Godzilla Entry #25: GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS

GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS (Gojira X Megagirasu: G Shōmetsu Sakusen, 2000)

Directed by: Masaaki Tezuka

Written by: Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Wataru Mimura

Starring: Misato Tanaka, Shôsuke Tanihara, Masatô Ibu, Yuriko Hoshi, Tstutomu Kitagawa, Minoru Watanabe

Synopsis: In trying to develop a weapon to destroy Godzilla, the G-Graspers indadvertedly created Megaguirus, a giant prehistoric creature that drains the energy of other creatures.  

The Millennium series is the shortest of the three official continuities of Godzilla, and so far, I am thankful for it. After all of the campy goodness of Showa and the drama of Heisi, you have the overwhelming bore that is the Millennium era. GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS is yet another "reboot" within this series, completely ignoring the events of GODZILLA 2000: MILLENIUM to put us in the middle of a world where once again, Godzilla is a common occurrence, and Japan has been trying to deal with him for decades to no avail.

We get zero explanation as to the origins of this particular Godzilla, but now, Japan's defense group is coming up with some rather... creative solutions for the Godzilla problem. The newest gadget is the Dimension Tide, whose purpose is to shoot a black hole directly to Godzilla's location via satellite, ridding the world of him. But given that this is a Godzilla movie, this means that the weapon that we create to combat Godzilla will inevitably lead to more destruction thanks to unforeseen circumstances.

This time, the said unforeseen consequence is actually the a prehistoric bug that hatches an egg in the modern times. This insect turns into a breed called the Meganulon. They are slightly parasitic bugs that drain the energy of a larger animal and take on their abilities. So, of course, after a slight increase in size, a swarm of Meganulons fight Godzilla and overpower him until the big guy uses his atomic breath to kill them. They absorb his energy, and create Megaguirus, which is basically a Battra rip off, except it's a she. But unfortunately, she doesn't quite have the screen presence that Battra.

It feels very ironic to be complaining about this once again, but the human characters here seem to be completely static. The main character is just so intent in killing Godzilla because she's been traumatized by the fact that her teammates were killed in Godzilla raid. I guess revenge would be an easy motivation, but really it felt whiny in that I can only imagine how many people have potentially lost so much more than teammates or co-workers.

Once again, the visual effects are making me think that I'm watching a very cheap direct-to-DVD movie. It's strange because the Heisi movies don't look nearly as dated as these movies, but Megaguirus's needlessly CGI-ed wing flaps and the various other CG effects once make an early 2000's movie looks older and worse than a 1990's Godzilla movie.

This film is hardly worth any one's time. The design of Megaguirus would've been really fun to look at if Battra hadn't done it better almost ten years ago. The acting is sub par, and frankly, the story has been told over and over. You can definitely skip this and GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM and be better for it.


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