John Chard

Kyoto Stomp! By 1993 the Heisei era of the Godzilla series was well in swing. Here production company Toho bring back Mechagodzilla, Rodan and sadly - they birth Baby Godzilla. Plot is nutty of course, top level government organisation want rid of Godzilla, so using various mechanics and creature science from previous Godzilla foes, construct a new Mechagodzilla, who is soon to be souped up to be Super Mechagodzilla. Carnage, telepathy, hidden brains and maternal instincts do follow. It's actually one of the better films from the Heisei wave. Standard city destruction via model work is always good fun, but it's nice to find the effects work is of a much better standard than from previous instalments. The action sequences are smartly constructed by Takao Okawara, with the crowning smack-down between Zilla and Metalzilla absolutely joyous, a fun packed blend of cartoonish chaos and death ray destruction. Akira Ifukube once again provides an outstanding musical score, and while you will search long and hard for acting performances of note, it all just falls into place in the grand scheme of things. Now if only we didn't have that goddamn Baby Godzilla! So cute! So annoying... 7/10