Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: GODZILLA 2000

all right look I could do some Christmas themed horror movie to cap off the year but I think I know what you really want you want me to talk about another Godzilla movie even though I technically already did a Godzilla video this year kind of sort of I mean it was called Godzilla technically but now it's time to go back to the real thing we got a new Godzilla movie in theaters and another one coming out next year so this seems like the perfect time to do it not that I have any other reasons for making this video okay good no window ninja threatening to cut my balls off now I just got to worry about this video getting [Music] blocked okay so to get everybody caught up Toho had ended the hyay series series of Godzilla films with Godzilla versus destroyer by killing Godzilla off something that actually made the Western news at the time even though the movie wouldn't get released there for several years the initial plan was for Tojo to take a nearly decade long break from Godzilla saving his return for Godzilla's 50th anniversary in 2004 after all Godzilla had gone Hollywood and had a big budget American Blockbuster coming out that's sure to be a big hit and lead to at least a Trilogy we don't want to compete with that then the rolling Emer Godzilla actually came out and too went okay we'll start making Godzilla movies again released in 1999 Godzilla 2000 was the start of what's commonly referred to as the Millennium Godzilla series and was one of several movies released around Y2K to have 2000 in the title the great thing about putting 2000 in your title is that it still sounds futuristic even if it's the current year or way in the past in this case also Godzilla 2000 became the first Japanese produc Godzilla movie to get a theatrical release in North America since Godzilla 1985 I guess they only do that when there's a year in the title as a result this was my first experience seeing a Japanese Godzilla film in the theater I can remember seeing trailers for this on TV and getting hyped for it if you can't take the heat run now unlike Godzilla 1985 this one didn't have any new scenes specifically shot for the American release but it also wasn't a straightup dub either the movie was re-edited slightly with the American version coming in about 8 minutes shorter than the original Japanese one and the translation also took a few Liberties without changing the story and dialogue too much regardless of how the 1998 Godzilla was received I don't know why Tojo thought they had to wait to make their own Godzilla movies again recent years have shown us that both Japanese and American Godzilla movies can exist at the same time actually with all the Crossovers and Multiverse [ __ ] happening now I wonder if those will ever cross over at some point I wouldn't put it past them TriStar pictures presents we're sorry about that other movie we put out called Godzilla so here's some of the real deal to make up for it so we open with some members of the Godzilla prediction network setting up some equipment look guys you live in Japan I don't think you need all that stuff to know Godzilla's going to show up it's like predicting the sun's going to rise in the morning IO do you read me Roger L and clear oh and there's also a little kid there of course why why wouldn't they have a kid doing such an important job density changes in the plasma or expresses voltage regulation what he means is that when a charge fluctuation occurs and she's a know-it-all kid too wow I'm sure I'm going to love this character plasma you mean like blood you really are an imile [ __ ] you kid there's also a reporter with him who want some pictures of Godzilla again just wait until he attacks Tokyo and make sure you take him from a safe distance you won't have to wait very long he shows up right away I mentioned in my beast from 20,000 fathoms video that it was one of the primary Inspirations for Godzilla so it's appropriate he shows up to a lighthouse here I got to admit that is a pretty badass introduction I mentioned that the American version was altered a little bit and about the tone of the dubbing here ah that damn Teryaki is cold again you clowns don't like it there's plenty of other places to eat around here so shut up or get out it's definitely one that's got its tongue planted firmly in cheek I wouldn't exactly call it a gag dub but it is one that doesn't take itself 100% seriously it's kind of a middle ground between what new world pictures originally wanted to do with Godzilla 1985 and what happened after Raymond Burr stepped in and said they had to treat the material with respect considering this is a much lighter more colorful Godzilla flick than 198 five was I think the goofier approach Works a little better here and once again I don't think these guys need a bunch of fancy equipment to know Godzilla's arrived okay so they're now probably deaf and are going to be picking glass out of their faces for the next week just kidding they're fine bit of advice though if you made this to get people to forget about the 1998 Godzilla you probably shouldn't include a scene where Godzilla Corners a car in a tunnel I got to give this movie props though we're not even 10 minutes in and already Godzilla's rampaging across Japan which is what G fans were probably asking for at the time beats the hell out of him running away from the military like a scared iguana and remember when I said this movie had a sense of humor does that help any and I'm the imile H I don't know I think it'd be funnier if you talked about how that's a lot of fish SC all that freaking fish jeez these guys are like stormchasers except instead of Twisters they chase walking n nuclear bomb metaphors what are they