Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

GMK is a film that is called by many one of the best in the series, some even say THE BEST. I personally don't think anything can be classified as the best of anything, i feel there's no definite truth to criticism. we all find our own ways and no one person can be right, except to themselves.Generalities aside, i consider GMK to be the most overrated film in the series. I will first start off by saying that in favor of this movie, it contains good human characters, something that the Millennium series in general had throughout in my opinion. Yuri, her father, and the rest of them are good characters with good stories. The effects are good as well.Now onto why I find this film overrated. First point is Godzilla himself. This part i feel is purely subjective to opinion, but i hated the way Godzilla is portrayed in this movie. He has no character to him or any reason to like him, he's just a blunt instrument of destruction, unlovable in any way. Now you might be wondering "well of course hes not supposed to be lovable, hes a malicious bastard in this who kills people for spite", well therein lies the problem. The Godzillas of before and after this had a sense of tragedy to them, being horrifically changed by humanity is what made you feel for him, even in the 1954 film where he's doing bad, you knew that he didn't hate humanity, he hated what they created and targeted that. In this movie, hes just a tool, for lack of better terms.Next criticism comes from the monster King ghidorah. I wont go with the casual point of "oh, he's never supposed to be good" because i really don't care about that. As far as I'm concerned, he's fighting Godzilla, they're enemies, and he isn't even technically a hero. That aside, i felt KG embodies a point that i feel is missing from these battles in this movie: suspense, a sense of struggle. The baragon battle is imo the only good fight because there is uncertainty and horror at seeing a guardian getting horrifically beaten, that being said, that tone doesn't carry over to KGs battle. His battle is more like an adult beating up a middle schooler: its just sad and pathetic. I get they're trying to show how powerful Godzilla is, but thats no excuse to sacrifice suspense. Take for example in Godzilla vs KG, KG was as strong as ever, and that fight was back and forth. And in the end, didn't Godzilla look so damn powerful when he absolutely brutalized KG? THAT is the way to have a battle. This was just sad, and anticlimactic when Ghidroah finally looks like he might have an interesting battle, only to be quickly and pathetically beaten. Wouldn't if the battle were structured in a way that had more back and forth, only to have Godzilla brutally decapitate a head or two, it would've had a horrifying and darker spin on it?You may also be wondering "why not complain about baragon and mothra?" Well baragon isn't weakened by that much, just no fire, yeah hes smaller than G, but technically he was close to this size in Frankenstein. It was just great to see him. Mothras role in this movie is to have a brief fight with G before getting her ass handed to her, thats pretty much every mothra role since 1964 (love you mothra, but thats the sad truth).People often say this film is too dark, I argue it wasn't dark enough. It has dark subject matter, and even good points like the counter age culture conflicts and the ineffectiveness of the military by government intervention, but never do we have a sense of dread or despair we felt in 1954 or 1984 and to a lesser extent Terror. I used to think Kaneko was limited by toho, but i know see that unlike his gamera trilogy, Writer Kazunori Ito doesn't accompany him. Maybe being director, writer, and special effects story boarder was too much for him. As for the whole Anguirus and Varan intervention, that doesn't relate to the film in my view as it is preproduction stuff, not having to do with what we see on screen (though if i were to chose, I'd honestly rather see ghidorah get pummeled than Anguirus, as hes better than that, ghidorah, idk if hes better than this, mothra 3 really makes me wonder about him...). In conclusion, while a decent film, GMK is vastly overrated in MY view. And believe me, I tried so damn hard to love this film, i want to join other g fans in gushing about it, but i cant find myself to. Should i just go with the crowd, or am i gonna say what I think? Its okay as a standalone piece, but overall, i rank this at the bottom of the millennium series, and my third least favorite overall, only above revenge and KKvsG. I don't hate it, i like all Godzilla films. This one just doesn't do it for me like the others. One last thing i want to address is directed at certain forums and their users, i feel really ashamed to see people on these sites be berated for even hinting at that they don't think this film isn't some great movie. Not everyone does this, but the ones i see often rudely and childishly say things like "you're not a true G fan, you're stupid for thinking otherwise." I never use forums, and this is why, this aggression really irks me. Well thats my thoughts, again its my view, so you can either take it or leave it, i feel while i cant change the world with a Review, I can at least try to articulate my reasons in an intelligent and adult like manor.

