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Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla II Director: Takao Okawara Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time: 106 minutes Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom Region Code: 99 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2005-02-08 Buy from Amazon |
 "My Favorite Godzilla Movie"Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II is my favorite Godzilla movie of the entire series, and I don't think I'm alone! This movie has everything, and I do mean everything, that I expect from a good Godzilla movie. It has tons of monster action as well as human drama. Best of all, this film has the monsters as the central focus without losing the human element, which makes for a perfectly balanced motion picture. The plot is simple, understandable, entertaining, and easy to follow. It unfolds at a fast pace, but not so fast that the viewer gets lost. This movie is part of the Heisei series (second series, 1984-1995) of Godzilla movies. It picks up after "Godzilla and Mothra"(1992). Here's a plot summary. In 1992, the U.N. salvages the remains of Mecha King Ghidorah (from "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" [1991]) and use the technology to build two robots, Garuda and Mechagodzilla. Meanwhile, a research team on remote Adonoa Island finds a huge egg and a giant mutated Pteranodon, called Rodan. Godzilla arrives and fights Rodan, seemingly killing it. The research team takes the egg to Kyoto, where it hatches a baby Godzillasaurus (an unmutated Godzilla). Godzilla comes looking for it, and is confronted by Mechagodzilla. Godzilla defeats his robotic counterpart and the military, and leaves when he fails to find the baby. Later, a plan to lure Godzilla, with the baby as bait, is carried out. But Rodan arrives and takes the baby away. Mechagodzilla and Garuda confront and badly injure Rodan. Godzilla shows up and Garuda and Mechagodzilla combine to form Super Mechagodzilla. Who will win this ultimate battle? This movie was highly entertaining and very exciting. It never gets boring or slow. It remains interesting and engaging throughout the whole thing. The acting is good. The characters are likeable and entertaining. They play a vital role in the movie, while allowing the monsters to be the real stars. Megumi Odaka reprises her role as Miki Saegusa, who she played in every Heisei Godzilla movie since "Godzilla vs. Biollante" (1989). The actors in the monster costumes gave outstanding performances. Godzilla showed intelligence, emotion, and animal-like actions. Mechagodzilla's movements were 100% machine-like. The baby Godzillasaurus showed emotions effectively. It showed curiosity, affection, and fear, all like a real baby animal. The dubbing isn't too bad, but still isn't that great. The translators showed emotion and reaction in their voices. Unfortunately, there are only a few people dubbing over the dialogue, which makes for several minor characters having the same voice. Also, Rodan's name was not translated in the dubbing. All the characters refer to him by his Japanese name, Radon. Still, don't let bad dubbing make you think any less of the movie itself. Besides, in the original Japanese version, the characters already speak English a lot of the time. The special effects are extremely well done. They're some of the best of any Godzilla movie. The miniature cities are very detailed and look real. The destruction was all very convincing. The only CGI-effects in the film are the very nicely animated ray and beam attacks from the monsters, and computer simulations that are watched by the characters. This movie was made in 1993, the same year as "Jurassic Park", which had flawless CGI. But the suitmation and miniatures looked just as convincing as any CGI could. The monster costumes were all very real-looking with great attention to detail. Godzilla looked tough, mean, and intelligent. The animatronic Godzilla head displayed good facial emotions. Mechagodzilla looked awesome. With such excruciating detail in his design, he really looked like a 394-foot metal robot. Rodan looked very fierce and intelligent, but his wing movement looked bad at times. The baby Godzillasaurus, despite his large eyes, looked real. This movie is definitely one of the best G-movies in terms of special effects. The music and sound effects are outstanding. The sounds of destruction are very real. The monsters roars are all very cool. Godzilla has the same traditional roars that he had in the previous G-movie "Godzilla and Mothra". Mechagodzilla has a high-pitched, very cool-sounding, mechanical cry. He also makes machine-like whirs and hums when he moves, just like a real robot. Rodan has his classic screeches, and his wings make realistic flapping sounds. The baby Godzillasaurus has a high-pitched crying sound, but usually only makes grunts and gurgles. The music is