Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla



Godzilla x Mechagodzilla is the fourth entry in the Millenuim Godzilla series and is a sequel to Godzilla (1954 film). It also refrences Kaiju films like Mothra (1961 film). It was released in 2002.

Production
In this continuity, the original Godzilla's skeleton was not vaporized by the Oxygen Destroyer and Gaira (now a bigfoot creature) was destroyed by maser weapons. Kiryu is only referred to as Mechagodzilla three times in the film; for the rest of the film he is referred to as Kiryu. Japanese Baseball star Hideki Matsui has a cameo in the film due to his nickname "Godzilla". [edit]Box office

Budgeted at roughly $8,500,000, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla opened in Japan on December 13, 2002, and earned $2,253,231 in its opening weekend. It went on to gross approximately $16,000,000 in Japan, making it the second biggest of the Millennium Godzilla films at the box office. It sold approximately 1,700,000 admissions.

Cast
Yumiko Shaku as JXSDF Lt. Akane Yashiro

Shin Takuma as Tokumitsu Yuhara

Kana Onodera as Sara Yuhara

Kou Takasugi as JXSDF Colonel Togashi

Akira Nakao as Prime Minister Hayato Igarashi

Yūsuke Tomoi as JXSDF 2nd Lieutenant Susumu Hayama

Junichi Mizuno as JXSDF 1st Lieutenant Kenji Sekine

Kumi Mizuno as Prime Minister Machiko Tsuge

Yoshikazu Kanō as Hishinuma

Takeo Nakahara as JXSDF Chief Ichiyanagi

Kōichi Ueda as Dobashi

Midori Hagio as Kaori Yamada

Akira Shirai as Shinji Akamatsu

Naomasa Rokudaira as Dr. Gorō Kanno

Shinji Morisue as JXSDF 1st Lieutenant

Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui as Himself

Tsutomu Kitagawa as Godzilla

Hirofumi Ishigaki as Kiryu

Critical reaction
Mike Pinsky of DVD Talk gave the film three stars out of five, saying: "While I did have some minor complaints, [this is] a fine entry in the series." Pinsky said "the plot is more interesting than most giant monster movies," and "the battle scenes, which are the main reason anyone watches these films to begin with, were great." Matt Paprocki of Blog Critics said the film is "pretty flawed, [but] those of us who still love seeing Japan get trampled are in for a treat." Stomp Tokyo praised the "great monster fight action" but criticized the "uncompelling non-monster scenes." Giving the film a "B+" score, Mark Zimmer of Digitally Obsessed said that it's "a good deal of fun and one of the better entries in the series."Digital Monster Island gave the film a "B" score, calling it "a fun and exciting film that should please most kaiju fans."