After Tri-Star's GODZILLA bombed many fans thought they weren't going to see another Godzilla film again. Instead, the opposite happened. Two month's after GODZILLA was released, Godzilla 2000 went into development as a direct response to Tri-Star's GODZILLA. Godzilla 2000 would be the first movie to mark a new series consisting of six Godzilla films called The Millenium Series, which goes from 1999 - 2004. The new series is an anthology series made up of sequels to the original 1954 movie (except for Godzilla: Tokyo SOS being the only sequel to Godzilla X MechaGodzilla). It is even the first Japanese Godzilla movie to be released in American theaters since Godzilla1985.
Most of the general audience confused Godzilla 2000 as a direct sequel to Tri-Star's GODZILLA. Because of the confusion the movie bombed in the box office.
There was a sequel for Godzilla 2000 that Tri-Star had an idea for called Godzilla Reborn. It started as a joke between Michael Schlesinger and Jon Davison after TOHO complimented Michael on the good job he did with distributing Godzilla 2000. When Michael talked to his friends more and more an idea started to take shape and a story for a sequel was hatched. They brought the idea to Tristar and they told them to submit a script for it before requesting to make it. So a script was made and instead of a serious movie like Godzilla 2000, it was more comedic. It would have took place on one of the islands of Hawaii where the main character was a player and would try to hook up with beach girls. Godzilla would do battle with a bat monster born from a volcano called Miba. It would have been a low budget man-in-suit film with some satire, but the project was shot down after TOHO asked for too much money on the project.
Review:
A group of Godzilla chasers must team up with a rivaling agency to unravel the mystery of a UFO that threatens Japan and its interest in Godzilla after waking up from a dormant state.
This is the first actual Godzilla film that I saw in theaters (GODZILLA (1998) doesn't count). Out of all the Godzilla movies that had aliens invading, this is my most favorite one. I liked how it didn't reveal so much information on the alien as much like race and the planet it came from and left those parts as a mystery. The story as a whole isn't boring or tedious like the previous Godzilla films. There are two rival networks, the Godzilla Prediction Network and the Crisis Control Intelligence agency. GPN are like storm chasers, but they study Godzilla instead of tornadoes and the CCI are there to stop Godzilla before he comes any closer by all means necessary. They have contrasting views on how they see Godzilla. It sort of goes back to the original 1954 movie. There are people that saw Godzilla as something that needs to be studied and others saw him as a threat. So it all stems down to the question which is more important, risking many lives to study Godzilla or kill Godzilla and save many lives.
Godzilla's foe has two other forms other than the UFO and the final form becomes Godzilla's main opponent in the movie. The monster that Godzilla fights is called Orga, based on the name of Godzilla's cells. As cool as it looks, it isn't as tough of an opponent as say Gigan or King Ghidorah. I like the fights in the movie, but Orga really does not do all that much. It has a beam attack and can turn into a Godzilla clone, but that is about it. I wish that there was more than just Orga getting pummeled to death. Godzilla looks awesome in this one. He looks like a bipedal crocodile and his dorsal plates look so chaotic like fire. There was a CGI Godzilla that was made, but only for one scene where he's swimming under water and it looks kind of stiff. Of course, I think this is when TOHO starts experimenting and it's notice-able too in the other Godzilla movies in this series.
Final Verdict:
Godzilla 2000 is a solid Godzilla movie in the series that was heavily over looked. It is definitely worth the watch.