trying to find out about Godzilla anyway it's like he's trying to destroy our energy sources well that shouldn't be a surprise in 1985 he used nuclear power like it was Red Bull while this is going on another government organization called crisis control intelligence also makes an important Discovery excuse me sir it's about the meteorite meteorite huh well it's a Godzilla movie so I'm sure it's nothing to worry about wait the meteors in the ocean damn too bad I didn't make this video in the summer then it could have uded a topical Titanic sub reference either way though I have a feeling these guys are going to end up vaporized anyway regarding the effects here this movie still mostly uses the tried andrue techniques of a guy in a suit stomping on miniature models but the quality of those things is generally pretty good sure it's not up to the level of a blockbuster Hollywood movie at the time but it does show at least a bit of a progression from the previous series of Godzilla films speaking of Godzilla did reporter lady get her pictures these negatives are as blank as your mind Godzilla's radiation foged the film great Godzilla destroyed Tokyo and her career and again about the dubbing not another Joy Ride with those freaks quit your [ __ ] and get me some pictures of Japanese Spider-Man damn it even though the humor is appreciated some of it is a little broad here down that hallway take the first left right then when you get to the end turn right left then right and if you were wondering if the goofy 8s Family movie soundtrack was in the original Japanese version no it isn't okay so the plot is reporter lady wants to join the Godzilla prediction Network to get more pictures something whatever it's a '90s Godzilla movie The Human story doesn't matter that much now I mentioned that the Practical effects are generally pretty well done here but this was also the first Godzilla movie to really start to incorporate CGI and digital compositing and it looks well just let have a look that wasn't a clip of the Sega Dreamcast tie-in game that's from the actual movie you know guys from now on maybe just leave the computer effects for stuff like this they managed to raise the meteorite from the ocean congratulations you found Gamer's shell what is this thing anyway it could be a vessel from outer space yeah but is it made of space titanium meanwhile the Gods Zilla prediction Network gets word that Godzilla's heading towards a nuclear power plant oh that's just lovely another Chernobyl yeah thank God there'll never be another nuclear disaster we could reference here by the way turns out the head of the gpn has a history with the guy who runs the other agency that's interested in Godzilla uh what is this guy's name kagiri didn't waste any time kagiri human bad guy got it basically prediction guy wants to study Godzilla while the other guy wants to kill him Godzilla needs to to be studied he's a gold mine of knowledge and in the meantime he just levels Tokyo you know I hate to say it but evil government guy does have a bit of a point there okay dude I just said you had a point don't undercut it with an evil laugh okay even if kadiri does want to kill Godzilla I don't think tanks are going to do the trick they haven't worked in any of the previous movies it doesn't matter how many you awkwardly green screen in as we know from experience when Godzilla's a attack he advances instead of Retreats yeah something tells me that line was a direct shot at the 1998 Godzilla they've also got a new type of missile that they're going to use against Godzilla and they've even got some lines from Patton to back it up I guarantee it'll go through Godzilla like crap through a goose yeah that's great and all but I think making a robot copy of Godzilla would be a lot more effective or whatever you can save that for one of the later Millennium Godzilla movies or two if you feel like it once again the effects in this movie are a real mixed bag some of the model work is pretty good but you also get some really wonky shots like this one where it's painfully obvious the suit actor is in front of a green screen and has just been awkwardly pasted into the background also some of these shots of the helicopters look like they're straight out of a Panasonic 3dio game this is the first Japanese Godzilla movie where parts of it feel like I'm watching cinematics from a video game also I got to talk about the Godzilla suit for a little bit here I know there's G fans that really love God zilla's look in this movie but I got to say it's not my favorite to me the Pinnacle of Godzilla suit design was reached in the Jay series he was intimidating and still had that classic Godzilla look this overly pointy spiky design seems like it's trying a little too hard to be late 9s extreme to the max like he's Bart Simpson Godzilla look even has frosted purple tips on his spines like he's about to chug some Mountain Dew and listen to No Effects don't get me wrong I don't think it's terrible but I wouldn't rank this as one of my favorite Godzilla designs I don't know let me know what you think in the comments anyway regarding those new missiles they're somewhat effective I mean they take some chunks out of Godzilla but wouldn't say they go through them like crap through a goose again you can't go wrong with a robot duplicate of Godzilla it might not kill him but he'll bleed really bad meanwhile the meteor they raised from the Ocean Suddenly Rises up and flies away I know I was joking earlier but is this actually gam shell turns out this giant flying dinosaur turd has a purpose it really wants Godzilla's DNA which leads to some of the less embarrassing CGI of the movie damn screw the new missiles they should just use that against Godzilla oh and here's another