TALKBACK #26: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

[king_ghidorah]

[Legion]

[king_ghidorah]

[MouthForWar]

[Legion]

[jellydonut25]

[MrShape666]

I like this movie quite a bit more then Megaguiras. It has better Kaiju scenes and more formidible foe for G to grapple with. Plus I'm glad the put Godzilla back to his original color layout, the green and purple paint job never sat well.

[jellydonut25]

[MouthForWar]

[walshiam]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Hybrid Gojira]

After watching this again, I find the movie to be a mixed bag..it drags at times. For most of the movie it seems like they can't seem to figure out how they want Godzilla to act. The beginning half of the film Godzilla mostly stands around while being attacked, sparsely retaliating. It becomes even worse when Godzilla finally meets Kiryu, gets blasted by countless missiles, and then retreats without doing much of anything. Godzilla looks stiff and dim-witted, yet later on he finally starts blowing things up, including Kiryu. Oddly enough, the same Godzilla who paid little to no attention to being attacked early in the film starts seeking out targets which attack him later on. He'll turn completely around to attack a maser cannon, and gets distracted twice when Kiryu's jets attack him, when at the film's beginning he would stare blankly as if on prozac.

Also, Godzilla's head/neck area just looks stupid. The head is too small compared to he body. There are a few shots where the profile looks pretty good, but overall it is just awkward. Btw, Kiryu is a cool mech, but Showa MG is still better IMO.

I agree that the film is probably too slow, and ironically the main heroine character acts much like Godzilla - dull and lifeless for most of the film, often silent. Her love interest seemed way too old for her, maybe that's just me, but he was terribly awkward (I know the awkwardness is intentional) and almost came across like a father to a daughter rather than a romantic relationship.

The SPFX are decent for most of the film, but a few shots are poorly executed. I guess that comes with the territory, but I must say the miniatures looked great. GXMG does play out much like a Showa film, but it lacks the spirit of the Showa films and has no interesting characters to speak of.

I will say this - I remember the next film as being an improvement.

[king_ghidorah]

[Cookie]

[jellydonut25]

[Hybrid Gojira]

[TripMasterMunky]

[king_ghidorah]

[jamaal7]

[color=darkred]My main problem with GxMG and GxMxMG is the redesign of the suits used in G2K and GxM.

The head is a tad small. The bulkiness of the design in Godzilla 2000 Millennium conveyed a sense of mass and power. The head on that suit was a better fit, proportion wise. The suit acting of Tsutomu Kitagawa in G2k imbued Godzilla with character. You could almost sense that he was thinking things through as he reacted to the struggle waged by Orga in their battle. Memorable was the scene when Godzilla “whipsâ€

[Hybrid Gojira]

[Pkmatrix]

I rewatched this one again yesterday. I still enjoy it! Probably moreso than any other Millenium film.

This Godzilla felt like an attempt to throwback to the Heisei Godzilla, and there are a few really neat bits of characterization: getting angry when the Masers go for his face, him seemingly disturbed when he first sees Kiryu, the way he backs down from the first fight, etc. I agree that the costume looked too stiff (I can easily imagine how much more interesting this would've been had they used the GvMG2 suit, or something at least as mobile/animated), but I've no problem with the design - it's basically the Miregoji, and that's my favorite design. ^_^

The story is simple and straightforward, but it works. Yeah, the human plot is similar to Megaguirus', but this one is play more realistically and, IMO, more emotional honesty. You can tell with every scene that Akane still suffers and blames herself for what happened, it isn't something she's repressed or gotten over, and for me comes across more like how I expect a real person to react to unintentionally killing her comrades. It makes this internal conflict between the hardnosed professional soldier and the fragile broken woman so interesting here!

I loved the setting they came up with here, not just for having found a way to integrate classic films into their universe but also for, again, presenting a more realistic depiction. The media and international response to Mechagodzilla seems spot on, for one. And the JXSDF seems like an actual military unit, as opposed to the G-Graspers (who seemed like they'd wandered in from an Ultraman episode) or G-Force (who started off semi-military and turned into...something else by the time Heisei was over). Kumi Mizuno and Akira Nakao made for great Prime Ministers too!

What bothered me were a few really goofy bits that seemed out of place, especially since they don't start piling up until the finale. Stuff like Kiryu swinging Godzilla around by his tail, Kiryu flipping literally head over heels from a single hit, or Kiryu jumping over Godzilla like a ninja are just strange, especially after the previous encounter when Kiryu never did anything remotely like that! Akane screaming for Kiryu to "Give me Power!!!" seemed like it was ripped out of a Super Robot anime.

Speaking of Akane inside Kiryu, why? IMO, a more interesting ending would've been Kiryu going out of control again, but this time staying on the JXSDF's side. The fight could've been exactly the same (minus Hayama's attempted self-sacrifice), but this change to the story would've ended this on a far more intriguing note (and make the PM's comments at the end make a little more sense). The only other thing that bothered me was Hayama's character - he comes across as the generic jerk bully and is more annoying than anything else. Perhaps if they'd given him some more redeeming qualities I'd like him more.

Overall, I really enjoyed it! ^_^

I wish this movie was given a better sequel than what we ended up with...I wanted them to look more closely at the conflict between Godzilla and Kiryu in the sequel, not a rehash of Mothra vs. Godzilla! Sigh.

[MekaGojira3k]

I dunno how you can diss S.O.S. for being a rehash of Mothra vs. Godzilla when this is a rehash of Godzilla X Megaguirus.

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Pkmatrix]