| Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
is one of the more widely disliked Godzilla movies,
and while the film itself is far from terrible,
there are more than enough problems with it to
merit a lot of the heat the movie receives. This
ranges from the overly complicated story drafted
by writer Hiroshi Kashiwabara, to fairly meek
and underdeveloped characters that have hardly
any life breathed into them from the actors either.
As for the story, it focuses
on a non-terrestrial being dubbed SpaceGodzilla's,
whose origin consists of Godzilla cells that
traveled through a black hole, as he descends
toward Earth. This prompts Mothra's
Cosmos to warn psychic Miki Saegusa, as they
fear that SpaceGodzilla will aim to destroy
Godzilla and then easily conquer the planet.
This theory presents a dilemma, though, as
G-Force is making great advances toward stopping
Godzilla with the creation of the giant mechanized
Moguera and the T-Project, of which Miki is
apart of. Eventually, G-Force decides to shift
their efforts more toward stopping SpaceGodzilla,
yet Moguera does little to halt the space
monster's advance. Eventually the extraterrestrial
being confronts Godzilla on Birth Island.
After a brief skirmish, which leaves LittleGodzilla locked in a crystalline chamber,
Godzilla ventures off after SpaceGodzilla
as the space creature makes his way toward
the Japan mainland. In the meantime, repairs
on Moguera are underway as G-Force prepares
the machine to battle the space monster while
Godzilla begins to advance toward the same
battleground.
Overall, the story itself isn't
all that bad. Certainly nothing original, but
it doesn't commit any crimes to the character's
legacy. Its problem, though, is that it simply
takes too many “detours” along the
way. For example, the Yakuza side plot feels incredibly
out of place and tacked on as it has little to
do with the story as a whole. There is also another
side plot involving the character Yuki and a blood
coagulant that he calls the “Yuki Special”
(with actor Akira Emoto getting almost giddy when
he says the line to the point where it's
hard not to smile). In its defense, it's certainly
not a bad concept, as it's nice to see something
more scientific utilized against the creature
as this has been mostly absent since the ANEB
in Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989). Unfortunately,
this plan involves Yuki chasing after Godzilla
with an automatic weapon loaded with the coagulant,
a concept that is made even worse by the fact
that the pacing for this sequence is horrendous
as it just seems to drag on. On the bright side,
the story also brings back the mech theme from
last year's Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) with the
revival of another of Toho's classic characters:
Moguera from The
Mysterians (1957). The fact that the
mech also participates in the climax, as opposed
to Rodan's untimely knock out just before
Godzilla arrives in the previous movie, is also
very refreshing as these type of battles are so
rarely used in the series since the closure of
the Showa era.
As for the cast of characters,
they are amusing at times, but hardly fleshed
out enough for the audience to care about them.
The trio of male leads (Koji, Kyo and Yuki) certainly
do have some chemistry together. To that point,
it's nice to see their different attitudes
play off each other, even if they are severally
underdeveloped. Of the three, Kyo is the least
exposed, as hardly anything is revealed of the
character during the duration of the picture.
However, his lack of enthusiasm for work and habit
of shooting off his mouth play nicely off Koji's
dedication to his work and Yuki's hardened veteran
sentiments. Unfortunately, this same degree of
chemistry does not carry over to Koji and Miki,
as their romance seems forced due to their personalities
clashing and a lack of development of their eventual
relationship, making it seem awkward. It's
also a shame to see the Miki character reduced
to a “damsel in distress” for this
production, as she is given very little to do
other than be rescued from the Yakuza.
In terms of acting, nothing
remarkable, although nothing much to scorn
really either. The leads all do fine with
what they are given, even though Jun Hashizume
as Koji seems very flat and without much enthusiasm.
Director Kensho Yamashita's guidance
seems a little flimsy, though, given that
none of the performances really stand out
positively here. To that point, I am always
amazed that director Yamashita was given this
project in the first place. He certainly has
a preference for focusing more on the romantic
angle of his leads, although with not much
success. He was certainly very “green”
at this point in his career too, as his only
prior work was the movie Nineteen
(1987), and he seems like an odd choice to
helm an entry in the highly successful Heisei
Godzilla series.
In regards to the production values,
it's a very mixed presentation. On one hand
the movie showcases some of the best, and worst
special effects scenes of the Heisei Godzilla
series. One of the more infamous sequences from
the film would be the asteroid scene, which blatantly
displays a black background, devoid of stars,
amongst immobile clumps of meteors. However, one
of the best shots from the movie, and from the
series, happens when Godzilla first emerges from
the water heading toward Birth Island. The brief
shot of Godzilla with the water up to his knees
while advancing on Birth Island is breath taking.
Unfortunately, this trend in the
production values carry on to the movie's musical
score. After Akira
Ifukube declined to return, as he disapproved
of the idea of Godzilla fighting a clone of himself
descending from space, new comer Takayuki
Hattori was brought onboard for the production.
While Hattori would end up being one of the most
infamous Godzilla composers in coming years, he
did some of his best work here on Godzilla
vs. SpaceGodzilla. SpaceGodzilla has a nice,
hectic, theme that suits him and works well when
used through out the movie. The Birth Island theme
is probably Hattori's best done theme for the
film, and adds a carefree tone to that portion
of the movie. Sadly, a bulk of the music done
for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is all
too forgettable, especially his unremarkable theme
for Godzilla that is utilized far too often.
It's also unfortunate that this
film was rather rushed, and this shows in the
final product. There are two places in the film
where Godzilla's roar is erroneously that of SpaceGodzilla's.
Not only does this distract from the viewing experience,
but it was an error that should have been fixed
as it was so obvious and easy to change. The bigger,
and more noticeable problem, is the mild use of
stock footage for Godzilla's attack against the
military in the water. A scene was originally
filmed for this segment, but the footage was deemed
unacceptable and was replaced with footage from
Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989) and Godzilla
vs. Mothra (1992).
Overall, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
is an underrated movie, but only in respects that
it is often unfairly dogged as the worst entry
in the long running Godzilla series by more than
a few sources. In fact, some have even gone as
far to declare it the worst Japanese special effects
production, which seems like an incredibly unfit
verdict with movies like Kujakuoh
(1988) and Gunhed
(1989) in that genre. Still, this production is
ridden with flaws regardless, and is really only
suggestible to more dedicated Godzilla fans.
|
(2/5)
