Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Now I'm a veteran Godzilla fan I'd say. I grew up watching and loving the Lumbering, radioactive Reptile, and I stand proud in being a Godzilla fan. That being said, I truly think this movie is among the most Laughably Atrocious in the series. Not Quite the worst, but inching in upon it's heels.Now that I've grown up, I've come to realize just how bad Godzilla script writing can be, and this movie shines bright when it comes to poor script writing. The pacing is painstakingly slow and there aren't really enough battle sequences to keep the less sophisticated portion of my brain occupied and entertained. The acting makes me giggle, the plot is incredibly straightforward and bland and it honestly falls along the same lines as the original Mortal Combat movie in terms of being so bad that it comes full circle and makes for a great time.However, I will admit, I like the role-swap that they pulled this time. As a godzilla connoisseur, I love the fact that Godzilla constantly shifts from Enemy, to Neutral-hero, to Hero. It gives a nice perspective that he is an Animal thrashing out as he sees fit, be it for punishment for nuclear testing, or Dominating for territory, or Taking out a foe that stands as a threat. However, Mecha-Godzilla has always been the Antagonist up until this point, so it was kinda cool seeing him in the Hero position. Mecha this time acts as a gundam suit, A giant robot piloted by Human military to fight the terror Godzilla. I was a little disappointed that (!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!) they introduced a plot element where Mechagodzilla, being a robot with godzillas organic material integrated into it's design, underwent a moment of malfunction when exposed to Godzilla's roar and turned into the Mechagodzilla that I'd come to love. He began tearing up the surrounding area and beating the tar out of everything and I wanted them to continue with that point, so very much because I found it really interesting. Low and behold though, The moment lasts one scene then they just program that glitch out of his system once Mechagodzilla runs out of battery power. Perhaps that's going to be a plot point in the Second Mecha-godzilla that I haven't seen yet, hopefully, but this one left me wanting more. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.Overall though, I enjoyed this film. It's bad bad bad, for sure but if you can look past grading this film and just watch it for the awesome spectacle it is, then you will enjoy yourself nonetheless.

One of the best films ever

Love this movie , even the music score

Praise Sony/TriStar for their quick release of this recent (December 2002) Godzilla film! Although there are no extras, this DVD offers fans of Japanese giant monster movies exactly what they want: the film in Japanese with subtitles! (You can choose to watch it dubbed as well, a good option for younger viewers.) Not only that, but the film is in gorgeous widescreen and 5.1 sound. Keep it up, Sony/TriStar! This is the way Godzilla should be seen.The film is a fine piece of monster-mashing, better than the metaphysical and out-of-step "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (2001) and the somewhat slow "Godzilla 2000" (1999), but not as wildly fun as "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" (2000). The director of "Megaguirus," Masaaki Tezuka, returns and displays his usual sense of fun and deep love for giant monster movies (there are many homages to other Japanese monster films throughout).Godzilla faces an old foe here. Mechagodzilla first appeared in the 1974 film, "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla," as an alien-built robot. He came back the next year in what would be the final Godzilla film of the classic era, "Terror of Mechagodzilla." The robo-monster returned in the 1990s Godzilla series, this time constructed by the Earth organization G-Force, in "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II." This new science-fiction adventure brings the metal Godzilla look-alike back with a new origin story.Like all the recent films, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" revises the entire Godzilla timeline and starts from scratch. The first Godzilla died in 1954, but a new one suddenly appears in Japan in 1999. The government, accustomed to attacks from other monsters over the years, has a special military organization prepared to deal with Godzilla, but Godzilla is too much for them. As the years pass between attacks, Japanese scientists hatch a wild plan to stop Godzilla: use the first Godzilla's skeleton and DNA to create a bio-robot, a `mechagodzilla' that they name "Kiryu" (a Japanese guardian dragon). Unfortunately, the bio-robot has a rather destructive design flaw...The monster fights are tremendous, with huge amount of city smashing and the beasts engaging each other in close, furious combat. Kiryu's rampage in Tokyo is a jaw-dropper for sure; the opening with military laser guns trying to stop Godzilla in a typhoon gets things off to a roaring start, and the lengthy final duel will please every monster movie fan. The visual effects are quite good, but not as creative as in "Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." The score from Ohshima Michiru is fabulous; she's the best composer on the Godzilla series outside of the original maestro Akira Ifukube.What holds the film back are some slow patches in the first half-hour and many unexplained details about Kiryu. The redesigned Godzilla suit, adapted from the one used in "Godzilla 2000" and "Megaguirus" also presents problems. Godzilla moves far less here than he usually does, and it often seems that no one is in the costume. He exhibits much less personality and animation, and doesn't dominate the film the way he should. Kiryu instead steals the show: this is the best Mechagodzilla of them all, and it's astonishing to watch it in action.The human story is surprisingly well done, with excellent actors who take their jobs seriously. The heroine is a pilot with a guilt complex about an earlier debacle against Godzilla who gets her second chance to prove herself against the monster. Her relationship with the lonely daughter of one of the designers of Kiryu is quite touching. (Strangely, the final scene about this relationship occurs AFTER the end credits. Weird place for it, so make sure you stick around until the very end of the film.)Japan has already released a direct sequel to this movie (in which classic monster Mothra also gets involved!), so let's hope Sony/TriStar will release that one soon as well.If you love giant monsters or good old-fashioned science-fiction film fun, get this DVD. ROAR ON GODZILLA!

good movie. Is it me or have the melenium serise of G films better then most of the others. its not cause the fx are better and the scripts and acting are the same its just that the directors are such beg fans and grew up watching Godzilla its almost impossible to not be true and to make a great Kaiju film. in this one Godzilla has not been seen since his first attack on tokyo in 1954. over the decades there have been attacks of other monsters and the japanese think godzilla has cursed them. A new evil Godzilla comes out from the deep and tramples the city to all its Godzilla goodness. and the government create MECHAGODZILLA using cells from the spine of the original godzilla. and yeah youll have to watch it to find out more. Its awsome a great movie and has allot of familiar faces if you watched other G movies. Breat buy. great value. GO GO GODZILLA!!!!

Everything that I expect from a Godzilla movie! The costumes are great and special effects are pretty good! The story is alright and focuses mostly on Kiryu/Mechagodzilla's pilot. I'm pretty happy with this in my DVD library!