Godzilla 2000

When a sixty million year old space ship is brought up from beneath the oceans, Humanity has no idea what kind of terror they’ve discovered.  An ancient alien menace seeks to find the perfect form to assimilate to continue its path of destruction.  And it’s found the perfect being to copy: Godzilla.  As Japan finds itself in the crosshairs, those who wish to aid and destroy Godzilla clash even though it becomes likely that no matter who wins this battle, Japan still loses.  After all, it is Godzilla and he isn’t on anyone’s side but his own.

1995’s Godzilla vs. Destroyah was meant to be the final bow for The King of the Monsters.  However, you can never keep the big guy down and a mere four years later, Godzilla returned to do what he does best in Japan.  While I’ve been told otherwise, I cant help but feel that part of the reason for Godzilla’s resurrection has to do with the critical panning and underperformance of the 1998 US Godzilla movie, thus prompting Japan to go “Alright, watch and learn.”  That said, is Godzilla’s march into the new millennium worthy of his royalty status, or is it just another “meh” entry?
 
Godzilla 2000 is a very back to basics Godzilla film.  Godzilla is once again presented as an unstoppable force of nature, as seen in the excellent opening sequence.  The new suit, one of many used during this Millenium Series, is fantastic, featuring fierce eyes and teeth and massive, spikier fins on the back.  It’s the perfect makeover for reintroducing Godzilla to the world.  The film also goes back to having Godzilla as an unpredictable wild card.  Yes he’s necessary to defeat the new Kaiju space menace, Orga.  But it’s still Godzilla and he is not on anybodys side but his own.  He’s less helping out mankind and instead getting even with the Alien whose spaceship continually whoops his butt for a large portion of the movie.  Yeah, as cool as Godzilla looks, seeing him easily get wrecked by a bare bones alien spaceship seems like a cheap way to make trouble for him.  Still, Orga does get its own Kaiju form and thus we get a classic Kaiju throwdown that is fun to watch, even if it comes a bit late in the film.
 
While the 90s films dabbled a little bit in CG, Godzilla 2000 implements much more of it with mixed results.  The green screen compositing is hit and miss and I wonder if it could have been done away with altogether, well except maybe for an important bit at the end where the human cast gets up close and personal with Godzilla.  There’s still a lot of miniature model work and it still looks good, proving the old school giant monster movie making magic is far from dead.  And as I mentioned, the Godzilla and Orga suits are top notch and look amazing clashing in a breakable model city.  So yeah, the CG isn’t the best, especially when it comes to Orga’s spaceship, matching characters and monsters against a Green Screen and a very cringe looking CGI Godzilla swimming through the ocean like you’re watching an opening play demo of The Ocean Hunter Arcade Game.
 
As for the Humans, well for once I didn’t think they were as annoying as they usually are.  I liked the Father/Daughter duo of Shinoda and Io, though you can question Shinoda’s parenting credentials as he constantly brings his little girl with him on dangerous adventures.  You’d think they try to play up a semi romantic angle between Shinoda and plucky reporter Yuki, but they never do.  Plus, I do like how Io is constantly extorting Yuki, like she doesn’t want any woman to be with her Dad unless they pay her first.  However, much of the story slows to a crawl around these leads and their supporting cast.  In fact, when Godzilla isn’t on screen, everyone is just standing around and either expositing or just waiting for something to happen.  Shinoda, Io and Yuki do find themselves in a bit of action, including the aforementioned awesome introduction.  But yeah, they trade annoying human storylines for ones that feel like you could mute their dialogue and you’d miss nothing at all.
 
All in all, Godzilla 2000 is just ok.  It returns to the franchises roots with colossal showdowns, expertly done miniature and suit work and Godzilla not being the total defender of mankind many of the Showa or Hesei Era films presented him as.  However, the story is negligible, Godzilla finds himself on the receiving end of a flimsy spaceship and the main opponent takes too long to arrive before things get really good.  And even on the visual side, the overuse of CG threatens to derail a film that otherwise looks pretty solid visually.  The Millenium Era has way better movies.  Still, a basic return to form isn’t so bad either.
 
6.5/10
 
Next Week, we close out Godzilla Month II with the second attempt by the US to do the King of the Monsters justice…if they even bother to focus on him that is.  Godzilla 2014 is up next on Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.