Review: GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (2000)

My son and I are still trekking on through the BIG LIST ...

Today's is Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000).



My son goes first:

Well, this one is pretty average. I liked it because it relates back to the first movie, I  hated it because they set up the next movie at the end, but Toho never really made one.   

So, rating wise, i'll say 2.5 out of 5 Atomic Breaths of Awesomeness!!!

My turn:

As I continue to ruminate on Godzilla 2000, I realize that the movie felt like ... empty calories.  It was definitely a Godzilla movie and it had plenty of enjoyable bits.  Sure, the effects were often crappy, but it felt flat somehow.  I can't quite put a finger on why. 

None of that is different in this movie. 

Megaguirus does, however, endeavor to connect with the first film (though not with the ending of that movie).  It does this with footage from early films and with the newer suit digitally inserted. 

 

As you can see, it's a nice idea, but the compositing is bad.  Again.  In most of the daylight effects scenes, the wobble is there, the grainy sheen is there, the CG meganula/meganulon look too crisp ... Not much was learned in the months since the previous film was made.  Unfortunately, with all of the flying in this movie, their movements are wholly unbelievable, too. 

People-wise, we don't have the interesting "G-Chasers" to follow.  We have a revenge-seeking major from the oddly named "G-Graspers" unit and a robotics and computer expert.  And his fourth-grade physics teacher.  Nothing compelling at all on the human side of things.   

There is a hint of a conspiracy or something nefarious ... Godzilla is attracted to unnatural radiation and there's something nuclear in Tokyo at the end of the film, but we're given no real explanation for it, no identification for the people responsible and no real comeuppance, beyond a fist to the face of the official who covered it up.  That might have been an interesting thread to pursue, but nothing at all was done with it. 

The big plan to get rid of Godzilla?  A black hole gun.  No, Soundgarden.  Not "black hole sun"; black hole gun.  Let's pretend for a hot second that this can work.  How do they ensure that it won't engulf the Earth?  Regardless, a test of the weapon somehow creates a prehistoric dragonfly, the meganula.  How?  I have no idea.  They say "mutated" in the movie ... so we'll just go with that. 

The little bugs swarm Big G in one of the film's best action scenes: 

 

Godzilla skunks most of them with his breath before the black hole gun is fired and, somehow, spares the monster.  While they were attacking, they were sucking energy from Godzilla in order to transfer it to another meganulon that then becomes the gigantic Megaguirus.   

 

For the second film in a row, we get a monster that tries to drain Godzilla of his energy only to have Godzilla blast him thoroughly. 

 

Not quite the end, though.  The humans fire their black hole gun once more and, somehow, Godzilla survives. 

I'm sorry.  I'm all for the near-invincibility of Godzilla as we've seen in these movies, but G should have been thoroughly spaghettified by this weapon and therefore very, very dead.  (Couple that with the dialogue that suggests the makers of the weapon believed Godzilla would have been transported by the singularity and I think you can agree that the filmmakers didn't really have a grasp on what a "black hole" really is or does.) 

The action is mostly OK.  Nice connections to the past.  'Meh' characters, monsters and science. 

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus ... a step down.  2.25 out of five atomic breath blasts.

Here's the trailer:



Up next, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (that's a mouthful).

(GIFs from electrickaijuboogaloo and mekagojira3k)