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Old-fashioned
giant monster thrills, Toho style!
Let's get one thing out front: this is a
better movie than the abysmal 1998 Americanized version directed
by Roland Emmerich, despite having a budget fifteen times as
small. Yeah, it's got clumsily dubbed dialog. And, like its
predecessors, it's still basically a guy in a rubber suit stomping
models. But it does have one key ingredient that the '98 film
sadly lacked: fun.
The fast-paced plot focuses on the reappearance
of Godzilla and the discovery of a giant, super-magnetic rock
in the Sea of Japan. Dr. Shinoda, head of the private Godzilla
Prediction Network, clashes with his former colleage Katagiri,
now the ruthless chief of the Crisis Control Intelligence Agency
(a government organization that seems to be a hybrid of the
CIA and FEMA). Katagiri wants Godzilla destroyed at all costs
while Shinoda wants him spared for scientific study. At the
same time, the CCI science team attempting to raise and study
the strange rock is stunned when it surfaces of its own accord
and flies away!
Godzilla is at that very moment laying waste
to the Japanese mainland on his way towards a nuclear power
complex. Katagiri assumes emergency authority and orders the
army's 1st Armored Division to stop Godzilla before the monster
causes another Chernobyl. The commanding general is confident
his new
weapon, a super-penetrating armor-tipped missile, will kill
the
behemoth. ("I guarantee you it'll go through Godzilla like
crap through a goose!" he boasts, humorously cribbing a
line from Patton.)
In the movie's most spectacular sequence the Japanese army and
air force throw everything they've got at Godzilla — naturally
to no avail. But as the tanks retreat the mysterious flying
rock appears overhead and blasts Godzilla with a power ray.
This rock, the scientists deduce, is actually a UFO that crash-landed
on Earth 60 million years ago and has now reactivated. Bent
on planetary conquest, the only thing the alien intelligence
guiding it believes stands in its way is the King of All Monsters,
Godzilla!
Godzilla
2000
is a nice throwback to the Lizard King's heyday, jettisoning
most of the silliness that makes many of the older films unbearable
to sit through with the kids. The blending of old-style monster
suits and models with computer effects can be a scattershot
affair, but it does possess a charm uniquely its own — especially
when pulled off with the verve of Toho. (Some of the long shots
of Godzilla wading in from the bay look quite good, actually.)
Like its forebears, there's no gruesome violence to unsettle
the kids: some helicopters get blown up and one character takes
a fatal fall but all deaths occur off screen. (Given the level
of destruction I sure hope they evacuated Tokyo, though
the movie doesn't imply this.)
Godzilla
2000 doesn't have the megabudget razzle dazzle of the
1998 American film, but it does have the Godzilla we
all know and love (bigger and badder than ever, flame-breath
and all)... and thus a lot more heart. It's a fun flick to throw
on when snowed in with the under 12 crowd. Everyone should have
a good time.
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