzilla films to embrace supernatural elements entirely. It's what make me think that while this Godzilla is the casualties of WWII, the idea behind this one is that there will always be a Godzilla, even if it's the physical form of some different aspect of the horrors of humanity.

GMK is a mixed bag. The story and all of the elements truly do work. Even King Ghidorah, somehow, make a decent hero. Godzilla comes off as a truly unstoppable force, killing all of his kaiju enemies off either easily or multiple times. While Baragon is adorable and deserves better, crushing the cutie so ruthlessly makes Godzilla meaner and harsher. And anyone with experience in Godzilla movies knows that King Ghidorah is typically quite threatening, so watching his get killed by Godzilla on multiple occasions is like seeing the Undertaker lose at Wrestlemania. The story of the two Tachibana's is effective and blends nicely into the rest of the film, never overtaking or undermining the kaiju story. The only true downside is that the Guardian Monsters looks incompetent throughout and it becomes much harder to believe they have any chance at all as the movie continues. In fact, they really don't succeed at all, Godzilla ultimately being killed by the combination of a human weapon and his own immense power. And, as an aside, in a 50 year old series of movies about a cool and often heroic Godzilla, it's a little bit difficult to root against him. Seeing him beat the brakes off of King Ghidorah is oddly and viscerally satisfying even though we know we're supposed to be on the other side. It doesn't damage the movie in any significant way and remains quite fun throughout, but the behind the scenes decisions behind this one make it just a little harder to get behind than it could have or should have been. Definitely worth a watch, though!

Next: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla!

Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon

Orochi is a legendary monster from Japanese myth. In the realm of kaiju movies, it makes perfect sense that one of the monsters should be either based on Orochi or simply be the monster itself. Orochi, the Eight-Headed is an example of the latter (King Ghidorah is an example of the former). Based almost entirely around Shinto mythology, this is a kaiju movie featuring legends, gods, folklore, and other Japanese traditions. The main character, Ousu, is a semi-legendary figure from roughly the year 75 AD and the premise, twins being considered bad luck and one being exiled as a result, is based in (mostly outdated) Japanese folk beliefs.

Directed by Takao Okawara between Godzilla movies (vs. MechaGodzilla II and vs. Destoroyah specifically) and still produced by Toho, it's an interesting exploration of what a Toho kaiju film looks like without being tied into the greater Godzilla mythos. Heisei era suit acting veterans Kenpachiro Satsuma, Hurricane Ryu, and Wataru Fukuda also feature in this film as the titular Orochi, Kumasogami, and the entirely awesome Utsuno Ikusagami, respectively. Let's get to talking about the adventures of Ousu before it's too late.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- I'm gonna simplify the shit out of this, because the first version of it was incredibly long because this plot is... complex.

- The 2nd born twin of a pair of princes is considered an ill omen by both the Emperor and his advisor Tsukinowa. Saved after being thrown off a cliff by the White Bird of Heaven, Amano Shiratori, he returns to the palace as a grown man and fierce warrior. In his youth, he picked up a magatama (jewel/trinket) from a mystic cave.

- When he returns to the palace, his mother grows ill and dies. Blamed for this, his twin brother attacks him and the magatama activates mystical energy to protect Ousu and kills his brother.

- Exiled for the crimes of killing his mother and brother, Ousu must defeat the Kumaso people. He is joined by a woman named Oto on this quest, who can shoot fireballs using magic.

- After defeating the leader of the Kamaso and a literal god, Ousu is then told he will have to defeat the evil god Tsukuyomi in the form of a giant eight headed monster named Orochi or the world will be destroyed.

- On their quest to stop Orochi they are attacked by giant sea monster Kaishin Muba, and Oto dies while saving Ousu's life. 

- While lamenting Oto's death, Ousu sees his dead mother on the beach. This is Tsukinowa in disguise, and he stabs Ousu through the neck. Before Ousu passes out from blood loss, Tsukinowa confesses that he killed Ousu's mother and brother (finishing him off after the magatama knocked him out).

- An eclipse blots out the sun as Tsukinowa summons Tsukuyomi, allowing the evil god to return to earth after having been previously imprisoned in space.

