I have to admit that I've been rather slow in getting to the Millennium-Era series of "Godzilla" films - meaning, the films that were made between 1999 and 2004 in Japan. I admit that I know very little about the Millennium Era, but the first movie I ever saw from this series was "Godzilla 2000" (1999) back in early 2000 at the now-closed Cineplex Odeon at my local shopping mall and was consequently the last movie I ever saw there before it closed.
Over the years, I saw "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004) and I've only seen bits & pieces of "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" (2000), the latter film of which I was never really impressed with from the few clips I saw of it. Only today did I watch director Maasaki Tezuka's 2002 "kaiju-eiga" (Japanese giant monster movie) "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla," which marks the fourth on-screen pairing of Godzilla fighting his cyborg-monster doppelganger, Mechagodzilla (the first three films were 1974's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla," 1975's "Terror of Mechagodzilla," and 1993's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II").
Since all the films in the Millennium series are stand-alone features with no previous connection to the previous entry, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" therefore has no connection to its predecessor, and instead - like "Godzilla 2000" - goes straight back to "Gojira" (1954) and pretends that any film that came after it never happened; however, Mothra and the Gargantuas are still referenced (through stock footage). So, in 1999, a new Godzilla appears out of the Pacific Ocean to threaten humanity. No explanation is given for Godzilla's sudden reappearance in Japan, except to say that he's a threat and he must be destroyed. (I must also say that this is one of the most menacing portrayals of the mighty King of the Monsters that I've seen in years.)
So, a plan is put into action: in order to beat Godzilla, humanity must pool their resources to create ANOTHER Godzilla, a Mechagodzilla. Like the Mechagodzilla of the Heisei Era, this cyborg creature is a creation of humans (rather than malevolent aliens like in the Showa Era). However, there's a new twist here: this new Mechagodzilla (given the codename "Kiryu," for "machine dragon") is a construction built around the skeleton of the original Godzilla that was killed in 1954. Four years later in 2003, Mechagodzilla/"Kiryu" is ready to go, and disgraced Japan Self-Defense Force maser tank technician Akane Yashiro (Yumiko Shaku) is selected to be the cyborg monster's chief pilot.
You see, Akane was one of the JSDF troops who was first dispatched to counter Godzilla when he mysteriously re-appeared in 1999, and several of her comrades were killed in the fray and she was made a scapegoat and demoted by her superiors as a result. And so now, she's been given a second chance to redeem herself and prove to her superiors and fellow Kiryu pilots that she has what it takes to save humanity from Godzilla. And also, somewhere in there, too, she becomes connected to Mechagodzilla/Kiryu's widowed biological engineer Dr. Tokumitsu Yuhara (Shin Takuma) and his young daughter Sara (Kana Onodera).
I've been saying for years that Mechagodzilla remains Godzilla's greatest opponent - in any incarnation of the character. This was confirmed upon viewing "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" finally. It's heavily armed with a bewildering array of weapons, heavily armored, and bad to the bone (quite literally, "bad to the bone") - just like its two predecessors were. But this version of Mechagodzilla also has a severe weakness. Because Kiryu was constructed around the skeletal remains of the original Godzilla killed in 1954, it has that monster's genetic memories imprinted onto it, so it has a "flashback" (if you will) moment in the middle of a battle with Godzilla and goes on a destructive rampage of its own. So for a while, the creature was out of the control of its human creators. Yet, this is something that is easily corrected by Dr. Yuhara.
"Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" also has a great human story. Its chief dramatic appeal, of course, is the beautiful young JSDF pilot Akane Yashiro, played quite well by Yumiko Shaku as someone struggling to overcome past traumatic failures and find some sort of meaning/direction for her life and try to find some sort of redemption (which she ultimately does - through her association with the Mechagodzilla program and Dr. Yuhara and his daughter).
This was a good, worthy entry into the "Godzilla" series. I hope to watch its direct sequel "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." (2003) tomorrow and see where it goes from there.
6/10
Over the years, I saw "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004) and I've only seen bits & pieces of "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" (2000), the latter film of which I was never really impressed with from the few clips I saw of it. Only today did I watch director Maasaki Tezuka's 2002 "kaiju-eiga" (Japanese giant monster movie) "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla," which marks the fourth on-screen pairing of Godzilla fighting his cyborg-monster doppelganger, Mechagodzilla (the first three films were 1974's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla," 1975's "Terror of Mechagodzilla," and 1993's "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II").
Since all the films in the Millennium series are stand-alone features with no previous connection to the previous entry, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" therefore has no connection to its predecessor, and instead - like "Godzilla 2000" - goes straight back to "Gojira" (1954) and pretends that any film that came after it never happened; however, Mothra and the Gargantuas are still referenced (through stock footage). So, in 1999, a new Godzilla appears out of the Pacific Ocean to threaten humanity. No explanation is given for Godzilla's sudden reappearance in Japan, except to say that he's a threat and he must be destroyed. (I must also say that this is one of the most menacing portrayals of the mighty King of the Monsters that I've seen in years.)
So, a plan is put into action: in order to beat Godzilla, humanity must pool their resources to create ANOTHER Godzilla, a Mechagodzilla. Like the Mechagodzilla of the Heisei Era, this cyborg creature is a creation of humans (rather than malevolent aliens like in the Showa Era). However, there's a new twist here: this new Mechagodzilla (given the codename "Kiryu," for "machine dragon") is a construction built around the skeleton of the original Godzilla that was killed in 1954. Four years later in 2003, Mechagodzilla/"Kiryu" is ready to go, and disgraced Japan Self-Defense Force maser tank technician Akane Yashiro (Yumiko Shaku) is selected to be the cyborg monster's chief pilot.
You see, Akane was one of the JSDF troops who was first dispatched to counter Godzilla when he mysteriously re-appeared in 1999, and several of her comrades were killed in the fray and she was made a scapegoat and demoted by her superiors as a result. And so now, she's been given a second chance to redeem herself and prove to her superiors and fellow Kiryu pilots that she has what it takes to save humanity from Godzilla. And also, somewhere in there, too, she becomes connected to Mechagodzilla/Kiryu's widowed biological engineer Dr. Tokumitsu Yuhara (Shin Takuma) and his young daughter Sara (Kana Onodera).
I've been saying for years that Mechagodzilla remains Godzilla's greatest opponent - in any incarnation of the character. This was confirmed upon viewing "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" finally. It's heavily armed with a bewildering array of weapons, heavily armored, and bad to the bone (quite literally, "bad to the bone") - just like its two predecessors were. But this version of Mechagodzilla also has a severe weakness. Because Kiryu was constructed around the skeletal remains of the original Godzilla killed in 1954, it has that monster's genetic memories imprinted onto it, so it has a "flashback" (if you will) moment in the middle of a battle with Godzilla and goes on a destructive rampage of its own. So for a while, the creature was out of the control of its human creators. Yet, this is something that is easily corrected by Dr. Yuhara.
"Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" also has a great human story. Its chief dramatic appeal, of course, is the beautiful young JSDF pilot Akane Yashiro, played quite well by Yumiko Shaku as someone struggling to overcome past traumatic failures and find some sort of meaning/direction for her life and try to find some sort of redemption (which she ultimately does - through her association with the Mechagodzilla program and Dr. Yuhara and his daughter).
This was a good, worthy entry into the "Godzilla" series. I hope to watch its direct sequel "Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." (2003) tomorrow and see where it goes from there.
6/10