little nitpick I have with this movie it changed Godzilla's beam to an orangey red I know this is just a minor detail but to me Godzilla's beam is blue also even though I was kidding her earlier I think this meteor really is made out of space titanium I'm convinced that this vessel comes from another galaxy my God it's just too crazy to believe right like Godzilla's normal okay Fair Point what we must know is it dangerous to mankind look it's something from outer space in a Godzilla movie so at the very least it's dangerous to Japan anyway another PlayStation cut scene explains that it landed on Earth millions of years ago and laid dormant until the submarine lights hit it and that it can only function during the daytime a fact that I'm sure will remain consistent for the rest of the movie meanwhile reporter lady still wants some pictures uh hey what is her name anyway hey Yuki oh okay I guess it's Yuki oh so we're on a first name basis now are we okay well I can just go back to calling you reporter lady if you want and in case anyone still didn't know this movies from 1999 look an iMac anyway Godzilla prediction Network guy collects some of Godzilla's cells and makes a startling Discovery the first one shows clear signs of Scar damage but the second one is completely clear that's a remarkable healing speed so here's an interesting and Innovative idea this movie puts forward it's the first Godzilla flick to offer an explanation for how Godzilla can take so much punishment in previous movies Godzilla could shrug off missiles and bombs because well he's big he's tough so sure the military can't hurt him in this movie it explains that he can be hurt but he heals very quickly so instead of Superman he's more like Wolverine and they even have a name for this power regenerator G1 that could also be the name of a future movie in this series if regenerator G1 is the secret of Godzilla's healing ability it could revolutionize modern medicine if we could find a way to use it for humans then a regular person could level Tokyo oh right the meteor eventually the Sun hits it causing someone to violently shake it in Adobe After Effects it also sheds the last bit of rock covering and I I think I figured it out this thing came all the way from the planet PlayStation 2 let's see Dreamcast 3dio PlayStation if I can figure out a way to fit an Atari Jaguar reference in here then I'll really have my video game riffs down how can it still be alive after so long I just can't conceive of any life form that could survive for 60 million years I don't know isn't Godzilla technically a dinosaur he managed to take a power nap for millions of years until somebody used a nuke as an alarm clock the SP ship plants itself on top of a skyscraper which honestly could pass for a Tokyo Landmark they already have a building that looks like a giant foaming glass of beer this could pass for part of the skyline after all it does look pretty cool and right as I say that I should mention that this was the first Japanese Godzilla movie to use a fully CGI Godzilla and again just take a [Music] look wow that sure looked good you know some people criticize the Godzilla series for being slow to embrace CGI but if this was the best they could do in 1999 I think they were right to mostly stick with the man in a suit approach actually considering how good the CGI and Godzilla minus one seems to be it's pretty amazing how far the series has come since then and again in case you didn't know what year this movie was made look more IMAX which I think is what they made that CGI Godzilla on speaking of computers the spaceship hacks into the computers of the building it's on and just how is it doing that try the infrared filter oh [ __ ] the ship's Gone full hentai better evacuate every school girl in Tokyo this could be the end of our civilization you really call this civilization anything we don't understand we try to destroy yeah yeah yeah that's a very touching sentiment but for real though you are going to have to destroy this thing anyway katagiri decides to blow up the building the spaceship's on with some bombs but oh no reporter lady's still inside they got to go get her but how are they going to get inside the [Music] building oh okay that was surprisingly easy two people are still inside the tower sir who gave them access uh the commander kind of glanced away for a second and didn't feel like running after him uh if it's any consolation he says he's real sorry Yuki and the little girl managed to get out but Shinoda stays behind so we can download what I assume is some type of weird alien porn oh well cut a giri doesn't give a [ __ ] and decides to blow up the building anyway all right as much as I made fun of the bad CGI here the Practical effects in this movie are actually pretty cool Shinoda also manages to make it out of there alive although I'm pretty sure his hands would be shredded hamburger after doing this surprisingly though he's completely okay did he manage to figure out how to use regenerator G1 on himself he also figured out what the alien ship is doing they want to change our atmosphere to make it more suitable to their living condition they want to build their own Empire on Earth all right you don't need to be a genius to figure out aliens in a Godzilla movie are going to be bad even the ones who pretend to be friendly still turn out to be evil the aliens also want Godzilla's DNA so they can use his regenerative power to adapt to Earth speaking of which Godzilla shows up and man the green screening in this movie is really obvious it almost looks like Godzilla set Tokyo as his background on a zoom meeting thank God the model work here is good I don't know what mini mini is but apparently they have a cute little dinosaur mascot