Director: Kensho Yamashita
Year: 1994
Studio: TriStar, Toho Pictures
Length: 106 minutes
The Creature's' Story:
Next thing Godzilla know, Baby G cries, which Godzilla guess means it daddy duty to go see what up. What shit? Pink tear gas? Stupid humans and their stinging projectiles. Why do Godzilla even bother. But, what hell? A...SpaceGodzilla? And SpaceGodzilla have whole terrain of canker sores festering about the island with pulsating crystal teeth. Godzilla don't like this. Baby G clearly afraid of SpaceG. SpaceG attack Baby G which piss Godzilla off royally (Godzilla always pissed off royally, because Godzilla=King of the Monsters). Godzilla use body as shield to protect Baby G, but SpaceG has crazy space lightning attack that hurt so bad and knock Godzilla to ground. Baby G taken and captured in crystal, like got sent to Phantom Zone or something.
Godzilla defeated. Fuck this shit, Godzilla go home, eat metric ton of Hagendaas.
While later, after Godzilla spill many tears for Baby G while eating tankerful of rum raisin, SpaceG returns , building a crystal fortress around himself but Godzilla know in order to defeat SpaceG, he need destroy crystals. SpaceG have swirly twirly lazer breath that hurts plenty and comes at all angles. Not-Big Metal Beast (aka BaMBi) help Godzilla out. Godzilla destroy tower, and then team up with Not-BaMBi to double attack SpaceG. Then Godzilla do lots of biting to block SpaceG energy. BaMBi do nose dive into SpaceG, help turn tides. Godzilla level up atomic blast somehow. How? Who care. Not Godzilla. Just roast that SpaceG, turn to dust.
But where Baby G? Fuck this shit, Godzilla go home, eat metric ton of Hagendaas.
The Human Story:
A crystalline asteroid hurtles through space, crashing on Monster Island. It creates pulsating crystalline maws that pulsate, sending lighting signals into the sky to attract SpaceGodzilla.
Project M is building the "ultimate Godzilla weapon", the M.O.G.U.E.R.A., which looks like it was reconstructed from Mechagodzilla.
Miki the psychic girl is asked to be part of Project T (for Telepathy) which endeavours to mount a unit on Godzilla's head so Miki, using her powers, can control him. She's reticent. But the committee in charge will otherwise employ one of her younger students from the ESP school, and the alternative is Project G, which seeks to destroy Godzilla. Also, Miki got a new haircut.
Miki, taking a breather, senses Mothra in space (if you will recall when Mothra got Poochied two films ago). She receives a message from the Cosmos twins. A terrible space creature has been sent to kill Godzilla to make it easier to conquer the earth.
G-Force agents Goji and Kiyo take a cruise ship, only to jump off in a speed boat to Monster Island where the rendes-vous with Crocodile Dundee-esque tough guy Yuki, who in turn introduces them to Baby Godzilla who follows him around like a puppy (Baby G has grown since last film, but also been extra-cutened, but not to too offensive a level). They don't know why they're there. Yuki has them planting tear gas mines. He shows them a special bullet he's made with a special coagulant that will kill Godzilla, but Goji and Kiyo are part of Project T and won't help to kill big G. Miki and her employers at Project T come and join them. Miki bonds with Baby G. But poor Baby G trips all of Yuki's tear gas mines. Its cries wake Godzilla. Time for Project T to plant its telepathic receiver. (Slow moving stakes as Yuko at the same time tries to fire his coagulant bullet into Godzilla's armpit).
G-Force meets with NASA who show a horrifying (in quality) video of ISS crew being attacked by some sort of crystal monster. Soaring through space towards earth now is SpaceGodzilla. The M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is sent into space to meet SpaceGodzilla, but their fight in the middle of an asteroid field doesn't go well for the M.O.G.U.E.R.A. team at all and Space Godzilla arrives.
Baby G goes out to meet the new creature but it doesn't greet him back and Baby G is frightened, then attacked by SpaceG's crystal lightning. Godzilla intervenes before Space G can kill Baby G. But Baby G is captured anyway in one of Space G's crystal maws. Godzilla defeated, returns to the ocean, while SpaceG flies off.
