After Toho decided not to kill off Godzilla for his "40th Anniversary" film, the series continued on to what was actually the Big G's 40th Anniversary film proper: Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. Let the weirdness of that title soak in for a minute before realizing this isn't the series jumping the shark. In fact, high and lows all taken into account there hasn't been a single Godzilla film that truly jumped the shark. Godzilla eats the shark. SpaceGodzilla sounds like a horribly ridiculous idea, but then you think back to the sixth entry - Invasion of Astro-Monster - to be reminded that Godzilla (and Rodan) was taken literally into space to fight King Ghidorah on a barren, rocky planet with what is presumably a hostile atmosphere. Then, suddenly, this idea of a Space Godzilla doesn't sound so out there. Oddly enough, this was a concept that producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had been kicking around since the '70s! Though I haven't really touched upon it yet, most fans are probably aware that Godzilla has had lots of potential adventures drawn up in the conceptual stage of development, with many, many possible foes never leaving the drawing board. Some manage to get resurrected down the line, like Megalon. SpaceGodzilla is actually a pretty rad villain, with an imposing final form once he's out of Super Mega Crystal Mode. This entry also features a couple of returns - last year's Baby Godzilla is growing up so fast that he's now Little Godzilla; and the robot Moguera, who hadn't been glimpsed since 1957's The Mysterians makes a triumphant return looking a bit more contemporary.
Despite the roster of big hitters, the film itself is unusually disengaging for Godzilla. Some Godzilla cells make their way into space - either via Mothra after her battle with Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Mothra: Battle for Earth, or from Biollante, who is now presumably just floating around in the cosmos - finding their way to a black hole, where intense levels of radiation transform them into... SpaceGodzilla! Which, really, is just a giant wad of crystals with a little Godzilla somewhere near the center. It's an eye-catching look. Meanwhile on Earth, the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF) are trying to attach a transmitter to Godzilla's head so that Miki Saegusa can control his mind. It fails, but soon after the JSDF learns from the Cosmos (remember those little twins princesses?) that SpaceGodzilla is approaching and only Godzilla can stop it now that Mothra is on a space adventure. When SpaceG lands on Birth Island, attracted to the radiation there, it begins to attack Little G. Big G shows up soon after, but SpaceG manages to knock him out before imprisoning Little G in a crystal cage thing. Godzilla reawakens and is unable to free his son, so he sets off for the mainland to fight SpaceG. He arrives to find that SpaceG is using a building from the Fukuoka Nuclear Plant (geez, never thought that name would be universally known, right?) to siphon energy. Godzilla and SpaceG have a massive battle, one that comes to include Moguera when the giant robot is sent to aid Big G. It helps G gain the upper hand, at which point he then blasts the ever-lovin' shit out of SpaceG with his fancy new Spiral Fire Ray, totally annihilating his black hole brother.
Let's talk about what this film gets right, because I honestly don't even feel like taking a lot of time to address the wrong. The design of SpaceG is very inventive, looking very much like an otherworldly version of Big G. Unlike Biollante, SpaceG is infused with many more direct elements of G's signature look, making him look like a true cosmic clone. His space-faring crystalline form is wholly outrageous, with these unnecessarily massive crystals somehow helping him fly through the universe. Once he lands and transforms, that's when we get a good look at his mobile form. Kawakita went with a menacing appearance, with these large shoulder crystals giving the creature a serious bulk to throw around. The face is very similar to Big G, but there are some extra deadly teeth surrounding the mouth. SpaceG also has some powerful special powers that make him quite the adversary. He's also got some psychic abilities, like being able to move Little G with only his mind-ray-thing, but it's not a power he overuses. The battles against Godzilla are fierce, and it really seems like things could end in a stalemate until Moguera comes along to give G the edge.
I've never been the biggest fan of Moguera because it's just a robot with no personality. It's like getting excited when the Super X-III debuts in the next film, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. I like the monsters, not the mechs. Still, I will admit to always liking the Moguera design, which is a bit like the endoskeleton for a mechanized penguin or something. Robots have a history of going down hard in just about every Big G film, and while Moguera is no exception he definitely gets some good blows in there and makes a mark in the climactic fight. The fight against SpaceG in space is kinda cornball, even for this series, but the events at the film's end prove its inclusion in the film wasn't a total waste. Interestingly enough, it was originally supposed to be Mechagodzilla (whose remains were used to construct Moguera here) who teams up with Godzilla to fight and defeat SpaceGodzilla. Now that would have been an awesome showdown. Toho, apparently, felt that MechaG was too strong, so the fight would've seemed uneven. To that I say: writing. Write it so that everyone is evenly matched then! Geez, how hard would that have been? Well, actually, looking back at how Toho has notoriously ignored needed script rewrites and given incorrect abilities to other monsters, it's not a big surprise.
Baby Godzilla has grown up into an anime version of Minya, now called Little Godzilla. He is undeniably cute, but he'd probably be more at home in an anime series than a Godzilla film. He just looks too cutesy and his eyes are friggin' huge. Still, he isn't annoying and his peril at the hands of SpaceG gives Big G even more incentive to pound his celestial copy's body into the ground. Little G spends most of the film stuck in a crystal prison, so it's not like he's all over the movie, trying to ruin it with his adorable face and funny mannerisms. Unlike Minya, this is a baby that has an arc over the final three films of the Heisei series, growing and maturing under his father's watchful eye, paving the way for a major moment before the series' close.
You know the drill by now - new film, new suit. Even if it appears to look just like the old suit. Godzilla's new digs, dubbed MogeGoji, was a little bit bulkier than the previous suit, with wider shoulders and clear proof that Godzilla does not skip leg day at the gym. Gone was the pronounced ribbing on the neck, but the face remained virtually unchanged from before. One major change that suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma surely must have loved was the new cooling system that finally allowed the person inside to feel slightly more comfortable.
That's the good. The bad is the film's plot, which is barely there and entirely uninteresting. Something about JSDF trying to once again control Godzilla via Miki's weak-ass brain waves. Why? Alien mind control I can accept, but humans have blown it practically every time. Just give it up. Even when it does work, it doesn't seem like Miki is actually controlling G's movements all that much. And, again, it's not an interesting storyline. The monster activity is frequent and fun to watch, but everything else in between lags. So far, most of the Heisei films have been punctuated by some stellar monster battles with a dearth of engaging plot lines. I've never felt as invested in any Heisei film as I did in any single Showa era production. Maybe that's because Showa ruled my childhood. The Heisei films are still a great deal of fun more often than not, but aside from Gojira (1984) none have really sucked me in with a solid premise.
Remember earlier how I mentioned that Akira Ifukube handled all of the Heisei scoring duties from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) onward with one exception? Well, this film is that exception. Takayuki Hattori takes over scoring duties here, delivering the cheesiest, lamest, cringe-worthy score of the series yet. Not all of it is outright terrible, with some cues carrying a Masaru Satoh influence, though more often than not what we get is real Mickey Mouse kind of stuff. It sounds like the soundtrack to a cheesy fantasy videogame. The music never reaches the level fans have come to expect after hearing so much stellar work from Ifukube and Satoh. It simply exists alongside the picture, keeping the pace. Music should take on more of a life than it does here. I'm actually listening to the soundtrack now as I type this and it is just horribly lame in many places. In others, it's simply serviceable.
Godzilla's next film of the Heisei series would be his last. The time had come to die. Literally. Toho even used the tagline "Godzilla Dies" for the next entry, which is one of the best in the series - Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995).
No comments:
Post a Comment