Wonderful character development!

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Better Late Then Never

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I've been hard on these films. Godzilla has become sort of boring over the years and a lack of imagination by the producers hasn't helped. This one, where scientists have found a way to create a black hole and send out favorite reptile into oblivion is suspenseful and very entertaining. Of course, when you mess with nature, you have to be careful not to screw up. In testing the device, some dragonfly eggs get out and this leads to a mass invasion of the winged things. Not only that, but a really big one, Megaguiris is everything Godzilla can handle. Apparently, this variety of dragonfly is fearless and has some big biting and stinging capabilities. What makes this fun is that the human characters are quite good and we begin to care about them. Of course, I still don't know why Godzilla needs to continually stomp all over years of urban development. What does he hope to accomplish? What are his motivations. The weird thing is that he seems to be a sentient creature. He just likes to walk in places where building crowd around him. Why not be happy with a stroll on the beach. Maybe the fact that he will never get married is the problem. He could be loaded with testosterone and have no future. Of course, since he appeared in the early fifties, he seems to have weathered a great deal of grief.

This is one of the best Godzilla movies ever!!! The first Millennium G-film I ever saw ( on Sci-Fi). It is a huge improvement over "Godzilla 2000" and in my opinion should've been released in American theaters instead. This movie gives the feeling of the classic Godzilla films, but at the same time still has that modern awe that is much better than in disappointing "Godzilla 2000".The characters are fantastic and deliver great performances. It was good to see Yuriko Hoshi return to the G-franchise, and Kirko and Kudo both kept the emotional side going with some actually funny humor. I LOVE the whole conspiracy idea with Sigiura, all thanks to the marvelous screenplay. We can understand the characters and why they do what they do, even Godzilla. Mazaaki Tezuka directs the film amazingly, and I love the opening scene with the original "Gojira" footage, but with the new Godzilla added to it. The plot was an excellent piece of writing by Wataru Mimura and Hiroshi Kashiwabara. Dimension Tide was a very cool new weapon that was nicely done. Kenji Suzuki's work is great and the flooded Tokyo is totally convincing. This leads to our spectacular monsters.Godzilla looks mostly the same but is much better characterized as the symbolic anti-hero. The nuclear message is a nice part of the story. Both the Meganulon and Meganula look incredible, and the metamorphism scenes look just as good. One of the film's best shots is when the whole side of a building is covered in Meganula, who metamorphize and begin to wreak havoc on Tokyo. Megaguirus is an excellent villain, much better than Orga. We finally see a true battle of speed and the battle between Godzilla and Megaguirus is one of the best ever!! Megaguirus' energy vacuum needle was a clever attack and the fight is interesting because the Monster King is forced to fight without his heat ray. Another nice touch is the 'camp' that fits in great during the final battle. The island battle with the swarm of Meganula was an excellent display of modern Toho effects at work and the action is superb in this film. The dramatic final climatic showdown between Godzilla and G-Graspers is a nice ending that ( stay tuned after the credits) gets even better! The film would be truly incomplete without Michuru Oshima's excellent score.All together this is one incredible G-film that I'm glad to have seen. If you haven't seen it, you definitely need to buy yourself a copy. Now!!

The Godzilla "Millennium" series is infamous for its lack of continuity. A majority of the six films in this series were each made as a direct sequel to the original "Godzilla" film, like this one, and almost none of the films connect, except for Godzilla X Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo SOS. This film is about a female Japanese soldier who is out to avenge the death of her colleague, who was killed by Godzilla. She is part of the project team that created the Gryphon, a high-tech ship, and the Dimension Tide, a device that creates artificial black holes. Once activated, this "black hole" will suck in everything in its path, and they hope they can vanquish Godzilla in this way. Unfortunately, their testing mutates insect eggs that hatch into dragonfly-like bugs called Meganurons. These creatures need water to grow and they feed on the energy of humans. After gathering enough energy, they transform in to giant dragonfly monsters called Meganuras, and eventually, they bring enough energy to awaken their queen, Megaguirus. When Megaguirus and Godzilla meet, it is the usual monster battle in the heart of the city.The special effects were quite good. But, the storyline is serviceable at best because this movie mainly focuses on the female lead and her quest for revenge, rather than the monsters. Being a film that is supposed to be made as a direct sequel to the original 1954 Godzilla film, more emphasis should have been placed on Godzilla, his origins and his reason for returning to Japan after being killed off in the original Godzilla movie. Godzilla basically appears on cue in this film, with only slight references of his passed attacks on Tokyo in 1954 and in the 1960s and 1990s. As a direct sequel to the original Godzilla, the monster should have been given a more intriguing entrance, which would generate more suspense, like his entrance in the 1984 film "The Return of Godzilla" (Godzilla 1985). With this and other films in the Millennium series, too much attention was focused on the military and a character's personal vendetta against Godzilla. One notable mention for this film is the return of actress Yuriko Hoshi, who played the photographer in "Mothra vs. Godzilla" (1964) and the reporter in "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster" (1964).One of the things I like about this film is that, unlike most of the other movies in the Millennium series, this one introduced a new monster. Megaguirus is one of the few monsters that were originally created for the Millennium series and I thought it was well-executed. The Meganurons attacking citizens, with Michiru Ohshima's moving and catchy music score in the background, is pretty intriguing. Overall, there are plenty of monster and human action, but overshadowed by a pretty dull plot and climax, capping off what is a lackluster Godzilla film. Grade D+

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus: 4/10: I know it is a popular pastime to bash "the American Godzilla" but in it's defense I would like to give you exhibit A: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (easier to type than pronounce needless to say.) Where do I begin?Well let's start with the latest scheme by the Japanese to rid them of Godzilla once and for all. Shoot him with a black hole from outer space. Yup that is practically mishap proof. Now I know that dumping Oxy- Clean into Tokyo harbor killed the first Godzilla, and since then some fairly dubious scientific methods have been used to battle our green friend but a satellite that shoots black holes has to win some sort of award. I love the scene when the scientist asks the military man "after we destroy Godzilla we destroy the satellite right?" (You can practically see visions of Pearl Harbor 2 in the general's head).To make matters even worse they already have a team battling Godzilla embarrassingly called G-Grasper (not to be confused with our satellite scheme "Project Dimension Tide" that sounds like a really bad futuristic laundry detergent.) The G-Graspers are lead by the all too cute Misato Tanaka who looks like Amelie joined the French Foreign Legion. G-Graspers fight Godzilla by shooting RPGs at his ankles while dressed as Fed-Ex deliverymen. Surprisingly this isn't effective. Now I can take miscast actors and silly story lines in a Godzilla film, but at least the special effects are good right? Nope. Megaguirus is clearly on strings in one scene. The fights have groan inducing wrestling moves. Building destruction is surprisingly light. There is way too much bad CGI. In addition there a lot of underwater scenes, which lets face it has never been a Godzilla strong suit.This is not excusable for new millennium Godzilla. On the plus side nice there is some nice Mimic action with bugs killing young lovers. But when you start feeling like apologizing to Matthew Broderick it's a sign of a bad Godzilla movie.