okay time for the final battle but instead of the over-the-top pro wrestling inspired fights that characterized the '70s Godzilla films this one goes a little different oh [ __ ] this is giving Godzilla some real bile anti flashbacks except wait this one isn't in continuity with that movie so probably not actually oh well like the trailer said if you can't stand the heat [Music] run that was pretty badass but it can't compare to what Godzilla does next I don't know why but I find that really funny also does anyone else think the ship in this movie looks like the one from Flight of the Navigator now at this point some of you might be thinking is this just going to be Godzilla versus a spaceship well not to worry because this movie does have a Kaiju fight because once again too made this as a rebuttal to the 1998 Godzilla which didn't have one mainly because it was too busy trying to be Jurassic Park instead the ship takes some of Godzilla's DNA which results in the creation of a weird CGI jellyfish thingy you know what maybe they should just go back to having him fight the spaceship just kidding this thing doesn't last long instead it uses Godzilla's DNA to transform into a monster called Orga although they never actually call it that in the movie orga's a decent monster he's not particularly memorable but I appreciate that they tried to go beyond the typical guy in a suit design and made him bulkier with bigger arms and thankfully the long arms here are more convincing than Kongs were in King Kong versus Godzilla the downside of the bulky suit is that he's not particularly mobile but he does have some other tricks up his sleeve see this is what a lot of people think of when they think of Godzilla two guys in Monster suits duking it out in a model City shooting energy beams at each other the big downside to this is that we don't see Orga until about an hour and 20 minutes into the movie the rest of it is mostly Godzilla dealing with a flying metal bicycle seat and now I guess that's gone even though his ships exploded orus still isn't done with Godzilla he's trying to become a Godzilla clone no no don't do that Godzilla's already fought enough of those and all this seems to have done is given Orga a weird CGI filter all right you know what Godzilla time to take care this guy once and for all keep that change you filthy animal just kidding org is still alive he's all hopped up on that sweet regenerator G1 now I said Orga isn't a very memorable enemy for Godzilla and that's mostly true but he does do one thing that's memorable okay this is pretty weird but thankfully Godzilla has has a foolproof plan of sticking his head directly into orga's mouth okay I can't exactly explain why but this part feels really dirty for some reason weirdly enough in the manga adaptation of the movie orgo was so big he almost swallowed Godzilla whole and what do you know turns out Godzilla putting his head in there was a good strategy yeah that's right nobody [ __ ] with the King and so Tokyo is saved um kind of ah but wait we can't end the movie just yet first we need another awesome moment for the trailer Godzilla goes up to katagiri which leads to one of the best moments in Godzilla movie history Godzilla yeah that's right up there with Godzilla blasting that World War II vet from Godzilla versus King gadora that would be a good place to end it but they got to leave on some pseudo philosophical stuff we scientists produced this monster and ever since we tried to destroy him but then why why does he keep protecting us perhaps the real Godzilla is in here maybe because Godzilla is inside each one of us all right dude I was kidding that makes no sense also I don't think he's protecting you you probably just killed Orga cuz he wanted to level Tokyo all by himself so that's Godzilla 2000 and this was definitely a more authentic Godzilla experience than the 1998 American one but how does it compare to other movies in the series to me this is a textbook example of a midlevel Godzilla flick it's enjoyable the tone is relatively light without being as goofy and childish as some of the 70s entries but I wouldn't count it as one of the best Godzilla flicks Godzilla shows up right away and does what he does best namely stomp Tokyo which would have been a nice pallet cleanser after the 1998 American one on the downside Orga is an okay but pretty unremarkable enemy for Godzilla and we don't even get to see him until the last 15 minutes of the movie not to mention the early attempts to incorporate CGI here are extremely awkward and dated I know people like to poke fun at the man in a suit approach but I take that over this any day overall the fact that this isn't relyant on previous continuity combined with the light but not too goofy tone makes this a pretty good starter movie for people who are looking to get into Godzilla but I wouldn't put it up there with the best despite being promoted pretty heavily Godzilla 2000 underperformed at the North American box office and as a result a Japanese Godzilla film wouldn't get a theatrical release there again until Shin Godzilla in 2016 although considering how well Godzilla minus one did in North America maybe that means any future Japanese Godzilla flicks will get wide theatrical releases here too so there you go I did another godz Zilla movie and it's my last video of the year so I'll see you all in 2024 well it's all for now until next you guys saw that [Music] right [Music] jeez you stink no you breath [Music] h

Channel: Brandon Tenold

Views: 230,588

Keywords: Godzilla, Godzilla 2000, Kaiju, Japan, Brandon Tenold, Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews, Cult Film

Id: GbZP2iqJ3MQ

Length: 25min 11sec (1511 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2023