I ended up wanting to watch this movie based on one thing: a Japanese trailer I saw on YouTube. It was funny to watch, because it was just so overdramatic to the point of being goofy. However, it was enough for me to check the film out. And surprise, surprise, it wasn't as dramatic as the trailer made it out to be. But, is it still a good picture? Well, it's not a great one, but it still manages to entertain in places despite some annoyances.
The film begins pretty optimistically for the humans, as they use the technology from the remaining pieces of Mecha-King Ghidorah to create Mechagodzilla, a machine that's possibly a match for the real Godzilla. So far, they've only managed to test it out in simulators, so they're not sure just how well it stands up, but they won't have to wait long. Meanwhile, a research team on some island happens to discover a supposed pteranodon egg, and before they get a chance to get it off the island, Rodan appears and goes nuts. To make matters worse, before it can do anything, Godzilla comes out of the ocean, and the two go up against each other, giving the party a chance to get away with the egg.
Over the course of the next few days, they research and run some tests on the giant egg, until it eventually hatches due to a song a member of G-Force (the team that'll pilot Mechagodzilla) discovers. It soon becomes very obvious that it's not a pteranodon, and instead, happens to be a baby Godzillasaurus, which explains why Godzilla was at the island in the first place. The baby turns out to be quite friendly to the humans, but before they could get a chance to interact with it more, Godzilla suddenly appears and starts destroying the crap out of everything in its path. Obviously not in the best of moods... This is pretty much where the movie really starts, as Mechagodzilla gets launched to do battle.
In both encounters Godzilla has with Mechagodzilla, it's clearly outpowered by the mechanical beast. Mechagodzilla probably has the best counterattack any foe of Godzilla can have: it can absord Godzilla's heat beam and shoot it back at him. So, the human's do the smart thing and stay back a considerable distance and let Godzilla shoot its heat beam at the robot. In both instances, Godzilla comes real close to dying, but of course, since he's the star of the franchise, Toho can't have that, or they'll run out of money. So, Godzilla manages to "defeat" Mechagodzilla both times due to an amazing amount of luck on his side.
The first time, Mechagodzilla runs into some problems and ends up overheating, giving Godzilla the easy opportunity of just knocking it to the ground and go on to fuck up Kyoto. Second time, Godzilla gets extremely lucky. Before Mechagodzilla has the chance to fight Godzilla, Rodan shows up in the city and proceeds to give the machine a tough time. You know something's wrong when a monster other than Godzilla is actually a much harder opponent for Mechagodzilla... After receiving some damage to the body, which includes losing an eye (that somehow looks perfectly fine minutes later...), Mechagodzilla lays the smack down on Rodan. Of course, right when this happens, Godzilla decides to show up and fight the battle-torn robot...
Again, the whole film seems to be based totally on luck and coincidence, which is usually in Godzilla's favor. It got irritating, because, I mean, I know Godzilla is a powerful creature that can kick the snot out of everything, but, come on... The one time it's actually about to lose and it still ends up winning? Okay... Also, while I can deal with not actually seeing any civilians being killed (just machines and buildings, which may or may not have any people inside...), it did feel like they wussed out with the destruction of Mechagodzilla. Right before Godzilla delivers the finishing blow after coming back from a near-death experience and being more powerful than before thanks to Rodan conveniently landing on top of Godzilla after being shot down by Mechagodzilla and then giving all of its powers away before dying... *breaths*... an escape pod shoots away, thus having all the pilots survive. All five pilots survived? Man, at least have the one of them die, like the guy in charge.
Really, it's not a bad film, but the problems do annoy me. Though the fights start off pretty weak, they do get better as the movie continues along, with the final showdown with Mechagodzilla against Rodan and Godzilla being the highlight of the film. If you think you won't be as annoyed with the film's problems as I did, then check it out. But, I suggest checking out one of the many other Godzilla movies if you haven't yet.
Overall Rating: 7/10
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