Godzilla Vs Megaguirus (2000)

Plot Outline: The Japanese have a new weapon up their sleeves in order to destroy Godzilla. Say hello to the Dimension Tide, a huge device in space which creates artificial black holes! They plan to use it on Godzilla and send him into oblivion. During a practice of the weapon, an insect escapes and it lays an egg. A little boy finds the egg and keeps it until he moves to the city, where he dumps in in the sewers. The egg hatches and out comes an insect, which proceeds to lay more eggs. Soon there are hundreds of the insects which are attracted to Godzilla as an energy source. The insects feed off Godzilla's energy and return to their home in the sewers where a giant insect is growing. The insect finally gets enough energy to move around and homes in on Godzilla for a nice spot of breakfast before contemplating destroying mankind. Can Godzilla defeat Megaguirus or will the Japanese destroy the solar system with their black hole weapon?

The Review: It's arguably the best of the post-Godzilla 2000 films (up until this review, this was the latest Godzilla flick) but that doesn't really say much because the emphasis on these new films has been special effects over plot and monster action. In their haste to improve the effects, the makers of the film seem to have recycled ideas from previous films and spruced them up with some new effects. An example of this is the fight between Godzilla and the smaller giant bugs which is highly reminiscent of a scene from Godzilla Vs Destroyer. It's regurgitated here to a lesser effect. Another annoying trait of the film is, like the other post-Godzilla 2000 films, that it completely disregards what happened in the other films and resets the timeline back to scratch again. Showing a bit of continuity between films is the way to go forward and it's no surprise that the best films of the series were the ones from Godzilla Vs King Ghidorah onwards which were all linked by various plot threads. One step forward (or backward in some people's eyes) is that it slightly returns to the cartoon-violence style escapades of the 70s as Godzilla delivers a body press to Megaguirus. It's a groan moment but it's certainly a highlight. Megaguirus is also a relatively decent opponent for Godzilla. The fight between the two monsters at the end of the film is pretty good and they get into a lot of physical, close combat. I prefer seeing this as opposed to two monsters firing their beams at each other. But Megaguirus lacks the character of Godzilla's best opponents and doesn't seem to pose the threat that Destroyer did. Why don't Toho reinvent Gigan, my second favourite monster from the series? They could do a really good job on him should they opt to do that instead of making some pretty piss poor new creations like Megaguirus and Orga. At least Gigan is popular with the fans and they could so some kick ass stuff with him.

Final Verdict: Toho doesn't show the same faith in Godzilla as it once had and Godzilla Vs Megaguirus is proof of this. It's basically a rehash of other films with some better special effects. Until they start taking some risks once again, Toho will find that Godzilla begins to lose his inimitable popularity.

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