truly wonderful. Classic Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube does a magnificent job with this movie. His classic themes for Godzilla and the monster attacks are very nice. Mechagodzilla's new theme is very cool. The music for the more emotional scenes is very touching. If you're wondering why this movie is called "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II", let me explain. It is NOT a sequel to 1974's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla", which is part of the Showa series (first series, 1955-1975) of Godzilla movies. In this movie, the two robots, Garuda and Mechagodzilla, are sometimes referred to as Robot I and Robot II, respectively. Garuda is occasionally called Garuda I throughout the movie. And if Garuda (Robot I) is Garuda I, then Mechagodzilla (Robot II) is Mechagodzilla II, hence the title. As for the VHS itself, the quality is terrible. It's in SP mode, which is good, but the picture is frequently jumpy and occasionally calls for tracking adjustment. The sound is occasionally bad too. Sometimes it's too quiet, needing the volume to be cranked up just to hear it. But most of the time, the sound is good. I've viewed this tape on several VCR's, and it's been the same on all of them. Who knows, maybe my copy is just bad. Overall, this is an outstanding Godzilla movie. This is Godzilla at his very best. If you see this movie, you'll understand why I, as well as many other Godzilla fans, consider it as a favorite. It's action-packed, entertaining, serious, fun, exciting, and has a good moral at the end. "A Great Movie For the whole family"I have been a Godzilla fan for almost all my life.Since I was 3 or 4 I loved Godzilla.I first saw this movie it was on sifi.My mom told my brother and I that Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla was on.We rushed up stairs grabed a tape and recorded it.But so far this is my favorite.SuperMechagodzilla was awsome.The one thing I don't get is why Mechagodzilla can't fight at close range.The first battle was my favorite battle.In the final battle was awsome.It looked like Godzilla was down for the count.But Baby(the baby godzillasaur)woke up Radon.Radon some how reconstatuted Godzilla's second brain.It was kind of hard to under stand.But over all a great movie.  "More flawed than I remember, but still one to see."This is overall a great addition to the Heisei Era films. However, after seeing it recently it wasn't quite as good as I remembered it, and here's why: 1) It's probably the cheesiest of these "newer" flicks, but this may be due to the dubbing. I groaned at scenes that were supposed to be funny, and laughed when scenes were supposed to be sad. But this is just the part of me that is growing up, unfortunately. You can never go back, as they say. 2) I was actually kind of bored this time 'round. But like with the first reason, I didn't used to. Anyway, on to the pros: Akira Ifukube's music rocks, as always, and the MechaGodzilla theme is more powerful than the actual robot. The main reason I don't like this MechaGodzilla is that he doesn't really fight. He just stands there shooting things at Godzilla. And I found the design sort of bland. I also didn't like Rodan/Radon in this film, although his battles were pretty well done. On a good note, this movie lets the character of Miki Saegusa really shine, after being practically ignored in the last two films. Megumi Odaka give another outstanding performance, of course; she's my favorite character in the entire Godzilla series. Moving on, I liked Baby Godzilla, in that they retained the cute factor (from Minilla), yet didn't overdo it (like Minilla). I was surprisingly moved by the ending, with Godzilla swimming away with Baby. Speaking of which, the climax is spectacular, more than making up for what flaws the film had. In conclusion, don't you dare call yourself a Godzilla fan without seeing GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II. Even if you're not too partial to the Heisei series, this one is worth a watch.  "It could have been better "Mechagodzilla would have been better if he was the villian and Godzilla was the hero. Rodan makes an appearance and so that is good. Rodan is too small in this one and it felt like it was the same as the previous movies. It is kind of boring and dull. "MechaGodzilla Upgrade"What more can you ask.You got Mechagozilla looks bad ass I mean there was alot of major upgrade to him.Godzilla looking cool as ever espcially in this flick the suit was pretty cool.You got a new and improve Rodan!!Yup Rodan!! hes back and blast rays from his mouth.Storyline very original I mean godzilla vs Mechagodzilla theres really no storyline you know whats going to happen a big monster battle.Minya looks cool better then that retarded one in the showa ages.Akira Ifukube's music score is awesome the master of all godzilla music.I mean this is a must see flick and must have. |
