The Heisei series is kind of frustrating. It started off so well with 1985's Return of Godzilla and 1989's Godzilla vs Biollante, but then got steadily worse until spiking up again with Godzilla vs Destroyah. This is one of those movies I'd pass up if you haven't seen a few of Godzilla's better movies first. Surprisingly for a G flick, not even the music is a redeeming quality.
The first problem is the stinkin' pacing of the movie. It's has huge gaping pieces of the film that are dull and make you want to just fast forward to get into some action because nothing of any remote importance is happening and the characters are boring. Then you get to the action and you're totally underwhelmed. The action basically boils down to three scenes. In the beginning Moguera (Japan's semi-replacement for Mechagodzilla, which was destroyed the year before by the Big G) briefly tangles with Spacegodzilla in space ... which looks unquestionably like a black background with giant brown foam balls meant to look like rocks floating in space. It's simply awful, even compared to some of what we've seen in the Showa series. You know it's bad if hardcore Godzilla nerds like me are poking fun at it. The second is a battle between Spacegodzilla and Godzilla himself. The battle is quite brief and nothing happens aside from the two engaging in a beam spam war for a few blasts before SG decides to leave, having taken Little Godzilla hostage. The third battle is the long one with Godzilla and Moguera teaming up against SG. It's an improvement, but it's still mostly just a beam spam fest.
The monsters themselves are a mixed bag. Little Godzilla looks rather cute, which wasn't the theme they were going for with him in the prior film nor the succeeding film. Godzilla looks fine, other than perhaps being too chunky; in fact, the suit is so big and bulky that this is the reason that many of the Heisei series monsters relied mostly on their beams, as physical combat was too challenging to do much. Spacegodzilla is a split for me. He looks good other than for the crystal spines, which are just goofy, not that the giant shoulder crystals or the whole crystal aspect to him are much better. Moguera looks lame. He didn't look good in his first appearance (The Mysterians, 1957) and he doesn't look good in this second appearance.
In the end, I'm forced to give this one a low score. It has virtually no redeeming qualities and almost all of the bad ones for which Godzilla naysayers can lay claim. The theories of SG's origins with Biollante and Mothra are actually interesting, but then they fail to follow through with it at all. Just disappointing. Watch this one once (even for free on Crackle!) just to say you've seen it, but don't expect all too much.
As a final note, in the plot hole for this movie, it is said that the events of previous movies could not have happened due to the time travel plot of 1991's Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. This is actually not the case, and if you care enough you can read why below. Just connect all of the below link.
http:// www.scifijapan.com /articles/2007/08/16/ godzilla-vs-king-ghidorah -time-travel- and-the- origins-of- godzilla/
The first problem is the stinkin' pacing of the movie. It's has huge gaping pieces of the film that are dull and make you want to just fast forward to get into some action because nothing of any remote importance is happening and the characters are boring. Then you get to the action and you're totally underwhelmed. The action basically boils down to three scenes. In the beginning Moguera (Japan's semi-replacement for Mechagodzilla, which was destroyed the year before by the Big G) briefly tangles with Spacegodzilla in space ... which looks unquestionably like a black background with giant brown foam balls meant to look like rocks floating in space. It's simply awful, even compared to some of what we've seen in the Showa series. You know it's bad if hardcore Godzilla nerds like me are poking fun at it. The second is a battle between Spacegodzilla and Godzilla himself. The battle is quite brief and nothing happens aside from the two engaging in a beam spam war for a few blasts before SG decides to leave, having taken Little Godzilla hostage. The third battle is the long one with Godzilla and Moguera teaming up against SG. It's an improvement, but it's still mostly just a beam spam fest.
The monsters themselves are a mixed bag. Little Godzilla looks rather cute, which wasn't the theme they were going for with him in the prior film nor the succeeding film. Godzilla looks fine, other than perhaps being too chunky; in fact, the suit is so big and bulky that this is the reason that many of the Heisei series monsters relied mostly on their beams, as physical combat was too challenging to do much. Spacegodzilla is a split for me. He looks good other than for the crystal spines, which are just goofy, not that the giant shoulder crystals or the whole crystal aspect to him are much better. Moguera looks lame. He didn't look good in his first appearance (The Mysterians, 1957) and he doesn't look good in this second appearance.
In the end, I'm forced to give this one a low score. It has virtually no redeeming qualities and almost all of the bad ones for which Godzilla naysayers can lay claim. The theories of SG's origins with Biollante and Mothra are actually interesting, but then they fail to follow through with it at all. Just disappointing. Watch this one once (even for free on Crackle!) just to say you've seen it, but don't expect all too much.
As a final note, in the plot hole for this movie, it is said that the events of previous movies could not have happened due to the time travel plot of 1991's Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. This is actually not the case, and if you care enough you can read why below. Just connect all of the below link.
http:// www.scifijapan.com /articles/2007/08/16/ godzilla-vs-king-ghidorah -time-travel- and-the- origins-of- godzilla/