Horror Film Review: Godzilla 2000 (dir by Takao Okawara)

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Released in 1999, Godzilla 2000 introduces viewers to The Godzilla Protect Network, a group of people who keep track of Godzilla landfalls and do their best to try to predict where he’ll show up next. They’re a bit like the storm watchers from Twisters. The way some people keep an eye on the weather, they keep an eye on everyone’s favorite radioactive lizard.

And it doesn’t take long for Godzilla to show up! Released a year after Roland Emmerich’s version of Godzilla, Toho used Godzilla 2000 to reclaim the character for themselves and for Japan. As such, the film waste no time in getting the original Godzilla on screen and allowing him to go on one of his trademark rampages. Every time that Godzilla breathes radioactive fire and lets loose its trademark shrill cry, it’s as if the film is saying, “Hey, America, this Godzilla!”

As for the plot, it’s not really that important. A group of scientists discover that an alien spaceship has been buried deep in the ocean for millions of years. The UFO is reawakened by Godzilla and it turns out that the spirits of the aliens basically want to absorb Godzilla’s regenerative powers so that they can come back to life and conquer the world. Godzilla doesn’t want to give away his regenerative powers so, naturally, he battles both the UFO and the eventual monsters that the UFO sends out to do its bidding. Once again, Godzilla is defending humanity, albeit unintentionally. For the most part, one gets the feeling that Godzilla just wants to be left alone.

Unfortunately, the military wants to destroy Godzilla and they keep getting in his way while he’s tying to battle the aliens. Seriously, Godzilla is like a wasp. He won’t destroy you as long as you don’t bother him. I mean, it’s true that Godzilla had a really bad temper back in the 50s but, for the most part, he just now wants to enjoy his retirement and step on a few cities. But the humans and the aliens and all the other monsters just won’t leave him alone!

Godzilla 2000 is an entertaining film. Probably because it was made as a direct rebuke to Emmerich’s film, Godzilla 2000 feels like one of the old school Godzilla films, with the emphasis on Godzilla fighting other monsters while people stand on rooftops and point. It has a fun retro feel to it. Basically, with this film, Toho reminded viewers what Godzilla was supposed to be all about.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

Horror Film Review: Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (dir by Takao Okaware)

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Mechagodzilla is back!

Well, not quite. While 1993’s Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II does indeed feature a giant robotic Godzilla who gets into a battle with the real Godzilla, this Mechagodzilla is not the same Mechagodzilla who appeared in the previous Mechagodzilla film. (Maybe I just like typing Mechagodzilla, who knows?) Instead, this Mechagodzilla is a robot that was built by G-Force, the military branch of United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center. (Booo! Thanks for wasting our tax money, UN!) This Mechagodzilla has been built out of parts left over from Mechaghidorah and it exists not to conquer the world but to protect it.

Wow, that was an exhausting paragraph to write. On the one hand, I appreciate the fact that the Heisei era Godzilla films actually made an attempt to maintain a consistent continuity. On the other hand, it’s difficult to keep track of all of these different monsters and robots. I have to admit that trying to follow the plots of these movies always tends to make my ADD go crazy. Really, the important thing is that Godzilla fights a giant robot version of himself and Rodan helps out!

That’s right. Everyone’s favorite Pterodactyl shows up in this film. (The previous film in the franchise reunited Godzilla with Mothra so it just makes sense that Rodan would eventually return.) Godzilla gets upset when he discovers that Rodan has a Baby Godzilla egg in her nest and, after an absolutely adorable mini-Godzilla hatches from the egg, the two of them fight over him. However, Godzilla and Rodan later team up to battle Mechagodzilla. The monsters may not like each other but they get even more annoyed with robot versions of themselves. One thing that I really appreciate about the Godzilla films of the 80s and 90s is that they show just how exhausting it is for these monsters to constantly have to fight each other. Godzilla and Rodan are both exhausted towards the end of this movie. At one point, it appears that Rodan makes the ultimate sacrifice to save Godzilla and I have to admit that I got surprisingly emotional at that point. But then I remembered that Rodan was going to show up in a later movie and immediately start fighting Godzilla again. Seriously, monsters are like cats when it comes to showing each other appreciation.

Anyway, the main attraction here is Baby Godzilla, who is absolutely adorable in a way that horrific-looking Son of Godzilla never was. It helps that Baby actually looks like Godzilla as opposed to looking like the bastard monster child of Godzilla’s mailman. There’s an awe inspiring scene where Baby Godzilla runs up to Godzilla and we see that Baby Godzilla is barely the size of grown Godzilla’s big toe. It’s both a cute scene and a reminder that Godzilla is beyond huge.

