Godzilla and Godzilla's son vs. Radon and the Mechanical Godzilla
For reasons that are not entirely clear, new screenwriter Wataru Mimura, who will be followed by at least 5 Kaiju films, 4 of which are about Godzilla, decided to link the new picture not with the previous 1992 film about Batra and Motra, but with the film Godzilla vs. King Gidora (1991), based on the remains of Mecha-Gidora, to create a flying combat vehicle Garud and a new Mecha-Godzilla.
The previous film seemed to be ignored, however, due to the large number of positive reviews of the female audience on the previous part for any kawaiki cuteness, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka obliged the director to bring the baby Godzilla back to the plot, making a charming redesign and adding more features of the dinosaur to its appearance. The baby was even made herbivorous for some reason, and indeed the moment with eating a rose is perhaps very funny and touching.
According to the original scenario, instead of Mehagozilla with an atomic lizard, Mehani Kong was to fight, since the rights to Kong itself were lost and the idea to remove the remake of King Kong vs. Godzilla failed. The film in 1993 was generally promised to make the final in the Heisei era for two reasons - because of the death of Ishiro Honda, who never became the director of this picture, and because of the sale of the rights of TriStar studio in Hollywood.
Godzilla’s costume was greatly changed – the tail was raised, the shoulders were reduced, the legs became many times thinner and much more. However, the previous, the best of Goji costumes, from Godzilla vs. Motra: Battle for Earth 1992 was used in a number of scenes of battles with Rodan, the destruction of cities and even before the final credits. So in fact we have here as much as 2 design appearance, but few people will pay attention to this.
After the successful return to the screens of Motra and Hydora, the studio decided not to invent new monsters this time, which were, for example, Batra or Biollante, but to use the redesign of popular early characters - the dinosaur Rodan (Radon) - a giant pteranodon, who finally received a decent appearance and, in fact, the Mechanical Godzilla.
Mecha Godzilla-2 with all its new appearance and wildly cool weapons literally reveals itself in the homages of its old version. Here you and turn your head 180 degrees, and a rainbow ray from your mouth, and even contradicting, it would seem, logic – a mechanical roar.
The Garuda aircraft is essentially a kind of fighter with two guns. Nothing special, but cooler than the submarine. Super X is for sure. Special effects master Koichi Kawakita proved to the studio that he was able to make furs at Gunhead, but with monsters and designs, in fact, Heisei-era never had problems.
Even the revamped Baby Godzilla will look a little more serious and a little less animasque than the Doras from the 1991 film and his subsequent version from the 1994 film. At least the early 90s had a new Godzilla movie every year! That was the era!
As for the human characters, they are beautiful. Explanatory script and exemplary directing did not neglect even a number of very side characters such as Dr. Asimov or American pilot Susan (by the way, Shelley Sweeney will play in three Godzilla films and at the same time in the tokusatsu-series about kaiju Ultraman Teaga). The main characters turned out to be no less bright than in the last picture - the best Godzilla film of all time. And due to the romantic line, perhaps many of the characters of this film will be remembered more and better. Well, the relationship of a mechanic-inventor and a laboratory girl here is really very funny and interesting spelled out in their development.
But from the already familiar faces in the film will be noted Kenji Sahara, Koichi Ueda, Tadao Takashima, Akira Nakao on the contrary will debut here, and then star in a huge number of kaiju paintings, Yusuke Kawazu will be celebrated in the Heisei-era at the studio-competitor in the films about the turtle Gamer, Shinobu Nakayama will move there with him.
What is curious is that they played miniature fairies in the previous film: Keiko Imamura and Sayaka Osawa are already playing human characters here - girls from the center of parapsychology, dealing with gifted children. And here in the next movie - they are both again inches Cosmos, miracles! Well, and, of course, the best character of the films about Godzilla, in general, the telepathic girl Miki Saigus has already grown up and occupies an important and high post among all those who are engaged in the defense of the country.
Rodana, by the way, the man in the suit no longer played here. This time, the pteranodon was exclusively a puppet of puppeteers, unlike Godzilla, his son and his mechanical counterpart. Rodan with his heat ray presented incredibly spectacular, and at the same time became one of the most tenacious enemies of Godzilla. And whether enemies, given how and what everything turns out here ... Even monster relationships are spelled out perfectly! In addition to genuine admiration, the picture simply does not cause anything.
The film involves a huge number of mashups – when the monster moves against the background of a real city or among real houses, there are not so many episodes with miniatures, and the amount of military equipment is almost minimized due to the attention to Garuda and Mehagodzilla, as the main weapons of today’s Japan in G-Force – the organization to fight Godzilla.
It is worth noting the fact that Godzilla here continues to be the personification of nuclear war, atomic bombing and various horrors in general. If in the last film for the darkest and harshest episodes was responsible, perhaps, Batra, as a key malevolent antagonist, this time Godzilla was given to turn around in full. He is more angry than in the 2001 film.
Magnificent special effects, detailed facial expressions of all monsters, naturalistic-looking costumes, where dinosaurs are like lizards, and mechanisms like robots. The new Mehagozilla is beyond praise, there is even an episode where it begins to melt.
And in general, memorable scenes here are just a pond – the first appearance of Radon, an episode at the stadium, a scene with a container, the appearance of the Baby from the Egg and much more. There are simply stunning angles in various action scenes. Okawara is the best director of Godzilla films for all the years of the existence of the monster king, surpassing, perhaps, even Ishiro Honda, who still has eternal memory and great respect for the greatest of all possible contributions to the genre.
The picture of 1993 combines the classic attributes of Kaiju history, while decorating everything with a completely updated and interesting plot. The relevance of those 90s is not lost to this day, and in the center of the plot lies not even morality, but a philosophical question about the era of dinosaurs and the era of mankind. How long will we reign on this planet? And will not all the continents after us occupy such monsters as Godzilla, generated by nuclear waste and pollution?
10 out of 10
Original
