Godzilla x Mechagodzilla Review

Just when you thought that Director Masaaki Tezuka would only have a one-shot directorial project with Godzilla x Megaguirus, only to be brought back again not only just for this film, but for this film’s sequel as well. However, this review is just reserved for Godzilla x Mechagodzilla, not GMMG: Tokyo S.O.S.

Anywho, with the mixed review that Godzilla x Megaguirus left among fans, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect with this film with Masaaki Tezuka at the helm once again. But once Godzilla x Mechagodzilla was released, we were a little surprised on how it turned out. Tezuka did a bit better this time around story-wise and cinematography – however, the film still fell short just like Godzilla x Megaguirus: the visuals, acting and human drama were the culprits that let this film down.

STORY:
The story to this film is better than I actually thought when I saw this film. Wataru Mimura returns from Godzilla x Megaguirus to script this film without Hiroshi Kashiwabara. It seems that Mimura took his time to flesh out to what we see in the film and put quite a bit of detail to it. The story was executed fairly well and seemed that a lot was clicking and made sense.

I liked on how it tied past films and getting the remains of the 1954 Godzilla involved and building Mechagodzilla around it, and also uses less resources instead of using a lot more such as the Mechagodzilla in the 1993 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. In my opinion, this has to be the most efficient Mechagodzilla ever built thus far.

Anyways, the story is not one of the best or worst stories in the recent franchise, but a story I think is better than Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. The story, of course, focuses more on the science-fiction realm that dominates the Godzilla Universe, unlike GMK which focuses more on fantasy and mythology realm.

VISUAL EFFECTS:
There are some aspects in Godzilla x Mechagodzilla where the visual effects were good, and all of that was used for Godzilla and Mechagodzilla when they fired their weapons; other than that, the visuals weren’t all that great and can really tell when green screen was used and makes it seem not as convincing.

A good example of a non-convincing visual effect in this film was when Akane Yashiro and other rescued their comrades from the damaged aircraft and when they were a good distance away from the aircraft, it explodes behind them. The part about that particular scene is when you obviously notice they were using green screen and the explosion visual did not look great at all.

The visuals used for Godzilla’s and Mechagodzilla’s weapons were the only ones that really showcased this category, but couldn’t hold the weight because of the outside, mediocre visuals.

ACTING:
So far, it seems that Masaaki’s signature in both Godzilla x Megagiurus and this film is having a female lead that had a dark past which had Godzilla directly involved while serving in the military. In the case for this film, however, this is where I think Tezuka and Mimura went a little too far when portraying the female lead and made her too emo-ish and dense. It didn’t seem like that Akane really fit with the film at all and was in a totally different world than the rest of the cast, and this can be said for Tokumitsu Yuhara’s daughter, Sarah, later in the film when she mysteriously became just like Akane.

I want to say that the acting portion is great because of the supporting cast members, but the acting from the lead role practically ruined that part of the experience for me.

BATTLES:
The battle portions in this film is pretty much the only thing that makes this film interesting. The part I really enjoyed the most was the first encounter between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla when it was during their scrimmage towards the end with Godzilla roaring, which made Mechagodzilla’s computers berserk and rewired the program and turned into the 1954 Godzilla. I thought that was a great touch since Mechagodzilla’s computing is based on the 1954 Godzilla’s DNA.

The second part of the battles was great too, and that the two didn’t have much of an advantage against the other, it was an even match, which is another aspect I enjoyed in this film. There were a couple things that were a bit off or looked a bit odd during the battle scenes, but were quickly overshadowed.

HUMAN DRAMA:
Again, just like the acting portion along with Akane and Sarah, they seemed too dense and emo-ish. Although, Sarah wasn’t like that earlier in the film when she was all cheerful and, to me, acted like one of the boys from Gamera vs. Guiron. Somehow, though, when the story’s timeline got to 2003, she went from all smiles and cheers to gloom and depressed without any explanation whatsoever.

The other cast members seemed to be the only normal and consistent ones in this film, minus Sarah. They were more interesting to watch than Akane; although Tokumistu seemed a bit crazy at times when chasing Akane, he’s still interesting to watch nonetheless.

Unluckily though, they were overshadowed by Akane’s dense and over-dramatized act, which dilutes the value of both acting and human drama portions of the film.

OVERALL:
As I stated earlier, this is one of Tezuka’s better Godzilla films, but barely though. Godzilla x Mechagodzilla still carried some of the same formulas that made Godzilla x Megaguirus fall short of its expectations. The story, however, has improved under Tezuka and gave Mimura more space in  creativity in doing the script on his own.

But the denseness of the female lead still gets to me, even Sarah, which I don’t even know why she was like that later in the film. I think that this is where both Megaguirus and Mechagodzilla films fall short is because the female leads are over-dramatized and don’t have much emotions towards themselves and others.

It might take me quite sometime to start enjoying this film, but, with it already celebrated a decade of its release at the time this review was written, I’m still mixed about this film, much like Megaguirus. However, I have to say that this film is better than Megaguirus, so at least Tezuka did something right.

[include id=”2″ title=”Ness GXMG Film Review”]