Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
ebiros2
This is a continuation of the previous Godzilla movie, but where the previous movie was one of the best Godzilla movie, this one falls way short. The biggest culprit is the poor choice of actors which Toho seems to be an expert at. They had a pretty good combo in the previous version with Koh Takasugi, and Yumiko Shaku, but this one had bunch of kids which really had no acting abilities which really drew all life out of the plot. This is shown in the fact that this movie had such a poor turnout at the box office in Japan (13 million dollars) , that it was officially decided that the next Godzilla movie Godzilla Final Wars will be the final Godzilla movie.The story plot was boring, and also annoying with all the young actors trying to steal the lead which added to the unfocused plot. I think it was a bad idea to make a mechanic the main character of the movie. He was having a hard time being a hero. The guy who should have been the hero - the pilot of Kiryu was a horrible actor and he wouldn't have engaged the audience to a degree Yumiko Shaku did. Music was way down from the previous movie.Special effects was pretty good, and might be the best part of this film. Mothra's depiction was the most realistic of all Toho movies. But somehow I can't get used to the millennium Godzilla's face. It has no expression, and I don't get the sense that it's such a big menace. Godzilla looks small throughout the series after Godzilla 2000.So nothing as its center piece, this movie falls apart as plot moves forward.
Woodyanders
Two tiny twin fairies advise wise old scientist Dr. Sinichi Chujo (nicely played by Hiroshi Koizuma) to stop the repairs on the severely damaged MechaGodzilla. Their warning goes unheeded. Godzilla wakes up in one of his usual grouchy moods and heads towards Japan with the specific intent of trashing Tokyo. Mothra comes to mankind's rescue, but proves to be no match for the Big G. It's ultimately up to MechaGodzilla to defeat the brutish behemoth. Director Masaaki Tezuka relates the story at a constant brisk pace, maintains a refreshingly serious tone throughout, and stages the plentiful exciting action sequences with rip-roaring flair (the long and protracted mondo destructo monster fight scenes totally smoke). Better still, there's a mean'n'lean straightforward quality to the narrative, with very few lulls and a huge amount of wild'n'rousing action (Mothra's newly born larvae even join in on the battle against Godzilla!). The human characters are genuinely engaging and well acted, with especially winning performances by Noboru Kaneko as eager beaver young mechanic Yoshito Chujo, Miho Yoshioka as feisty pilot Azusa Kisaragi, Mitsuki Koga as the cocky Kyosuke Akiba, and Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka as the adorable psychic singing twin fairies. Kudos are also in order for Michiru Oshima's stirring, majestic score, Yoshinori Sekiguchi's glossy widescreen cinematography, and Eiichi Asada's often stunning special effects (Mothra in particular is a strikingly graceful and beautiful giant creature). An excellent movie.
r-c-s
This one spots the most mobile and actually threatening mecha-godzilla since the original 1974 one. Perhaps because the bones of the 1954 Godzilla lie inside the cyber armour of the robot. As with late G movies, this spin is present: Godzilla is summoned by its "relatives"...with Spacegodzilla it was G's cells coming back from the outer space; with Biollante it was the G's cells cross-bred into the giant weed; this time the bones of the original Godzilla cry for resting in peace. The miniature Mothra priestesses are there, and this represents an ideal sequel to the 1961 Mosura, with one leading character reprising his role 43 years later! The little girls want humankind to drop the project Kyriu (= mechagodzilla ), otherwise Mothra would have no choice but to fight humankind, being else ready to fight for it against Godzilla. This subplot is rather obscure. The grandchild of the returning character "draws" the Mothra symbol (another 1961 legacy ) using his school's desks, and Mothra re-appears to fight Godzilla, but in vain. Logically, Kyriu is sent to Mothra's rescue... Lethally wounded, Mothra had -on the other hand- previously forecast her demise, thus laid an egg on a neighboring island. Twin Mothra larvae are then born, and proceed to attack Godzilla that -seriously wounded by Kyriu- can be enveloped with their web flakes, thus made powerless. At this point a rather bizarre plot spin takes place, but let's see the movie. In the background a few minor characters. A nice movie & the logic sequel to the 1961 Mosura. The cast is good and acting is as well, genre-wise ( again that is a monster movie, not Kafka ). Special effects are definitely 2000ish and let nothing to be desired in an Hollywood comparison (budget-wise). Mothra is once again the most sympathetic of all Toho monsters. Godzilla is still a big beaver with green scales (looks a bit more threatening & lizardish, though ). Some music reminiscent of more famous Ennio Morricone.
Aaron1375
I liked this Godzilla movie, but it does share a few to many similarities with the previous Godzilla movie. On the plus side there was a longer fight sequence in this one, but in the end you really end up knowing the outcome of the fight well before it is over. Especially when they add Mothra to the equation, Godzilla was considerably weaker than MechaGodzilla in the last movie so I don't see why they felt he needed another opponent. They really should have added Godzilla some help instead. As it is, Godzilla gets his shots in, but not enough to make the outcome of the fight ever be in doubt. They do add a rather different ending to this one slightly reminiscent of "Godzilla vs. Mothra", with a twist. In the end though this Godzilla is just not nearly as tough as the demon Godzilla of the movie before the MechaGodzilla movies. In fact, this one isn't as tough as the two before that either. To bad it was not more like the demon one though as that one you could really pull against it, this one you feel sorry for. There are some returning stars in this as the pilot of the previous movie has a little more than a cameo, but this time the focus is more on a mechanic of MechaGodzilla. Good movie, but nothing new.
