Godzilla 2000: Millennium

sydney3.5

imagine one film shot in 1965, one shot in 1985, and one shot in 1995, then overlapped and projected at the same time - that's the only way i can come close to describing the aesthetic mixture of practical effects and cartoonish cgi that this is. a super silly old school throwback that i found intensely pleasing. plus the heroes are a sweet father/smartass 10 year old daughter team that chase godzilla around in a van like he's a tornado, and even though the final battle is kinda anticlimactic, godzilla's opponent is too hilariously weird to be disappointed about it. beer+popcorn-tastic.

Kaijuman2.5

A Walk Amongst Monsters #82“Godzilla is in us and in everybody’s mind.”Godzilla is forced back into work thanks to an American wannabe trashing his reputation.So this might be one of my more controversial Godzilla opinions? I know this film has its fans but man, I did not have a good time rewatching this. I was this close to dropping it down a half star. Sheesh.One of my biggest issues is also one I did not expect to have. All the action is so quiet! Scenes with Godzilla rampaging wouldn’t have an intense soundtrack accompanying him and Godzilla himself would make very little noise. He’s so silent in this when he’s usually incredibly talkative. Not only that but scenes of missiles hitting him or him smashing buildings didn’t carry any weight to them. I don’t know why the film is like this, it should be loud and boisterous but it’s not.Then Godzilla is largely shafted in his own comeback film so we can follow humans as they look at a space rock. This isn’t awful, the family aspect is cute and the villain is downright cartoonish, but it’s also not that interesting. These characters and their stories are only ok at best. That said, I do love Shiro Sano’s character. I don’t know if it’s because he’s actually fun to follow or if I just love anything Shiro Sano does.Then there’s the big problem this film has. CGI circa 1999. To say it’s aged horribly would be an understatement. It looked like ass when it premiered! Now I don’t have an issue with CGI in my Kaiju films. I’d prefer them without it but there’s plenty of examples showcasing its strengths. But they overuse it so much here. Some things I get. CGI missiles? Ok, sure. But did you really need to CGI waves into the ocean in the background? Gamera 3 came out the same year and that CGI still holds up in my opinion. What happened?Multiple scenes composite Godzilla into actual locations. At first it looks fine, but the second the camera moves Godzilla’s frame jitters around and it’s just atrocious.Let’s not forget that the big bad in this is just a giant, nondescript CGI oval. It’s boring to look at and it’s lazy. At the very end it becomes Orga and we actually get some decently fun Kaiju action. We as a collective tend to forget Orga. Probably because it shows up at the tail end of the film and then quickly loses to Godzilla. The most memorable thing about it is it’s absolutely massive hands. Those babies are bigger than it’s head!Godzilla gets a new design for the new millennia. As a kid I thought it was the coolest but as an adult I can honestly say it doesn’t stack up to the Showa and Heisei designs. He’s much more reptilian with a longer snout and bigger teeth. His arms are actually long enough to do things which is nice. His dorsal spines are now purple and are extra jagged and bigger too. All in all, his new look is much more “sharp”. It’s not bad but it’s not my favorite.What saves this film is the climax with Godzilla obliterating Orga. It’s nice and destructive with Godzilla taking on someone much taller than him. There’s a dope moment where Orga’s jaw unhinges and he tries to swallow Godzilla whole. It was the only scene I remembered as a kid for good reason. It’s weird and kinda creepy. Plus Godzilla goes out of his way to kill a singular human. I love petty Godzilla.The final shot of Godzilla igniting a city was also cool as hell.I wish the rest of the film was as nice as the last twenty minutes.Well, this wasn’t the happy return to Godzilla I wanted, but I’m still glad to be back after all this time. Can’t wait to see where the Millennium era stacks up against the others.

CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️3.0

Winner of the biggest conflict between Japan and USA since Pearl Harbor: Who’s got the coolest Godzilla by the end of the century. Not the hardest feat when you’re going against a whitewashed prehistoric iguana.