Godzilla VS Space Godzilla (1994)
Produced and Released by: Toho Co. Ltd.
Director: Kensho Yamashita
Some images come from Godzilla Stomp (check them out!)
By Dr Kain

Introduction

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla was released in 1994 as part of the Heisei series. This was the first movie to feature an original monster since 1989’s Godzilla vs Biollante, Space Godzilla and also features the return of Moguera, a machine featured in the 1957 fan-favorite "The Mysterians".

The Story

A satellite in space has been destroyed by crystal like objects, which prompts the UN to send its newest creation, Moguera, to space to investigate.

Meanwhile Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka) and Dr. Chinatsu Gondo (Towako Yoshikawa) go to Birth Island to meet Akira Yuki (Akira Emoto), who used to work for the military, but quit after Godzilla killed his best friend in 1989. While on Birth Island they find the baby Godzilla, only older and bigger than he was when last seen.

Yuki seeking revenge wants to kill Godzilla and made a specialized serum to do so, but he isn’t able to execute his plan because the island is attacked by the crystals from space. Shortly after those crystals land on the island a monster appears, which looks like a blue Godzilla, only with crystals throughout his body. The monsters fight and Space Godzilla leaves taking Baby Godzilla as a hostage. Whe then discover that Space Godzilla was created by some of Godzilla’s own cells, which were sent out into space either from Biollante or Mothra, and they fused with some crystal-like object in space.

Miki is kidnapped by the Japanese Mafia and Akira is asked to rejoin the army as the commander of Moguera and he agrees. Akira and a few others help rescue Miki from the mafia, but as they are busy doing that, Space Godzilla returns to cause destruction all over Japan. After Miki is rescued Akira and gang set out to fight Space Godzilla using Moguera, but Akira’s thirst for revenge changes plans as he sets out to destroy Godzilla instead. In the end it is a three way battle with Godzilla and Moguera facing the power of Space Godzilla, who will win?

Review

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla introduces us to a new monster, but unfortunately it's still one of the weakest of the Heisei movies, and not one I particularly care for. It has some interesting concepts, but the movie is boring, especially the fight scenes.

I have never seen The Mysterians, but from what I read, Moguera is a lot different here. I like his concept, but he is much weaker than MechaGodzilla, which makes you wonder why they bothered to build him. I mean if MechaGodzilla was stronger and lost, what made them think Moguera would be better? Another thing that bothered me during the movie were the helmets. Those things are way too big for the person's head. You would think their brains were on top of their head instead of in it.

Next up is the music. Instead of using Akira Ifukube for this movie, Takayuki Hattori took the role for the soundtrack, which was a bad move. His score had some nice pieces, but it did not fit the mood quite right and it didn't help make the fight scenes more exciting. instead it madethe battle scenes even more boring than they were already.

Except for Baby, the designs for the costumes are really nice though. Baby looks very similar to what Minilla in the Showa series looked like, but at least he is not as annoying. Space Godzilla looks so cool and after I bought the figure from Trendmasters, I wanted to see this movie. Godzilla looks really cool, but his best looks for the Heisei series are in Biollante and Destroyer. Moguera has some great features like separating into two different vehicles, but his lack of arsenal made him bland.

The human characters were also dull. So much so that Miki and Akira are the only ones I really remember anything about. I did like how they made reference to Godzillla vs Biollante by having one of the soldiers killed by Godzilla being a friend of Akira. Although his whole revenge thing could’ve been done a lot better if they tried.

Conclusion

It is a shame that a movie with some really cool designs ended up being a really big disappointment. It felt rushed, contained uninspiring fight sequences, and very dull soundtrack. If it were not for the fact that Space Godzilla is pretty cool and it is a Godzilla movie, I would have to say you are better off passing on this movie and watching one of the better ones from the Showa series like Terror of MechaGodzilla, or even the sequel to this, Godzilla vs Destroyer.

My final score is 2/5 stars.

Dr Kain