Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

PLOT:

According to an Okinawa legend, when a black mountain appears in the sky above the clouds, a monster will arrive and attempt to destroy the world. However, if this divination comes true, a red moon will set, two suns will arise (one being an optical illusion rising from the west), and two monsters will fight off evil to rescue the world. In a cave near the city, an engineer and an archaeologist uncover a statue of the protector of Okinawa, known as King Caesar. He is believed to be one of the monsters to fight for humankind in the prophecy.

Later, a black mountain (a black cloud) does appear in the sky. Godzilla then rises from Mount Fuji and starts on a rampage. Many people, however, do not believe Godzilla will be the monster to destroy Earth. That reflection is reinforced when Godzilla attacks Anguirus and nearly kills him (by ripping his jaw apart).

In a surprising turn of events, the real Godzilla sets forth, only to discover that the rampant Godzilla is an impostor. Later revealed as Mechagodzilla, a cyborg of titanic proportions that was designed and created by ape-like aliens of the Third Planet from the Black Hole to destroy the real Godzilla. After Godzilla is nearly killed, he comes back, super charged with electricity, gathered from a lightning storm. With the help of the newly summoned King Caesar, Godzilla destroys Mechagodzilla (by twisting his head off) and returns back to the sea.

REVIEW:

I’m a little agitated about this film right now. Not because of anything to do with how it unfolded, but rather because I watched the entire picture in Japanese when I could have turned the language to English. I imagine that it would have made the experience much better.

All that aside, I can say that Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla will go down as one of my favorite films of the franchise. My reason for this is that the previous films I’ve seen seem to be more about the actors, but this one seems to be more about Godzilla and the other monsters.

I’m not a fan of flicks that spend 95% of the runtime mindlessly filling time until they can get to the climax. Thankfully, this one doesn’t do that as much its predecessors, though it does have a bit too much time wasted on the worthless humans. This is a complaint I have with any film that deals with giant aliens or whatever,and that is that people aren’t watching to see the humans run (that includes Megan Fox), but rather the giant creatures, organisms, etc. So, the more of them we can get, the better.

In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, we get about the same amount of Godzilla as we’ve gotten in the previous films, but there is more screentime for Mechagodzilla than there is for other monsters that have appeared with Godzilla, except for maybe Mothra.

The climactic battle between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla does not disappoint, though I did feel like King Caesar got in the way more than he “helped”.  I honestly don’t get what he was supposed to be doing there, other than being the defender of the island, but he still was just a nuisance. This should have been a showdown between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla, especially after their earlier encounter which left them both the worse for wear.

There really is no reason to mention the humans in this, other than to say one of the females has a semi catchy song that she uses to awaken King Caesar.

As I said, this is one of the best and most exciting Godzilla films I’ve seen. With lots of action and sci-fi camp, there is no surprise that this is such a cult classic. For those of you into classic sci-fi, this is not one to miss, so check it out. Chances are you won’t be disappointed!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

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