#22 Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla

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by Terickel

by Terickel

Man am I glad this movie never gotmade. Ah, just a gag about "A Space Godzilla" that's all, but thefranchise has had some fortuitous near misses.

This is definitely the simplest moviesince 1985/Returns and that does let it dwell on scenes more thanmost of the rest of the Heisei movies but I'm not sure if it makesthe best use of it. I do appreciate that it doesn't jump about muchbut the final battle is a bit long.

Lots of the effects in this movie haveme wondering if Toho was slashing budgets or if they saved all thebudget for the final battle. A lot of them aren't good even for thetime, with the space battle between SpaceGodzilla and Moguera being aparticularly ragged on example.

I probably shouldn't harp on the weirdcontinuity snarl caused by Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, but one of themain characters wants revenge on Godzilla for killing his brother inReturns/1985, the events of which would normally have been removedfrom the timeline since Godzilla wasn't mutated into a giant monsteryet. Also Biollante tissue supposedly making it to space.

Isn't it weird that Mothra sends amessage three times in this movie and two times the mini-Mothra turnsinto the Cosmos to talk but the middle time it stays a mini-Mothra?Not a big deal, but odd.

Supposedly SpaceGodzilla is showing upto kill Godzilla and take over the earth and this is all well andgood, certainly the plan in a lot of older Godzilla movies, but hasHeisei Godzilla ever taken up a role of protector outside of the babyGodzilla? He remains antagonistic enough it doesn't seem crazy thatthe plan could just as easily be slip in while Mothra's away andMechaGodzilla is down and team up to destroy mankind.

Moguera is a decent robot if a littlegimmicky with its early take on multi-vector assault mode, but it'sweird to try and pitch it as an upgrade on MechaGodzilla especiallywhen you've heard about the plan to have it be Godzilla andMechaGodzilla teaming up until they decided that would be eitherone-sided or SpaceGodzilla would have to be insanely powerful to be athreat. I've seen just enough shonen battle anime to be surprisedthat Japanese creatives can have restraint on that matter – I amexaggerating a bit, people are individuals and not cultural monolithsblah blah blah. The movie might have better novelty if it was a pileup of Godzillas though, the mainstay, the young one, the robotdoppelganger and the mutated variant.

I could have sworn SpaceGodzillaabducted Little Godzilla and had him hostage for some reason, Iforgot that he was just dumped in a hole and fate left ambiguousuntil the very end of the movie. I know some of the first battlebetween Godzilla and angrier bluer Godzilla was online as a clip Isaw and downloaded back in the day (dial up modem days) well before Iever got to actually watch any of the Heisei movies.

How slow a flier is Moguera? On the wayto rematch SpaceGodzilla it cuts between the mecha and Godzillawading through cities, and it's apparently not closing the distancemuch faster than Godzilla is.

Miki showed some hesitation in helpingG-Force do the brain attack but didn't fight them that hard whenordered to help paralyze him, but she's a lot more firm here. Guessthat's character development, and generally I'm all for the 'otherliving things should be respected' angle but Heisei Godzilla is asteeper case to make than some other incarnations. Is it just me oris the subplot where she gets kidnapped and gets to developtelekinesis feel like padding on the run time for the most part?

I may not be the biggest fan ofSpaceGodzilla but I am entertained by just how much he runs on videogame mechanics. Destroy the crystals to lower his power, take downthe tower to start doing damage, and then blow up the giant crystalweak points before taking out the rest of his HP. Also, the factGodzilla works almost all of this out before the human protagonistsis an interesting detail.

It might not sound like it, but I don'tactually dislike the movie or anything, the Heisei movies aregenerally in the 'fine' category but I kind of like King Ghidorahbest because of how nutty it is.