Yes, I am sadly once again reviewing ANOTHER Godzilla film that's dubbed in English, and I am not at all pleased, especially when considering that this is a film that I was looking forward to see in its original Japanese cut. However, since the film is very hard to find, I had to deal with what I could rent. So despite being dubbed, is the film itself good; ON WITH THE REVIEW!
An Azumi priestess has visions of a giant monster destroying a city (Which is Still Footage of King Ghidorah), while the film's leading human characters discover a prophecy inside a cave that claims that a monster will destroy the world when a black mountain appears above the clouds, and that two monsters will appear and save humanity when the red moon sets and the sun rises in the west. The monster that appears to destroy humanity isn't Ghidorah as the priestess envisioned it to be (Which is stupid, pointless, and predictable) and instead is Godzilla. However, in a obvious twist that doesn't even take the time to build-up to a twist, it's actually a robotic version of Godzilla underneath the false Godzilla skin called MechaGodzilla that an alien race has sent to earth to destroy Japan and of course the world. It is now up to the real Godzilla and an ancient guardian monster named King Caesar to defeat MechaGodzilla and save the world.
Starting off with our villain MechaGodzilla, when he's disguised as Godzilla you can tell right off the bat that it’s MechaGodzilla destroying buildings instead of the actual Godzilla. First of all, why Godzilla decided to go on a fit to destroy buildings makes no sense and seems like something that MechaGodzilla would do. Second, the reveal of his robotic skin happens way too early, thus making the twist even more predictable. However, the biggest reason why the twist of MechaGodzilla being the Godzilla imposter doesn't work is he doesn't have the same iconic roar that Godzilla has. It’s instead the same high pitched robotic roar that MechaGodzilla has, which makes the twist more painfully obvious than it already is. If the film just started off with imposter Godzilla destroying stuff while keeping his trademark roar as the humans are losing hope and disappointed that their heroic monster has now turned bad as his robotic skin is slowly being revealed, it would still be obvious, but it could be more effective than how the film rushes this obvious twist. But as painfully rushed and obvious as the twist is, there are one or two scenes that are pretty awesome with MechaGodzilla in his Godzilla disguise. Best scene is when Godzilla's friend and ally Anguirus makes a cameo to confront his friend, but sadly gets the crap beaten out of him. Seriously as creative and cool looking as Anguirus is, he sure sucks at fighting. Still as bad as Angurius is at fighting, there are many things that make this fight and cameo so awesome. The choreography and effects are really good; the fight itself plays as a great homage to when Godzilla and Anguirus fought in "Godzilla Raids Again"; Anguirus despite being a terrible fighter, still manages to tear a piece of skin off of MechaGodzilla's disguise; we get a cool and yet gruesome shot of Anguirus' jaw being torn up; and this fight is the last appearance that Anguirus would ever make in the series until Toho's last Godzilla film.
When we finally see MechaGodzilla in his actual form, we see it happen during another awesome scene with MechaGodzilla in its Godzilla disguise destroying an Industrial area where the real Godzilla shows up to fight the impostor which leads to MechaGodzilla revealing its true robotic self and the reveal (Despite the music not sounding appropriate for that scene) is awesome as we are revealed to almost every Weapon that this robot carries. Just the amount of missiles, rockets, bombs, and lasers that this monster has, as well as having a force-field, being able to fly with jets, and being a robotic replica of Godzilla that's stronger, heavier, and has Godzilla's moves makes this robotic monster one of the toughest and most creative foes that Godzilla ever had to face. The fights between Godzilla and MechaGodzilla are as awesome and campy as you would expect them to be, and as you're watching these fights you fear for Godzilla's life from the amount of times he gets beat-up. He gets beat-up so badly that he becomes bloodier than he's ever been which sadly looks like Godzilla has met his match. Though I honestly will say that what happens to MechaGodzilla in the end is a complete joke and sadly goes against the film's own logic regarding this awesome villain.
Godzilla's new ally King Caesar who doesn't appear until the climax has some decent build-up. It’s not as mysterious or epic as the build-up to some of the other classic monsters in the series, but it’s not bad either. The film does make you curious enough to see this monster appear and team-up with Godzilla, and when we first see the monster, he's asleep and can only be awaken by a special song that the Azumi priestess sings. Some fans out there find the song to be boring and dragging, but for me personally I didn't mind it, actually the song and sequence really got me hyped and excited to see this ancient monster wake-up and fight this new monster as MechaGodzilla is heading towards him. When the monster wakes up as we see its red eyes light-up, that's when I cheered. Sadly when the monster started walking and fighting, that's when I felt disappointed. I do like the design of this ancient monster looking half lion and half dog, but the costume looks cheap and his movements are so fast and over the top that its clear that it's a guy in a suit, which makes the monster look silly. While it does have some good powers like feeding on the lasers that MechaGodzilla fires at him to only use it to draw it back at MechaGodzilla, he still gets his butt kicked just as bad as every other monster.
