The idea for Space Godzilla actually goes back to 1978. Creature designer, Shinji Nishikawa, originally designed Space Godzilla with a different approach looking like a western-dragon like creature that had two giant fin-like wings on its back. The final design concluded to look more like Godzilla's final form in the video game Super Godzilla.
Supposedly MechaGodzilla was going to team up with Godzilla to fight Space Godzilla, but it was switched out with Moguera because it was thought that MechaGodzilla was too powerful.
Early in production, it was decided that the character, Miki Saegusa, should be the central focus of the story since she was a reoccurring character.
The movie was rushed into production because there was a delay with the American 1994 Godzilla movie. Because it was rushed the movie was met with disappointing reviews.
Review:
Psychic Mikki Saegusa is given a task by the Cosmos to save Godzilla and learns that a space monster in Godzilla's likeness is coming to Earth to kill Godzilla and begin his reign of terror on the planet.
Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla got a lot of flack for being a weak entry in the series and I happen to agree. To start with the positives, the movie shines Godzilla in a different light and builds some sentimental feelings for the monster. I like how he got more character development this time and probably has the most development than any other character.
Space Godzilla is also one mean and powerful sonuvagun. He shoots gravity beams from his mouth like King Ghidorah does, but he has other powers as well. He can use telepathy to lift objects, can form a crystal shield, fly, and can create and shoot crystals. He put up more of a fight than any of the other previous monsters by far and was probably the most powerful than any monster.
What I don't like is that even though Mikki has a bigger role she didn't really do much to convince anyone why Godzilla should live. The story is mostly around this one character and she is some what annoying. This character only has a bigger role because the director thought the movies needed more human character development. I am all for character development. That is what I thought these movies were really lacking on. But all she really does is tell the men of G-Force that they're all idiots, which doesn't help any. She does get a love interest with Lt. Shinjo, but it's really forced and you never see this guy ever again after this movie. I guess their relationship didn't last long to turn into something. You don't ever learn why or how she became a psychic or give any background on her life to make me want to really care for her. The only character that I cared about most was Yuki, which you learn that he wants to kill Godzilla out of revenge for killing a friend of his that is also the brother of this other girl, Chinatsu Gondo. These two have better flow of chemistry than Mikki's chemistry with Shinjo and they're suppose to be the main characters.
Final Verdict:
Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla has okay special effects, but the characters are complete garbage. At this point, the story may as well been dumped into the trash and was set on fire.
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