Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

When Toho studios decided to bring an end to the Godzilla series with 1995's Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah, it was in preparation for Tristar's American Godzilla, because the company did not want to have 2 Godzilla franchises on the go at once. Originally, Tristar had planned a trilogy of American made Godzilla movies, and Toho had actually planned to bring back the Japanese Godzilla in 2005, possibly to ride on the coat-tails of the expected success the American franchise would garner. Only, life isn't that predictable, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's take on the King of the Monsters was met with absolutely vicious condemnation from noth critics and Godzilla fans alike, and the 2 sequels were put on indefinite hiatus.

Sometime after the American debacle, someone at Toho realised that with all of these 'Godzilla fans' suddenly coming out of the woodwork to champion the original Japanese incarnation of the character, the time was perfect to unleash a new Japanese movie. Released in late 1999, Gojira ni-sen Mireniamu pulled in a decent run in Japanese cinemas, and in summer 2000, it became the first Godzilla movie to see Western cinemas since Godzilla 1985 with a limited North American run, and subsequent DVD/VHS release.

For once in their history, Toho was onto a no-lose situation. There movies had always carried a strong fan following, but had also saw their fare share of whippings. As long as they even captured half of the essence of Godzilla with the film, fans would love it, quite simply due to the fact it could be used to wash the bitter taste of Godzilla out of their mouths, and those who hated it, well, every Godzilla film has had it's haters.

Instead of opting to carry on the plot left-hanging at the end of the Heisei era's Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah, Toho opted to start a new era of Godzilla movies. This would be the first film not to feature Tomoyuki Tanaka's involvement in a production role, due to the man who worked on every prior Godzilla picture's demise in 1997, and Toho clearly decided to start things anew. The film would bring in some people with series experience, director Takao Okawara had directed 3 of the Heisei era movies, writer Hiroshi Kashiwabara had penned Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla and his co-writer Wataru Mimura had written that movie's immediate predecessor, Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II, producer Shogo Tomiyama had partnered Tanaka in the role for most of the Heisei movies and lead actor Takehiro Murata had previously played minor roles in both Godzilla Vs. Mothra and Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah

The film opens as we are introduced to two members of the 'Godzilla Prediction Network', which is basically like those people who chase hurricanes, only this lot try and predict Godzilla's appearances to study his actions. Our particular protagonists are Shinoda(Murata) and his young daughter Io(Mayu Suzuki), and on their latest mission they are joined by an aspiring photographer named Yuki(Naomi Nishida - Swing Girls), who is trying to impress her boss into promoting her by getting some good shots of Godzilla. He does indeed, as Shinoda and Io predict, come ashore on Japan and attack a power-station, but she fails to get any good photos as their run-in with Godzilla is a bit too close for comfort.

After her initial mission with the team fails, she is forced to become a member of the GPN to try and get the necessary pictures, much to her disdain due to her less-than-stellar relationship with the arrogant young Io.

Meanwhile, members of the Japanese Government's Crisis Control Institute, headed by Katagiri(Hiroshi Abe - Orochi The 8 Headed Dragon) with help from Shinoda's ex-partner scientist are investigating an ancient rock found at the bottom of the pacific Ocean. This turns out to be a UFO that landed on Earth centuries ago, and the CCI search-sub awakens it, and it flies out of the ocean. It isn't long before Godzilla has surfaced again, and it isn't long before he comes face to face with the UFO, engaging it in a shoot-out with his breath-beam and it's laser cannon, a shoot-out which Godzilla loses, and is sent careering back into the ocean.

The UFO flies to Tokyo, where it lands itself on top of the News building, and hooks itself up to all of the computers within the building, downloading all the data on them, especially that on the subject of Godzilla.

You see, the alien is interested in Godzilla because of something that Shinoda has also just discovered about him. After studying a sample of one of Godzilla's cells found at the scene of one of his attacks, Shinoda discovers the secret of Godzilla's immortality, his cells instantly regenerate any damage he suffers. Shinoda names the cell 'Regenerator G', and all of his data on the subject is absorbed by the alien ship before it destroys the news building.

After recovering from his last battle, Godzilla once again surfaces, and heads straight for the UFO. The spacecraft initially bests him, using some alien means to take control of power cables to tie-up and throw Godzilla around, however the monster's beam proves too strong for the UFO, which crashes.

It has, however, absorbed sufficient data on Godzilla to allow it's alien pilot to transform into a similarly sized creature, which now engages Godzilla in a fight to the finish, where it aims to become him after he is defeated.

If that is one of the most brief and shallow reviews of a Godzilla movie's plot I've ever done, that's simply because Godzilla 2000 is quite easily on the most forgettable, cliched and generally unimaginitive Godzilla movies ever made.

