Godzilla 2000

[Abe' Mark Nornes]

I saw the new Godzilla over New Years. Toho rejected the Tristar look, and
got back to basics. They made him half the size, and gave him a slightly
nastier look. The film pretty much references the first Godzilla while
purging the Heisei Series and Hollywood Scandal. Apparently, Toho has a
trilogy structure in mind, with this being dai-ippatsu.

There's a semi-bad government official that unsuccessfully leads the Self
Defence Forces in an attempt to destroy both Godzilla and the strange alien
spacecraft terrorizing Japan. There's the little kid character to attract a
new generation of fans, and plenty of building crunching for the old.
There's a slight attempt to integrate some computer networking technology a
la the new Gamera, but nothing that gets in the way. One new twist is an
public organization of otaku led by an ex-university professor. This network
of volunteers monitors their individual machines, something like the old
DXers did with short wave radios, in an attempt to detect Godzilla as early
as possible and head him off at the pass to minimize loss of limb and life.


One of the surprises of the film is Godzilla's second appearance, when he
trudges onto shore at none other than Tokaimura. This was actually in the
original script, long before the nuclear accident. The film positions the
great greenish beast as an anti-nuke power activist of a kind, so I guess
he's out to destroy Tokaimura. As far as I could tell, there was no last
minute attempt to write the real-life accident into the film---unless I
wasn't listening closely enough---but considering this was probably the
biggest news event of the year (Tokushima Shinbun put it near the top of
their top 10 of the decade) you can't help but watch the film in that
context. So the film produces this reading despite itself. It reminded me of
my experience watching Patlabor 2 for the first time, which was in the midst
of the Aum Shinrikyo subway attack.

At any rate, the military throws its entire arsenal at Godzilla, but fails
to destroy him. Instead, the alien spaceship arrives and distracts him...and
unfortunately the plot as well...from Tokaimura. There's a bit on Godzilla's
genetic make-up to keep the biology-of-Godzilla-fans occupied, and plenty of
CG, but the ending is good ole pro wrestling in Shinjuku. I liked it.

Markus

PS: Aaron was among the people running away from Godzilla in terror, but I
couldn't pick him out of the crowds. He must have gotten smushed before
reaching camera range.