There are a lot of things that I think I would have figured out sooner about my art if I had a peer group. Being on your own is slow going for education. Not that I’ve wasted my time, of course, but there are things I probably would have picked up sooner, experiences I could have had earlier, motivation that I would have found easier to gather. I’m starting to get a better picture of where I want to move next, and what my goals are as an artist. I’d like to forget that time exists.
Speaking of time, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is a crossroads in the Big G’s life. It’s a really interesting movie in the larger franchise, because SpaceGodzilla is one of like two or three villains that represents something about Godzilla the character. Overall, on the monster side, I don’t have too much to address with this movie. Mostly, I have some robot stuff that I’d like to see a better run at. More of what I would like for this movie is better pacing and management of the human drama. This movie does better than many in terms of the human conflicts, too.
What is SpaceGodzilla? A clone of Godzilla from space, of course. How does that work? Barely. The idea presented in the movie – described as a theory, when really it is and can only be nothing but wild speculation – is that Godzilla cells that were brought into space either by Biollante or Mothra were absorbed by a black hole, fused with a crystal organism, and then were released through a white hole. This creature then absorbed more energies from space as it came to Earth to kill Godzilla. I mean, it’s Highlander rules, right? There can only be one. The design of SpaceGodzilla was inspired by Super Godzilla from the then-recent video game Super Godzilla (great game).
Despite/because of this bonkers concept and origin, SpaceGodzilla remains a fan favorite enemy, with some arguing that he’s the most powerful and deadly foe of Godzilla. It’s safe to say that he looks really cool and has a lot of powerful abilities. His nebulous motivations are also convenient for some extra media adaptations. But in the movie, he does represent something. After defeating MechaGodzilla and saving his son, Godzilla is changing. He took to raising Little Godzilla on a small island with no human population. Just as we saw when he was an infant Godzillasaurus, the now thirty meter tall Little Godzilla is playful, curious, and endearingly cute. Godzilla comes ashore relatively often to check up on and spend time with his son. He’s become a much softer figure, and some minds are changing about whether or not he should be summarily killed. SpaceGodzilla is the shadow of his past, an aggressive and hateful force that wants to kill him and all of humanity. Essentially, SpaceGodzilla is asking if Godzilla can change, and more broadly how and why he has changed.
So, like I said, there’s not a lot on their side to change with this movie. SpaceGodzilla comes to Earth, with Mothra giving a psychic warning of his presence. He launches crystal pods to the island where Little Godzilla lives to act as his landing guide ahead of himself. When he arrives on Earth, he attacks and traps Little Godzilla in one of his crystal prisons, and wins a brief battle with Godzilla. SpaceGodzilla then flies to Fukuoka to set up, launching crystals all over the city and turning a prominent tower into his main base. Godzilla later marches the long way through Kyushu to do battle, and with the help of MOGUERA, achieves victory. Godzilla then swims home to find Little Godzilla free from the crystals and able to unleash atomic bubbles, marking his growth. The story is sound, and the action is satisfying. Godzilla is challenged by and then defeats his past ruthlessness, embracing his role as a father instead of a destroyer. It works.
Over the past few of these rewrites, I’ve continually brought up a desire for more physical combat, and I still want more here. However, this is a bit more complicated. SpaceGodzilla, being a space monster and a reflection of Godzilla’s destructive tendencies, should have a lot of energy blast powers. Godzilla’s atomic ray is the thing that makes him a living atomic bomb; if you’re making a representation of his pure wrath, then you want to amp up the energy blast. There’s also less hand-to-hand combat in space. At the same time, the Heisei movies were the ones that first said Godzilla had near-instantaneous regeneration, and keep bringing it up despite also ignoring it. So many of the enemy plans are to energy blast Godzilla to death, and that’s not going to take, or at least shouldn’t. So yes, SpaceGodzilla should have his cool energy powers, but he should also know better than anyone that Godzilla has to be killed by absorbing his energy, or poisoning him, or choking him. You’ve got that long tail, use it!
The bigger thing as it relates to monster battles is the robot, MOGUERA. MOGUERA is a giant robot built by G-Force after the defeat of MechaGodzilla. It’s described as the ultimate anti-Godzilla weapon, so one assumes it’s more powerful than MG. In this film’s manga adaptation, there’s a scene demonstrating this, when a rogue pilot steals a rebuilt MechaGodzilla and MOGUERA destroys MechaG with one hit. But of course, in the real world, MOGUERA – a reprisal of the robot Mogera from the film The Mysterians – was chosen because they thought having SpaceGodzilla fight both regular and MechaGodzilla would be too unfair, and so a “weaker” robot was employed here. MOGUERA also fulfills their dreams of making MechaGodzilla a combining robot, with the ability to separate into two vehicles, Land MOGUERA and the Star Falcon.
