Gojira tai Megagirasu: Jî shômetsu sakusen

The Godzilla series came to a dramatic end with the death of Godzilla (after 22 films and 41 years) in GODZILLA VS. DESTROYER (spelled in the U.S. release as DESTOROYAH) in 1995. The survival of little Godzilla, grown up from Baby Godzilla in the two previous films, paved the way for a sequel. Instead, sequel plans were squelched by Sony's planned American version, which came out in 1998, and Toho Pictures instead produced a series of three new Mothra movies. After Godzilla fans expressed supreme disappointment with the Hollywood remake, Toho revived the franchise in Japan with GODZILLA 2000, which dispensed with all of the history and events of every Godzilla movie since the first one and was touted by Toho as a sequel to the very first Godzilla movie (1954). Some Godzilla fans bought this and some didn't, causing great debate over the film's merits or lack thereof. Leaving aside the issue of where the film fits in the Godzilla timeline, G2K still came up short in the areas of monster battles and urban destruction. MEGAGUIRUS is a half-hearted effort to keep the franchise alive until someone can come up with new ideas. It offers a bit more action and urban rampage than G2K and features a couple of no-nonsense women as the leading characters. It has no real relation to any other Godzilla movies and simply treats Godzilla as a monster menace who needs to be stopped at all costs.

The military and government agencies charged with the task of stopping the Big G come up with a device called Dimension Tide that's designed to create a black hole that will presumably suck in Godzilla. In the course of testing it, they somehow create giant dragonflies which morph into an awkward, clunky, flying insectoid monster dubbed Megaguirus by some handy old male scientist whose only role in the film is to tell us this. Before the morphing, the dragonflies invade Tokyo, causing a devastating flood which inundates the Shibuya district. What causes the dragonflies to transform into the monster is never explained. G and MegaG eventually battle it out in Tokyo to great destructive effect.

The human cast is, thankfully, rather small and they keep to their assigned roles efficiently, in contrast to the overbearing busybodies in G2K who kept getting into G's face (sometimes literally!). Interestingly, the two female lead characters, one an officer (Misato Tanaka) devoted to neutralizing Godzilla, and the other an older scientist (Yuriko Hoshi) overseeing the Dimension Tide project, dominate the action with their resolute behavior and forceful personalities. The actresses are quite good and one wishes they'd been given a little more to do with their characters (but not too much).

While this film decidedly breaks no new ground, it does offer enough action and destruction to please the less discriminating Godzilla fans. Although its effects are not sophisticated enough for the jaded palates of today's JURASSIC PARK-weaned monster fans, the film's bursts of imagination might well surprise them.

Masaaki Tezuka clearly understands the secret to making rubber monster movies - make 'em big, and make 'em fun! GXM returns the element of spectacle to the series that had been missing in the later 90s entries. The battles are epic, the monsters believably gigantic and menacing, and the destruction sweeping. When crowds of extras run away in GXM, they look genuinely terrified. The wonderful musical score and "old school" directorial style come as close to rivalling the best of Honda-Tsuburaya-Ifukube as anything Toho has done since their heyday. Perhaps most important, the monsters have personalities, without sacrificing menace. No more stiff, slow-moving suits lumbering in a straight line toward one another for a battle consisting primarily of optical effects. Both Godzilla and Megaguiras are intelligent, cunning combatants, and their climactic war is among the best of its kind ever filmed. On a whole, GXM is not as flashy or technically seamless as its followup, 2001's GMK(also an outstanding film), but I found it to be more fun. It reminded me of nothing so much as curling up on the floor on Saturday as a kid, watching an AIP rubber monster epic on Shock Theatre or Son of Svengoolie. GODZILLA VS MEGAGUIRUS is a genuine classic!

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.

I guess Tokyo is flooded. Meanwhile, G Force once again must deal with Godzilla by implementing a weapon that shoots a black hole that sends whatever organism it touches to another dimension but upon utilization instead unleashes a giant dragonfly that wants to do stuff. Oopsie doodles. The dragonfly is cool but I found its powers to be a bit weak. All it does is fly around fast and uses its tail to drain energy. Monster fights were a bit quirky and weird looking in terms of how it was shot but overall enjoyable and the acting and the story blows but of course that's predictable. And I hate that butch Japanese lesbian. I wish Godzilla fried her flat @$$ into oblivion. Not a bad entry but could've been better.

Version: Eastern Eye R4 DVD - Japanese, English subtitles

Godzilla is back to stomp all over Japan, but this time he has to fight a giant dragonfly... Sounds awesome, yes no?

In 1996, Japan has been running on clean, renewable energy for thirty years, and has not seen Godzilla since 1966. Clean energy can no longer provide enough power for Japan, the government begins research into neutron energy. Naturally, Godzilla takes the opportunity to announce his coming out of retirement and levels the neutron facility while decimating the anti-Godzilla force 'G-Grasper'. Obviously, military's plan was to confuse Godzilla with a funny name, and then fire a few missiles at him. Needless to say, it doesn't work.

Several years later, Kiriko Tsujimori (Misato Tanaka) - a survivor of G-Grasper's 1996 encounter with Godzilla - is now the G-Grasper commander and has a grudge against Godzilla. Obviously G-Grasper need a new weapon to take on Godzilla, and so they turn to Japan's crazy scientists. The result is a cannon called the 'Dimension Tide': a weapon designed to shoot black holes, which they intend to shoot at Godzilla, from space, to minimize the damage to Earth. Obviously no one thought of any possible negative consequences of shooting a black hole - from space, mind you - towards a moving target Earth. The mad scientists have really gone off the deep end here. Of course, they test it first, and open up a rift to another dimension, letting a swarm of Meganuron (over-sized dragonflies) through.

Essentially, 'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' is a lighter, happier version of both 'Godzilla vs Destroyer' and 'Gamera 2'. The Meganuron / Megaguirus greatly resembles the Legion from 'Gamera 2'. The shots of Godzilla being swarmed by the Meganuron, look much like the shots of Gamera being swarmed by the Legion. However, going one up on the other two movies, 'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' has better special effects. The 'Alien' style Meganuron look a lot better than the 'Alien' style Destroyer(s) from 'Godzilla vs Destroyer'. Also, it has mad scientists. A big bonus. They might not look like mad scientists, but they certainly think like them.

There is some nice monster action, even if it is heavily offset by the human characters running shooting black holes at things. The Tokyo showdown between Godzilla vs Megaguirus is fun. It may not come close to one of the best monster fight scenes, but its funny and entertaining. Smart use of CGI ensures the monsters and fights look good, but on the other hand, for a giant dragonfly, Megaguirus does not beat his wing that often.

'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' is a fun Godzilla movie, and should appeal to Godzilla fans. It does drag on a little though - 7/10