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Godzilla VS Megaguirus -Toho (2000)
Summary: Godzilla fights off giant bugs and black holes! My Thoughts: Godzilla 2000 was the start of the new millennium run of Godzilla movies, and although Godzilla wasn’t even in half the movie, it was still pretty good. Unfortunately, Godzilla VS Megaguirus is the follow-up, not continuity wise mind you; it’s just the next movie. The movie starts off great. The beginning shows a nice news reel of what continuity this fits into and goes into a scene of soldiers fighting Godzilla in 1996. These soldiers are ill equipped to handle Godzilla as the only weapons they have are personal missile launchers. It is here we are introduced to Godzilla’s human adversary of the film, hot-headed military girl. Years later, an organization known as G-Grasper has developed a weapon that will surely bring down Godzilla once and for all. This weapon, called Dimension Tide, fires miniature black holes. Now, wouldn’t someone think that this was a bad idea right from the start? Theoretically, couldn’t a black hole, no matter what the size, destroy the Earth? I’m pretty sure it could, but apparently Godzilla is a more immediate threat to the survival of mankind than these wacky Japanese scientists. During the test of Dimension Tide an insect caught in the hole is mutated and lays a nice large egg in a nearby forest. An annoying little kid finds the egg, and not knowing what to do with it, drops in the most perfect place where insects can live and grow strong, the sewers. Thanks, kid. The monster grows, kills a young couple, continues to mutate, lays a ton more eggs, and floods part of the city. Meanwhile, Godzilla has come back to town, but no one can figure out why. It’s later revealed that he returned to find a secret energy testing site, but that doesn’t really matter until a few lines of dialogue at the end of the movie. Godzilla is attacked by the G-Graspers with their super fancy jet, the Griffin. With it, they lead Godzilla onto a deserted island so they can fire the Dimension Tide. By this time all the eggs laid by the continually mutating monster have hatched and the Meganula, prehistoric dragonflies, swarm around Godzilla because he is a massive source of energy. At first Godzilla seems somewhat mesmerized by all the big bugs fluttering about. He comes back to his senses and unleashes a massive burst of hot death right into the swarm. A battle between G and the bugs ensues as the Meganula suck out G’s precious energy. At the end of the fight, Dimension Tide, locked onto Godzilla, is fired and a massive part of land is destroyed and… oh, what a surprise, it doesn’t work! Godzilla is still there. The remaining Meganula return to their queen and inject her with the energy they got from Godzilla. Megaguirus is born. Megaguirus is a giant dragonfly monster thing that views the world at fifteen frames per second and can fly with only barely flapping its wings. Megaguirus’ small wingspan doesn’t even look like it could hold it in the air. Now, Godzilla movies are well known for cheap special effects and corny action, but this movie was made in the year 2000. You can clearly see the strings used to move around Megaguirus as much as you see the hand in front of your face. I appreciate cheap monster movie effects and the throwback to older Godzillas with the silly monster action, but this is really pushing it. This was the year 2000! It should be very easy to digitally erase those strings. These cheap effects become even worse considering there are some pretty decent CG effects throughout the rest of the movie. The ending is equally as bad and is a little too over the top for me. The picture quality is inconsistent. At times it looks very good, while other times it appears somewhat grainy. The 5.1 mix is good and does a nice job capturing all the explosions, roars, and over-acting. There are a few good scenes in this movie, but the inconsistencies of the effects, final battle, and ending really hurt it. Compared with other Godzillas this is average at best. Extras: There are trailers for other movies, but not this one. Score: Film: 5.0 Hey, even average and bad Godzillas are worth watching. Extras: 1.0 Edition: 3.0 -Shawn
Features: Profiles in Courage: Godzilla King of Monsters DVD reviews: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah/Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack Games: Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters Melee
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