The Spike Astral Engineer
Joined: 23 Sep 2014 Posts: 266 Location: Birmingham. Great Britain.
|
Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2019 8:46 pm Post subject: Gojira tai Mekagojira (1974) aka Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla |
|
|
______________
Okinawa Oblivion.
Gojira tai Mekagojira is directed by Jun Fukuda and Fukuda co-writes the screenplay with Hiroyasu Yamamura. It stars Masaaki Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, Akihiko Hirata and Hiroshi Koizumi. Music is by Masaru Sato and cinematography by Yuzuru Aizawa.
Toho introduce us to Mechagodzilla for the first time, a giant robotic Godzilla fashioned by aliens. Cue monster smack-downs and the Earth in peril wrapped in a completely bonkers story.
Godzilla's 20th anniversary celebrations brought us this venture, a strange affair, where it's very easy to warm to, and it's enjoyable for sure — if a tad too cheap and cheesy to be a high point of the original series wave.
The human aspects play like an odd ball spy caper, one that comes with glorious prophecies of monster doom for mankind. Sure enough, it's not long before chaos is brought down upon the city of Okinawa.
Along with the two titular Godzilla's we also get a bit of Angorus, whose actions and part in the story is a great set up.
And here's a newbie joining the fray, King Caesar. Caesar is Okinawa's monster God, officially from Komainu lore in features, but actually looking like some rabid nuclear canine. However, it's still great fun as Caesar and Godzilla try and repel the might of the supremely cool and lethal Mechagodzilla.
Sato's musical score is not for me, it's too cartoon-like in patches and it feels at odds with the perilous sci-fi vibe so associated with the series.
The production designs are a mixed bag, as usual. Most annoying is that the Godzilla costume looks dreadfully cheap, but elsewhere there's great and nifty model and camera work. They exude a love for the series that's rather warming.
The ending sort of fizzles out, a shame since the pyrotechnics of the final battle are glorious. Which leaves us with a Godzilla film that sits somewhere in the middle tier of the rankings. But it earns mighty respect, if only for introducing us to the awesome Mecahgodzilla for the first time. 6.5/10 _________________ The quality of mercy is not strnen. |
|