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After Godzilla
2000: Millennium (1999) ushered in the
Millennium series, producer Shogo
Tomiyama decided on a different director for
a new angle. Unlike the previous director, Masaaki
Tezuka is an avid Godzilla fan who wanted
to make a Godzilla film reminiscent of the later
Showa series. And like the aforementioned film,
this movie features a new monster. What the film
lacks in believability, it’s made up in
the enjoyment factor.
In 1954, Godzilla first attacked
Japan, turning Tokyo into a raging inferno. After
moving the capital to Osaka, Godzilla attacked
a nuclear power plant in 1966. After the inability
of wind, solar, and hydroelectric power to provide
the country with a suitable alternative, a new
form of energy is invented that won’t attract
Godzilla: plasma energy. Well, that proved wrong
in 1996 when Godzilla attacks Osaka and destroys
the building the energy was stored in. A small
foot battalion armed with rocket launchers attacks
Godzilla, which proves ineffective. The commanding
officer is killed by falling debris, and one of
the officers, Kiriko Tsujimori, becomes enraged
and begins to hold a vendetta against the King
of the Monsters…
After showing some kids a “magic
trick”, Hajime Kuro (a young inventor) is
approached by Kiriko and reveals the trick; tiny
robots. Because of his skills, she recruits him
for work with the G-Graspers, a military group
whose focus is only on Godzilla’s annihilation
and the protection from said monster. Their ultimate
weapon is a miniature black hole gun, known as
Dimensional Tide, which when fired, will suck
Godzilla into a black hole and destroy the creature
once and for all. Kuro is ordered to make the
weapon small enough to fit on a satellite.
In 2001 the weapon is finally finished.
The G-Graspers test it on an empty school in the
countryside. The test fire is successful, creating
a black hole that absorbs the entire school. However
a side effect is spotted, a distortion in the
time dimension. It’s then brought to Kiriko’s
attention that a young insect loving boy named
Ken witnessed the entire thing. She tells him
not tell anyone because this is a secret. Soon
the weapon is launched into space. Kuro catches
Kiriko working out and gives her a special bullet
that can be tracked. He then spots dog tags and
asks about them. She yanks them out of his hand
and takes off. Her colleagues explain that they
belonged to their superior officer who died fighting
Godzilla, and that she was hit the hardest by
the tragic event.
That night Ken spots something
flying around outside. He goes out to investigate
and sees a giant insect fly towards the worm
hole. He then discovers a large egg! When his
family moves to Tokyo, he takes it with him.
Unable to hide it much longer he dumps it in
the sewers. After settling, the individual cells
begin to hatch and a giant insect called Meganulon
attacks a couple and soon transforms into a
winged creature known as Meganula. Ken sees
the creature flying above the city. The next
day he tells Kiriko what he’s done and
what the creature was. Soon Godzilla is detected
in the ocean along with the Meganula. Kiriko
and crew take off in the Griffon to check it
out. They find the floating carcass of the insect
and go down to take samples. Suddenly Godzilla
surfaces! She climbs out of the water, onto
the monster and fires the tracking bullet into
the creature’s skin. She then orders
an SGS (a small Godzilla tracking sub) to be
launched. She dives off Godzilla and is taken
back to the mainland.
After the samples are examined,
the insect’s origins are explained. Soon
after, the city of Tokyo is under water! Under
the waves are thousands of eggs! The government
gives permission to lure Godzilla to the deserted
island of Kiganjima in order to use the Dimension
Tide on the monster. The defense force is also
sent out to destroy the eggs with dynamite. Hundreds
upon hundreds of Meganulon are found along the
side of a building, and they are turning into
Meganula! Despite being fired upon, the swarm
flies out to sea.
Fighter planes and the Griffon
lure Godzilla onto the island. Just before the
Dimension Tide is fired at the creature, the swarm
of Meganula attacks Godzilla. This forces a delay
because Godzilla can’t be locked on. The
giant insects land on Godzilla try to extract
energy from the behemoth but most are squished
or fried by Godzilla’s atomic ray. After
enough are defeated, Godzilla is finally locked
on and the weapon fires. All it does is bury the
monster. The rest of the swarm heads back to the
mainland with Godzilla in pursuit. It’s
then revealed that they are bringing energy to
their queen, known as Megaguirus, an extremely
territorial creature. That night, the last of
the Meganula inject energy into the larvae. Hajima
arrives on the scene to check on the machinery
when the giant insect bursts out of the water.
Megaguirus proceeds to destroy the flooded city,
killing several troops and injuring Hajima’s
arm.
The next day Godzilla arrives in
Odaiba. The G-Graspers attempt to keep Godzilla
down by the bay so that the damage will be minimum
when the Dimension Tide is fired. Once again,
before they can fire, Megaguirus arrives to do
battle with Godzilla. During the battle, Megaguirus
causes a high pitched frequency from its wings;
causing the Dimension Tide problems that only
Hajima can fix. After a back and forth battle,
finally Godzilla rips off Megaguirus’ stinger;
preventing the insect from neutralizing Godzilla’s
ray. While she’s stunned, Godzilla roasts
the insect with his atomic breath.
After the battle, Godzilla locates
the Institute of Science and destroys it. Motohiko
reveals that it housed plasma energy, something
that will not only help the country, but also
his interests. All he gets is a punch in the face
from Kirko, for his greed.
Meanwhile, the Dimension Tide is
falling from its orbit into the atmosphere and
is unable to lock onto Godzilla! Kirko volunteers
to fly the Griffon into lock-on range. After it
does, she crashes the plane into Godzilla (ejecting
first). The weapon is fired just as it burns up
in the atmosphere. Not falling for this a second
time, Godzilla fires his ray into the black hole
just as it hits. After the dust settles, Godzilla
is MIA and G-Graspers celebrate.
