Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

***Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*** is a 1993 Japanese monster movie directed by Takao Okawara.  It is the 5th installment in the Heisei era of the *Godzilla* franchise, being preceded by *Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth* in 1992, and being later succeeded by *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla* in 1994.

## Plot

The film begins in 1992 with a quick look of one of the three heads of the destroyed Mecha-King Ghidorah, the cyborg version of King Ghidorah that was used to kill Godzilla, but was destroyed at the end of *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah* by none other than Godzilla himself. The narrator informs that in 1992, a special branch of the United Nations was founded known as the U.N.G.C. (United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center), whom studied the advanced technology of the 150-meter Mecha-King Ghidorah in order to create the 120-meter anti-Godzilla weapon known as Mechagodzilla in order to stop the monster once and for all.

Two years later in 1994 (which is actually 40 years after the original Godzilla attacked Japan), robot engineer Hiroshi Imai informs to Yuri Katigiri that Mechagodzilla's main engine is a reactor, its armor is heatproof alloy and that its protector shield is made out of synthetic diamond. Meanwhile, Kazuma Aoki is working on the Garuda, a mechanical vehicle that was supposed to be the "ultimate" weapon to eliminate Godzilla, but was never utilized because they thought it wasn't powerful enough, and he is later transferred over to G-Force, which turns out to be the special military branch of the U.N.G.C., formed by both the U.N. and the Japan Self Defense Forces. Kazuma, who is a self-proclaimed *Pteranodon* enthusiast, has been transferred to take part as a pilot, and fails at karate training and other things.

Meanwhile, we cut to a Japanese research team on an island known as Adonoa Island, who come across a fossil of a real-life *Pteranodon* and two 6-foot dinosaur eggs (one of them was probably eaten) that team member Azusa Gojo is not sure what they are, so she assumes that they are *Pteranodon* eggs. The researchers take one of the eggs while camping, but they see a giant irradiated *Pteranodon* known as Rodan (known by his Japanese name as Radon), who attacks them in order to find the egg so that he can eat it since it was about to hatch. As the team flee, Rodan gets hit by Godzilla's atomic breath and fights him while Godzilla is in the water. He uses his atomic breath at Rodan, but the irradiated pterosaur dodges the blast, and as the researchers flee back to their helicopter, Godzilla gets out of the water and fights Rodan, managing to strangle him and fire his breath at him before stomping him with his foot. He uses his breath once more and finally defeats Rodan. The humans, before evading, watch the fight inside their helicopter, in which there's the dinosaur egg inside of it.

Later on, at G-Force, a journalist reports on TV that the egg has been taken to Kyoto and will be examined by professor Hiroshi Omae of the National Institute of Biotechnics. When he hears the word *Pteranodon*, Kazuma says "Woah, that's incredible!" since he claims himself to be a *Pteranodon* enthusiast and travels into Kyoto in order to find the egg in the scientific institute, where he meets Azusa. Professor Omae says that eggs turns bright red when it's afraid or distressed. Azuma has unintentionally stolen something that he claims to be a prehistoric plant from the institute and shows it to Miki Saegusa.

## Good Qualities

1. While there are flaws to how this Mechagodzilla looks, a good thing is that he has a much more sleek and shiny design and he actually looks like he's made of metal.
2. Great acting.
3. This movie features the long-awaited return of one of the most well-known and popular monsters in the *Godzilla* series: Mechagodzilla.
4. Excellent soundtrack composed by Akira Ifukube and this was his 10th *Godzilla* film, after *Godzilla vs. Mothra* and *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah*, though his themes were added to *Godzilla vs. Biollante*.
5. Aside from Godzilla and Mechagodzilla, this movie also featured Rodan and Godzilla's son, Godzilla Junior, whom was called Baby Godzilla in the movie.
6. Amazing special effects.
7. The design of Baby Godzilla looks much better than Minilla's. While it's not perfect, he still looks better than the stupid, cutesy design that Minilla had. Godzilla Junior actually looks Godzilla, however, he is still not his biological son, but rather another member of the *Godzillasaurus* species that he simply adopted.
8. Good pacing.
9. Godzilla's suit (known as the RadoGoji) is still just as good as the BatoGoji suit from the previous film, but there are some differences: the RadoGoji suit is bulkier and the legs are slimmer.
10. In previous films with Mechagodzilla, he was always the bad guy and Godzilla the good guy; however, this movie has an interesting twist in that the roles have been reversed, shifting Godzilla back to the villain status which started the whole series, with Mechagodzilla being recreated and upgraded by the people of Earth to save it from Godzilla.
11. Outstanding action scenes, especially the fight scene between Godzilla and Rodan on Adona Island.

## Bad Qualities

1. Mechagodzilla's design doesn't look as good as he does in the previous films that he was in and Mechagodzilla doesn't look anything like the cover art. In the previous movies, he actually looked mean, but in this movie he has a dopy expression on his face.

## Reception

**Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II** has a 71% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.2/5 on Letterboxd, and a 6.6/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDb).