Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
Release Date: 16th December 2000
New Monster: Megaguirus
Description: Big ol’ bug
Origin: A mutated giant insect escaped from another dimension
Destruction: Death by lethal Godzilla
Ancillary Monsters: Meganulon, Meganula
Actor(s): Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla), Minoru Watanabe (Megaguirus)
So Godzilla is still on the rampage, and human armies have developed a new weapon called the Dimension Tide to destroy him. It’s established that Godzilla has only had a few rampages in the past, including one in 1996 that we never got to see. An ambitious and wounded soldier named Kiriko (Misato Tanaka) has been heading up an anti-Godzilla taskforce, and wants the pleasure of firing off the first shot of the new Dimension Tide. The Dimension Tide is essentially a space-bound cannon that can fire miniature black holes at things from space (!), sucking them into another dimension. I suppose if you can explode Godzilla, you may as well try sucking him into another dimension. Did I mention it’s good to have this goofy stuff back?
The DT, by the way, doesn’t work on Godzilla for some reason. The G-Man can’t be brought down by anything, bitch. Godzilla, at the same time, is also attacked by a swarm of Meganulas. They bit him and suck out his energy, fly to the pupating Megaguirus, feed her, and she hatches out, looking for blood. Eventually Godzilla and Megaguirus are doing battle in another city. The battle is one of the better ones in the series, and even features that wonderful old fight cliché where two characters leap into the air, collide, land, and then only one of them reveals themselves to have been injured. Godzilla takes off one of Megaguirus’ pincers that way.
Aside from Mothra, Megaguirus is the only female Godzilla monster.
The only previous films that this one references are the 1954 original, or course, and rather oddly Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster from 1966. The conceit taken from that film is that Godzilla must power himself on nuclear energy, and regularly attacks nuclear power plants. This film takes place in a world where nuclear has long since been abandoned in favor of renewable power sources. Godzilla goes after the dangerous ones. So there’s even a cute environmental message in this one as well. Bully on you, Toho. You’re back on track.
Why, oh, why then did you feel the need to make…
