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A
dense and gloomy fog surrounds the
Japanese
countryside adjacent to the
ocean
as a scientist and his young
daughter
set up sensors to detect the
monster
Godzilla. In a nearby lighthouse,
a
bored watchman is looking out the
window
when he sees a fishing boat
mysteriously
floating past.... crunched
in
the huge jaws of the terrifying beast.
Scientist
Shinoda, his young daughter Io,
and
this annoying lady journalist drive down
the
overpass tunnel... and almost drive
right
off the cliff. Not only was the ocean
smashing
furiously against the rocks below....
...but
the radioactive beast was towering above!
With
Shinoda driving in reverse like a bat out
of
hell and the annoying journalist screaming,
they
narrowly escape certain death. Godzilla
destroys
an electrical power plant as Shinoda
hypothesizes
that Godzilla is showing its hatred
of
manmade energy.
Meantime,
an amazing discovery is made at the
bottom
of the ocean... a huge meteorite that
commences
to float to the surface of the ocean
of
its own accord. Godzilla wades ashore to face
off
against the Japanese Defense Forces. A newly
developed
missile is deployed against Godzilla,
blowing
huge gaping holes in its hide and causing
the
monster considerable discomfort. However, as
usual,
it proves utterly useless as far as destroying
Godzilla
goes.
Inexplicably,
the meteorite takes off and
hurtles
at breakneck speed toward Godzilla.
Slowing
down, the UFO faces off against
Godzilla.
Delving deep, deep, deep into
Godzilla's
chromosomal structure, the aliens
locate
a strange component of Godzilla's
genetic
makeup. Firing a powerful bolt of
energy,
the ship manages to knock the Lizard
King
on its duff.
Angrily,
Godzilla rises to its feet. Its spines begin
to
crackle and glow orange with radioactivity.
The
UFO fires another cannon blast. Godzilla
hits
the UFO with its (newly redesigned and VERY
well
done) nuclear atomic plasma (colored orange!)
The
fight is temporarily ended when the monster
is
knocked back into the water, with its atomic
weapon
still exploding from its open jaws, and
the
UFO heads away from the battle to plunk itself
into
the ocean, apparently dead.
Scientist
Shinoda makes the awesome discovery
of
what he terms Organizer G-1... a feature of
Godzilla's
cellular structure that enables any
bodily
injury inflicted on the monster to be
instantaneously
healed. His former colleague
Katagiri
(effectively portrayed by Hiroshi Abe)
does
not share his interest in Godzilla's cellular
and
biological secrets. All he wants to do is to
destroy
Godzilla.
The
UFO re-activates and flies off toward downtown
Tokyo
where it settles on top of the Civilians' Center,
there
to take control over the entire worldwide network
of
computers. It searches for all manner of information
on
Earth life forms in general... Godzilla in particular.
Shinoda
hurries to rescue the annoying journalist,
who
seems destined to fall victim to her own
stubbornness
by staying in a building which is
about
to be bombed to hell by the military. (Yes,
everyone
eventually gets out ok!) Then Godzilla
arrives
on the scene. First engaging in battle with
the
UFO, it tries in vain to destroy the Mother Ship.
The
ship tries to subdue the beast by lassoing it in
miles
and miles of ISDN cable. Godzilla uses its
nuclear
pulse to free itself.
The
Ship tries all manner of onslaught to destroy
Godzilla,
from its cannon to showering Godzilla
with
massive shock waves, to burying it with rubble.
At
this point, the mother ship collects data on the
part
of Godzilla's biology that renders it invincible.
The
alien craft attempts to assume Godzilla's form.
It
begins to form first a small genetic ball, then a
tentacular
squid like shape, and finally a horrible monster.
Godzilla
is faced with a monster that has absolutely
zero
chance of being defeated by external use of its
atomic
ray. No matter how many times Godzilla zaps
it,
Orga keeps regenerating. Then Orga latches onto
Godzilla's
arm and sinks its teeth deep into its foes'
flesh,
vampirically draining Godzilla of its life force.
Godzilla
manages to repel its foe's assault. Then,
to
the horror of the human onlookers, Orga opens its
mouth.
The monster's maw opened invitingly, like an
unearthly
waterflower; the graceful, celestial beauty
unnervingly
belied the terrible and deadly invitation
to
Godzilla.
***MAJOR
SPOILER***MAJOR SPOILER***
MAJOR
SPOILER***MAJOR SPOILER***
Godzilla
bends over to investigate and Orga clamps
down
on Godzilla like a dread mutant boa constrictor,
attempting
to swallow the beast whole. To the onlookers'
astonishment,
Orga began to sprout the same daggerlike
fins!
Suddenly, Godzilla's entire body began to glow.
With
a loud thundering crack, Orga suddenly bursts asunder.
Godzilla
roared in triumph as the pitifully dismembered
stump
disintegrated into nothingness.
Godzilla
then lumbers over to where the humans are.
Facing
off against the man who had tried to kill him,
Godzilla
slams his claws into where Katagiri stands,
killing
him. Then, as if respecting the protective powers
of
the divine God, Godzilla wandered off and left the
innocent
ones untouched. Shinoda, his daughter, and
the
others watch in unequaled awe as a viciously enraged
Godzilla
strikes out at the city of Tokyo, dramatically
setting
it ablaze in one of the most capivating endings
of
any Godzilla film.
WAS
G2K TOHO'S ANSWER TO TRIZILLA?!?!
Godzilla
Millenium was the first G film to hit the big screen
since
Dean Devlin's flop of two years prior. While Tri-star's
special
effects were most superior to Toho's as far as
believability
goes (C'mon, water doesn't just evaporate
when
it splashes!) Toho simply does a better job when
it
comes to the creatures re-design. Unfortunately, Toho
seems
to have gone overboard when it comes to borrowing
concepts
from the Tri-Star flop. For example, the boat in
Godzilla's
jaws vs. the truck in Deanzilla's...the roiling
hump
of water pierced only by the fins scenes in both
films...the
let's-try-and-see-if-we-can-get-away-from-
the-monster-by-driving-through-an-
overpass-tunnel-like-an-idiot
scenes in both films...
the
attempts in both films to blow the monster to kingdom come using missiles
that lodge themselves in Godzilla's flesh... the scenes in both films where
the heroes get a
good
look at how Godzilla needs to brush and floss every day, and get a good
dose of being screamed at... you get the picture!
There
were a few good, original concepts such as the
planes
banking upward over Godzilla's head in a dramatic maneuver that only the
most experienced pilots would try, and the attempt by Orga to swallow Godzilla.
While the musical score is perfectly acceptable, I think whoever did it
tried to emulate the score of Tri-star's Fraudzilla a little too closely.
Sadly, there will never be a monster movie music composer quite as talented
as Akira Ifukube.
On
the whole, I gave Godzilla 2000 one and a half thumbs up and 3 1/2 stars.
I think it's a perfectly acceptable apology for what Tri-star did to poor
Godzilla and its nice to see the Big (GREEN!!!) Guy back where he belongs.
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