Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
Release Date: 10th December, 1994
Monster: SpaceGodzilla
Description: Multi-fanged part-crystal super Godzilla
Origin: Godzilla cells previously stuck to Mothra’s legs drifted out into space and fused with a passing crystal entity, which were then powered by local supernovas, and mutated into an evil crystal Godzilla.
Destruction: Godzilla rips those stupid crystals off his shoulders and blasts him.
Ancillary Monster #2: Moguera, another defender bot, repurposed from an older film.
Actors: Kenpachiro Satsuma (Godzilla), Ryo Hariya (SpaceGodzilla), Wataru Fukuda (Moguera), Little Frankie (Little Godzilla)
So Miki (Megumi Odaka) has been enlisted by the Japanese military to try out a special mind-control device on Godzilla. If it works, Godzilla will be able to be used by the government as a weapon. Miki refuses, but is coerced anyway. The psychic control device never works, by the way.
So while the tone of these movies has remained pleasantly bonkers (Re-read SpaceGodzilla’s origin if you don’t believe me), they are also ratcheting up in terms of action. The monster battles have become more elaborate, and the monsters have become far more complex and powerful. Godzilla’s fight scenes are now decidedly high-octane (in the 1990s mold) and will take a good 40 minutes of screentime to complete. The fight between Godzilla and SpaceGodzilla is truly epic, and will only be outdone by the fight in the following film with Destroyah. In this one, Godzilla is surrounded by a monster-constructed crystal palace, dodging missiles from Moguera, falling crystal bombs, and breath-activated space blasts. In a way, Godzilla is a lot like Rocky Balboa. He may not have the best fighting moves, but he sure can take a licking. So much so, his foes eventually wear down, and Godzilla can spring to his feet, still alert and angry, and blast the motherf***ers away.
Oh yes. Moguera. As you know, I haven’t been reviewing the 12 films that are attached to the Godzilla canon, but don’t feature Godzilla. In 1957, Toho made a film called The Mysterians, about the evil titular aliens attacking Earth with a giant drill robot they called Moguera, an evil bird-like bastard. Moguera, a lesser Toho monster, has not been seen since then, except in video games. In Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla, Moguera is repurposed to be a secondary Mechagodzilla, also controlled by humans, and also built for the sole purpose of fighting Godzilla. Also, MOGUERA is (in the English-language version, anyway) an acronym meaning Mobile Operation Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aero-Type. Moguera is run by a UN-like organization which is bearing more and more of a resemblance to the Thunderbirds. These are Japanese movies, but the last few have contained a lot of incidental Anglos floating around in supporting roles, speaking English, but dubbed in Japanese.
Baby has now grown into Little Godzilla (again, according to Toho, a different monster). Baby now had giant eyes, and looks cuter than before, although has now grown to a good 30 feet in height. Little Godzilla plays the same function as Minilla did I a previous generation, and while some fans may find this cutesy li’l chibi Godzilla to be totally counterintuitive to the huge fanged badass monster of SpaceGodzilla, I actually liked the little tyke. He was cute, and offered a kind of bonkers salve to the violence of the end of the movie.
And, yeah, SpaceGodzilla is pretty awesome. He looks a little silly with those two big crystal sticking out of his back, but he seems threatening and powerful. He’s also the first monster in the Godzilla canon who is actually considerably larger than Godzilla. When the battle finally does go down, you’ll be enthralled. There’s some talk in this film about how humans may be facing the End Times. I would argue that humans are currently living in the End Times, if space monsters are falling out of the sky and ravaging cities with crystal bombs. Lovecraft was right. The Old Ones are returning. Godzilla was only one of the first.
And, if all this nonsense weren’t enough, there’s a cameo by Mothra. The Cosmos appear to Miki in a psychic vision, and warn her that SpaceGodzilla is coming. Then she sees a miniature version of Mothra flying away. Mothra is like a guardian angel. Godzilla is still like a bouncer.
Godzilla seemed injured at the very end of Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, which will be explored in the final of the Heisei films…
