Jun 8, 2018
King Caesar for Kaijune Day 8!
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Brazil
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from Slovakia
seen from Germany
seen from Yemen
seen from Brazil
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from Colombia
seen from Malaysia
King Caesar for Kaijune Day 8!
A drawing for a friend on my deviant art
Countdown to Destruction: 14. "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla" (1974)
In a bizarre twist of fate, a second Godzilla interrupts the violent attack of a first Godzilla and exposes the imposter's secret: the first Godzilla is a cyborg assassin from outer space! How Terminator a full ten years before Terminator. Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla is an absolute classic and is one of my favorite films in the whole franchise. It was my first TOHO Godzilla. My first Godzilla was Godzilla (1998.) I didn't know that the creature was originally a Japanese creation until my uncle who worked at a video store brought this movie and Godzilla (1985) to me for my birthday. I still have both VHS tapes. I was ecstatic! The first Godzilla was so great, so these two were probably amazing as well! I popped MechaGodzilla in my VHS player and this movie blew my tiny, five-year-old mind. A different, older looking Godzilla, a spikey dinosaur called Anguirus, a robotic Godzilla, a giant lion-dog that came to life when a beautiful girl sang a song to fulfill an ancient prophecy, aliens, huge explosions. It was just wow from start to finish. Like with all of these movies I saw when I was a kid, my thoughts and feeling son them have mostly changed... except for this one. This one always was, and probably always will be, one of my favorites. Sadly, I think my reasoning is almost completely nostalgic. The special effects for this film are nothing spectacular. very limited use of miniature sets, the radioactive breath and laser animations were bright and cartoony, didn't blend to well. The suits were very impressive, especially MechaGodzilla, who has a very memorable and impressive introduction.
The sets for the human characters felt very natural, especially the caves, the ruins, Okinawa and the ship... but I imagine there was a lot of on scene filming done to account for this. As I understand it, the films from Hedorah on had very constricted budgets. The miniatures obviously suffered from it. But that's all I can find wrong with it. MechaGodzilla never feels too slow to me, I like the script which takes itself somewhat seriously. Serious enough to entertain adults, but light enough not to bore kids. The music is undoubtedly my favorite Masaru Sato score. Something about Big Band music just fits this MechaGodzilla incarnation so well. It's loud, bossy, and harsh. Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla is a great film to show to someone to get into Kaiju genre. If they don't get this film, they probably also don't get Pacific Rim. Rating on the Godzillometer: 5/5 phases of the prophecy fullfilled