Talkback Thread #14: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

[daveblackeye15]

I love both dearly, I think I like Terror a little bit more. I love Titanosaurus and unlike Angurius, one of my favorites, he has had zero other movies. I still dread seeing Angurius get his jaw busted, I have the DVD in right now. Seriously I paid 80 bucks off Amazon just for this to make my collection a little more complete.

Anyway I sought this third because I just wanted to ask what kind of hat is the archaeologist student is wearing. I like it.

[godzilla98rules]

Well, I watched this film again today, and it's still one of my favorites of the Showa series! The characters are entertaining and for the most part, well written. The soundtrack is upbeat, energetic, and loads of fun to listen to. The action features some of the better choreography of the 70's Godzilla films, and the special effects aren't as good as good as the earlier films of the 60s, but they still have a charm to them. The story/plot does have a spy action feel mixed in with the sci-fi, making it more entertaining, but it does have some flaws that makes it seem easy to rip apart if you were to watch this critically. One of the things that my dad and I like to joke about with this film is the Black Hole Aliens decision to use Miyajima to repair Mechagodzilla because they are too lazy to repair it themselves. Also, I have to wonder how Mechagodzilla's missile fingers were able to bend as Godzilla, or how his head was able to be twisted off when he could freely spin it earlier in the film. Who am I kidding, who cares about the details? Like Megalon, this movie doesn't take itself seriously and it's more fun and entertaining that way!

[daveblackeye15]

Yeah the spacemen needing an Earth scientist is a big plot hole even I found as a kid.

I'd fix with a line like 'we lost our engineer in an Interpol raid. HQ is going to punish us if we request for replacements at this stage!' or maybe have the spacemen here be rogue and they stole Mechagodzilla and none are engineers.

There's also a few too many characters. We got main digging guy, we got scientist with awesome pipe, professor guy, we got younger brother of main character (really could have cut this one out), photographer, scientist' daughter, cool agents 1 and 2. Lots of neat quirks but not enough to go around all those characters.

[The Godzilla Camp]

Ah Mecha-G - a classic Big-G doppelganger and foe

One thing I didn't get though was WHY the Simians captured the Professor and forced him to work for them momentarily to repair the Mecha-G 1974 Head Control Unit when considering Mecha-G 1974 was SURELY BUILT BY THEM AND SURELY THEY WOULD HAVE TH TECHNICIANS AND those with the 'know-how' knowledge to fix the Head Control Unit YET they forced the Professor who had some knowledge of Alien Technology to help fix the Head Control Unit ...

Also - did anyone notice where Mecha-G 1974 he turned his head around to face King Caesear WHILST he aimed his Full Metal Missiles at Big-G 1974; isn't that interesting? Given when he fired at King Caesar whilst simultaneously firing at Big-G 1974 he struck King Caeser in the eye CONSIDERING King Caesar's eyes were able to absorb and reflect the Energy Beams ... WHILST the Full Metal Missiles - well compared to the Space Optic Laser Beam - Big-G 1974 probably could withstand the Full Metal Missiles better than the Space Optic Laser Beam ... YET it still knocked them down ...

But other than that - Mecha-G 1974 ... can't complain much about him - and given he was somewhat a 'Termizilla' well a Terminator T-800 version of Big-G somewhat ... and the fact whilst some say Mecha-G 1974's Space Titanium armor wasn't so durable - then again considering it was able to withstand 2x Reflected Space Optic Beams, 1x Big-G 1974's Atomic Ray Beam, atleast 6x Headbutts from King Caesar whilst Big-G 1974 held him down ALL the whilst his Head Control Unit was being sabotaged as well ... that's quite some durability ...

[Kaiser]

One of the film's biggest charms is how Nakano just went completely crazy with the pyrotechnics. Of all the films he worked on, this one just has his stamp all over it.

[KingKaiju]

I'm actually watching this movie right now. Easily one of my favorite Showa films. MechaGodzilla is a badass and whoops on everyone. I have to admit though, I still have to fast forward or skip through that god awful song that girl sings...

Also, 2 things:

1. Why the hell did Godzilla come out of a warehouse of all things? I'm sure it was probably just there for "dramatic effect", but still.. A warehouse?

2. Does MechaGodzilla had shortening abilities? Because when he's pretending to be Godzilla he's clearly the same size, and yet when he goes back to MechaGodzilla he's taller. WHAAAAAAT? Jk jk. It's obvious that he hit a growth-spurt. DUH!!!

Hahahaha, just having a bit of fun.

[The Godzilla Camp]

I'm actually watching this movie right now. Easily one of my favorite Showa films. MechaGodzilla is a badass and whoops on everyone. I have to admit though, I still have to fast forward or skip through that god awful song that girl sings...

Also, 2 things:

1. Why the hell did Godzilla come out of a warehouse of all things? I'm sure it was probably just there for "dramatic effect", but still.. A warehouse?

2. Does MechaGodzilla had shortening abilities? Because when he's pretending to be Godzilla he's clearly the same size, and yet when he goes back to MechaGodzilla he's taller. WHAAAAAAT? Jk jk. It's obvious that he hit a growth-spurt. DUH!!!

Hahahaha, just having a bit of fun.

Well on Number 2 - perhaps the rubber suit 'contracted' him abit ...

[BlankAccount]

I'm actually watching this movie right now. Easily one of my favorite Showa films. MechaGodzilla is a badass and whoops on everyone. I have to admit though, I still have to fast forward or skip through that god awful song that girl sings...

That song is, good. Screw your Mothra songs, you hipsters.

1. Why the hell did Godzilla come out of a warehouse of all things? I'm sure it was probably just there for "dramatic effect", but still.. A warehouse?

