Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994)

Movie Info

Taste my lightning breath!

Earth is facing a crisis.  Cells from Godzilla have entered a black hole and evolved into a superpowered space form of the creature which has the power to draw energy directly from the Earth.  As a team on Earth try to kill Godzilla on Birth Island, another team called Project T is trying to control him.  Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka) receives a warning from Mothra’s twins of the danger facing Earth and learns that her connection to Godzilla could be what is needed for Godzilla to win the battle.  Now, with Space Godzilla in his sites, Godzilla must team with the human powered robot Moguera to save the Earth.

Wowsa…That is indigestion!

Directed by Kensho Yamashita, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (sometimes shown as SpaceGodzilla) is the follow-up to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II from 1993.  The film was originally released as ゴジラvsスペースゴジラ Gojira tai SupēsuGojira and is the twenty-first film in the Godzilla series.  The movie has been released in the U.S. on DVD and was originally packaged with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

I saw Godzilla 1985 when it originally came out, but I didn’t keep up with Godzilla.  This entry is considered part of the same period as Godzilla 1985 and is part of the Heisei Godzilla series.  Going back to “old” Godzilla is a strange experience and not entirely a pleasant one.

Wow….lame robot.

Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla spins off Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II which had Godzilla’s DNA in space enter a black hole…the result was Space Godzilla which is Godzilla with mutated genes.  The odd thing about Godzilla in these new stories is that they so closely resemble the original series which ran from 1954-1975.  They have the stock characters of the humans and Godzilla vs. a generic giant monster.  Though I didn’t love Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, I could understand how a new or younger viewer wouldn’t see any difference in quality between the original (which I grew up with) and these entries…the originals just have a nostalgia factor for me.

The story really gets bogged down in these human plots which are necessary since you can’t just have giant monsters randomly fight each other without stories.  Here, you have a guy that wants to kill Godzilla, a psychic who can control Godzilla, and a human controlled robot named Mogera (which is a remade character from The Mysterians from 1957).  Originally, Mogera was supposed to be Mechagodzilla again, but the filmmakers needed a less powerful ally for Godzilla.

I’m like Godzilla…but space-y!

Despite decades between the original Godzilla run, little has changed visually.  It is still a guy in a giant suit jumping around a city.  The movie does show some improved visuals like track shots and more forced perspective shots involving Godzilla.  It is marginally better, but still rather goofy when compared to CGI effects of other modern movies.

Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla is what it is.  If you like Godzilla, you’ll probably enjoy it though it isn’t even the best Godzilla entry.  I do like Space Godzilla’s design (and even kind of enjoyed its explanation), but Space Godzilla isn’t that interesting of a kaiju when compared to some other creations.  Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla was followed by Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995 which ended the Heisei film series.

Preceded By:

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)

Followed By:

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)