24: Godzilla 2000

1 0 0

by Terickel

by Terickel

I guess this is technically skipping 1998's Godzilla/GINO isn't it? Ah well.

Watched this a while back and it was with the niece and nephew so I'm trying to pull up what I remember. The niece is a bother because she won't just watch a movie and demands spoilers up front and along the way and the nephew is very young and pulls things like saying "I don't think mommy would let me watch this" as he stares at the screen intently. So I might have missed some stuff with this one.

Godzilla 2000 has been consistently one I like watching but not one I think of as a big favorite. I've seen people say it's unnecessary because it doesn't add anything or they dislike the idea that the villain is the villain 'just because' he wants to kill Godzilla. Way to not notice that the man is absolutely ruthless about collateral damage and fatalities there folks.

The extent that Godzilla chases the car definitely feels odd compared to most movies but it did work for catching the kids' interest. I did warn the nephew to close his eyes at the climax with Orga trying to eat Godzilla though and my sister made the niece do the same – even though I thought it was unnecessary for the older kid. My sister had a weirdly strong reaction to Orga getting blown up from inside and it prompted me to look up parental guidance stuff about the movie and it was given a 'mild' rating overall. I know I don't always have the best idea of what should prompt a higher age rating but I really couldn't see it as being taken as extreme, so, just weird. Maybe something that grates on her particular sensibilities or something.

Anyway, the military attack on Godzilla feels like it drags on a long time without Godzilla counter-attacking but I suppose it's to emphasize the power of the alien energy cannon when it does prompt a counter attack. Otherwise I don't feel like I had a lot of notes on the pacing.

I was looking extra hard for character in the monsters this time around, mostly trying to get a bead on Orga beyond the fact he's kind of a cheater with that telekinetic space ship control but I mostly noticed stuff from Godzilla. He actually seems put off by Orga in some way. Not enough expression in him to tell if it's disgusted or disturbed or whatever, but Godzilla definitely seems bothered by some of Orga's traits and that's definitely interesting. Kind of gives me an idea for one of those silly comics that only Tumblr might respond to. (Well, Pixiv sometimes has a higher reaction rate to those too but it's a lot harder to tell what's going to amuse a handful of people on there.)

I have a DVD with the dub so I got the ending where the characters are talking about this Godzilla almost like he's later end Showa Godzilla and then Godzilla just torches the city for no real reason. It's kind of funny but made me go looking for a subtitled clip online.