The warehouse was on a dock, so Godzilla just came up from underwater. Still, that is a huge drop off in the water for a kaiju, even one leaning forward to be hiding in that close to shore.

[Lain Of The Wired]

I still love King Caesar, but I can't get over the fact that King Caesar's awakening served no purpose other then being complete cannon fodder for Mechagodzilla when a good portion of the plot had to do with the resurrection of this thing XD

[KingKaiju]

I'm actually watching this movie right now. Easily one of my favorite Showa films. MechaGodzilla is a badass and whoops on everyone. I have to admit though, I still have to fast forward or skip through that god awful song that girl sings...

That song is, good. Screw your Mothra songs, you hipsters.

1. Why the hell did Godzilla come out of a warehouse of all things? I'm sure it was probably just there for "dramatic effect", but still.. A warehouse?

The warehouse was on a dock, so Godzilla just came up from underwater. Still, that is a huge drop off in the water for a kaiju, even one leaning forward to be hiding in that close to shore.

Do you even Mothra bro??

[Missingno.]

Also, I have to wonder how Mechagodzilla's missile fingers were able to bend as Godzilla, or how his head was able to be twisted off when he could freely spin it earlier in the film.

I also never understood the first question either, but my reason for your second question (and possibly most logical explanation) is that when Godzilla is twisting Mechagodzilla's head, watch where it actually comes from. It falls from the neck, not from the head where Godzilla twisted it.

My own questions for the film are:
1. Why didn't Mechagodzilla ever use that Flamethrower again after he revealed himself?
2. How in the world were the humans not able to distinguish Fake Godzilla from the real Godzilla by hearing the Mechagodzilla roars and the different colored and sounding atomic breath?

Otherwise, this is easily one of my favorite Godzilla films from the Showa series and every other G film overall

[KingKaiju]

I still love King Caesar, but I can't get over the fact that King Caesar's awakening served no purpose other then being complete cannon fodder for Mechagodzilla when a good portion of the plot had to do with the resurrection of this thing XD

Hahaha I thought about this last night too. I was sitting there thinking, "they spent the whole movie building you up so you could get your ass kicked??" hahahahahaha

[Gojira tai Mosura]

This film ranks very high up on my "favorite Godzilla films" list. If you haven't seen the film yet, I'll do my best to try not to spoil it.

The plot of this film is one of my favorites. I'm not going to copy-paste it here, but the Alien Characters and the Human Characters are some of my all-time favorites in Godzilla films, especially the Aliens. King-Kong-Humans attack.

Godzilla in this film has what I think is the second best Showa Era suit design. Sure, Godzilla vs. Megalon and Terror of MechaGodzilla had the same suit, but this is the best "rendition" of it. Its cute face shows that Godzilla is the good guy, and as soon as you see him attacking buildings, you know something is wrong. Godzilla is, unfortunately, not without problems in this film. I felt like the whole "Magnetization" thing was a Deus Ex Machina and that Godzilla should have defeated MechaGodzilla with his own wit, even though the film was showing us that doing that was almost impossible. It's better than just saying "OH HEY LOOK I'M MAGNETO NOW! GET OVER HERE!"

King Caesar is what I call the film's only "flaw". His design is pretty boring and he's uninteresting, but that's not why I think he's a stain on this film. He has this huge build-up with a song that feels like it's seven minutes long, so you feel like he's going to go out there and kick some MechaGodzilla ass alongside the King of the Monsters! But no, instead of kicking ass he gets his ass kicked. I mean, come on, really?! Why have a huge build-up to a monster like this just to have the villain "shoo" him off like a fly and render that huge build-up pointless? It's awful! This is why I'll stick to Mothra, because her song is short, amazing, and she actually kicks ass most of the time.
And screw you, Living Corpse.

But yeah, pretty much everyone saw this film to figure out "What the heck is a MechaGodzilla?" And my goodness this film delivered. His design, his weapons, his execution, it's all brilliantly done. How he arrives as a "Fake Godzilla" to make everyone think Godzilla has gone back to his evil ways is a really creative and original plan. But once Godzilla and MechaGodzilla meet, it's time to shed the disguise and show your true colors.
My reaction to MechaGodzilla showing off the weaponry and then promptly kicking Godzilla's ass was nothing short of "WOW". The music, the designs, THE FINGER MISSILES, it's a fantastic film that would be perfect had it not been for King Caesar.
And honestly. All I really think I could say about this film is "WOW". It left me in awe at how good it really was, especially after a film like Godzilla vs. Megalon. I said it once, and I'll say it again, this film is easily one of the best Showa-Era films and one of the best Godzilla films in general.
Finger Missiles/10.

[Godzillian]

Why were the aliens so worried about KC anyway? He was easily overpowered him

[Goji]

Probably because they didn't know how strong he'd actually be. It was impossible for them to know, after all.

[edgaguirus]

The aliens somehow knew about the prophecy, so I figured they wanted to keep KC from being woken so there wouldn't be two monsters. If they could beat the prophecy, then they might easily make the Earth theirs.

[Kaiser]

Why were the aliens so worried about KC anyway? He was easily overpowered him

Why take a chance with an unknown variable? It's like climbing a mountain without knowing the weather.

[Lain Of The Wired]

^ My thoughts exactly, plus the whole "Has the potential to awaken other monsters" seems like an ability that needed to be neutralized.

[DesuGojiFan]

Just rewatched the film and have a question.
Did Miyajima and Nanbura die when the Black hole aliens' base blew up? They're not seen with the rest of the group at the very end of the movie.

[NSZ]

Just rewatched the film and have a question.
Did Miyajima and Nanbura die when the Black hole aliens' base blew up? They're not seen with the rest of the group at the very end of the movie.

Considering Shimizu's brother went with them, and he's seen at the end with the group, I think it's safe to assume that they survived.