On the island of Okinawa, a priestess has a vision of a monster destroying a city. Meanwhile two brothers working in Okinawa separately find an idol statue of the guardian monster King Cesar and a piece of space metal. With Godzilla soon emerging from a volcano to cut a swath of destruction not long thereafter, matters are further complicated when it's revealed the Godzilla is a mechanized copy created by forces not of this Earth.
While Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Megalon were successful in spite of their dwingling domestic ticket sales thanks in no small part to international sales, they were seen as creative failures leading to the next film getting something of a creative shakeup. Inspired by the popularity of giant robot anime, the appearance of Mechani-Kong from King Kong Escapes, and the reduced costs in building a robotic "monster" versus a living one, Mechagodzilla was created with the Okinawa setting and "Red Moon" iconography from the scrapped Tsubaraya Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Redmoon, and approaching it with a relatively more mature tone and plot. While like many Showa Godzilla films it didn't achieve the highs of the series' heyday, it was seen as an improvement from Godzilla vs. Megalon and saw the best Ticket sales since Destroy All Monsters and coupled with the popularity of Mechagodzilla would see a direct sequel as the final installment of the showa series. While Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla doesn't shake all of the issues of later Showa installments, it manages enough to be a strong redemption from Megalon.
I'll start off by saying that admittedly the plot is kind of a mess. While the actual motivations behind Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla are fairly straightforward, the movie mixes mystical elements, pulpy alien sci-fi elements, and even spy elements together into a story that doesn't necessarily do the best at tying them together and it feels like the plot strands are running parallel to each other rather than coalescing into a singular whole. When you have a movie that starts off as seemingly being about a prophecy only to compound matters by adding in aliens and spies with the aliens not even given proper names and the spies popping in at random, it's a pretty strong bet that "story" won't be this movie's strong suit.
What does work however is the monster action with Mechagodzilla a welcome addition to Godzilla's rogues gallery and with a strong robotic design that mirror's Godzilla's physique and powers with additional unearthly tech it's pretty obvious why Mechagodzilla has been a mainstay of the series. The fights are pretty entertaining even when Mechagodzilla is disguised as Godzilla (poor Anguirus takes a pretty brutal attack to illustrate the stakes) and there's a lot of creativity on display with how they handle the fights and Mechagodzilla's abilities. The movie also gets some bonus points for being the first Godzilla movie in a long time to avoid recycling stock footage. The one downside is probably with King Cesar who just feels underwhelming especially with being a dog/lion hybrid that just kind of looks cheap (especially with the eyes). It honestly makes me wish they'll just let Anguirus be the secondary player because King Cesar just felt like a placeholder down to the fact he's awakened by the same gimmick as Mothra (being sung a song).
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla avoids many issues of later era Showa installments, but it's also not without it's own problems such as a cluttered and overstuffed narrative and the underwhelming nature of King Cesar. I will say the monster fights are fun and Mechagodzilla is a more than worthy foe for the big G.
While Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Megalon were successful in spite of their dwingling domestic ticket sales thanks in no small part to international sales, they were seen as creative failures leading to the next film getting something of a creative shakeup. Inspired by the popularity of giant robot anime, the appearance of Mechani-Kong from King Kong Escapes, and the reduced costs in building a robotic "monster" versus a living one, Mechagodzilla was created with the Okinawa setting and "Red Moon" iconography from the scrapped Tsubaraya Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Redmoon, and approaching it with a relatively more mature tone and plot. While like many Showa Godzilla films it didn't achieve the highs of the series' heyday, it was seen as an improvement from Godzilla vs. Megalon and saw the best Ticket sales since Destroy All Monsters and coupled with the popularity of Mechagodzilla would see a direct sequel as the final installment of the showa series. While Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla doesn't shake all of the issues of later Showa installments, it manages enough to be a strong redemption from Megalon.
I'll start off by saying that admittedly the plot is kind of a mess. While the actual motivations behind Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla are fairly straightforward, the movie mixes mystical elements, pulpy alien sci-fi elements, and even spy elements together into a story that doesn't necessarily do the best at tying them together and it feels like the plot strands are running parallel to each other rather than coalescing into a singular whole. When you have a movie that starts off as seemingly being about a prophecy only to compound matters by adding in aliens and spies with the aliens not even given proper names and the spies popping in at random, it's a pretty strong bet that "story" won't be this movie's strong suit.
What does work however is the monster action with Mechagodzilla a welcome addition to Godzilla's rogues gallery and with a strong robotic design that mirror's Godzilla's physique and powers with additional unearthly tech it's pretty obvious why Mechagodzilla has been a mainstay of the series. The fights are pretty entertaining even when Mechagodzilla is disguised as Godzilla (poor Anguirus takes a pretty brutal attack to illustrate the stakes) and there's a lot of creativity on display with how they handle the fights and Mechagodzilla's abilities. The movie also gets some bonus points for being the first Godzilla movie in a long time to avoid recycling stock footage. The one downside is probably with King Cesar who just feels underwhelming especially with being a dog/lion hybrid that just kind of looks cheap (especially with the eyes). It honestly makes me wish they'll just let Anguirus be the secondary player because King Cesar just felt like a placeholder down to the fact he's awakened by the same gimmick as Mothra (being sung a song).
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla avoids many issues of later era Showa installments, but it's also not without it's own problems such as a cluttered and overstuffed narrative and the underwhelming nature of King Cesar. I will say the monster fights are fun and Mechagodzilla is a more than worthy foe for the big G.