Review: Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla

Godzilla defends Little Godzilla from an alien entity known as SpaceGodzilla, whose existence happened about due to Mothra, Biollante, and a black hole. On the human side of things, a mecha creation called MOGUERA and psychic Miki Saegusa each try to play their part in stopping Spacegodzilla’s threat to Little Godzilla and Japan itself. Toho kaiju veteran Kenji Sahara (looking pretty good for his age) turns up briefly in a cameo as a politician.

Although it’s not often listed among the best in the long-running franchise, this 1994 kaiju effort from director Kensho Yamashita (who was a bit more prolific as a 2^nd Unit Director) and screenwriters Kanji Kashiwa (strangely their sole credit of any kind to date) and Hiroshi Kashiwabara (who co-wrote the excellent Millennium Era films “Godzilla 2000” and “Godzilla vs. Megaguirus”) was a bit of a pleasant surprise for me. It’s sadly overlong and a bit cheap, but superlatively shot and worthy of at least a soft recommendation.

Admittedly the title sounds stupid and lazy, but I have to say that SpaceGodzilla is actually really awesome-looking (despite being pretty much Godzilla with a few add-ons and a more evil facial design). It might remind you of a mixture between Godzilla and Titanosaurus from “Terror of Mechagodzilla”. I also thought the idea behind the creation of SpaceGodzilla was interesting. For once it has nothing to do with duplicitous aliens up to no good. On the downswing, we also get ‘Little Godzilla’, which is essentially the Heisei Era version of Godzilla’s dopey son Minya (also known as Minilla). And boy does it look cheap, corny, and completely out of place. If Minya sounded like a baby seal, Little Godzilla is a recording of a cat meowing played backwards. It’s so stupid-sounding. Accompanied by childish music, it’s got to be the worst-looking monster suit in the entire “Godzilla” franchise. It’s just too cutesy and fake-looking. In fact, despite how awesome SpaceGodzilla looks (one of Godzilla’s coolest-looking opponents ever), some of the FX here are probably the worst of the Heisei era. Shoddy FX and rubber suits are part of the charm of the 60s Godzilla films, but by the 80s and 90s onwards, I find that sort of thing far less charming. The FX for Mothra are probably the worst of the lot here (the projection shots are abysmal throughout), and Mothra’s entire presence in the film is rather regrettable. I say that as someone who normally has quite a bit of affection for the long-time Godzilla ally (and occasional opponent). Take out Mothra, Baby Godzilla, and the equally unnecessary character of Miki Saegusa and you’ve got a much stronger film. I know a lot of you probably like Miki Saegusa but I find her boring and stupid, and of all the G-Force films, she’s probably got the biggest role in this one.

The Big G himself is more pro than con here, quite possibly one of my favourite designs despite not being perfect. The face looks absolutely great and evil, and overall he’s made to look very, very tall. However, the bottom half makes him look like he’s carrying an awful lot of junk in his trunk, and huge chunky thighs. Still, given he looks tall without having to be shot from below, and the overall evil look to his face I’d say the suit is pretty damn good. Since this is one of the G-Force “Godzilla” films, we need some tech hardware and here it comes in the form of the MOGUERA. Given the same name as a vehicle from Toho’s 50s sci-fi fantasy “The Mysterians”, here MOGUERA (Mobile Operations G-Force Universal Robot Aero-Type), it’s basically MechaPinocchio. You’ve got to expect something like this in these G-Force films, and if you’re into the hardware, you’ll like it. For me, I wish they’d simply revived Mechagodzilla instead. It’s not bad, it’s just obviously here because they’d already gone to the Mechagodzilla well in the Heisei series. The fights are really, really well-shot here by Masahiro Kishimoto (the bizarre but fun horror-fantasy “Hiruko the Goblin”, Heisei Era entries “Godzilla vs. Mothra: Battle for Earth”, “Godzilla vs. Destoroyah”, and the Millennium Era entries “Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack”, “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla”), who does a great job of using the entire frame and depth of field. It’s some of the best-ever monster footage of the entire franchise for me, with SpaceGodzilla using its powers to lift Godzilla and drive it head-first into a building is certainly unique. I’m not gonna lie, even MOGUERA has some cool lasers.

A pretty decent Godzilla film, if one were to compare this to the Millennium Era’s “Godzilla: Final Wars”, this one gets most things right that the latter (and strangely popular) film got wrong. The focus on monster action is enough to get this one over the line, whereas that latter film seemed to want to be anything other than a kaiju film. It’s too long, and some of the FX work is awful, but overall this one’s worth a look. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, as it sounded rather simplistic and dull from the title.

Rating: B-