This was an entertaining entry in the Godzilla franchise. The plot is less important than the battles and the cuteness of Baby Godzilla. Try all you want, G-Force. WE LOVE GODZILLA!

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

Film Review: Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (dir by Takao Okawara)

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the new Godzilla film scheduled to be released in just two more days, we’ve been taking a look back at some of Godzilla’s previous adventures. We’ve looked at everything from Godzilla vs. King Kong to Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. We’ve even taken a look at Godzilla’s adventures in the Marvel Universe. Today, we consider the 22nd Godzilla film, 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

As Godzilla vs. Destoroyah opens, the task of monitoring and managing Godzilla has been entrusted to a military organization known as G-Force. To be honest, my first impulse was to mock G-Force because their headquarters is known as G-Center and I kept expecting to see a tour group walking through the building while their cheerful guide explained, “This is the spot — the G-Spot.” However, I have to admit that if I ever somehow found myself as a member of the military, I would want to be a member of G-Force, just because some of the female G-forcers get to wear a really nice uniform with a cute black skirt and a beret. Seriously, I’d enlist just to get the beret.

It’s all about the beret.

Anyway, G-Force may have cute uniforms but they’re apparently not very good at doing their job because they’ve lost track of Godzilla. When last seen, Godzilla and his son — Godzilla, Jr. (yes, that’s what they actually call him) — were living on the charmingly named Birth Island. However, Birth Island has been destroyed and when Godzilla, Sr. finally resurfaces, he’s glowing red and destroying Hong Kong.

Yes, Godzilla, Sr. has some issues. As the G-Force scientists eventually deduce, Godzilla’s heart — which also acts as a nuclear reactor — is on the verge of a meltdown. Not only is Godzilla dying but his death will probably cause a nuclear chain reaction that will lead to the end of the world. As silly as this particular plot twist might sound, it actually works pretty well. It’s a much-needed return to Godzilla’s roots, a reminder that, before he became a film star, Godzilla was meant to be the living embodiment of the atomic nightmare. As well, the fact that Godzilla is slowly being destroyed by the same thing that brought him to life gives him a certain tragic dignity. You may not believe that you could feel sorry for a big rubber lizard but you would be wrong. Once it becomes clear that Godzilla is using his last remaining strength to search for and protect his son, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by his plight.

Unfortunately, G-Force is apparently full of men with hearts of stone and, instead of trying to make that father-son reunion happen, they instead decide to trot out the old Oxygen Destroyer that was used to defeat the original Godzilla back in the 1954. (In the 90s, the series was retconned to explain that the first Godzilla was destroyed in 1954 and that all the subsequent Godzilla movies featured the original’s successor.) However, what G-Force has failed to take into account is that experimenting with the Oxygen Destroyer will also create a giant mutant crab known as Destoroyah.

Destoroyah, despite having a bit of a name problem, is actually pretty scary and, at times, feels like something that could have sprung from the imagination of H.R. Giger. An extended scene, in which Destoroyah menaces a woman trapped in a car, is particularly well done.

Since this is a Godzilla film, all of this inetivably leads to a gigantic fight between Godzilla, Junior, and Destoroyah that manages to destroy Tokyo for the hundredth time. Of course, even as Godzilla steps up to save the world from Destoroyah, he still remains a ticking atomic bomb…

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah was meant to be the final Japanese Godzilla film, a final hurrah for the series before the American version (directed by noted Shakespearean scholar Roland Emmerich) was released. As such, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is very much a tribute to Godzilla’s long history (clips from the first film abound) and an attempt to give Godzilla a proper and heroic send-off before he would be reinterpreted by the Americans. There’s an elegiac feel to much of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and it works a lot better than you would have any reason to expect. If this had been the final Japanese Godzilla film, it would have been a perfect chapter to end on.

However, as we all know, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah was not the final Japanese Godzilla film. Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla was a notorious flop and continues to be reviled by good people everywhere. Toho bought back the rights to the character and went on to produce 6 more films starring Godzilla. And now, in just a few more days, a second attempt at an American Godzilla film will be released.

Will it be as good as Roland Emmerich’s film?

Yes. Of course, it will. How couldn’t it be? Roland Emmerich is basically just Uwe Boll with a bigger budget, after all.

Will the new Godzilla be as good as Godzilla vs. Destoroyah?

That’s a question that remains to be answered.