As a lover of statistics and monster movies I love the imdb-trivia that ゴジラvsメカゴジラ (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II) apparently has the highest Godzilla-ratio of the entire franchise—a statement I refuse to fact-check—but at the end of the day, how much does it matter if the rest of the film doesn’t hold up? In the case of the fifth entry in the Heisei-era, it’s a very… Uneven affair, but not without its highlights.

The somewhat grotesque, yet quite cute baby-godzilla here is much better than his old version, it’s nice to see Rodan again and with Mechagodzilla being powered by humans there’s a natural human element to the fighting. Then on the other hand, there’s an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to the film as it seems to bet its chips on a lot of different monsters and plot-threads. Some of them work, but some are undeniably underdeveloped.

The core story of trying to stop Godzilla is so thin it’s almost forgotten about and does lack a singular strong human protagonist. But like most of the Heisei-entries, there’s some scenes here that are awe-inspiring in their visual ambition, albeit sticking out from the more goofy aspects of the franchise. So ゴジラvsメカゴジラ is a real mixed bag, but in spite of the films melting together into one big mess at this point, the series still feels rewarding with an incredibly charming creativity, in its best moments.

Godzilla