By
Shaun Clayton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
"Godzilla 2000" offers standard rubber lizard, model-city crushing entertainment
When it comes to having a man in a rubber suit destroy model buildings, nobody does it better than the Japanese.
In "Godzilla 2000," Godzilla returns once again to the big screen, except this time, there is no computer-rendered Godzilla/velociraptor rip-off, no cobbled script by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich and no Matthew Broderick.
"Godzilla 2000" is actually just an American release of the 1999 Japanese movie "Gojira Ni-sen Mireniamu," or "Godzilla: Millennium." Thankfully, it brings exactly what made Godzilla movies so enjoyable - a giant, fire-breathing costume, hundreds of dollars in model kits exploding, hordes of Japanese people running and bad dubbing. Only this time, it is on the big screen and in THX.
The plot of the movie revolves around, of course, Godzilla. In this movie Godzilla is a 170-foot tall fire-spewing lizard intent on destroying Japan, as he has been so many times before. It is never clear why he wants to destroy Japan - maybe he, too, is sick of all those Pokemon.
One person who wants to determine the reasons behind Godzilla's destructive behavior is scientist Yuji Shinoda (Takehiro Murata) who runs the "Godzilla Prediction Network" out of his SUV with his daughter, Io (Mayu Suzuki).
Thwarting their quest for knowledge is Mitsuo Katagiri (Hiroshi Abe) who heads the Crisis Control Agency. He and his well-armed military force want to destroy Godzilla. Why? Perhaps it is because of Mitsuo's unexplained feelings of inadequacy, or perhaps it is because Godzilla keeps destroying Tokyo. One is never quite sure.
The actors in this movie all do a fine job of expressing the physicalities of their characters, but the bad dubbing and insipid dialogue bring their performances down. For instance, Mitsuo sounds like an over-the-top soap star or infomercial host, the exaggerated voices reminiscent of the late Phil Hartman.
The special effects are better than any previous Godzilla movie, but not that much better. The advances in computer technology have allowed for rockets to look more realistic, fake landscapes to look better and Godzilla's fire-breath to be truly menacing. However, Godzilla still looks like a guy in a rubber suit stepping on models. In fact, the computer technology was used to replicate models so a whole lot of toy tanks didn't have to be snapped and glued together, which must have saved hundreds of dollars.
The saved money obviously did not go towards paying for good screenwriters. The plot: typical Godzilla fare in which the infamous lizard destroys Japan, the Japanese try to destroy Godzilla and fail, and another monster showing up for Godzilla to fight, leading to an ending so bizarre it simply cannot be put into words.
In fact, a lot of "Godzilla 2000" cannot be put into words, and that is the wonder of it. The film entertains by defying all logic. While some movies are bad to the point that they are no longer entertaining, Godzilla movies are of that rare breed of cinema that takes bad and extends it to the point at which it becomes captivating.
