Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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The king of the monsters returns to battle his evil counterpart from space!

Welcome to the 40th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise! Four decades ago the prehistoric behemoth rose from the waters outside Tokyo, and he’s been causing trouble ever since. This week he shows he can still help protect Japan, but is not necessarily a friend to the people living there.

First Impressions

The trailer for this looks insane (in a good way). An alien that looks like a mutated Godzilla lands on Earth, in Tokyo naturally. There’s also a robotic Godzilla created presumably to fight the alien. Also a baby Godzilla, and a strange love ballad instrumental, with a couple on the beach at sunset. What is actually happening here? It’s kaiju on kaiju on mecha-kaiju action, and your guess is as good as anyone’s. What will happen??

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

Several strange meteorites streak through space and land on an island, awakening Godzilla’s underwater slumber. At the headquarters of the Counter-G organization, the soldiers assemble the two vehicles that combine to make their MOGERA (Mobile Operation G-Expert Robot Aero Type) mecha which they plan to destroy Godzilla. Dr. Susumu Okubo (Yôsuke Saitô) and Dr. Chinatsu Gondo (Towako Yoshikawa) visit with the head of an ESP Lab named Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka) about her involvement with Project T. (short for telepathy) which aims to control Godzilla, not kill him. She agrees after being visited by two small red fairies (assistants to Mothra) who tell her a monster is coming to Earth to kill Godzilla.

On the island, Lt. Koji Shinjo (Jun Hashizume) and Lt. Kiyoshi “Kiyo” Sato (Zenkichi Yoneyama), members of the UNGCC (the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center) arrive and are met by Major Akira Yuki (Akira Emoto) who is prepared to kill Godzilla with a bullet containing a blood coagulant. The Generals see the arrival of a  space monster as imminent, after it has destroyed a NASA space station, so they agree to launch MOGERA at the monster, and use Project T. for Godzilla. Doctors Okubo and Gondo arrive on the island with Miki, and instruct Koji and Kiyo to fire an amplifier at the neck of Godzilla so they can begin controlling him. They are blocked by Yuki who attempts to kill Godzilla and also Little Godzilla, a baby version of the monster, who repeatedly sets off a series of tear gas canisters buried on the beach.

Koji is successful and Miki uses her ESP to control Godzilla for a short time. In space, MOGERA and its pilots attack the monster, dubbed SpaceGodzilla, but are blasted by its energy beams knocking the mecha out of control. Okubo attempts to amplify the ESP signal, but ends up shorting out the system, and knocking Miki out, and letting Godzilla out from under the mind control. Koji and Kiyo team up with Yuki to stop Godzilla, but Miki awakens and tells them they need the creature alive, as a space monster is coming! SpaceGodzilla lands on the island and attacks Little Godzilla, which causes Godzilla to attack back. Unfortunately the Earth monster is not powerful enough. SpaceGodzilla uses energy from a series of giant crystals on the island to channel his power, attacking Godzilla. Little Godzilla becomes trapped in some crystals and Godzilla is knocked out, as SpaceGodzilla flies off.

Miki wants to stay, so Koji and Kiyo stay with her. One evening Koji and Miki have a romantic moment on the beach at sunset as she tries to explain that Godzilla has feelings just like they do. That night she is kidnapped by some mysterious men. Back at the mainland, Dr. Gondo has discovered that SpaceGodzilla is made from mutated cells of Godzilla that were blasted into space during the creatures battles with Biolante and Mothra. Yuki is asked by his commander to pilot MOGERA against the monster. Dr. Gondo feels the pain and anger that Yuki has towards Godzilla, as it was her brother and Yuki’s best friend that was killed by Godizlla recently. It turns out Dr. Okubo (and the Japanese mafia) has kidnapped Miki trying to use her ESP to use Godzilla for destruction. Luckily Koji and Kiyo have returned and rescue her. Just as SpaceGodzilla lands in Tokyo, the mafia warehouse is destroyed and the doctor is killed.

The military sends MOGERA to deal with SpaceGodzilla again, this time with Yuki piloting, assisted by Koji and Kiyo. But Yuki chooses to deviate from orders when he sees Godzilla approaching and begins to attack the creature. Koji knocks Yuki out and gets MOGERA to continue its attack on SpaceGodzilla. They realize that SpaceGodzilla is using a radio antenna in town to power up, so they decide to separate MOGERA into its two parts, Star Falcon and Land MOGERA to draw SpaceGodzilla’s fire. After destroying the tower, the two mechas reform and destroy the shoulder crystals on SpaceGodzilla that allow him to take on power. This allows Godzilla to continue attacking.

Yuki awakens and sees the error of his ways. He has Koji and Kiyo eject in a pod while he sacrifices MOGERA to knock SpaceGodzilla down, but becomes trapped in the wreckage. Koji heads back into the mecha and with Miki’s assistance through ESP and TK, she is able to help him free Yuki. Godzilla uses this time to kill SpaceGodzilla as the UNGCC causes the amplifier to drop off Godzilla’s neck. He gives a knowing look to Miki, who is reunited with Koji. Dr. Gondo hugs Yuki, who also survived, and he decides to give up his special bullet, and his desire to kill Godzilla. Gondo warns everyone that this could happen again if humans keep polluting the universe, and we all need to remain vigilant. Godzilla stumbles back into the sea, ready for another adventure.

“Guys, are you having fun? Let’s kill SpaceGodzilla first.” – Major Akira Yuki

History in the Making

At forty years old, Godzilla still proves that he can throw down with the best of them. Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla is the sixth film in the Heisei Era of Godzilla films (1984-1995) and the 21st film in the franchise overall. Sci-Fi Saturdays has looked at this King of Monsters from his introduction in 1954s Godzilla, and then every ten years–just to see what he’s been up to. If you’d like to catch up, please go and read about Invasion of Astro-Monster, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, or The Return of Godzilla. This small sampling is enough to give an idea of the differences between the Shōwa Era films (1954-1975) and the current Heisei Era.

