Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)

The Age of Commercialism

Captivating movie !

Blistering performances.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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 judged this film in the past, but after just watching it again, I must say it is awesome. There are very little complaints to be had, in a matter of fact, there is nothing I find bad about it. Even with all the comedic effects in the final fight, it just adds to the enjoyment factor, because you can laugh at the goofy-ness.I really like the time line this film has, it's great to see recreated footage of the first film. I don't know why, but I really like how Godzilla was portrayed in this. He wasn't random, like he was every other film. He only came up to destroy stuff when he sensed radiation or plasma. If anything, the humans are more aggressive than Godzilla. He's just chilling out in the middle of the ocean, and uh-oh, there's the humans. Out of all the films, this one you could make a commentary out of what he was thinking. It's funny how humans release a meganula because of their dimension tide machine. I want to know what's on the other side of the black hole, there's a lot of possibilities. Anyway, some dumb ass kid picks up it's egg, and brings it with him to Tokyo. And he just ends up dumping it into the sewers, because he had super human strength to lift up the man hole. So it hatches, it eats some people, and now there is about a thousand of them. When they swarm Godzilla, it reminds me of mosquito's swarming me when ever I go out side. The final set looks great, the fight is pretty good, their was a lot of funny moments. So Godzilla saves humanity from being over run by a Mega-whatever you call it-guirus threat. And how do they repay him, well trying to suck him up into a black hole. And there's also the plot about stupid humans being the only reason Godzilla keeps entering Japanese soil, instead of just chilling out in the ocean. But luckily for Godzilla, the dimension tide failed, and he still walks free. The ending was very well done, it puts a big smile on your face that Godzilla is truly unstoppable. And I should mention that the music is very good.So looking back, this film was one the most well done in the series, it just feels great to watch and it's a lot of fun.

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.

Version: Eastern Eye R4 DVD - Japanese, English subtitlesGodzilla is back to stomp all over Japan, but this time he has to fight a giant dragonfly... Sounds awesome, yes no?In 1996, Japan has been running on clean, renewable energy for thirty years, and has not seen Godzilla since 1966. Clean energy can no longer provide enough power for Japan, the government begins research into neutron energy. Naturally, Godzilla takes the opportunity to announce his coming out of retirement and levels the neutron facility while decimating the anti-Godzilla force 'G-Grasper'. Obviously, military's plan was to confuse Godzilla with a funny name, and then fire a few missiles at him. Needless to say, it doesn't work.Several years later, Kiriko Tsujimori (Misato Tanaka) - a survivor of G-Grasper's 1996 encounter with Godzilla - is now the G-Grasper commander and has a grudge against Godzilla. Obviously G-Grasper need a new weapon to take on Godzilla, and so they turn to Japan's crazy scientists. The result is a cannon called the 'Dimension Tide': a weapon designed to shoot black holes, which they intend to shoot at Godzilla, from space, to minimize the damage to Earth. Obviously no one thought of any possible negative consequences of shooting a black hole - from space, mind you - towards a moving target Earth. The mad scientists have really gone off the deep end here. Of course, they test it first, and open up a rift to another dimension, letting a swarm of Meganuron (over-sized dragonflies) through.Essentially, 'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' is a lighter, happier version of both 'Godzilla vs Destroyer' and 'Gamera 2'. The Meganuron / Megaguirus greatly resembles the Legion from 'Gamera 2'. The shots of Godzilla being swarmed by the Meganuron, look much like the shots of Gamera being swarmed by the Legion. However, going one up on the other two movies, 'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' has better special effects. The 'Alien' style Meganuron look a lot better than the 'Alien' style Destroyer(s) from 'Godzilla vs Destroyer'. Also, it has mad scientists. A big bonus. They might not look like mad scientists, but they certainly think like them.There is some nice monster action, even if it is heavily offset by the human characters running shooting black holes at things. The Tokyo showdown between Godzilla vs Megaguirus is fun. It may not come close to one of the best monster fight scenes, but its funny and entertaining. Smart use of CGI ensures the monsters and fights look good, but on the other hand, for a giant dragonfly, Megaguirus does not beat his wing that often.'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' is a fun Godzilla movie, and should appeal to Godzilla fans. It does drag on a little though - 7/10