Saturday, March 2, 2013

Kaiju Reviews #26 - Godzilla 2000

After the disaster that was the 1998 remake, Toho decided to wipe that movie clean from everyone's minds by starting off fresh with a new series just a year later (nicknamed the "Millennium Series" by fans). For the most part, this series was an anthology, with most movies only following the continuity of the original film... however, this is one of the exceptions, being completely standalone, as the origin for this Godzilla is never explained. Interestingly enough, both this movie and the next one are the only movies to depict Godzilla as being green; despite being advertised as such, he was never green in any of the previous movies; he was more of a black-ish color... ironically, he happens to be black on this poster. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Anyhow, let's get on with the plot. We follow a group of people associated with the "Godzilla Prediction Network", which basically consists of predicting when and where Godzilla will come out of the ocean, so people can evacuate seriously. Right away, we get some Godzilla action as the Big-G wanders through a small city in order to absorb energy from a small power plant. Meanwhile, in the middle of the ocean, a strange asteroid is discovered... and Godzilla just so happens to be in the middle of the area. The meteorite ends up being a flying saucer, which defeats Godzilla quite easily and quickly makes its way to the top of one of Tokyo's many buildings, deciding that it should rest for a spell. Eventually, the alien inside the saucer reveals that it intends to take over the world and plans to use Godzilla's regenerative cells in order to grow more powerful and survive in Earth's atmosphere. Eventually, Godzilla makes his bad self over to Tokyo, with full intentions on taking down the UFO. Unfortunately, it manages to absorb some of his DNA and the alien emerges as a giant squid-like creature... however Godzilla's DNA appears to be unstable, as this quickly goes wrong, turning him into the grotesque creature Orga (whose name is never uttered on-film). As always, Godzilla and Orga have a climactic fight, Godzilla prevails in the end, and the world is saved... only for the Big-G to blow up the city in the credits. Because nobody fucks with Godzilla.

Score:
3.5/5.0

It may not be the BEST Godzilla movie, but it's still a pretty good watch, especially if you've watched G'98 beforehand. And even though Godzilla disappears for about 40 minutes straight, the last half-hour is pretty much all Godzilla, which more than makes up for it.