We’re pretty sure it wasn’t Kubrick
Erich Sez…
Godzilla’s back and he’s on a mission to do some squishin.
A father daughter team who are members of the Godzilla Prediction Network (the
Shinodas), along with a journalist (Yuki), try to prevent the government in its
attempts to kill Godzilla, who ultimately must defend humanity against an alien
invader.
What do you want from a movie called Godzilla 2000?
Godzilla smashing stuff and fucking up other monsters? Funny dubbing and
dialogue? You got it. Nonetheless, this film is not as good as it could have
been. Godzilla’s romps through Tokyo are a bit boring, maybe because there is no
indication that anybody is in real danger. It’s sort of like the GI Joe
cartoon or the A-team; there’s lots of explosions and destruction, but nobody
ever gets hurt. I suppose this is so we can think of Godzilla as a good guy, but
its 2000–these days nobody’s going to hold stomping on a few hundred people
against you.
The Godzilla Prediction Network is a nice wrinkle. The
father daughter team are likable and the whole idea is just plain cool. It’s
like those people who follow tornadoes, but much more exciting.
It occurred to me while watching the film that the much
derided “guy in a suit” approach to special effects actually works pretty well
most of the time. It works better than much of the CGI in this film, as well as
most of the CGI in big budget Hollywood films. But we’ve been told so often that
CGI effects look real and the “guy in a suit” effects look fake that most people
seem to believe it in spite of what is before their very eyes.
The highlight of the film is, as it should be, the final battle
between Godzilla and the alien, Orga. Many buildings are destroyed, much ass is
kicked and Godzilla uses his radioactive breath (which is my favorite) to great
effect. It makes you wish there were more monster battles in this film and glad
that there will be 3 in the next one.
DVD
The commentary is by the team who Americanized the film by
cleaning up the dialog, finding voice actors and so forth. The whole process is
fairly interesting and they have enough to talk about to fill the commentary
without getting too boring or repetitive.
Ruthless Ratings:
- Overall: 6
- Direction: 5
- Acting: 5
- Story: 5
- DVD Extras: 6
- Re-watchability: 6