- Ousu wakes up back in the mysterious cave from his youth, coming face to face and being tested by the god Susano'o. They fight briefly before Ousu pulls a glowing, lightsaber-like sword from a stone.

- Revealed to be part of this greater destiny because she possesses the spirit of the goddess Amaterasu, Oto is revived by Susano'o and the two are sent to the moon to confront Tsukuyomi/Orochi.

- A sword fight ensues, and so far there has been very little kaiju in this kaiju movie.

- Though Tsukiyomi is defeated, he transforms into the kaiju Orochi. Unable to defeat him as they currently are, the White Bird of Heaven appears and gives the two heroes a ride so they can attack Orochi properly. The sword Ousu carries manages to damage Orochi, but the eight heads are too powerful and he is thrown from the Bird.

- Oto blasts Orochi with her magic which provides Ousu an opportunity to launch himself onto one of the heads and repeatedly stab it with his sword. This heroic turn doesn't last and Orochi throws all 3 of his attackers into space.

- Oto dies, again, but this time her spirit flows into Ousu and he now has the "three lights' he's apparently needed the whole time. He transforms into a giant warrior, able now to match Orochi blow for blow. He demonstrates this by literally ripping off one of Orochi's heads.

- Summoning his sword again, Giant Ousu quickly slices off each of Orochi's heads before lasering him to death.

- Oto is revived when Orochi dies, and the two head home on the back of the White Bird of Heaven. Tsukuyomi is captured inside Ousu's magatama and sealed away after Ousu throws it into space.

- The eclipse ends and the Emperor finally accepts his son Ousu, realizing he's saved the world.

Kaiju Notes

- Kurasogami, the god of the Kuraso people, is a weird creature. He's too small to be a proper kaiju but is at least large and spooky looking. He has the power to transform his body into weapons, which proves pretty devastating against his mostly human enemies.

- Kaishin Muba is more accurately kaiju sized but also sports no particular abilities. While he's based in the ocean so is already dangerous, he's basically a classic kraken: tentacles and rage, not much else.

- Orochi is the titular kaiju, and is a pretty impressive looking beast. He's basically incredibly souped up King Ghidorah without the wings, and the 8 heads all look consistently pissed off and powerful.

- Giant Ousu looks like a goddamn Megazord in the best way, and one could easily be forgiven for thinking he's a robot. I watched the movie and am not entirely sure he's not. But either way, Giant Ousu is cool as hell and I want one.

- Giant Ousu's abilities include force fields, lasers from his forehead, a giant version of his Sword of Karasai, as well as bad ass wings along his back which don't do anything but are very cool. Orochi is mostly giant and angry and also breathes fire.

- Orochi, moreso than any other creature in the film, seems like a vicious beast. Besides having eight flame breathing heads, he moves with a certain sense of destruction and insistence on victory which Satsuma can be almost recognized by at this point. How the crew and cast managed to make the eight heads seems to work in relative unison given all the moving parts is pretty impressive, considering that it can often fail to come across that way with the three headed King Ghidorah. The battle of Orochi vs. Utsumo Ikusagami (Giant Ousu) is very cool, Orochi never backing down or being anything less than ferocious despite clearly being on the losing side versus the giant flowing warrior.

Every fight against a kaiju in this movie is hilariously unsuccessful, even when the humans eventually win. Kurasogami nearly kills everyone in the room until Ousu's magatama takes over his body and starts shooting lasers at it. Kaishin Muba almost kills Ousu, and does kill Oto, who sacrifices herself to take him out (and while she doesn't seem to know it at the time, she's got the spirit of a god in here). Orochi is also fought while Ousu and Oto are still in human form and get their shit wrecked again, being thrown into space where they would have died had Oto not given her spirit to Ousu so he could transform (a plan she did not have).

The frequent use of folklore and mythological elements makes this movie very inaccessible and also hard to accurately describe. Not the use of gods, necessarily, but the legendary figures like Genbu and Seiryu. I took them out of the description above because it was difficult to explain why they were there while also adhering to a (relatively) simple plot summary. It would be like if Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed appeared in a random American blockbuster: not necessarily out of line but very strange and definitely unnecessary. When you combine this with literal gods it becomes a movie that's honestly more dragged down by its folklore and mythology than helped. While I'm not Japanese so cannot truly speak for the significance of Genbu appearing, I can say that it doesn't seem very useful to have him appear for all of 3 scenes and then never be heard from again.

