GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM | Movie Review

 

GODZILLA 2000: MILLENNIUM
(Gojira Nisen Mireniamu)
December 11, 1999

As Godzilla continually rampages across Japan, the government seeks to destroy him while a research team attempts to study him. Soon a bigger threat emerges after a floating rock emerges from the sea, reveals itself as an alien spacecraft and takes a particularly dangerous interest in Godzilla. 

Despite being a box office success, Roland Emmerich's Godzilla received overwhelming scorn from critics and fans alike. 
With Tomoyuki Tanaka's death in 1998, Shogo Tomiyama took over his duties as executive producer at Toho Studios. Their original plan was to end the Godzilla series after 1995's Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and keep the series dormant for about 10 years. But now, their star's reputation had been damaged and Toho had to act quickly. 

Thus a new series of films began that would come to be known as the Millennium Series.
What's unique about the films in the Millennium Series is that each entry (with one exception) takes place in its own separate continuity only following the original 1954 Godzilla, making it essentially a "What If...?" style series. Godzilla 2000: Millennium is probably the most basic "a second Godzilla appears after the original died in 1954" set-up. Several crew members from the Heisei films would return to work on this movie, including director Takao Okawara and special effects director, Kenji Suzuki. 

As usual, a new series means a new look for Godzilla, one that keeps his traditional design but updates it in key aspects. The best way I can describe Godzilla in this movie is sharp, his skin looks more jagged, his dorsal fins are long and spikier and his teeth are far more pronounced than most suits.
But an even more dramatic change came with the skin color. Instead of the traditional charcoal grey, Godzilla is now colored dark green. After many years of Godzilla being colored green in US marketing and the Hanna Barbara cartoon, it's crazy to see Japan officially make Godzilla green and on top of that, his Atomic Breath is now orange, another staple of Godzilla marketing now made official. 
Also, Godzilla's dorsal fins are tinted purple. An odd choice, but it complements the green very well. Overall I love this Godzilla design very much, it easily fits in my top 5. 

Stepping into the new suit was stunt actor, Tsutomu Kitagawa, who spent most of his career acting in various Super Sentai shows and playing his fair share of monsters before taking on the mantle of the King of the Monsters. Kitagawa does an great job in his first outing as Godzilla, doing his best to give him unique personality traits such as him flinging his head back before unleashing his Atomic Breath and despite the face being mostly expressionless, you can still tell what Godzilla is thinking through subtle movements.  

This movie contains a solid cast of core characters to follow.

Our main characters consist of Shinoda and his daughter Io (Takehiro Murata & Mayu Suzuki), who head the Godzilla Prediction Network. Accompanying them is the whiny but endearing photographer Yuki (Naomi Nishida)

It's quite interesting to have a group that essentially act like storm chasers, but instead of a tornado, they chase Godzilla. Shinoda also makes an interesting discovery regarding Godzilla's invulnerability. In addition to his thick skin, he also possesses a rapid healing factor, which is named Organizer G1 (Regenerator G1 in the English dub.)

An interesting concept of this film is the dynamic philosophy it presents. In many ways it feels like a continuation of those seen in the first Godzilla, the study vs. destroy debate. Shinoda and the Godzilla Prediction Network is on the study side, while the government agency, Crisis Control Intelligence led by Katagiri (Hiroshi Abe) is on the destroy side. Katagiri both looks and talks like he's one bad day away from becoming a super villain. In the middle of the conflict is the character of Miyasaka (Shiro Sano), Shinoda's old friend who works for the CCI tasked with studying the UFO. 

This new film sees a warm return to suits and miniature sets, along with the addition of several CGI effects. Most of the time they're fine but other uses can be quite noticeable. The worst effect in the movie by far is a green screen shot of Godzilla walking out of the ocean and onto the shore with superimposed helicopters.
The new score by Takayuki Hattori while good in it's own right, doesn't always lend itself well to the action scenes and can feel a bit too repetitive. 

For the first films of the past series, Godzilla would always be solo. This time, Godzilla would face a foe. Not just a spacecraft, but a new alien creature named Orga (Makoto Ito). Orga is an attempt to produce a duplicate of Godzilla gone horribly wrong ending up more like a hulking, Xenomorph-like, brute. I don't know if there was any talks or pressure to use an established monster, but I'm personally glad they went with an original creation. Orga is a fine addition to Toho's roster.