As for Godzilla himself, he still looks just as bad as he looked in the previous few films. The suit really does make Godzilla look lifeless and goofy, especially that shot whenever he pops out of the water. Godzilla can now also absorb lightning which the effect and the scene when he first gains it is cool, but isn't that King Kong's power? Plus is it really necessary to give Godzilla a new power because it doesn't at all feel like a power he should get, nor did he gain that power when he was awoken by lightning in "Godzilla VS The Sea Monster"? His new power is just as stupid and out of place as King Kong gaining this power as well as making the lightning continuity regarding Godzilla even worse and more confusing than it already is. While Godzilla has pretty much become Toho's version of King Kong again, I will admit the fight scenes that Godzilla, King Caesar, and MechaGodzilla part take in are just as awesome as MechaGodzilla's fight with Angurius. They are some of the series most entertaining fights that are fun and campy, but at the same time cool and hold you on the edge of your seat! The effects are also really good too. The models are shot-up to scale with the monsters fighting; the amount of explosions that the film has are incredible; the optical effects for the lasers are fun and colorful; the choreography is solid; and the use of blood for whenever Godzilla bleeds is just as gruesome as the blood used in "Godzilla VS Gigan", only this film can get away with it since it's for the most part not aimed for kids. Don't get me wrong, there are some cheesy effects like the costumes for Godzilla and King Caesar; MechaGodzilla looking like a toy in some shots when it flies; and the occasional re-use of footage, but for the most part, the effects are better than the effects in the last few films; and the fact that this film doesn't heavily rely on stock footage either makes this film a better improvement.
Incase if you're wondering what I think about the English dubbing for the human characters, its still just as god-awful as the dubbing in the other Godzilla films that I reviewed that were dubbed in English. It’s so bad that it’s painfully distracting which really does suck out a big chunk of the enjoyment from the film. However, aside from the atrocious dubbing, how are the characters? In all honesty, they're not bad. Alright I'm not going to pretend that all of them stand-out, but there are some characters that really did grab my attention. The Azumi priestess and the Father are very humble characters (Despite that the dubbing isn't); the Professor is interesting and it looks like the actor Akihiko Hirata is giving a powerful performance, even though he's being badly dubbed; and the Interpol Agents are some of the most tough, cool, smart, and badass characters that these films have given us, especially Agent Nanbara. But the best character is the leader of the alien race. Now I'm not saying the alien the race themselves are awesome, the fact that they're really an alien race of apes in disguise which results with them acting like apes, is just as ridiculous as you would think it would be. It's just as silly as the alien’s true forms in "Godzilla VS Gigan". The effect for them changing to their true form is pretty neat though, aside from the one scene when we see a human character suddenly freeze as an alien is changing. Still as goofy as the concept for these aliens are, the leader is still badass. I say this because outside of creating a giant robotic version of Godzilla, his personality is just as fun and sinister as a Bond villain. From the way he sits in his chair as he schemes and watches the monitors as he sips wine and smokes a cigar; to the burnt mark on his face; to trying to persuade one of the characters to do his bidding; to calmly threatening a character with a fire arm; to happily taunting his victims; to having a Bond like villain lair hidden in a cave is all what makes this villain so grand. Speaking of Bond, we do get some nice fight scenes between the human's and the aliens, which at first don’t seem promising as we see an unexciting fight happen as one of the leads just watches the fight while holding a gun, to actually getting good when we see one of the humans fight an alien on a ship. As for the rest of the human characters, while they're not as interesting or memorable as the other characters, they're still good enough to get you through the film and keep your interest.
After seeing four disappointing Godzilla films that don't bring the series back on track, this film on the other hand does its job. Sure the film at times feels rushed; has some really cheesy effects and costumes; a silly concept for a race of aliens; and things that don't make sense that just feel lazily written, but as whole I'd say its just as good as the other Godzilla films that I praised. The fight scenes are way more awesome and exciting than the films that came after "Destroy All Monsters"; there are some very good effects; the human characters are all likable; the alien leader is awesome; the film doesn't feel like it's playing out towards kids as much as the previous films did, despite being colorful and campy (Which isn't a bad thing, that's just part of the fun); and most of all giving us one of Godzilla's most deadliest foes since King Ghidorah. Unfortunately instead of giving the film a 3/5, I have to sadly give it a 2/5 for the dubbing being really horrible. The DVD for this film is currently out of print and way too expensive, so just like "Son Of Godzilla", I'm going to have to wait until Toho finally decides to re-release the movie. Lets hope it happens soon.
RATING FOR THE ENGLISH DUB 2/5
By the way, what did happen to the characters that escaped the explosion at the end?
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