All of the above makes this movie sound pretty bad, and it is, but still manages to be relatively entertaining. The actual battles are fun, and the movie comes together in a certain way in the second half. Until getting to Kamusogami, however, it's entirely disposable. After clearing Genbu and Seiryu from the story we get to focus on the quest of Ousu and Oto and the narrative is strengthened by it. On the other side, Oto doesn't get a chance to shine as much as she should, really being a tool to empower or motivate Ousu rather than the badass goddess that she literally is.And Ousu is a pretty reactive character, essentially leaving us with a tail of two humans (reincarnated gods?) being led around by everyone around them but rarely making a decision for themselves. Orochi is a badass looking monster and Giant Ousu is like everything I want in a kaiju movie wrapped up into one fierce looking warrior, but it's hard to rescue such a weak story in the final 10 minutes.

Next: Gamera, Guardian of the Universe!

Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II

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!

Godzilla vs. Mothra

Mothra is back, in a movie once again written by Kazuki Ōmori but this time directed by one Takao Okawara. The main man Kenpachiro Satsuma remains the animalistic version of Godzilla, with Mothra being played by a puppet (as always!). This movie's direction was much more family-friendly and fantastical than the earlier days of the Heisei era, but in line with the approach the previous film, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, took. There's not a whole lot to explain about this movie except to emphasize that Mothra is awesome and movies with Mothra in them tend to be pretty good, so let's get to it.

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A trio of explorer's find a giant egg, belonging to Mothra. The Mothra Twins, in this movie called the Cosmos, explain that Mothra has an ancient enemy named Battra.

- Battra was created by the Earth itself to take down an ancient civilization that tried to control the climate, but eventually lost control of itself and aimed to destroy all humanity before being stopped by Mothra.

- The discovery of the egg appears to wake Battra, who goes on a frenzy while the Mothra egg is transported to the mainland for protection (until Mothra can hatch).

- Godzilla also awakens, attacking the ship on which the Mothra egg is being transported. The egg hatches just in time to avoid total disaster. Battra also appears here, lured by either Mothra or Godzilla.

- Larval Mothra, Godzilla, and larval Battra all fight in a 3-for-all. Battra and Godzilla take the fight to the bottom of the ocean while Mothra escapes to fight another day.

- Battra and Godzilla are swallowed by the earth when they cause a fissure in a tectonic plate and fall inside.

- The Cosmos being kidnapped (predictable, like the 3rd time this has happened), they sing Mothra's song and summon her. Mothra begins to return to Japan to retrieve her priestesses.

- Mothra destroys some of Japan as she searches for the Cosmos, until they manage to eventually call her off once they are freed. Hilariously, she destroys as much leaving as she did coming in.

- Mothra is attacked by the JSDF as she attempts to return home to Infant Island, eventually being weakened by the barrage of bullets and missiles. She wraps herself in an impenetrable cocoon attached to the Japanese Diet Building.

- Godzilla is back, baybee!

- Mothra emerges from her cocoon as Godzilla wrecks everything. She heads to confront Godzilla when a fully formed Battra emerges from the sea as well. Looks like another 3-for-all is beginning, but this time the two moth kaiju are in their final and most powerful forms.

- Battra manages to take down Mothra as Godzilla approaches them. Not able to finish her off due to Godzilla's intervention, Battra is then knocked down and injured by Godzilla's Atomic Breath. Before Battra can be finished off, Mothra recovers and interrupts Godzilla.

- Mothra flies over to Battra and they appear to communicate while the Cosmos sing. Godzilla rallies and attacks again, defeating Mothra and nearly crushing her with a ferris wheel.

- Despite being enemies just minutes before, Battra saves Mothra. He distracts Godzilla long enough for Mothra to launch a counter-offensive. She's eventually joined by Battra and they tag team the G-man.

