Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994)

[GL]

“Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla” isn’t the worst one of the series, but it’s a lot of fun.

**SPOILERS**

Landing on a deserted island, G-Force operatives Lt. Koji Shinjo, (Jun Hashizume) and Lt. Kiyoshi Sato, (Zenkichi Yoneyama) meet up with Major Akira Yuki, (Akira Emoto) to start preparations for a new experiment, which is constantly interrupted by Little Godzilla. When told about a threat coming from deep space, Miki Saegusa, (Megumi Odaka) approaches the head of G-Force, Dr. Susumu Okubo, (Yosuki Saito) to be on T-Project, which will allow them to telepathically control Godzilla. Putting the plan into motion, Godzilla is lured to the island, but the creature from space, an alien version of Godzilla called Space Godzilla, arrives and does battle, forcing Godzilla to give chase. As Space Godzilla rampages across Southern Japan with Godzilla still chasing after it, G-Force decides to use their newest creation, Mogera, to help Godzilla defeat the alien menace.

The Good News: This one isn’t all that bad and has some good qualities. The monsters are it’s best aspect. Godzilla here looks quite impressive, as the suit is proportioned better than most, giving it an enhanced sense of power in stature as well. It also doesn’t look as odd when standing to the side as some of the others, which also helps him. Space Godzilla is one of the coolest monster designs in the series. A more evil looking Godzilla, but with dark blue skin, a reddish belly, two large crystal spikes protruding out of his shoulders, and unlike Godzilla, who has reptilian plates along his spine, Space Godzilla has large crystal back-spikes protrusions all along his back and a yellow horn-like thing on his head. Space Godzilla is about as evil and cool-looking a foe as Godzilla could come across. The special effects are great once again and really look the part, especially when Space Godzilla finally gets to fire off some of his unique weapons and special tricks. One of the absolute best involves Space Godzilla hurling Godzilla through a string of buildings with his telekinesis. His energy beam is powerful, which never fails to leave a mark on it’s opponents, and the crystal missile attack is one of the most creatively-imagined and effectively-rendered attacks in any film and is one of the highlights of the film. A really nice shot is Godzilla moving quickly through the jungle towards the fight, and we get a wonderful shot of him walking through the palm trees from low angle. There is also plenty of Godzilla rampaging scenes, allowing for plenty of times when he’s interacting with humans and they all look quite stunning. Smashing buildings and starting fires in the background as the populace is fleeing hysterically in the foreground never gets old, and is pulled off here quite impressively. The battles are also quite good, and have the usual excellent trade-off between energy-beam throwing and grappling, the ending boosted by a rather nice collection of buildings-demolished in the course of the action. Godzilla’s entrance here is chilling and spectacular, backlit by burning buildings and his glowing with anger and revenge, wading into the crystal spike forest with a mighty roar. The setting is quite nice, as the glowing crystals jutting up into the sky and the swirling mist create an eerie mood. One of the best scenes, though, is a moment in the Birth Island battle. In a truly outstanding special effects sequence, Space Godzilla makes a strafing pass, and in a Medal of Honor move, Godzilla throws his body over his son to protect him. This is a great character moment for Godzilla, helping to define his relationship with him and letting the audience sympathize with him as a parent protecting his offspring. It is an incredibly touching moment and it adds that extra dose of humanity to it, allowing him to be something more than just a monster and becomes so much more. This really has a lot more going for it than some might say.

The Bad News: There isn’t a lot here to dislike. Most of it is the weak script. The story itself is relatively basic: monster comes to Earth for no other purpose than to kill other monsters. This harkens back to the older storylines when in every movie some monster was coming to pave the way for invasion by eliminating Godzilla, which has been done to death and a sign they couldn’t come up with something original. Space Godzilla has absolutely no motivating factor for why he is wreaking havoc and nothing is given why he wants to kill Godzilla. The human sub-plots seem to take preference in this film and the monsters are given relatively little time. There are way too many dangling plot threads that never get resolved. The one who creates a special coagulant bullet designed to kill Godzilla moans on and on about it but then never even gets to use it. Not only that, but for some reason that is never revealed, he ends up rescinding all of his past hatred towards Godzilla. Then there is “Project T,” the purpose of which was to use a psychic implant on Godzilla that will allow them the ability to control him. This only worked for about ten seconds and was never addressed again. Miki is kidnaped by the Japanese mafia, but this too was resolved in about five minutes and seemed to serve no other purpose than to create a reason to give Miki telekinetic powers. This disjointed scene has no point to it and could have been easily removed from the film. The one particular fight in an asteroid field in space looks extremely bad. You can see the dodgy cardboard backgrounds a mile off and the foam and plastic “asteroids” won't convince anyone. The saddest thing is that Mogera doesn’t need to be included in the film if it’s not even as powerful as Mechagodzilla was. Why would G-Force create a weapon that’s actually weaker than one that already got trashed by Godzilla? Having the two Godzilla’s fighting would have been enough. These are it’s only problems, though.

The Final Verdict: It’s a different entry in the series, that’s for sure, but it’s sure entertaining. The monster action is excellent, it’s pretty even across the board, and it’s problems aren’t that terrible. Seek it out if you’re a fan, it’s got a lot to like about it.