I actually really like MOGUERA. It has a funky design that I enjoy. Except when it comes to the vehicle separation. Land MOGUERA, a digging tank vehicle, works decent. It’s made from the top half of the robot, and does the most shape changing. The main drill coming from the same port as the full robot’s powerful energy cannon raises unnecessary design questions; perhaps that energy cannon should have been in the chest compartment, instead of the naval again, like what MechaGodzilla had. The real issue is the Star Falcon, made from the legs. The transformation is just the middle of the armor apron flipping up to resemble the nose of a plane, two tiny wings popping out of the hips, and a couple guns come out. If you haven’t seen MOGUERA, it’s a real thick, square, chunky robot with tank tread feet that doesn’t really move its legs individually. The Star Falcon looks less capable of flight than the full robot. I don’t know how I would change the design exactly, and I’m sure part of the design is that they wanted it to be recognizable as part of the robot, but quite frankly the Star Falcon is unacceptable. It looks they tried to make MOGUERA’s legs into Garuda, rather than design a new vehicle. I know this design choice is unrelated to what would make a good anti-Godzilla weapon, since both vehicles are less useful in combat, so I’m going to focus on the design needs to be better.
In the movie, MOGUERA is also a focus for whether humanity should kill Godzilla or not. One of his pilots really wants to, as revenge for Godzilla killing his friend in Biollante. The other two pilots are initially on board, but start to see things differently after spending time with Miki Saegusa, and ultimately think it’s better to help Godzilla take out SpaceGodzilla. This structure is partly because the two MOGUERA pilots are juxtaposed with Miki, who’s working on a nonviolent program to use telepathy to keep Godzilla away from Japan.
However, I think this is a mistake for MOGUERA. After all, MechaGodzilla already established the folly in building a gigantic robot capable of killing Godzilla. Why are we repeating that? In world, I totally get that people still think Godzilla should be killed, but the pilots should be on the next step of this metaphor. SpaceGodzilla is the evil they want to kill, while Godzilla is a changed kaiju. The responsible use of a weapon like MOGUERA is purely defensive, to drive Godzilla away from cities and manage his incursions. Given that the two younger pilots we first see get into a conflict with the older pilot they recruit over attacking Godzilla, a more meaningful and important conflict would have been over best robot practices, rather than following orders. It would also have made the conflict with Miki more interesting. One of the pilots tries to woo her, and she rejects him as a lunk who only thinks of killing. He could push back by saying he only means to defend, not kill. After all, he’s there to help with the telepathy plan; he should think killing Godzilla is a mistake. Then the older pilot draws a negative comparison for Miki. Having the human conflict in the movie be fighting boys vs. compassionate girls (which is largely how the battle lines are drawn) is flatter than I think the story demands. Addressing the ways in which MOGUERA is a repeat of the mistake that was MechaGodzilla would be more meaningful for the narrative arc of this movie and the whole series, and would have made for more interesting and worthwhile human drama.
There’s also a subplot that I think comes across as clunky and awkward, but is very much worth saving. One of the scientists on the telepathy project turns out to be evil and quashes the program so that he can steal the technology and kidnap Miki to make a weapon that can summon Godzilla anywhere at will. It’s a good piece to have in a movie like this, because it shows how some people only see Godzilla as a destructive force. It also speaks to how, even if Godzilla didn’t attack the places he’s summoned to, it would still be very destructive (see his march through Kyushu in this film). There’s a lot to do with a subplot like that in this movie. The issue with it, for me, is that the MOGUERA pilots go save their friend from this plot right as SpaceGodzilla is going to Fukuoka. It’s irresponsible, and not their job; their robot pilots, not secret agents. There’s no follow-up for the fact they abandoned their posts in the time of greatest crisis. This scene is also the first time that Miki uses telekinesis. Since it suits my tastes, and I can’t think of a mechanical way to rework the rescue plot, I would have had Miki save herself with telekinesis. Another Fairy Mothra could come see her and give her courage. She undoes her restraints and disables their guns, then runs around avoiding their fists as she gets used to her newfound ability. As SpaceGodzilla approaches, she leaves her former colleague to his fate, as he refuses to evacuate. It’s girl power, it’s a fun psychic fight sequence, and it’s an opportunity for more cool effects.
I think that about covers it. There’s just a few tweaks needed to get the most out of this movie. Next week, I’ll be covering the finale to this series of movies, Godzilla vs. Destroyah.
Life in the Gutters 