- Godzilla is utterly defeated by the two working together. When he rallies and tries to win this fight, both moths drag him to the sea and Battra sinks with him, critically wounded already. 

- Mothra uses some sort of Mothra magic on the area before heading home with her Cosmos.

- Before leaving, the Cosmos warn that Battra was supposed to wake up in 1999 to save the planet from an approaching meteor. Mothra has now inherited this mission, having spoken with Battra about it before his death.

Kaiju Notes

- Mothra seems to look better every time she's in one of these movies. Larval form was not as juicy this time, which is my preference, because gooey Mothra is upsetting to me.

- Battra is actually a better designed larva than Mothra. She's... boring, but larval Battra is kind of badass. Combined with his horn, it makes larval Battra almost seem like he could be a final form.

- Imago Battra is a very cool interpretation of him as a a dark reflection of Imago Mothra. Where she looks cute and heroic he appears edgy and evil, which makes sense given their background as ancient enemies and Battra's specific origin as a manifestation of the planet's rage.

- The kaiju powers in this movie are relatively common: Battra having purple beams of energy as opposed to Mothra's gold and Godzilla's blue. As is often the case with flying kaiju, the flying makes the most significant difference.

The environmental message of this movie is clear. It's not quite as beaten over the head as it was in Godzilla vs. Hedorah, but the monster that is Battra is just "the rage of the Earth itself" that has lashed out to destroy all humans in order to prevent us from destroying the Earth first. This is not subtle. That said, it plays into the various kaiju as metaphors rather than outright villains or heroes. Ghidorah, excellent as he is, is a bit dull because he's always just the strongest minion of some other group with no real thought needing to be given as to why he exists. Battra, Mothra, and to a lesser extent in the Heisei era Godzilla, are all creatures that exist for a purpose even if that purpose proves detrimental to humanity. Mothra is a great example: a protector of humanity and humankind but absolutely willing to turn her awesome power against us should we violate her principles or desires. Unlike Godzilla she does not willingly destroy a city, but she's absolutely willing to cut a straight path through buildings to get to her Shobijin and then leave the same way. It allows kaiju to all be representative of different things and give them individual wills without having to insert some human character to explain it to us, which is the worst trope in the genre.

While it's unclear if this has happened in the past "canon" of the series now, I am tired of seeing human kidnap the Shobijin/Cosmos and think everything is going to be okay. On at least 3 separate occasions now we have seen human character trying to profit off of the Shobijin and it always ends disastrously for them. Even if we assume the new timeline has made this the first appearance of Mothra, the writers have to come up with a new trope. Somehow kidnapping them with the intention of getting a particular city destroyed is one random idea, and would at least create some new dynamic to play with rather than the greedy businessman we're always stuck with when Mothra is in one of these movies. Businessmen are evil, I agree, but this is fiction and sometimes we gotta mix it up. It's why Spider-Man has villains that aren't The Shocker, despite The Shocker being the best one.

Of note: Mothra and Battra become allies only after they appear to agree to save the planet from the approaching meteor and realizing that they won't survive against Godzilla if they don't work together. The three monsters initially fighting each other only weakens them all, and since Mothra and Battra share a purpose in protecting the planet they appear to make a shaky alliance to do that, knowing it will probably kill one of them. It's more characterization than most kaiju get, and I am into it. On the other side of things, the human story here is almost entirely forgettable, and I don't mind at all. While I can appreciate a good human side of a kaiju movie, I have said many times now that a kaiju movie should be about the monsters and this one manages that very nicely. The human story never seemed to last too long or be obtrusive, really just giving some additional context or stakes while allowing the monsters to do the real work.

The Heisei era is honestly pretty good so far. It doesn't seem to be the most popular series in Godzilla's timeline so I wasn't sure that it was going to be any good, but there have been no stinkers yet. Some are better than others, of course, and some (vs. Biollante) don't live up to their own potential even if still being really good, but there have been none of the era so far that have been unenjoyable or not worth seeing. Godzilla vs. Mothra is no different, managing to add enough new elements to make it a worthy successor to the original Mothra vs. Godzilla. Battra is a very cool monster with an interesting backstory, and Mothra remains the Queen of the Monsters.

Next: Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II!