Now, in defence of the film-makers, the American version, which I'm reviewing via Columbia Tristar's Godzilla 2000 release of the film, is pretty grim. The dubbed voices sound ridiculously disinterested, and as a 'joke' the dubbers have thrown in all sorts of lame quotes and references to other movies. "it'll go through Godzilla like crap through a goose" is not witty, or funny. I also find it utterly hilarious that the little leaflet you get with the DVD, which tells a little of the story behind the movie, actually references the fact 9 minutes have been cut from the film, and tries to word it in a way where it sounds like this is a good thing!

I don't know what is in those 9 minutes, or if the actual story differs to the dubbed one in some ways, but I really do fail to see how even the circumstances of a bad Westernisation is the total problem with the movie. You see, while various members of the crew have participated in Godzilla movies over the years, this film feels more like feels more like a bland template of a Godzilla movie, with none of the interesting parts written in. Aliens arrive, they have/are/control a big monster, Godzilla fights it while human characters watch on. That is basically your plot right there. I suppose the gimmick is that the enemy monster, which is officially called Orga, despite the fact it's never referenced as such, tries to become Godzilla using his cells, but isn't that kind of like a half-made Spacegodzilla?

To make matters worse, the human characters really have no purpose in the film whatsoever. The human element is basically there for the purpose of requiring one, and even then it's also hilariously cliched, as the scientist Shinoda wants to study Godzilla, while Katagiri wants him killed at any cost.

To be honest, it's hard to tell how good the actors are in the movie. This is due to both the dubbing job and the fact they actually have nothing to do. I suppose the fact that nobody annoyed me could count as a semi-positive.

What makes the film even worse is that the monster action isn't even very good. Godzilla has a beam-fight with a UFO, the army shoots him, has the cable-tentacle battle and the fight with Orga. That's your lot, and only the tentacle one is really imaginitive or exciting, even if it would have fit in better in Godzilla Vs. Biollante. Speaking of Biollante, that isn't the only scene which this movie wholesale borrows. Witness the ridiculous climax of the movie, Godzilla's means of disposing of Orga is basically a more lethal version of something he does to Biollante, only in that film he actually had a reason for being in that position.

However, easily the most insulting aspect about the movie is it's special effects. Koichi Kawakita, who provided some excellent effects throughout the Heisei era didn't participate, and the effects are absolutely woeful, almost universally. Seriously, this film actually looks worse than the movies made from 1985-1995.

The new Godzilla is appalling, both in terms of design and realisation. His mouth is too wide, his skin too rubbery and his face too cartoony. The less said about his almost crystaline back-spikes, which are purple-tipped(?) the better. The suit just looks like an action figure, and not a very good one at that.

The one positive I have about the movie's effects is his breath weapon. It's now accomplished via CGI, and the way it builds up and launches out looks more realistic and cool. Shockingly though, it's still just catching up with the effects of 1995's Gamera: Guardian of the Universe in this respect. And that movie had decent monster suits.

Arguably the worst effect in the film, and possibly the series history, is a scene of Godzilla, renderred in full CGI, swimming underwater. I genuinely kid you not when I say that a similar effect was accomplished ten times better in the Dreamcast videogame Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact.

The UFO isn't much better, a blatantly cheap CGI creation, and it's alien offspring looks marginally better than the 2D sprites used for aliens in SNK's Metal Slug videogames, which is also what the alien design looks like. Orga is also dreadful, a hunchbacked, cheaply made and poorly designed mess.

The original score is passable at best, and it tries it's best to sound like Akira Ifukube, but never quite manages it, and just sounds silly for trying. Apparently the American production team noticed this, and in many scenes Ifukube's music is inserted. While this is of unfaultable quality, in many cases it's used in glaringly wrong circumstances, and it isn't easy to tell it wasn't intended for use in this picture.

At the end of the day, Godzilla 2000 is a pretty bad movie. While I'm tempted to give it an extra star, on the grounds it isn't Godzilla, that would be inconsistant, because there really isn't anything really nice I can say about the movie. It features a diabolical Godzilla design, a boring enemy, and pointless plot and dreadful effects, none of which are complicated by a poor Americanisation job. While it is better than Emmerich's bomb, not by much, and it was quite easily the worst Godzilla movie this side of the 1970s. It was a dreadful film to mark the character's return to the big screen with, and I would recommend any of the movies made from 1985-1995 before this. They all feature better effects, and even in the case of the worst plots, they were at least somewhat interesting, and featured exciting monster battles. While I know that all Godzilla fans will see the movie, that still doesn't mean I should recommend they do so.

Year: 1999
Titles Gojira ni-sen mireniamu
Godzilla 2000
G2K: Millenium

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Godzilla Vs. Mothra(1964)
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Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla
Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah
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Recommended: No

Viewing Format: DVD