Above, the U.S. poster for "Godzilla 2000."This last week, my boss asked to borrow my DVD of Godzilla 2000. I handed it to him Friday.
Last night, I was in a mood to watch a Godzilla movie. I've purposely kept from watching them for a few months. I decided to watch the Japanese version of Godzilla 2000: Millennium. It's been the first time in years I've sat down to watch it through.
Although in many respects (editing, sound, etc.) the U.S. version is better (overseen by Mike Schlesinger), I found myself enjoying this revisit to the start of the third Godzilla series. It actually wears much better than the second (or Heisei) series of Godzilla movies from the 1990s (with the possible exception of Return of Godzilla or Godzilla 1985).
I feel the acting was much better than the 1990s films and Toho took some daring steps in special effects. Some worked great, others didn't. At least they tried to be a little bolder with the effects.
Having Godzilla bumped back down to about 50 meters in height made for more realistic and detailed miniatures. The big flaw of the 1990s movies was that Godzilla was beefed up to 100 meters, and the miniatures had to be scaled down accordingly. This didn't allow for much detailing in the miniatures and it made them look fake.
Although there was much criticism about Godzilla not being shown in the movie for about 30 minutes, the story was still compelling enough that I didn't miss him all that much during the duration. The characters were more interesting than the later films featuring military people (male and female) with personal issues.
I first saw Godzilla 2000 on opening day in 2000 at the Mann's Theater in Tarzana. (That theater is now gone. It was torn down a few years ago.) It was a packed house with lots of kids with their day camp groups. They relished the movie. So did I. After all, it was the first wide theatrical release of a Japanese Godzilla movie since Godzilla 1985, which I saw at a drive-in on a warm summer night. I went for other screenings of the movie in the weeks that followed. It was Godzilla as he was meant to be seen: on the big screen!
Maybe I'll re-watch the rest of the series in order over the next few weeks.
3 comments:
Yep, I actually like G2K a lot; both versions sit quite well with me. It wasn't successful in every respect, not by a long shot, but overall, I find it a highly satisfying Godzilla adventure.
I agree, Mark. G2K was a satisfying movie.
I enjoy the first series and the third series, but I really don't watch the second (Heisei) series all that much. They seem so lifeless and they seem to have come from the same cookie cutter.
I enjoyed them when the VHS and DVDs came out, but I just don't find them that watchable. Even the worst of the first series had more life and heart than the second series.
Good review Armand. G2K is personaly my favorite Goji film, with GMK being my critical favorite. G2K is just an awesome movie. Plus, I think that the duo of Shiro Sano and Takehiro Murata is just a crackfire team. Too bad I don't think we are going to see another film with them togeather again. If only Kenji Sahara did not suck at SFX. G2K does a good job with being the first to use the CGI it did instead of the traditional animation meathods which were used in the Heisei series, but c'mon.
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