Godzilla 2000
Release Date: 11th December, 1999
New Monster: Orga
Description: Flat-backed, big-headed half-alien Godzilla clone, with long spindly front arms.
Origin: Half-alien-half-Godzilla hybrid cloned by an alien spacecraft.
Destruction: Godzilla breaths nuclear breath at it from the inside.
Actor(s): Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla), Makoto Ito (Orga)
Godzilla 2000 is the first film in a new continuity of Godzilla films commonly referred to as the Millennium era. That means all the previous iterations are gone, and we’re starting fresh again. Godzilla has been redesigned to look more hunched over and sinister. Like in the Heisei films, Godzilla is only a threat in this universe, although he will also bravely fight off other monsters for the benefit of mankind. Like the Heisei era, the Millennium era will also prove to be the weakest way to start off, and will only pick up in tone as the series progresses. So, yes, Godzilla 2000 is a bit of a muddle, even though it wisely doesn’t bother to retell the Godzilla origin story.
I appreciate that a great deal. When we pick up with Godzilla 2000, Godzilla is already a known factor in Japanese life, and he still occasionally comes ashore to drink up nuclear energy from nuclear power plants. The military is already prepared, and no further explanation is needed. There’s no need, the filmmakers seemed to feel, to gussy up Godzilla in this one. The American film tried to reinvent him enough. Let’s get back to business. Let’s make out monster big again, let’s have an actor in a suit portray him, and let’s have him fight a new monster right out of the gate. No more pussyfooting around. Let’s re-introduce the monster mayhem.
The film’s story is based largely on what the new monster is going to be. While there are many early scenes of Godzilla taking on missiles (and missiles seem to be the new Godzilla trademark; they’ll be used frequently throughout the Millennium films), there are just as many scenes of an intrepid trio (Naomi Nishida, Mayu Suzuki, and Takehiro Murata) investigating a bizarre massive stone that has just been discovered on the ocean floor. The stone will, over the course of the film, shed its rocky exterior to reveal a sleek metal spacecraft underneath. This craft has been on the ocean floor for millions of years. When humans bring it to the surface, it immediately absorbs all their computer information, and takes a sample of Godzilla’s DNA for cloning purposes. The monster doesn’t appear until over and hour into the film.
The monster is Orga, which is only ever identified by that name in ancillary press material put out by Toho. Orga is a large, weird-looking spindly creature with Godzilla powers, and who intends to take over the world in Godzilla form. It can eat pieces of Godzilla, and become more Godzilla in the process. When it unhinges its jaw and tries to swallow Godzilla head first, Godzilla wisely blasts him open with his nuclear breath from the inside. That’s pretty neat.
I kind of appreciate that this new reboot felt like a dismissible chapter in the series. The tone may be a little darker, and the pace a little slower, but it feels more like a momentary break in stride rather than a hard reboot. There was no attempt at that clunky and insufferable mythmaking that permeates so many films in long-running series. Godzilla understands: Not all movies – not even the reinventions – have to feel like reinventions. Sometimes it’s okay to just let Godzilla be Godzilla.
A few notable things: I saw the dubbed version of the film, and a lot of the American actors selected to do the dubbing affect pidgin Japanese accents. It’s kind of distracting. Since the film takes place sometime from 1999 to 2001, iMacs are everywhere, being the most obnoxious piece of product placement sine the Dr. Pepper in Godzilla 1985. Someone also uses the line “Godzilla is inside each one of us.” I certainly like to think so.
The next film will prove definitively that the big guy is back, and will also be one of the better Godzilla movies…