Godzilla movies are a lot of things. As someone that grew up on the franchise, I can admit that character development, special effects, and cohesive plots aren't naturally among the list. But this Godzilla movie is very watchable, even if you're with a pal that isn't much into giant monster movies (and certainly isn't into something like the Showa series of Godzilla flicks). Toho didn't get the Millennium series of G films off to a good start. Godzilla 2000 had some annoying pacing issues and a dry basic plot. The second movie, Godzilla vs Megaguirus, was again a bit slowly paced. But they really must've gone to work with GMK, because this one came out much better.First, the standard movie business. We see some great special effects work here, with few flaws. The characters still don't connect that much to the audience, but they are more than tolerable; I found myself more into the military characters' scenes rather than the main character and her BS Digital colleagues interestingly enough. But again, you won't leave the movie thinking the characters were bad. The music is awesome and sounds both menacing and mythical, which is important for the film's premise. The film is overall devoid of pacing issues.So what about the monsters? Godzilla looks fantastic, especially with those dead white eyes. His atomic heat ray also looks appropriately special. Some viewers have commented that it looks like he has a bit of a pot belly, but I don't think it detracts from any of his scenes. Baragon looks good, and he is only presented to be a tooth-and-claw kaiju (a monster without any special powers like Godzilla's atomic ray); back in the Showa this was not the case. Mothra looks better here than any other appearance I've seen her in. Even the following appearances in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS and Godzilla: Final Wars don't have a Mothra that looks this good and moves around this well. Her character as a guardian monster hero also is very fitting. King Ghidorah, though, is probably the weak point among the monsters. In terms of quality and detail, make no mistake, KG looks great. But to someone who's seen King Ghidorah (or other Ghidorahs) before, this one seems a little small and weak. He constantly needed this boosts, first to fly and then to fire his electric bolts. The biggest problem I have is the fact that he's portrayed as a hero monster here. King Ghidorah? Hero? What? That was a mistake in my opinion, but I've grown to care less as the years pile on.A great giant monster movie, I give this a very solid 8/10, beaten in raw numbers by only one other Godzilla movie (because nothing with be as iconic, serious, or game changing as the 1954 original).

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah (2001) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Fifty years after destroying Tokyo (their math is a bit off) Godzilla returns to kick everyone's ass but Mothra, Ghidorah and a big turtle show up to try and fight him. This is the first of the "newer" Godzilla films I've seen and it's nice to know the screenwriter and director have a brain by actually having the creatures on the screen for the most part of the film. All four monsters are constantly on screen while the humans are kept in the background, which is great because we want to see the monsters. I saw the English dubbed version so I'm not sure if more "human" stuff was cut out or not. If it was cut out then good. The special effects are questionable to say the least. The three heroes looked very good but Godzilla's look was a bit strange. The CGI effects really didn't work too well but they did earn a few laughs.

out of the many low budget Japanese monster movies, this one is excellent. Special effects are decently 90-ish and it got a credible plot to start with. One of the best in its genre. This time King Gidorah & Barugon are resurrected as "good monsters", tag teaming with Mothra against an insane, thick, fat Godzilla decided to level Japan. The plot thickens with a mysterious old man acting as prophet, leading a young girl reporter through an initiation path leading to the awakening of the sacred beasts, the good monsters. The good monsters arise & kill men who act out of ill will. Too bad they aren't exactly a match for Godzilla... A daring admiral who survived the first Godzilla rampage will blow it to pieces with some drill torpedo. The plot is dense enough, yet not idiotic. The score alas reminds of other more famous movies but it's good. I liked it.