In this militaristic revision of Japan's troubled history with kaiju, Godzilla attacked once before, in 1954, and was defeated by Serizawa's oxygen destroyer. Other monsters have since attacked (Mothra and Gaira ("War of the Gargantuas", 1966)) and Japan's response to each attack is to develop newer, more powerful weapons. Now Godzilla has returned and a new weapon is needed, so tissue from the original Godzilla's skeleton is incorporated into a giant mecha to create a cybernetic "Mechagodzilla" (that this is the third incarnation of a "Mechagodzilla" is not part of this film's alternative history). Similar to the previous films in the millennium-series, Godzilla is a simply rampaging monster that needs to be destroyed (the concept that he's just a misunderstood dad, or that he is our guardian, or that he is our friend was (fortunately) put aside for this series). "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" (number 27 in the canon) is a pretty typical Godzilla outing. There is some backstory about the cyborg expert Tokumitsu Yuhara (Shin Takuma ) who is brought in to help design Mechagodzilla and his daughter Sara (Kana Onodera, she's OK - kids in Godzilla movies just keep getting less annoying) as well as Akane Yashiro (Yumiko Shaku), a Mechagodzilla operator with a personal vendetta against the big guy, all of which exists simply as a scaffold to support the kaiju scenes. Both Godzilla and his cyborg doppelganger look pretty good, especially when trashing cities, as do the "White Heron" transport/command and control aircraft. I always thought the mechagodzillas looked silly when flying, so was pleased to see this one being towed into battle (later it turns out that it can fly, and, once again, looks silly doing so). The battle scenes are a mixed bag - despite having the ultimate Godzilla weapon installed in the mecha's chest, the crew seem obligated to fire numerous useless cannon, missiles, ray guns, etc. before activating the 'absolute zero' canon. The battling colossi look OK when grappling or blasting each other with death-rays, but the scenes where Mechagodzilla jumps over Godzilla or spins him around by his tail look 'fake' in comparison and detract from the overall quality of the brawls. The film's score is also a mixed bag, with some good (and familiar) themes mixed in with the grating 'fanfare' music that accompanies shots of Mechagodzilla. Acting (including English subtitling in my version) is on par with other film's in the series (although I got tired of Yumiko Shaku 's po-faced Akane and her heroic pose at the film's close was pretty trite). While neither as imaginative or well-executed as 2000's "G. vs Megaguirus") or as off-beat as 2001's "Giant Monsters All-Out Attack", this latest version of Godzilla fighting his robotic-self is an entertaining enough entry into the long running daikaiju franchise.
