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"'Godzilla'
Rules!" by Scott Mantz
"Godzilla 2000"
Takehiro Murata, Naomi Nishida
Directed by Takao Okawara
And now, ladies
and gentlemen, a celebrity who needs no introduction. With a career
spanning 50 years and 23 films, he's the longest running character
in cinematic history (even surpassing James Bond). He's big, he's
bad, he's green, and he has one of the most loyal, passionate, and
downright protective fan bases in the world. After a few years away
from his native roots, during which time he was given a Hollywood
makeover that didn't work, he's back! Let's hear it for Godzilla!
By now, there
isn't a soul in the universe who isn't at least partially familiar
with the whole Godzilla phenomenon. After 4 decades in Japan, during
which time he became a pop-cultural icon, Godzilla packed his bags
and went to Hollywood in 1998. While the resulting big-budget Sony
Pictures release took in plenty of green at the box office (it grossed
over $380 million worldwide), many fans felt that it lacked the
spirit of what the original Toho films were all about. A Godzilla
film was a guilty pleasure, and the cheesy special effects and poorly-dubbed
English translations were all part of the fun.
Sony Pictures
recently picked up the theatrical rights to "Godzilla 2000," making
it the first Japanese-made Godzilla film to appear in American theaters
in 15 years. The special effects are just as corny as they ever
were, but it's still a vast improvement over the earlier films.
The monster outfit has a lot more detail than it did 20 years ago,
but it's still basically some guy in a rubber suit (in this case,
Tsutomu Kitagawa). What's really important is that the movie captures
Godzilla in all his cranky, destructive, fire-breathing glory.
As always, Godzilla
gets his kicks by smashing the hell out of Tokyo (which looks just
as fake as ever), but where prior films made a conscious effort
to dubb over the Japanese dialogue with English-speaking voice-overs,
this film has more fun with the absurdity of the whole process.
By super-imposing cringe-worthy lines like "quit your bitchin,"
"bite me," and "we're all gonna die," it makes the campy nature
of the experience that much more fun.
Oh, I almost
forgot about the story (and, believe it or not, there is one). When
a 70 million-year-old meteorite is unearthed, it turns out to be
a long-dormant UFO. It reawakens and flies off to downtown Tokyo
(where else?) to drain valuable information from the city's main
computers. It also copies the cellular structure of Godzilla in
hopes of duplicating his form to adapt to our environment (you following
me?). When the UFO transforms itself into a monster, Godzilla determines
that Tokyo isn't big enough for the two of them.
After a dramatic
entrance that finds Godzilla on his usual rampage, the film slows
to a crawl as efforts are made to discover the true nature of the
meteorite. There's also a ludicrous subplot concerning a general
who's obsessed with killing Godzilla and the scientist who wants
to stop him. The inevitable showdown comes and goes way too fast
considering how long it took to get there, but there's plenty of
fun to be had with the paltry dialogue and the rampant destruction
of the miniature sets.
Believe it or
not, when the monster first appeared in "Godzilla: King of the Monsters"
in 1954, few could have imagined that the film was actually the
result of the post nuclear paranoia that inflicted the Japanese
culture at that time. It had only been 9 years since the end of
World War II, and if any country was going to understand the effects
of radiation and nuclear fallout, it's Japan. Over the years, the
anxiety subsided, and the threat of the big bad monster in the early
films turned out to be mankind's last hope in the later ones. Although
he still had a knack for making mince-meat out of downtown Tokyo,
deep down inside, this not-so-jolly green giant was really one of
the good guys.
Florida has
its hurricanes, the Midwest has its tornadoes, California has its
earthquakes, and Tokyo has its Godzilla. As far as films go, "Godzilla
2000" may not compare to today's big time Hollywood fare, but for
anyone who enjoyed the cheesy nature of the earlier films, here's
your chance to catch Godzilla where he belongs, tearing up the big
screen. Pure escapism never felt--or looked--so good.
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