Later Kirko meets up with Hijima
again saying, that an epicenter has been discovered
and many think it is Godzilla. He refuses at first
but then jokes about being replaced. She elbows
him in the injured arm. He yelps in pain and she
apologizes. Much later at school, Ken is putting
away an insect collection before going out to
recess. Suddenly the ground shakes and he looks
out the in horror as a familiar roar is heard.
That reptilian bad penny has returned….
There are more misses then hits
in the acting department. While her attitude is
understandable given the circumstances, Misato
Tanaka’s performance as Kirko Tsujimori
is too cold, dramatic, and lacks sense of humor
for the audience to get attached to the character.
The only time she shows caring emotion is when
she’s talking to Ken. Hajima Kudo (Shosuke
Tanihara) is so over-the-top that it can get irritating
at times. It’s odd he always seems to have
the right gadget for the situation, like he just
happened to have one of these things lying around.
One of the best performances is Suzuki Hiroyuki
as the insect loving Ken, despite him being a
child actor, and the fact that his character's
role is relatively brief. He’s the only
character the viewer can empathize with because
of the dark secret haunting him that he wishes
will just go away. Another well-done performance
is Masatoh
Eve as the weasel Motohiko Sugiura, who’ll
put the lives of people in harms way just to help
his status.
There are a few cameos in Godzilla
vs. Megaguirus. Commonly seen Godzilla actor Koichi
Ueda is seen as a government official during the
meeting when the G-Graspers plan on luring Godzilla
to Kaganjima (in order to use the Dimension Tide).
The director himself, Masaaki
Tezuka, makes an appearance in the post credits
scene as a teacher in Ken’s school.
One thing worthy of noting is a
similar situation to a previous movie. Like the
movie Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), Japan builds
this super weapon (in this case the Dimension
Tide) seemingly without any arguments from the
rest of the world. Another interesting thing to
note in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus is in
the beginning when soldiers fight Godzilla on
foot rather then with tanks and fighter jets.
The music score is one of the better
parts of the movie. Most of the themes don’t
stand out, but a few do. Michiru
Oshima’s Godzilla theme is catchy and
brings a modern feel to the monster. The battle
theme during the rumble between Godzilla and Megaguirus
has a Spanish quality to that while it may be
jarring to the ears, actually fits the tone of
the battle. Akira
Ifukube’s classic Godzilla theme is
heard twice in the movie: at the beginning and
when Godzilla comes on shore at Odaiba, and is
still wonderful to hear.
The special effects were a mixed
bag however. The monsters were for the most part
handled decently. The details on the suits and
models were well done. The placing of the 2000
Godzilla in the footage from the 1954 movie was
flawless. One of the best special effects shot
in the movie is Kiriko riding Godzilla, a shot
that could have failed miserably but was brilliantly
executed. The black hole shot from the Dimension
Tide looked decent and could have looked a lot
worse. The weapon itself, burning in the atmosphere,
was well done. The Griffon jet was rather bland
and could have been pulled off better. There are
two shots that are just obviously fake: the trash
cans during Godzilla’s attack on Osaka in
1996, and the scene when the satellite with the
Dimension Tide starts to show problems.
For the kaiju angle: Godzilla was
decent. He has the same general design and orange
ray from the last film with some changes. While
the aforementioned suit was subtly green, this
suit screams “GREEN!” The rosy pink
scales actually go well with the bright greenness
of the suit. The swimming was well done, and the
shot of Godzilla resting underwater is something
that’s rarely seen in a Godzilla movie.
The most unrealistic thing about Godzilla is the
jump during the battle. They could have shown
Godzilla using his tail to help lift him off the
ground to help with the credibility.
The Meganulon props were disgusting
in a positive way. They were just plain creepy.
The Meganulon attacking the couple has is one
of the most graphic scenes in a Godzilla movie
by far. Meganula were well done. The use of CGI
helped the realism and was evident even with the
amount of creatures on screen. Their brief tussle
with Godzilla is well pulled off and is one of
the most interesting battles in the series. Megaguirus
is a fantastic looking monster. It was most realistic
when its wings were vibrating. When they weren’t
and were just merely flapping, it looked as realistic
as Mothra’s wing flaps were in Godzilla
vs. Mothra (1992). It’s no wonder
this monster is so popular because out of the
few new monsters introduced, it has the most personality.
To those who are watching Sony’s Region
1 DVD of this movie; some may notice strings holding
up Megaguirus during the night scenes. Well, that’s
because Sony lightened the movie up and when they
did that, it exposed the strings. However, if
your TV tone is dark, the strings probably won’t
show. The way it neutralized Godzilla’s
ray and the energy ball was quite an interesting
angle. After several movies of beam war fighting,
viewers are finally treated to a decent physical
fight not seen since the days of the Showa series.
During the battle when Megaguirus was buzzing
Godzilla, the portrayal of speed was magnificent
but her movements were a little choppy.
Despite the lack of realism, Tezuka
delivered on his promise: a fun movie. What the
film lacks in human development is made up with
a creative (albeit unrealistic) weapon to defeat
Godzilla, a new monster with a personality, a
great music score, and ferocious battles with
the Meganula and Megaguirus. If you like deep,
symbolic Godzilla movies, this movie isn’t
for you. If you watch Godzilla movies for monster
fights however, you should defiantly see this
movie. Remember, don’t take this movie seriously,
it’s suppose to be a watch-on-the-surface,
fun movie; it was never meant to be a deep serious
one. |
(2.5/5)