After Tristar failed to impress with its infamous 1998 "remake", Toho wanted to redeem their beloved kaiju's honor by starting the Millennium films. This series started off pretty strong with "Godzilla 2000" but then went downhill with this next installment. How so?
Plot: Set in an alternate history where Godzilla was never killed by the Oxygen Destroyer, the King of the Monsters has Japan living in terror in his shadow for years. Fed up with his destructive antics, the military force known as G-Graspers recruits a few of the most brilliant minds to create the ultimate weapon Dimension Tide, a cannon that fires miniature black holes. During one of DT's tests, however, a wormhole is formed, causing giant prehistoric dragonflies to come forth, chief among them being their parasitic queen Megaguirus. When Godzilla suddenly reappears, it becomes a three-way struggle between man, reptile, and bug.
Positives: Godzilla retains his look from "Godzilla 2000", a radical but cool design, but this time he is actually green instead of charcoal grey/black. He's also given a bit of personality with simple but subtle movements giving the viewer an idea of what he is thinking. In an interesting move, Toho brought back the insects (Meganulons, based on an actual extinct species called Meganeura) from "Rodan" and gave them a modern update. They're legitimately creepy and Megaguirus is a nice foe for Godzilla, being not only brutal but pretty sadistic. I have to admit using a black hole gun against Godzilla is creative, proving once again that there is still room for imagination in a series about a giant city-smashing, monster-bashing dinosaur. The film's central theme is an interesting one to say the least, how man seeks newer and hopefully cleaner sources of power but somehow keeps failing with Godzilla and Megaguirus being dark parallels/antitheses of that concept. The music is also decent, the main theme of which gets carried on in future films, and the action is entertaining enough with a few unexpectedly funny moments.
Where this film falls flat is ultimately the execution of every aspect of it. While some of the practical stuff looks fine, a majority of the effects are terribly outdated, especially when compared to other Godzilla films like "Godzilla 2000"; the predecessor manages to hide its flaws as most of the kaiju scenes happen at night while most of this film occurs during the day where the flaws are far more noticeable. The suits/puppets, despite having decent range of motion, tend to feel stiff and the CGI+green screen are far too obvious and not well-rendered. The movie really does seem cheap because of these shortcomings. While some effort was put in the human characters, most of them don't leave that big of an impression. Technician Kudo is at least amusing in that he's a bit egotistical in his talents but is still willing to help others, especially his crush Major Kiriko. As the female lead, an attempt was made in making Kiriko compelling but she fails to pull any heartstrings and almost comes off as a b****, plus her vendetta against Godzilla doesn't hold much weight when you really consider her choices within her backstory. Hell, some of the human characters make decisions that don't have any legit sense of logic. Finally, the film has many great ideas but doesn't go far enough with them, especially when you get down to the insects, which seem more of an inconvenience to the humans rather than a serious threat rivaling Godzilla, therefore there's this lack of presence to them from time to time.
This is by far the weakest of the Millennium films, a good concept hampered by an underwhelming execution. This may be worth a watch, but it would be best viewed with low expectations. Not the worst in the franchise (*cough* "Godzilla's Revenge"), but not the best either.
