Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
Year: 1994
Director: Kensho Yamashita
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

With Godzilla vs Mothra (1992) and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (1993)Toho Studios reinvigorated the long-running franchise, making it a commercial success by somehow being able to appeal to both men (30% of the Japanese movie audience) and women (70% of the Japanese movie audience). How could they screw their success up? How about trying to specifically appeal to teenagers!

In this film Godzilla is threatened by two new forces: Mogera - another UN built machine; and Space Godzilla - a beast spawned from Godzilla's particles in space.

Completely unaware that teenagers were already a large part of the audience for these films, the studio hired a director and writers with no kaiju or science fiction experience, but instead a background in “Teen Idol” films. Similar to what happened with Godzilla vs. Hedorah: a new creative team took over and refashioned the series for youth appeal with bizarre results.

Director Kensho Yamashita and his writers really didn't know or care enough about monster flicks to to integrate the monster battles with their cheesy romance story and lightweight espionage plot in a competent manner.Some kaiju pictures can move past having no real human element to the story, but unfortunately Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla cannot. 

The title had a lot of potential, but unfortunately this film is just boring. The special effects are very reminiscent of the 1970's Godzilla films when Toho had to severly limit its budget or face studio collapse. What is Toho's excuse this time? Don't waste even a minute on this flick.