Too much of everything

Fantastic!

Awesome Movie

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film opens with a bit of revisionist history and selective kaiju amnesia. Following the destruction of Tokyo during the first of three attacks by Godzilla on Japan (in 1954), the capitol was moved to Osaka. Japan no longer uses nuclear energy, as that was what attracted the monster, but remains concerned that he may return, so the 'G-Graspers', an elite anti-Godzilla combat team was formed. In attempt to construct a space-based black hole gun (odd: there seems to be no word for 'black hole' in Japanese), a wormhole is opened through which a giant primordial dragonfly emerges. The creature lays an egg which hatches in the Tokyo sewers: Megaguirus has arrived. There is much more GGI in this film than in previous Godzilla films, which combined with an excellently detailed adult model, makes the megaguirus in its various morphs one of the best realised monsters in the series to date (although at times the supporting wires are visible). The Godzilla suit is the same one used in Godzilla 2000 and still looks great and most of the special effects are very good, especially the scenes of a swimming Godzilla seen from above or when he wades through the Tokyo harbour. The scenes featuring the swarm of moulting meganulon in the flooded city and their subsequent attack on Godzilla are also very well done. The human characters are pretty typical of the genre: heroic G-graspers, a young rogue scientist with all the answers, the little kid who is instrumental to the plot (in this film, the kid is OK and doesn't overstay his welcome) etc. - they are all fine but secondary to the action. The latest anti-Godzilla flying machine is the 'Griffin', which is mostly visualised through CGI and looks a lot more airworthy than the various flying tanks in the Heisei era. I watched an English-subtitled version, which was generally well done although I was surprised to see "G-graspers" in English on the side of the team's vehicles as it is an odd name and I initially assumed that it was simply is an awkward translation of Japanese term. The film (25th in the franchise, 2nd in the 'Millennium series), differs in tone from the Heisei-era films. In the latter, characters felt empathy for Godzilla and objected to attempts to destroy him, while in this film, the characters have lost friends to the rampaging kaiju, hate him, and are motivated to some extent by revenge. As usual, the plot is based on pseudoscientific nonsense (e.g. creating a 2 meter black hole in orbit around earth would obliterate planet; the professor seems to know a lot about the life cycle and behaviour of a creature that has been extinct for 350 million years and is only known from a single fossil, etc). Minor flaws notwithstanding, the imaginative story and excellent special effects make this a standout film in the series.

I was pleased that Toho was continuing to explorer new monsters with this film. In fact, I really liked Megaguirus' origins. I also like that they tried for a slightly scarier experience, particularly the alley scene.And yet, I rate the film only 6/10. Outside of the monster action, much of the rest of the movie is fairly dull, as is the female lead. I also find the Dimension Tide piece of the plot almost too silly. A man-made mini black hole fired at Godzilla from a satellite in space? Oh come on! That's gotta be more outlandish than aliens. The special effects were only okay, but with three notable bad points. The SGS looks like a small toy, the Meganula on Godzilla's hide looked iffy, and when Megaguirus first appears, the wires are visible. But on the whole the effects were otherwise pretty good.This was the second installment of Godzilla's Millennium series, and after watching these two you might not be inspired to watch the next four movies unless you're a major Japanese monster movie or Godzilla fan, which I am. But rest assured, the rest of the series picks up (even Final Wars). As a final word, if you don't really care how loony some of the plot is, then you'll probably enjoy this movie more than a 6/10, no problem. If you want to give the Godzilla franchise a try though, I'd check out GMK or Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo SOS before this one.

Not a bad movie, but kind of soul-less. I didn't find myself caring whether the main (human) character lived or died. Plot development was better than usual, but this made my eight year old, the movie's target audience, kind of fidgety.The monster was pretty cool looking and Godzilla, with the new Cobra neck, was out of sight; but, I would recommend Tokyo SOS or vs Space Godzilla over this one. The telepath with the large ears is conspicuously absent from this movie. I think that she added an element of pathos to the nineties Godzilla flix in that she communicated with the giant lizard through her thoughts.

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.