Gojira × Mekagojira

The story starts with truck load of unknown object being moved out of Tateyama city. Shortly after that, Godzilla appears in Tateyama city. What's the connection ? The object that was moved out of Tateyama city was the remains of the original Godzilla that attacked Tokyo in 1954. Japanese special defense force JXSDF (Japan Counter-Xenomorph Self Defense Force) attacks Godzilla but it's weapons are ineffective against the Godzilla. Prime minister Takushoku (Kumi Mizuno) assembles a team of scientists to build a robot based on the original Godzilla's skeleton named Kiryu (Mechanical Dragon) to counter Godzilla's attack.

This movie had good special effects, the Mecha Godzilla (which only Dr. Uhara and his daughter refers to in this fasion in the movie) 's design was by far the best of all Mechagodzillas. They really took the effort to get the details right on this movie with cool looking cargo planes Shirasagi (White Heron) to transport Kiryu from its base to battle ground. Yumiko Shaku's performance as Akane Yashiro was engaging, and acting was believable. The plot was good and the score which was performed by Moscow International Symphonic Orchestra was in my opinion best of all Godzilla series.

This Godzilla was just as entertaining as the original Godzilla of 1954 which it pays homage to. None other Godzilla film even comes close to the quality of finish this movie has except for the 1954 original, and for this reason, movie scores a high mark.

Better than last year's GMK, in fact, (still, I give that one ****). After the original Godzilla is destroyed in 1954, Japan has become the stomping ground (pun intended!) for a host of other kaiju over the years(featured in brief flashbacks). A special branch of the Japanese Defense Force is created to counter this threat, resulting in the creation of MechaGodzilla, a biomechanical monster created from the dna recovered from the remains of the original Godzilla. After it's initial encounter with Godzilla, the thing goes berserk when it "hears" Godzilla's roar which triggers a genetic memory in the robot's control system, causing it to go on a rampage.

GODZILLA vs MECHAGODZILLA returns the Big G to his sci-fi roots. The beginning is very similar to that of GODZILLA vs MEGAGUIRIUS, which is no surprise since it's directed by Masaaki Tezuka, who also directed GxM. The acting is superb, and the special effects are top notch-light years ahead of any premillennial G-films, or even GODZILLA '98 for that matter. I won't give away the ending, but it does leave room for a sequel currently in production in Japan, so stay tuned.

Rating: ***** out of *****

This Godzilla movie has a better storyline than any of the other originals. The special effects used were excellent, however the Godzilla and MechaGodzilla (Kiryu) costumes were similar to the ones used in the early Godzilla movies.

The performance of Japanese Pop Idol Yumiko Shaku (Yuki from Shura Yukihime/The Princess Blade) was great, she really portrayed her character (Akane Yashino)'s emotions well.

The overall its a good movie to watch for fun!

Version: Japanese with English Subtitles (Madman's R4 DVD)

'Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla' opens with a typhoon hitting southern Japan, and then a giant monster turns up to lay waste to a small town - everyone runs away - except for the one guy who thinks he can save his house from being stepped on - and the 'Anti-Megalosaurus Force' is called in, and eventually runs away, but not before their commander, Akane Yashiro (Yumiko Shaku) accidentally causes the deaths of several of her troops. Soon we learn the monster is Godzilla, and according to this movie's time-line, Godzilla attacked Japan only once, when he first appeared in 1954. Other monsters have attacked Japan since, but none have been as destructive as Godzilla.

With Godzilla's reappearance, those wacky Japanese scientists come up with their best plan yet - they're going to build a Mechagodzilla, with added firepower, and controlled by a 'DNA Computer' using DNA extracted from the original Godzilla's skeleton. Apparently by doing this, Mechagodzilla can think like Godzilla, and will have a reaction time markedly better than that of a normal computer. Obviously this a bad idea, but these Godzilla movies need bad-ideas for the movie to proceed.

On the human side of things, Akane Yashiro is assigned to the Kiryu Squadron (Mechagodzilla Squadron), and is met with hostility from her comrades their. Tokumitsu Yuhara, one of the Mechagodzilla scientists spends most of the movie chatting up Akane, while Akane tries to get Tokumitsu's daughter, Sara, to open up to her. Awww, how sweet.

Enough of the love-ins, lets get down to some city crushing! The plot is simple, and like several other Godzilla movies, makes some interesting points that it completely skips in favour of monster action (in this case, Japan's rearmament is mentioned, but only briefly), of which is there is plenty. In their respective adventures, Godzilla and his mechanical cousin destroy a few cities and make a mockery of Japan's defence forces (just another day on the job for Godzilla), and get down to one way-cool giant-monster fight scene at the end. Did I mention the fight-scene at is way-cool?

My only problem with the movie is the use of the Godzilla suit: there are times when it is plainly obvious that the Godzilla suit is empty, and not for any complicated reason - he just stands there motionless. Otherwise, there was a fair amount of CGI effects, but they were done well enough for me to say "this movie is awesome".

8/10 - This movie is awesome. Godzilla fans should check it out.

After the giddy heights of "GMK," the Godzilla series returns to pleasant mediocrity with this strangely "Top Gun"-like entry. Godzilla himself has a very minimal role; most of the film deals with the construction of new version of Mechagodzilla, who looks rather like a glorified Transformer. The battle scenes are pretty cool (especially the missiles!), but as another reviewer observed, Godzilla is motionless in several shots and looks either like a big action figure or, during one especially embarrassing moment, a cardboard cutout (for the curious, it's when he blows up one of the jets). Still, I liked the heroine and the fun flashbacks to the old Godzilla, so on balance I'd have to say this is above-average for the series. I just don't understand fans who tout this as a "return" to the classic Godzilla after the controversial GMK - a return to cheesiness, you mean?