Godzilla: Tokyo SOS

Another frenetic treat from Masaaki Tezuka. The director follows up Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla with Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, a Kiryu rematch that ropes in Mothra and two of her offspring. The first out-and-out sequel in the Millennium cycle is a slight, almost supplementary feature that expands on the previous film's resurrection theme in an expertly ordered action setting. Instead of an interesting inflection to be brushed aside for battle, Kiryu's strange half-life informs and drives Tokyo SOS. Mothra, acting as a kind of kaiju envoy, warns humanity that the reanimated Kiryu is an affront to all monsterkind. As long as this Mechagodzilla exists, Godzilla will be drawn to it. Unfortunately Japan's automated saviour is actually its millstone. 

It's not clear why Godzilla homes in on Kiryu. It could be that the King of Monsters views the robotic reflection as a threat to his throne. Equally it could be that Godzilla 1954 was a relative, perhaps even a parent. How Kiryu chooses to confront his opponent, when freed from human control, lends a certain plausibility to this idea. Working alongside two silk spitting larvae, Kiryu restrains rather than attacks Godzilla. He traps the beast in his malfunctioning metal carapace, then drags him down to the deepest depths of the Pacific Ocean. Is Kiryu atoning for his radioactive rampages? He certainly seems to have bonded with a few of the humans that have piloted and maintained his metal body. Has he finally learnt to empathise with mankind? Maybe he simply wishes to be dead again, and has correctly deduced that Godzilla's elimination will mean he will be left in peace. 

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla's problem is that the hour preceding the Tokyo stomp finale is a little too good. Masaaki Tezuka's film is exciting and genre literate, full of visual quotes from mid-sixties Ishiro Honda classics like The War of the Gargantuas. Against is layered with an obsessive fatalism; plot also shifts based on the malfunctioning agendas of supernatural cyborgs. Basically it promises so much more than the rote last act is capable of delivering. The film builds itself around a sullen mazer technician and her all-consuming survivor's guilt following a disastrous attempt to repel Godzilla. Lieutenant Akane Yashiro gets her chance for revenge when the Japanese Self-Defence Force dredge up the bones of the 1954 King of Monsters, using them to create a bio-robot doppelgänger named Kiryu.

When Godzilla lands again, Akane and Kiryu jet off to face him. After hosing down the nascent monster monarch, Kiryu's death blow is interrupted when Godzilla's roar reawakens this Mechagodzilla's former identity. Akane is powerless to stop the cyborg kaiju from blasting the surrounding city to dust. Godzilla retreats to the ocean, while the JSDF wait for Kiryu to burn himself out. Although included to simply function as your standard mid-point obstacle, this idea of a cybernetically enhanced ghost Godzilla trying to reclaim his throne is so exciting that it dwarfs anything that can possibly follow. The effect is accentuated by the Millennium series' pocket universe remit where, theoretically, anything can happen. When this zombie Godzilla is subsequently discarded via an aside about reprogrammable DNA computers it feels like a betrayal. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla teeters on the verge of being excellent but, by obeying formula, it ends up only very good.

Godzilla vs Megaguirus

The title may be Godzilla vs Megaguirus, but the King of Monster's most dangerous opponent is Misato Tanaka's Kiriko Tsujimori, an ultra capable Major attached to the G-Graspers, a bright and smiley special forces unit tasked with taking down the kaiju monarch. Godzilla vs Megaguirus exists within a continuity all of its own. In this universe Godzilla is a recurrent threat to Japan, appearing every couple of decades to stamp Japan's latest technological advances into the ground. The monster's usual role is lightly tweaked. Rather than be specific to nuclear power, Godzilla exists as a natural balance to all unchecked, potentially dangerous, scientific progress.

Tsujimori has first-hand experience battling Godzilla during one of these landings. With her unit and commanding officer crushed under rubble, Tsujimori stared down the rampaging beast armed only with a bazooka. After failing to prevent him from destroying an experimental plasma energy, she has spent the intervening years honing her body and waiting for another opportunity to battle the power plant slasher. Tsujimori is exactly the kind of quietly driven lead that could have lit up the military scenes in the limp Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II. She's focused, professional, and leads by example. Thankfully, the film is also never tempted to define the character romantically. A scruffy scientist exists for her on the periphery, but it's clear she considers him a colleague and nothing more. Tsujimori is allowed to be an individual.

Masaaki Tezuka's first entry in the series is handsome and punchy, despite an obvious budget shrink since the Heisei heydays. Tezuka fills his frame with the monster's faces, holding on their toothy maws, and letting them act. The finale showdown between Godzilla and Megaguirus is a rough and tumble affair, with minimal computer generated augmentation. Rather than hose each other down with laser beams, the two creatures make use of their physical dimensions and attributes. Megaguirus is pretty handy with her stinger, much to the chagrin of Godzilla's crotch. A few glimpses of piano wire aside, Kenji Suzuki's work here is much improved from the lacklustre Godzilla 2000: Millennium. As well as the wonderfully spiky Megaguirus, the special effects director and his team have produced a scale reproduction of the Tokyo waterfront that stands up to the withering scrutiny of daylight filming.