Movie Info
Movie Name: Godzilla 2000
Studio: Toho
Genre(s): Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): December 11, 1999
MPAA Rating: PG
It’s War of the Worlds!!!
Godzilla is back! As Japan continues to deal with the monster, a new threat faces the world. The discovery of a long buried UFO unleashes a new horror on Earth. With abilities that hack into Earth’s knowledge banks, the UFO is studying the people of Earth for an unknown purpose. When the UFO unleashes a horror called Orga upon Japan, only Godzilla will be strong enough to stop it!
Directed by Takao Okawara, Godzilla 2000 (ゴジラ2000 ミレニアム or Gojira Nisen: Mireniamu) is a 1999 film which launched the third “era” of Godzilla (known as the Millennium series) after the last series of films (known as the Heisei series) which ended with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995. The twenty-third Godzilla film also shows a return to the traditional rubber-suit Godzilla after the disastrous U.S. big-budget Godzilla from 1998. The film received average reviews and was given a U.S. theatrical release.
Godzilla…you need to get in my belly!!!
I was really pumped for Godzilla in 1998…then I saw Godzilla and felt extremely jaded toward Godzilla. I saw Godzilla 2000 a number of years after its initial release and decided that I would have preferred Godzilla 2000 to the Matthew Broderick garbage.
Godzilla 2000 takes Godzilla back to the basics. There is Godzilla who is dangerous, but there is almost always a greater danger from another kaiju. Mixed into that story you generally have humans who are trying to help Godzilla and others that are trying to destroy him…the basic Godzilla format is followed here…plus you get the great line “Godzilla is…inside all of us”.
That’s right Godzilla…it’s a stare-a-thon!!!
The movie has an American version and a Japanese version. The American version is slightly shorter and contained dubbed lines. Many of these lines were intentionally cheesy and didn’t match up with the Japanese script as a means to parody the Godzilla movies of the ’70s and ’80s but traditionalist Godzilla fans didn’t like that the script was trivialized.
The movie also has that classic feel with the goofy rubber suit monster fights. The ’80s and ’90s Godzilla films did improve some of the effects (like the atomic breath), but essentially they aren’t much different from the much lower tech films of the ’70s. In that sense, Orga isn’t the coolest kaiju you’ve seen Godzilla battle and is rather generic.
Godzilla 2000 is what it is. If you like Godzilla, you will like Godzilla 2000. If you don’t like Godzilla, you won’t. It is fun to have little flashbacks to childhood by checking out a Godzilla every once in a while. Godzilla 2000 was followed by Godzilla vs. Megaguirus in 2000.
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Preceded By:
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
Followed By:
