GODZILLA 2003 (Hey REDFIELD!!!!)

[The Frog]

GODZILLA 2003

Spoilers in there, if you're worried. But what the heck...

Linky link!

"Godzilla 2003: Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla"

GENERAL REVIEW

Best. Godzilla Movie. Ever.

This movie is a very solid step forward in the franchise. Improvements abound in the movie on all fronts: story, effects, actor selection - everything.

The story is more "Hollywood", in a good way. The production value is a solid step better - both overall and in some nicely done special-effect scenes.

The main character is a pretty girl in the military and is definitely easy on the eyes. The storyline, while more "Hollywood-ized", retains most of the classic Godzilla franchise pieces: the flashback, the discussion of "Should we kill him? He has saved us in the past", the multiple fights, the emotional human subplot. There is even a little kid involved in this story but not in an annoying way.

IMPORTANT:

Be sure to watch the 3 minutes of movie at the very end of the credits. If this is shown in theaters, make sure they show it. Don't let them assume that no one watches the credits!! (End of preaching to the choir)

SPOILERS

New Roar

Godzilla has a new, 2-part roar. The second part is the same as the previous movies. The first part, though, I first thought was a mistake. It sounded more like a bear growl turned to 11. Good? Bad? It fits the character and I'm not for or against it.

Sub-plot

There is a subplot wherein the main scientist's little girl is always carrying a plant with her. Her mom died and the plant is sort of a reflection/vessel for mom's spirit (it's not really, but it's a little girl). What should be noted is that the subplot here is not as annoying as the "psychic girl" with the big ears from a couple movies back. If anything, the subplot provides a slower paced area of dialogue outside the nice Godzilla fighting going on.

Nicely done scenes

Some nicely done special effects scenes include the end of Mecha-Godzilla's rampage. After MG makes a door out of a really tall building (which remains standing) the sun comes up as the batteries run down. As MG winds down with the sun rising in the background, the wind blows the dust off the shoulders - overall nicely done.

The 2nd fight shows MG over nighttime Tokyo flying into the fight under it's own power. The rear shot of MG hovering after being released, then quickly jetting off with a swish of the tail looks cool.

We first see the original Godzilla skeleton when it is revealed through a James Bond fashion: the small meeting room wall opens to show that the building behind the wall is mostly a huge tank with the huge skeleton laid prostrate facing the meeting room. As the meeting room rises up (it's a big elevator) the view of the skeleton is pretty cool.

Plot outline (kinda long)

The movie starts in 1999 and shows the main character as the driver for an electrical cannon trucks (the satellite dish that shoots electricity at Godzilla). The pretty girl driver is on the side of a hillside a dark and stormy night as Godzilla is walking by. After her convoy is unsuccessful is stopping Godzilla, the girl takes it upon herself to fire the electo-cannon and *really* piss Godzilla off. In response big-G causes a landslide, which forces the convoy to hurriedly back-up - and in the confusion, her truck shoves the officer-filled command Nissan Patchfinder off the cliff. Does anyone survive the horrible fall and rollover? Not after Godzilla squished it underfoot. Now that the girl is hated by all, she is forced to work in the library for a few years.

Jumping ahead to today (well, May 2003) we find that the government has a new idea: use the skeleton of the first Godzilla to provide DNA for a modified Mecha-Godzilla. The scientist of the movie is recruited by a creepy guy with glasses (a la the Matrix) and is whisked to the big government building where the anti-Godzilla project is under way. The government man tells the assembled group of scientists that the plan is to use the skeleton of Godzilla from the first movie - then the wall covering behind him opens to reveal that the room behind him is a huge water tank filled with Godzilla's skeleton. A nice James Bond-ish touch, and an OK special effect.

The pretty girl from 1999 gets re-instated and starts training, although one guy on the team really doesn't like her.

A big conference is held for the suits to demonstrate the new Mecha-Godzilla (MG) and it's impressive. It can fly on it's own, it has rockets that shoot sideways out of it's back, there are lasers and missiles out the front as well as the mouth-housed electricity thing, and the best part is the new weapon-of-the-movie "Absolute Zero". Using the skeleton DNA a way was found to re-create a Godzilla atomic-breath-type weapon, which freezes something large (as building is shown), and once frozen solid the object can be shattered.

Since this is a movie the demonstration isn't over before the real Godzilla attacks and everyone rolls into action. Since the new MG is remote-controlled, the new anti-Godzilla team jumps into their 3 fancy airplanes: 2 to carry MG to the site, and a third to guide the action.

This is getting long, so let me shorten this up:

The first fight sees MG malfunction when a Godzilla roar interacts with the Godzilla DNA brain pieces the scientists used. Godzilla gets away while MG freaks out and goes on a one hour destruction spree until it's batteries run down.

The second fight goes well, with MG arriving at the last second to body check Godzilla and prevent some good people at the hospital from getting vaporized.

The action builds with some damage done on both sides, MG gets it's backpack stripped off in pieces as well as taking some atomic-breath damage.

Finally Godzilla is down for the count, but MG is out of juice and laying unresponsive to remote controls. The answer? The girl jumps out of her plane and enters the manual control cockpit inside MG (If you look closely, the access control panel she uses to open the hatch has a warning label which is only in english).

Once inside she realizes the only way to recharge the batteries is to use the new power-relay setup. After all the electricity to Tokyo is turned off, a satellite dish beams power to one of the airplanes, which redirects it to MG. Now MG is powered up and ready to go.

As soon as MG gets up, though, Godzilla hits it from behind with the atomic breath and it's almost over.

A second airplane flies at Godzilla as a distraction, but is caught in it's jaws. As the guy screams for the girl to whammy Godzilla (and him) with "Absolute Zero" the girl gets an idea. Launching MG into a hug with Godzilla, she strips the plane out of Godzilla's mouth - with the pilot ejecting to safety as things blow up. Embraced nose-to-nose Godzilla begins lighting up for an atomic breath blast - but the girl gets MG's hand to clamp Godzilla's hand shut as the rockets fire, carrying both to the ocean. Just and the two monsters crash into the ocean the "Absolute Zero" is activated and a good half-mile diameter of ocean is turned to solid ice.

After a slight dramatic pause we see the ice crack and Godzilla rises up. There is a bloody chunk missing from the lower torso, and he looks pretty upset. With a roar Godzilla turns and begins walking out to sea.

After a slight pause we see MG rise up, now missing most of the right arm and overall looking really messed up. The girl is OK but MG is only good for standing up.

With Godzilla on his way to see the girl goes out onto the shoulder of MG and watches our favorite monster make his way home.

The very end of the credits has a final 3 minutes in the hangar where MG is being repaired. We find that everything is now fine with the little girl from this movie (I omitted because it was boring), her dad, and the lady pilot.

The pretty girl ends up saluting MG and walks triumphantly.



MAN IN SUIT!

MAN IN SUIT!

MAN IN SUIT!

[Redfield]

Originally posted by TheFrog
MAN IN SUIT!

MAN IN SUIT!

MAN IN SUIT!

MAN IN SUIT!
MAN IN SUIT!!
MAN IN SUIT!!!

[The Frog]

Dang it, I wish they'd get the 1991-1996 movies on DVD already!