GODZILLA VS SPACEGODZILLA (1994)

GODZILLA VS SPACEGODZILLA (1994)

Tagline:  Can Godzilla Save Japan from Intergalactic Evil?

(Action, Adventure, Fantasy) [PG]

Telepathy is dangerous… 

We know, that’s why we are asking you…

Note – The MPAA didn’t give this one a rating, so I am going to put it at PG due to an instance of profanity. 

The TOHO Godzilla plots have a lot of crazy storylines, but this one is pretty freaking out there. SpaceGodzilla is a creature the size of Godzilla with jacked-out crystal-like wings and a horn on its head and it’s just nuts looking. It was created by Godzilla's own G-Cells that were sent into space either my Mothra (what the crap is Mothra doing in space?) or Biollante (what?). The scientists studying all this stuff figure that Godzilla’s G-Cells got sucked into a black hole and came out a white hole then evolved really fast and bam…crazy genocidal super freak Spacegodzilla. On top of all that the UN  has a mecha called MOGERA is also trying to kill Godzilla, while a Mothra fairy (you read that right, a “Mothra fairy”) is just warning a team involved in Project T about impending doom from Spacegodzilla. Project T by the way is the flip side of the human effort with Godzilla. Project T is all about trying to control Godzilla with telepathy so they can live in harmony. Everybody ready, because TOHO just put in the “let’s get nuts mix” of plotlines for this one. 

This movie has a bit of everything cinematically. There are shots in here that look like they were meant to be a romance movie. I mean it’s actually pretty beautiful scenery-wise. Then in the same movie we’ve got close up of generals with missing teeth and Spacegodzilla flying by meteorites that might have been paper mache. There is even a quick shot that looks like it was directly inspired by the beginning of STAR WARS where C3PO and R2-D2 escape from Darth Vader. The lighting is rough in some parts and looks fantastic in others. Then music-wise we’ve got stuff that sounds like it should have been in the ’70s 007 movies and other scenes where bongos are the instrument of choice. I think out of all the Godzilla movie pre-GODZILLA: FINAL WARS, this would have been the best one to slip in some cool guitar-driven stuff, but no, we don’t get that here. 

Regarding Godzilla’s design, this is a strong effort and Little Godzilla’s design is actually better than in GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA II but is not as rad looking as the one in GODZILLA VS DESTROYAH. Anything is better than Minilla, which even when I was a kid thought had the face of something that could have been a great nightmare Halloween costume (as like a mutated sewer monster or something), but looked zero like anything related to Godzilla. I do like the sets in this one and the fact that they had Spacegodzilla build a crystal-like fortress in the middle of a big city, but during the battle scenes at the fortress, some of the model work looks mailed in. One awesome thing they did with Spacegodzilla was giving him a yellow ray-like Godzilla only it’s more like lightning and it kind of goes in a circular angle before it hits the target. 

There is a long distance between actual kaiju fights in this movie and because of that, if you watch this you are going to have to pay attention to the dialog which is almost full-blown humor at times. That way you will get the most enjoyment out of this movie. GODZILLA VS SPACEGODZILLA isn’t the greatest Godzilla move out there, but it’s solid better than middle-of-the-road stuff and I found it highly entertaining enough to buy the DVD and watch it about twice a year.  

I give this one a 5 out of 7. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TOHO COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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