Gojira ni-sen mireniamu (1999) Directed by Takao Okawara

Maybe this is the most misunderstood and underrated Gojira movie out of the bunch. I really loved this movie and it is a wonderful homage to the series, as well as a great new and promising start of the 'millennium series'.

Don't really know or understand why this movie isn't liked more. Perhaps the 1998 American "Godzilla" movie left such a bad aftertaste in people's mouths that they went in to see this movie with their hopes too high and too much anticipation of getting a much better movie. But what did people get? Well, just a bunch of guys in some rubber suits again, some bad looking CGI and a silly story with some poorly written characters in it. But really, how does that make this movie any different from any of the other previous Japanese Gojira movies? Maybe it's just not what modern audiences were expecting to get, especially not those who weren't familiar with any of the other Gojira movies from the past, after hearing people repeatedly bashing the 1998 American movie and praising the traditional Japanese movie series. But really, after having seen all of the 22 Gojira movies that came before this one, I have to say that this is absolutely one of my favorite ones!

This movie feels like a perfect combination of old school- and new modern cinema. It's respectfully paying homage to all of the classic Gojira movies from the past but at the same time it's also trying to update the character and franchise as a whole, to make it ready for the new millennium.

In a lot of ways, this movie actually seems like a compilation of all of the previous Gojira movies, made prior to this one. The journalist character, the scientist, the little kid, the silly James Bond type of villain, an environmental message, power-lines, tanks, Gojira being both a good and bad guy in this movie, etcetera. This movie really features a lot of familiar ingredients in it, even more so than most of the other Gojira sequels, without feeling like the movie is only rehashing things. It actually feels like a very original and fresh movie, while still remaining loyal to the spirit and style of the 'old' series.

I also definitely like Gojira's new look in this movie. He's bigger, more powerful and evil looking than ever before and his new roar only establishes this even more.

One of the things I also really like about this movie is how not necessarily the great kaijus are the biggest threat for the people in Tokyo in this movie but modern technology is. I can't help but think that this also was meant as a metaphor for how modern technology can ruin things, such as movies as well. Ironically enough, the movie itself also does still feature some pretty poor looking CGI effects in it though.

The action is just as awesome as ever and definitely fun to watch. The kaiju fights are great and there is plenty of great, classic, destruction in this movie. And while some of the movie its effects look outdated, it still at the same time remains the best and most convincing looking Gojira movie that I have seen till date. It's also definitely more in the vein of modern monster movies, in terms of how it looks while, as I said before, the movie still remains loyal to its classic monster movie roots as well.

Absolutely one of the most fun and best Gojira movies that I have seen and an almost perfect transition between the old-style and new-style kaiju movies.

8/10

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