Godzilla x MechaGodzilla (2002)I finally watched this again for the first time in years and I am still kinda indifferent to it.
Pros & mixed elements!- Akane is one of the best human characters of the franchise and a genuinely well done strong female character. She doesn't face caricature sexism, the 1 guy that dislikes her has a legit grievance and while he gets put in his place, he isn't demonized & gets a standout heroic moment near the end.
- Very good Godzilla suit. Basically the G2000 suit with a smaller less crocodilan dead. The slightly sloped down snout is unique.
- Great MG suit & abilities.
- The Gojira bones origin & MG rampage are all cool ideas, executed fairly well but not to their full potential IMO.
- Great opening.
- A few standout epic shots (lightning hitting godzilla, godzilla roaring near a pyramid like building, a shutting down Kiryu with a blazing sunset in the background)
- Good score.
- Bringing back the classic maser tanks was cool.
- City sets are ok but pale in comparison to the cities from the first 3 heisei films.
Cons!- Really bad CGI in places.
- Like GMK, almost no attempts were made to place Godzilla in the background of real cities/scenery like was done and done well in G2000 and results in the monster scenes feeling extremely set bound.
- The Godzilla suit actor's performance is unremarkable, Godzilla seems very stiff, especially during his first encounter with Kiryu.
- All romantic moments were cringy except the post credits scene.
- Small plot hole of why they didn't try and use the absolute zero as soon as they arrived in the final battle.
Overall!- Rating: Good, simply good.
- Something is just off, it feels less than the sum of it's parts.
- Not optimistic about revisiting Tokyo SOS (direct sequel to this) as I didn't like it as much as this when I watched them years ago & getting rid of Akane (the best part of this) was a giant fail.
Rating the various MechaG movies!Godzilla vs MechaG (1974)
- Very GoodTerror of MechaG (1975)
- GreatGodzilla vs MechaG 2 (1993)
- Near GreatGodzilla x MechaG (2002)
- GoodGodzilla - Tokyo SOS (2003) [haven't watched in a long time]
- Ok / Meh to Decent?Godzilla vs Kong (2021)
- Decent