Orga was designed in part to resemble the 1998 Godzilla.

This would not be last time these movies would have a dig at that tuna eating monster.

After fans were robbed of a monster clash due to the hypocritical cheapness of studio heads, it must have been refreshing to see Godzilla and Orga go head to head with each other. The fight isn't a fast paced one, it's a wrestling match with biting, clawing and atomic blasting. Orga having absorbed Godzilla's DNA with his healing factor makes him a formidable opponent and actually forces Godzilla to use a rather unconventional method of attack by round 3. 

"...there was a great fear in the fandom that we were going to treat this the way some of the Jackie Chan movies have been treated. Ya know, rip out half an hour and slap some rap and metal onto the soundtrack and I said 'No, we're going to respect the integrity of this movie as much as we can.' We really didn't cut any major scenes out we really just tightened it..."

-Michael Schlesinger, head writer/producer for "Godzilla 2000"

Godzilla 2000: Millennium would be picked up by Sony for distribution in the United States, with the title shortened to simply "Godzilla 2000." This led to unintentional confusion among moviegoers who thought it was a sequel to the 1998 film. Even more maddening is the fact that whenever the subject of Godzilla 2000 gets brought up, many will assume I'm talking about the 1998 film. I have to correct people every time and I have to wonder if it's ever going to end...

The changes made to Godzilla 2000 were not as drastic as the films distributed in the past. 

The changes that stand out the most have to do with the sound of the movie. Much of the score and sound effects were redone. The new music pieces by J. Peter Robinson are quite good and in some cases actually enhance the movie, he even included some classic Akira Ifukube scores for good measure. The added/enhanced sound effects are good, but just like most US reedits of Godzilla films, they always have to have him constantly roaring. It wouldn't be so bad if they at least kept the roars consistent. Along with the new roar created by Toho, samples of the 1998 roar were inserted in, despite Schlesinger's claims that they didn't...sure Jan.
Implementing an English language dub was obvious, most of the voice actors do a great job and don't sound too over the top. There are a few lines thrown in just for a fun campy value, in particular the heavy metal missile scene where one of the generals states: "I guarantee it'll go through Godzilla like crap through a goose!" Good stuff.
Also 9 minutes of more or less establishing shots were removed for the film to help speed up the pace.

Godzilla 2000 was the last Godzilla film released theatrically in the United States to be substantially edited on August 17, 2000. I didn't even know about it until one of my classmates came up to me knowing how much of a fan I was and asking me "Hey are you going to see Godzilla 2000?" I was confused, until he showed me a full page advertisement for it in one of his gaming magazines. Then trailers started playing on TV complete with Don Lafontaine narration, Rob Zombie music and even Michael Buffer shouting: "GET READY TO CRUMBLE!!!"

It was one of the few Godzilla movies released stateside in my lifetime and sadly, I never got to see it. No theater close to my vicinity was showing it.

Then one day, my parents came home with a bunch of movies on DVD from the Walmart $5 movie bin and one of them was Godzilla 2000. 10 year old me was ecstatic beyond belief. The DVD was also the first time I discovered the wonderful world of DVD audio commentaries. I actually really like the English dubbed version of Godzilla 2000. This is actually one of the odd rare cases where many fans prefer the dub to the original version, I don't know if I'd place myself in that camp. But I will say both versions have their merit and deserve to coexist as watchable options. 

Godzilla 2000: Millennium isn't the best film of the Millennium series and overall it probably ranks as one of the mid-tier films for a lot of fans. But I find it to be a good comfort movie, to me it's the equivalent of eating McDonald's fries, you know there are better options, but on the right day it slaps like nothing else. 
Back then, this movie was needed after so many were disappointed by how the 1998 film turned out. Toho came and patted us on the shoulder saying it was gonna be alright, this was only the start of the new and interesting direction Godzilla would go in the following years.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

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ROBOT SPIRITS ATLAS DESTROYER | Figure Review

If I'm being honest, I did not expect figures to come from Pacific Rim: The Black. So when a figure based on the training Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer was announced, you can imagine my surprise. 

At first glance Atlas Destroyer's design is pretty basic next to the many unique Jaeger's of the past, what helps her stand out the most is her color scheme which I love.

The figure itself looks really nice, pretty accurate to the show and loaded with all kinds of finer details from the panel lines, mechanical inner workings and even subtle details like the entry hatches on the top of Atlas' head.

