Godzilla vs. Cosmic Godzilla Despite the fact that Toho did not plan to continue the Heisei era, two more films were released in the cycle, and this one became the penultimate. The only known work of Kense Yamashita, very worthy picked up the relay wand of the Kaiju of the 90s, while Takao Okawara shot “Yamato Takeru” according to Japanese folk legends, where giant monsters also appeared.
The plot picks up the theme raised in the 1992 film of an approaching meteorite capable of destroying the planet, and at the same time continue the journey of Godzilla cells through space after the events of Godzilla vs. Biollante, the central story of revenge flashback touches on the Return of Godzilla. Well, and finally leads on the theme of growing up Godzilla Jr., presenting the creation here even more anime and cute. The director even planned a children’s television series “Little Godzilla’s Underground Adventure”, but the plans were not destined to come true.
"Alien from space" tries to kill two birds with one stone at a time - on the one hand, presenting a completely new antagonist, who had not previously appeared in the films of the Toho monster - Cosmic Godzilla, and on the other - takes the well-forgotten old robot Meghera (Moghera), rethinking in a new way from "Mysterian" under the man-made mechanism of people, as it was in the previous film with Meha Godzilla.
Special effects specialist Koichi Kawakita even Meha Godzilla was going to make two parts - a ground tank and a flying fighter, but cost the merger of Garuda with a mechanical dinosaur. With Megere, he fully embodied his idea - the robot consists of the Earth Mole - a kind of drilling installation, and the Star Falcon - an aircraft.
The plot returns to the themes of "Adventures on the Island" and the idea of "Godzilla is the protector of the Earth", trying to do something more family-friendly. Composer Akira Ifukube called the script too childish and refused to write music for the film. The original idea was that the Cosmic Godzilla kidnaps the Kid, keeping him in an ice-crystalline fortress, and Godzilla tries to get his son back by storming this shelter. As a result, much was rewritten, making the film a little more serious and tough - what are at least scenes with a spider or bloody moments, but from the whole Haysay series, the picture still came out weaker than the others.
With music, this is a complete failure. The picture is partially saved by Ifukube tracks taken from past films, but all the new melodies written by Takayuki Hattori are a disaster! Absolutely ridiculous childish notes for funny episodes with Little Godzilla, some pathos-superhero motifs for the final battle of Godzilla, suitable for Superman films, and much more. Music is both bad and not really memorable after watching (which may even be for the better). He will also write the music for Godzilla 2000, but more on that later.
The story wanted this time to focus even more clearly on people, Miki Saigusa has already become a full-fledged main character, but her framing with secondary characters here is very much inferior to the previous paintings of Haysey: part is simply boring and not interesting, and the other part is crooked and one-sidedly inscribed, leaving no emotions.
Little Godzilla is now a good ala of Dora from "King Gidora" 1991, which was to attract the female and children to view, but the rest of the creations are made more seriously, and Space Godzilla is completely impressive for its crystalline growths and sinister appearance.
Despite the fact that Godzilla tried to kill here from the first minutes, this is the only film of Hasay, where the Monster King saves the planet and in fact performs in a positive way, rather than sowing fear, horror and destruction everywhere. Yes, scenes of breakdown of houses and cities take place, but all this is performed in the spirit of “passed by, hastened to save his son” – nothing more. There is no malice, no rage, no military or nuclear associations and metaphors.
The picture of 1994 is a full-fledged fantastic action movie. There's even a yakuza gang here, so that in addition to the battles of two rubber monsters, there are also human shootings and all sorts of fights. And the entourage of the island turns the entire first half into an exciting adventure. Even if the naked man under the shower did not show - it would be very good ...
There are, however, in special effects and notes of hacking. First, Godzilla's main costume was changed again, and in vain - its lower part began to look baggy and in some scenes is not too realistic, instead of a live lizard, we still see a rubber suit. Secondly, some scenes used as many as 3 versions of previous costumes, and given the abundance of cosmetic changes from film to film - when editing, as well as watching, it is quite striking when the appearance of the main monster is constantly changing in a bunch of small details.
Finally, the robot mole M.O.G.E.R.A. in a couple of episodes does not look like a truly metal robot, as its predecessors (the mechanical part of King Gidora's Fur and Mecha-Godzilla), although in most of its scenes the robot looks quite impressive and believable. And episodes of transformation, as well as separation-connection, cause a desire to purchase such toys in the spirit of Transformers. Just there are various minor flaws that somehow happen in all areas of the picture.
In addition to character problems, there is sometimes a problem with motivation. So, for example, Yuki does not pursue Godzilla on the shore for the same reason voiced by him “I do not shoot the wounded”, but greedily starts a duel at the end of the film, when Godzilla is definitely beaten and tired after the final battle is clearly much weaker than that episode on the coast.
Well, despite the impressive design of the Cosmo-Godzilla roar, he was picked up simply by a catastrophically bad squeaker, in something resembling Anguris rather than Godzilla. Not so bad as with King Gidora, who for a three-headed golden dragon does not know how, but still made extremely sloppy.
And many scenes are either copied from the film “Son of Godzilla”, where the action was also located on the island, or filled with references and homages on various ideas and concepts to that picture, as if many plot details were either remade remake, or simply borrowed for the lack of new ideas.
The film was criticized for about the same thing - a weak script and a number of significant hacks in special effects, but against the background of many sisters in the Kaiju genre, we must pay tribute, "Alien from space" looks decent, cool and impressive.
Just so unlucky the film - and the director-debutant many places did not press, although he tried, and the script, as well as the new heroes - so well, and the costume was updated in vain, and with the voice of Space Godzilla screwed up, and Ifukube refused to write music, even Meghera's back circular saw never spins for the film, a lot of shortcomings with real weighty visual merits and quite decent sensible directing. In general, drowning in the production hell, the picture still managed to go out with its head held high. It's just from Haysay-Era that this film is definitely the weakest.
8 out of 10
Original