Masterful Movie

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The film opens with a bit of revisionist history and selective kaiju amnesia. Following the destruction of Tokyo during the first of three attacks by Godzilla on Japan (in 1954), the capitol was moved to Osaka. Japan no longer uses nuclear energy, as that was what attracted the monster, but remains concerned that he may return, so the 'G-Graspers', an elite anti-Godzilla combat team was formed. In attempt to construct a space-based black hole gun (odd: there seems to be no word for 'black hole' in Japanese), a wormhole is opened through which a giant primordial dragonfly emerges. The creature lays an egg which hatches in the Tokyo sewers: Megaguirus has arrived. There is much more GGI in this film than in previous Godzilla films, which combined with an excellently detailed adult model, makes the megaguirus in its various morphs one of the best realised monsters in the series to date (although at times the supporting wires are visible). The Godzilla suit is the same one used in Godzilla 2000 and still looks great and most of the special effects are very good, especially the scenes of a swimming Godzilla seen from above or when he wades through the Tokyo harbour. The scenes featuring the swarm of moulting meganulon in the flooded city and their subsequent attack on Godzilla are also very well done. The human characters are pretty typical of the genre: heroic G-graspers, a young rogue scientist with all the answers, the little kid who is instrumental to the plot (in this film, the kid is OK and doesn't overstay his welcome) etc. - they are all fine but secondary to the action. The latest anti-Godzilla flying machine is the 'Griffin', which is mostly visualised through CGI and looks a lot more airworthy than the various flying tanks in the Heisei era. I watched an English-subtitled version, which was generally well done although I was surprised to see "G-graspers" in English on the side of the team's vehicles as it is an odd name and I initially assumed that it was simply is an awkward translation of Japanese term. The film (25th in the franchise, 2nd in the 'Millennium series), differs in tone from the Heisei-era films. In the latter, characters felt empathy for Godzilla and objected to attempts to destroy him, while in this film, the characters have lost friends to the rampaging kaiju, hate him, and are motivated to some extent by revenge. As usual, the plot is based on pseudoscientific nonsense (e.g. creating a 2 meter black hole in orbit around earth would obliterate planet; the professor seems to know a lot about the life cycle and behaviour of a creature that has been extinct for 350 million years and is only known from a single fossil, etc). Minor flaws notwithstanding, the imaginative story and excellent special effects make this a standout film in the series.

After Tristar failed to impress with its infamous 1998 "remake", Toho wanted to redeem their beloved kaiju's honor by starting the Millennium films. This series started off pretty strong with "Godzilla 2000" but then went downhill with this next installment. How so?Plot: Set in an alternate history where Godzilla was never killed by the Oxygen Destroyer, the King of the Monsters has Japan living in terror in his shadow for years. Fed up with his destructive antics, the military force known as G-Graspers recruits a few of the most brilliant minds to create the ultimate weapon Dimension Tide, a cannon that fires miniature black holes. During one of DT's tests, however, a wormhole is formed, causing giant prehistoric dragonflies to come forth, chief among them being their parasitic queen Megaguirus. When Godzilla suddenly reappears, it becomes a three-way struggle between man, reptile, and bug.Positives: Godzilla retains his look from "Godzilla 2000", a radical but cool design, but this time he is actually green instead of charcoal grey/black. He's also given a bit of personality with simple but subtle movements giving the viewer an idea of what he is thinking. In an interesting move, Toho brought back the insects (Meganulons, based on an actual extinct species called Meganeura) from "Rodan" and gave them a modern update. They're legitimately creepy and Megaguirus is a nice foe for Godzilla, being not only brutal but pretty sadistic. I have to admit using a black hole gun against Godzilla is creative, proving once again that there is still room for imagination in a series about a giant city-smashing, monster-bashing dinosaur. The film's central theme is an interesting one to say the least, how man seeks newer and hopefully cleaner sources of power but somehow keeps failing with Godzilla and Megaguirus being dark parallels/antitheses of that concept. The music is also decent, the main theme of which gets carried on in future films, and the action is entertaining enough with a few unexpectedly funny moments.Where this film falls flat is ultimately the execution of every aspect of it. While some of the practical stuff looks fine, a majority of the effects are terribly outdated, especially when compared to other Godzilla films like "Godzilla 2000"; the predecessor manages to hide its flaws as most of the kaiju scenes happen at night while most of this film occurs during the day where the flaws are far more noticeable. The suits/puppets, despite having decent range of motion, tend to feel stiff and the CGI+green screen are far too obvious and not well-rendered. The movie really does seem cheap because of these shortcomings. While some effort was put in the human characters, most of them don't leave that big of an impression. Technician Kudo is at least amusing in that he's a bit egotistical in his talents but is still willing to help others, especially his crush Major Kiriko. As the female lead, an attempt was made in making Kiriko compelling but she fails to pull any heartstrings and almost comes off as a b****, plus her vendetta against Godzilla doesn't hold much weight when you really consider her choices within her backstory. Hell, some of the human characters make decisions that don't have any legit sense of logic. Finally, the film has many great ideas but doesn't go far enough with them, especially when you get down to the insects, which seem more of an inconvenience to the humans rather than a serious threat rivaling Godzilla, therefore there's this lack of presence to them from time to time.This is by far the weakest of the Millennium films, a good concept hampered by an underwhelming execution. This may be worth a watch, but it would be best viewed with low expectations. Not the worst in the franchise (*cough* "Godzilla's Revenge"), but not the best either.

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) BOMB (out of 4) Ouch. A female scientist builds a black hole to suck Godzilla up with but while they're working on that another monster shows up. I must say this is probably the worst Godzilla film I've seen and that's saying quite a bit. The acting and directing is all horrid, which is to be expected and the "story" is downright dumb and stupid even for a Godzilla film. The most shocking thing is that the special effects are poorer than earlier installments made decades ago. Just check out the scene where Godzilla is attacked by some dragonflies.

As i say, there are monster movies that get lost (understandably) trying to run many subplots or to develop characters. Latests Mechagodzilla movies give that up to an extent and focus on what people (who buy this kind of movie) want to see: man in suit rampage & cartonbox miniature levelling. Here they try some character development (EG the old story of the female soldier seeking revenge; the silly, unaware child bringing unknowingly a monster back home ) but keep it in line & don't try to overact or to oversize it. A very watchable, nice movie with good SFX. Of course the idea of a war machine shooting black holes is silly, but in the early 70's Go Nagai (the cartoon/comics writer ) had portrayed alien invaders doing just that in his spurious series "Daiku Maryu Gaiking".