Yuki and the Project T team leave after Project T is a failure, but Goji and Kiyo decide to stay back with Miki. Miki, after another wardrobe change, receives a telepathic pep talk from space Mothra. Goji puts the moves on Miki, but she's mad at him because he doesn't understand Godzilla like she does.
We learn that either Biollante or Mothra carried Godzilla DNA into space then fell into a black hole and was pushed out in a white hole, assimilating crystal organisms, and absorbing incredible energy, thus Space Godzilla was born.
In the middle of the night, the trio are attacked and Miki is taken by the Japanese Mafia (what?). Yuki, Goji and Kiyo somehow knew exactly where to look for her and they attempt a break in of their stronghold, where, it turns out, one of the Project T members is thirsting for power, but Project T still doesn't work. G-Force do a raid and rescue Miki in a completely extraneous time-filling subplot.
Space Godzilla heads towards Tokyo, and a rebuilt M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is ready to go with Yuki, Goji and Kiyo in the pilot seat, but not before Fukuoka City is destroyed by towering crystal spikes rising out of the ground. Godzilla's on his way too, but G-Force attacks Godzilla? They're no real impediment. Even Yuki takes control of M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and attacks Godzilla, but Goji overpowers him and knocks him out. They take control and engage Space Godzilla with everything they've got, including M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s drill noees which they bury in SpaceG's neck. But just as with the beta M.O.G.U.E.R.A. failed engagement in space, the new M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s no match.
It's up to Godzilla now. The G-Force see that Godzilla is destroying the crystal structures, and Koji decides to split M.O.G.U.E.R.A. into two - a flying tank and a ground drill tank that can burrow- and take out the tower structure that Space G is using to amplify his power or something. They reform after the tower is destroyed and help Godzilla attack Space G. But after M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is destroyed Yuki takes one of his coagulant bullets in a rocket launcher and takes aim at Space Godzilla but Godzilla interferes in his shot. He pilots Mogera on a suicide dash into Space G. It's enough to turn the tides for Godzilla.
Yuki rescues Koji (with a little ESP help from Miki) and everyone reunites. Miki gets a thank you from the Cosmos and space Mothra. Miki then shows Yuki that Baby G is safe and learning to spit sparks, while Godzilla wades off in the distance.
Godzilla, Friend or Foe:
Actually friend, but treated like foe
The Sounds:
Takayuki Hattori's score hits its first big note when it plays with the strings formation from "You Only Live Twice" (they thought we wouldn't notice...) as Koji and Kiyo venture to the island, after which there's some good percussive, tropical beats once they arrive. The film goes for a semi-military march whenever M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is on screen but it's less egregiously "american" in it's composition than past type marches that grate on my nerves. Also, there's very limited use of the original Godzilla theme, mercifully, and much less rehashing of familiar scores, which is a welcome reprieve in the Heisei era.
The Message:
Uh... love heals us from wanting to kill giant monsters?
Rating (out of 5 Zs): ZZ
The fighting is pretty stiff and clunky. The dynamic movement of the performers and camerawork seen in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II is not really here. There's not much physical contact between the suitmation performers. Plus, holding true to form, any flying in the Heisi era is entirely too rigid. It just tends to be static miniature figures swooping or brushing past each other with sparks or explosions set off to give the impression of some sort of action.
The romantic sub plots here are poorly executed and feel tacked on. There's zero chemistry between any of the couplings here.
Yuki's hate-on for Godzilla is well-portrayed by Akira Emoto, a hilarious last name, given how little he emotes, as he has the stonest of stone faces. There are some pretty incredible sets constructed, particularly in the extensively battle damaged Fukuoka where the humans wade through on rescue missions while Godzilla and SpaceG duke it out. This film does feature some incredible scenes that composite of miniatures, suitmation and live action all together. I could stare at those all day and they really do beat out CGI for visceral tactileness.
I like that Miki the psychic girl is put fairly close to center of the story here but there's still no real characterization for her and she still doesn't really get much of a story arc. Her powers do level up though.
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