GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM (1999)
“The way to criticize a film is to make another film.” – Jean-Luc Godard
1999 was a landmark year. Books have been written on it. The late ‘90s had been such a build of strong independent cinema and idiosyncratic filmmaking that we knew it was gonna be a blow out. It was. A classic released seemingly almost every month. Then it was over. I cannot tell you how boring 2000 was in comparison. This isn’t to say great movies didn’t happen; however it just wasn’t the same as the wave of millennial angst that drove ‘99. Or the generational turnover that pushed the second half of 2001 into 2002. Cinema took a breather for about 18 months. It happens.
But then in August of 2000, we received the last Godzilla movie of the 20th century. To Kaiju fans, it was an oasis in the desert. We had been burned by GODZILLA (1998). HARD. It was difficult to get excited again. But within 10 minutes of GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM, we’re back in it. We get several Godzilla attacks and a daring escape through a collapsing tunnel. This movie doesn’t mess around. It feels like every Godzilla movie we remember has been wrapped into a tidy package: noble scientists who just want to study Godzilla, evil bureaucrats who think they can destroy him, overconfident army generals. There’s even a plucky kid who smirks when Godzilla brings the pain.
Producer Shōgo Tomiyama (GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE through GODZILLA: FINAL WARS) and director Takao Okawara (GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA, GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA II, GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH) clearly worked hard to recapture the old magic.
The movie stripped out the previous decade or so’s mythology, treating itself as a new GODZILLA 2 to the original film while at the same time reconnecting to the charm of the ‘60s and ‘70s entries. We knew that Toho was not happy about 1998 entry. But man, this movie ends up throwing serious shade on the Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich movie. And then some.
The plot develops as the Crisis Control Intelligence discovers a large object in the ocean. It turns out to be a UFO (shaped like a larger version of the FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR ship). This ominous vessel ends up flying to Shinjuku and lands itself on the City Tower in the middle of the metroplex (shades of ID4) in order to steal Godzilla’s DNA from the scientist’s lab. It then proceeds to blow up the building and spawn its own Kaiju: Orga. Orga appears suspiciously similar to Patrick Tatopoulos’ design for 1998’s GODZILLA. Orga tries to eat Godzilla, consuming his genetic code further leading the hero scientist to declare, “It's trying to become a Godzilla clone!”
Subtle, this movie isn’t. So in basic movie terms: OG Godzilla proceeds to wipe out the ID4 UFO AND the 1998 Godzilla. The movie tells us in a not very subtextual way that yes…we all were hurt by this. Let’s atomic breath the whole thing to ashes and move on.
The dub is hysterical. Civilians cry out in terror, “Gott Im Himmel!” Army Generals make DR. STRANGELOVE references. When the human we hate the most finally bites it, they bellow out “GODZILLA!” a few frames intentionally out of sync. It’s glorious.
Best of all, it ends with Godzilla rampaging through models as our human scientists pontificate with this final exchange:
“We scientists produced this monster...Godzilla. And ever since, we tried to destroy him.”
“But then, why...Why does he keep protecting us?”
“Maybe because...Godzilla is inside each one of us!”
SOLD. This feels like the most defining millennial Kaiju movie until SHIN GODZILLA arrived 17 years later. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear this movie was ground zero for a new generation of Kaiju fans. For me personally, it rekindled the flame in my heart for the big guy. This movie taught me there IS a Godzilla inside of me. And I’ll never forget it.
