Ah, the 90's.

Godzilla has an interesting history. His original run only lasted two movies. After a rushed sequel to the first film bombed, TOHO decided it was the idea of giant monsters itself and not Godzilla which had excited movie goers. Thus, they began producing a number of one shot monster movies. Godzilla did not appear again until he guest stared as the bad guy, first in a King Kong movie, then in the second Mothra film. From there on TOHO fixated on monsters fighting monsters in various combinations. The final film, 1975's Terror of MechaGodzilla (directed by the original Godzilla's director Ishirō Honda), signaled both the end of the series and the collapse of the Japanese film industry.

A decade later, influenced by the Hollywood science fiction boom, TOHO tried again. Godzilla would be modern. Serious. The films would have continuity. Fanboys would love them!

Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II came out in 1993, the middle of this run of films and the same year as Jurassic Park. It's budget was $9 million, as compared to JP's $63 million. The story picks up where the previous film left off: the humans are tired of getting their butts kicked by Godzilla. Their futuristic gunship, Garuda, just isn't cutting it, so they mothball it in favor of a Godzilla shaped Mech made from the remains of a robotic King Ghidorah they got from the future. You know, like you do. The Garuda's creator is assigned to G-Force, the anti-Godzilla team, to help pilot MechaGodzilla.

Meanwhile, on a radioactive island scientists find a giant egg, next to a broken eggshell. After both Godzilla and Rodan show up and fight, the humans take the egg home. It hatches into a "Godzillasaurus", a six foot tall vegetarian they name Baby.

There is a lot to like in this film, if you honestly don't care about character arcs and things like that. There are three major monster battles, showing off what TOHO could do. The acting, especially the male lead, is very broad, verging on campy. The humans always do the wrong thing, bringing most of the destruction on themselves. Seeing Baby walking around with the humans was a welcome change from just seeing the men-in-suits towering above them. If you listen to the Japanese audio, a good bit of the dialog is in English, which is always fun. The subtitles, though, are just the dub script and don't match the Japanese dialog.

I won't say it's a GOOD film. You definitely have to like this kind of thing to get the most enjoyment out of it. Things are thrown in just to let you know the writers remembered what happened in the previous movies. The psychic woman does her best Deanna Troi impression. The feelings of a couple humans are more important than the deaths of thousands. And, hey, a school for psychic children who mediate under wire frame pyramids. When people complained that the 1998 film was not a "Godzilla" movie, THIS was what they should have been comparing it to. Sadly, few in the US have seen these films.

The Heisei series lasted another two films, each taking in about twice it's budget. Godzilla was killed off in the final movie, to make way for the US version. TOHO started a new series in 2000, but after seeing what Hollywood could do Japanese audiences just wouldn't go back to guys in suits. The movies, while in many ways good, ended up playing double features with cartoons about hamsters aimed at 5 year olds and tanked.

We'll have to see what the future holds.