We had a break from robots last time out, but we’re gonna make up for that here today, kids, as we bring back another major Godzilla adversary, Mechagodzilla.
But first, we need to hit the Japanese outlying islands again. On one of them, an egg is discovered in the general vicinity of Rodan – also making his Heisei debut here – and is taken by a scientific research team back to the mainland. In the ensuing brouhaha, Rodan is essentially taken out by the Big G. More on him momentarily. Soon after returning, the egg hatches, but it’s not a massive Pteranodon that emerges, but rather a cute little vegetarian godzillasaur, the result of something akin to a parasitic egg-laying situation. When Godzilla heeds the call of the young’n, the government sends forth Mechagodzilla, a robot reverse-engineered from the erstwhile central head of Mecha-Ghidorah. Psychic Miki, still hanging around, is corralled into the Mechogodzilla crew, due to her deep knowledge of Godzilla’s behavior and physiology. Once combined with Miki’s know-how and the supplementary mech piece Garuda, Mechagodzilla is able to essentially paralyze the Big G in battle. The tide turns, though, when Rodan returns to the scene in a fiery form, and, once mortally wounded, revitalizes the fallen Godzilla with his life essence. Back in the saddle, Godzilla’s free to do what he does best against his robotic doppelganger, whilst Miki tries to keep the Baby G safe by telepathically communicating with the critter’s massive father.
If nothing else, it’s nice to see Miki actually doing something here. Indeed, there’s a constant on-going subplot thread regarding an ESP training center, ostensibly being developed to combat Godzilla mentally, but it rarely goes anywhere beyond bringing Miki back into the story. Here, though, she’s actively working with the governmental forces to taker Godzilla down, and she even has some internal debate surrounding the escapades, as her mental link with the monster persists. It’s also nice to see a baby Godzilla that isn’t the obnoxious bastardization of nature that Minilla was so many years ago. Instead, it’s an adorable little bugger, and its interactions with its father figure at the end are nothing short of cute as hell.
Unfortunately, many of the previous film’s issues continue to plague this one, like some shaky compositing, some horrendous dubbing (dammit, I wish I had the Japanese version in my possession, ‘cause these guys think the monster’s name is Radon or something), and some minor design issues (as otherwise cool as Mechagodzilla here is, he’s a far cry from the badass Ghidorah head it’s based on, looking decidedly smooth and artificial (I know it’s a robot, it just looks like a fake robot)). Still, and I feel I should have brought this up a few times already, the miniature work is outstanding, and the climactic battles have been consequently exhilarating, as far as kaiju battles go. It’s a solid flick overall, and I feel a step up on the original version of this matchup, but some cracks are certainly beginning to show in the franchise.
Speaking of, the cracks get slightly more apparent next time out, but, hey, we’re getting a new monster, too, so there’s that to look forward to.
Allusions of Grandeur 