Both eras of the Toho Pictures Godzilla films begin with relatively serious stories. Both Godzilla (1954) and The Return of Godzilla (1984) deal with the fears of this gigantic “fire breathing” lizard attacking Tokyo. And while both films are of their time frames, Return disregards the intervening 30 years of events, and imagines itself as a strict sequel to the original Godzilla. It also imagines a slightly more advanced Japanese Self Defense Force which has access to Super X, a highly specialized military prototype ship that is able to fight against Godzilla. The films that follow the original Godzilla seem to degrade the messages of the original film, creating instead a super-cheesy popcorn flick more suited for young audiences. Both Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) and the Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) dealt with aliens harnessing the powers of other creatures in order to get Godzilla to fight. The sub-plots with the non-kaiju battles, which are in actuality the main plots, seem to become more and more convoluted and bizarre as the films go on. Similarly, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla has a convoluted plot with the humans, yet does not devolve into alien intervention. It also has a similar theme to the best Godzilla films, but only barely and tacked onto the final lines of the film, as if forgotten.

Genre-fication

The advancements in special effects made in the previous forty years is evident in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. The quality of the costumes and details of the miniature sets shows the growth of the technology. Plus the advancements in pyrotechnics, wire work, and filming of these sets gives audiences a stronger feeling of being in the action. Other than that, the film is a standard kaiju film which includes at least two major action scenes of monsters battling one another. In this case, SpaceGodzilla attacks Godzilla and his “son” Little Godzilla, stopping both of the earthbound creatures. They return for the final battle which also includes the MOGERA mech (which is named after a similar giant robot, Moguera, from the 1957 film The Mysterians) assisting Godzilla in defeating SpaceGodzilla.

Unlike the Shōwa Era films, no aliens are behind the appearance of SpaceGodzilla. He is a mutation of Godzilla’s own cells which were “swallowed by a black hole and pushed out from a white hole.” Humans now get the chance to interact more with the creatures. Either in defending their city by using the MOGERA robot, or Miki using her telepathic ability to control Godzilla. In fact Miki was an ongoing character in this era of films. She first appeared in 1989s Godzilla vs. Biollante and in every subsequent film including the last Heisei film, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Her telepathic abilities are the extent of weirdness in this film (at least outside of a giant monster battling a monster from space).

Societal Commentary

Since Godzilla’s debut, the themes surrounding his creation relate to humanity’s abuse of the planet and our disregard for our actions, specifically regarding atomic weapons. From that point much of Godzilla’s appearances were about defending the planet from other giant monsters, some from outer space. In Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla it’s Godzilla’s own cells that are mutated into a perverse and stronger version of himself. One that feeds on energy from the Earth’s core. However it appears as an afterthought that Dr. Gondo mentions the warning to all mankind that “if the universe keeps being polluted, well, then, another space monster will arrive pretty soon.” This appears to be the only mention of anything like this in the film, and it arrives after the final battle about 2 minutes before the end of the film.

The stronger (if only barely) message from the film involves Yuki’s character and his self-serving mission to kill Godzilla. It appears that even though he is part of the MOGERA task force, his mission on the island to shoot and kill Godzilla is entirely his own and unsanctioned. There are super-brief flashbacks to the death of Goro Gondo, the Doctor’s brother and best friend to Yuki. This is apparently footage from Godzilla vs. Biollante, and is supposed to set up the character arc for Yuki. In the end, he realizes that Godzilla is okay after fighting with him against SpaceGodzilla. It also appears that he gets the revenge out of his system by helping to kill SpaceGodzilla, who is in essence a clone of Godzilla. So he can say that he fulfilled his mission.

The Science in The Fiction

The fact that in the Heisei era, with the two films Sci-Fi Saturdays has reviewed, the humans have stepped up their defensive game when it comes to Godzilla. In this film they’ve created a mecha called MOGERA that can separate into two parts (like the ships in Gundam or Voltron) which allow for some fun sequences. It’s clear that this was a device created to destroy Godzilla, and was the military response to the dangers of a gigantic lizard monster roaming the Pacific rim. On the flip side, a group of scientists have come up with a plan to attempt to control Godzilla with telepathy. In the end, neither plan works as intended. MOGERA is unable to stop SpaceGodzilla by itself, and needs the help of Godzilla to deliver the one-two punch to defeat the creature. Likewise, Miki and Project-T (short for Project Telepathy, LOL) doesn’t work either, mostly due to Doctor Okubo being overzealous and trying to raise the power to high (which shorts out the system). At the end of the film, as with all Godzilla movies, everything returns to the status quo. The Project-T amplifier is removed telepathically by Miki and the creature lumbers back into the sea until the next time he is needed.

The Final Frontier

The 1995 film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah would be the last entry in this era of films. Godzilla would return in 1998 in his first fully American production, starring Matthew Broderick, before resuming six new films in the Millennium Era for Toho Pictures. Godzilla’s reign was almost ready to take a small rest. Even with some of the fun and cool looking fights that come with this film, the plot and pacing of the film is all over the place. Much of the plot is explained in dialogue which seems clunky, and which could be lacking due to English translations of the film. The characters are mostly two-dimensional. And it almost feels like you need to watch the earlier films to get some sense of what is going on. The fact that the humans get a chance to protect themselves is admirable, but some of the fun of having Godzilla actively working to help Japan defeat the monsters is missing in this epic slugfest. All in all, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is perfect fare for a lazy Saturday afternoon, when you want to watch giant monsters battle and don’t care about much else.

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