long with his plucky and business-minded daughter, Io (Suzuki), Yuji Shinoda (Murata) devotes his life to running the Godzilla Prediction Network, a rogue group of scientists that tracks the monster's movements and tries to, well, predict what the great and mysterious creature is going to do next.
As the Shinodas soon discover, Godzilla is indeed headed toward the shores of Japan once again. The King of Monsters proceeds to destroy an entire power station, along with the better part of the surrounding city.
Meanwhile, a number of government scientists have discovered a huge, ancient meteorite on the ocean floor. As they try to raise the thing to the surface, it seems to emerge from the murky depths on its own, eventually standing itself upright to face the sun.
The government powers responsible for dealing with such scenarios, led by a stern and ruthless man named Katagiri (Abe), decide to keep the meteorite tied down until they can figure out what it's all about. They've also developed a new anti-Godzilla weapon and are determined to stop Godzilla from wrecking another city.
The weapon fails, leaving an even more agitated Godzilla on their hands, while the "meteorite," which is actually a sentient alien spacecraft, takes off and is gunning for Godzilla!
With the help of a sassy reporter, Yuki Ichinose (Nishida)--who finds her Godzilla research periodically being downloaded from her computer by powers unknown--the GPN pulls together to find out just what this alien craft wants, why it's after Godzilla, and what the King of Monsters is going to do about it.
An interesting mix of old and new
Back in the hands of its creators, Japan's Toho Studios, Godzilla returns to its roots, steering clear of the 1998 Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin take on the franchise. In fact, Godzilla 2000 admits no connection whatsoever with the '98 Hollywood film, and even breaks from the continuity of many of Toho's previous offerings. It most closely resembles the 1954 original and Godzilla 1985.
And, while Godzilla has returned to his classic look (i.e., a guy in a rubber suit), he's undergone some interesting changes. Thanks to some borrowing from the all-computer-generated '98 Godzilla, 2000's monster is a little leaner and meaner. His dorsal spikes are particularly maxed-out and his ultra-powerful radioactive breath has never been cooler.
By Hollywood standards, the effects in Godzilla 2000 don't really rate. For a Godzilla film, however, they're pretty good, and director Takao Okawara (Godzilla vs. Destroyer, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II) succeeds in presenting Godzilla in some refreshing, although not entirely successful, ways (in other words, it's not all models and painted sets).
The story has a few echoes of Hollywood disaster pics, like Twister, in its mix. The big monster battles and the monstrous adversary borrow to some degree from movies like Independence Day and War of the Worlds. Add the weak characterization and a narrative that develops in a clunky, undramatic fashion and the total isn't likely to be the best G-fans have ever seen.
American audiences may get an even rougher deal. U.S. distributors have added more camp to the film courtesy of hokey dubbing that awkwardly butts up against the film's more serious tones and provides only a few cheap laughs with its Americanized dialogue.
The question now is--from which side of the Pacific will the next sequel emerge?
