Originally written 3/13/16
Not the greatest Godzilla film ever, but far from
the worst. The monster destruction is decent, but the requisite scientist plot
is not outlandish or cheesy enough to hold interest. The not-Godzilla portion
of the movie follows a group of Godzilla hunters (in this film's universe,
people seem to accept Godzilla rampages as a regular occurrence) and a group of
scientists investigating a UFO that was salvaged from the ocean. The UFO comes
to life, flies around for a bit, and then lands on a skyscraper. It starts
trying to suck data out the city's computers, apparently to gain power. The
movie is largely scientists standing around wondering what the UFO will do
next.
Godzilla eventually shows up and the UFO turns into
a monster and they duke it out. The UFO-monster bears a strong resemblance to
Muto, the villain-monster from the 2014 Godzilla. Godzilla 2000 was the last
film in the series to get an American release before the recent reboot, so
perhaps they thought they would just recycle the monster designs because
America loves their UFO-turned-kaiju. Who knows.
Godzilla 2000 was the first in the series
(discounting the 1998 abomination) to utilize CG, and it shows. The suit effects
are some of the series' best, and it makes the poor CG stand out all the more.
The rampage scenes and fight scenes are not nearly long enough (the Godzilla
series' Achilles' heel), but what we get is enjoyable. The best Godzilla movies
are the ones that remember nobody cares about the human characters and focuses
on the big guy as much as possible. Unfortunately Godzilla 2000 is not one of
those movies. It was enough to satisfy me as a hardcore fan, but overall the
film is lacking.
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