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of blue mixed with yellow, I do think it works for Atlas along with the grey for her mechanical workings. If you'll notice the shades of yellow over the majority of her body are different from certain spots such as her chest, biceps and hands. 
Her red visor is made of clear material which looks very nice. 
And she has a nicely applied PPDC logo on her back.

One of the more distracting features of Atlas Destroyer is the copyright/legal writings which on figures like these would normally be applied to the bottom of the feet is plastered on her backside. 
Was there really no room on Atlas' feet to put that stuff? I call shenanigans because compared to Lady Avenger's info, Bandai could have easily fit it on the bottom of Atlas' foot. But no, instead we're stuck with what is essentially, a Jaeger tramp stamp. 
(That is a series of words I never thought I would have to type out...what even is my life anymore?)

As with the past Robot Spirits Jaeger figures, Atlas Destroyer has a great range of articulation with some limitations and annoyances.

Her head is attached to a ball joint on a neck piece which can look up/down a little bit, look left/right & tilt side to side. 

Moving Atlas' arms can be interesting at times. I say this because of her shoulder pads which just love to pop off while moving the arms. Once you get the hang of handling them with their tiny hinge, the arms can fully rotate, move in/out at the shoulder. The bicep can also rotate at the shoulder. The arm has a double jointed elbow and the hands can freely move on the ball joint.

The chest can bend forward/backward, side to side and we get slight left/right rotation. The stomach can rotate at the waist a lot more, but I would not recommend trying to force a full rotation. 

The legs can move forward/backward and can only move out at the hips a tad.
The Knees are also double jointed and the feet can move up/down, rotate and pivot nicely.

If you want even more dynamic poses you can use a standard Tamashii Nations stands that can plug into Atlas'...um...
Let's just say there is a very noticeable/unintentionally hilariously placed peg hole located in her underside. 

Atlas Destroyer comes with a few neat accessories along with a pair of open hands.

If you remember in the show, Atlas has to jettison her right arm and eventually gets a new one that used to belong to a Jaeger named Chaos Nemesis, which is just a cool name and I wish we could see what she looks like fully. Just by the arm alone, I imagine she looks really cool and edgy. But still her arm does look pretty cool attached to Atlas. 

The Chaos Nemesis arm has the same amount of movement as her regular arm but the hand has a few differences. 
The hand can rotate at the wrist and the claws can all rotate and move in and out.

The final accessory is a piece representing the Saber-Chain weapon. Getting this one can be tricky, you have to remove the piece at the base of the hand. 

DO NOT use tweezers to try and pull it off, otherwise you risk damaging the piece. This is where fingernails come in handy. I recommend taking the claws off first and then using your finger nails to wiggle and pull out the plug. Then you'll notice both the plug and the Saber-Chain have a tab at the end that you'll need to line up to peg in.

When all's said and done, the Saber-Chain piece looks great and should be handled with the utmost care given how flimsy it is.

It always makes this Pacific Rim junkie happy to see new figures come out. At this time, no other figures from 'Pacific Rim: The Black' have been confirmed, Jaeger or Kaiju. I'd personally love a Copperhead figure. I hope more are announced, but I think I'd be satisfied if Atlas Destroyer was the only one we got. It does cost a bit more money than the Uprising figures when they came out, but it really all depends on where you buy it from. But I can look past the price because this is a damn good figure worth every penny.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

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SH MONSTERARTS GIGAN (2004) + GREAT DECISIVE BATTLE Ver. | Figure Review

There's 2 things about me that should be obvious, most of my figure reviews are reissues of old figures and I love Gigan more than any sane Godzilla fan should.
But now I find myself in a situation where I was actually able to buy the original release when it came out and now I have the reissue. So I guess we're reviewing both! 

I wouldn't start collecting SH MonsterArts figures until late 2015. After getting a few of the recent releases at the time, I decided to see about getting some past releases. I managed to get a King Kong 2005 from Toy's R Us, I found a good deal on ebay for a Mothra 1992 and I was super excited when I got my boy Gigan 2004 off of Amazon for less than it's MSRP. 

I'm gonna try not to be too bias here, but this Gigan looks amazing! From head to foot, Gigan is super detailed with his cybernetic appearance, the entire body has what look like veins on it that really stand out. 

The sculpt is overall great, but I don't know if it's just me, but Gigan looks thinner than he actually is in the film.
The paint really helps the finer details of Gigan stand out. His body is painted a dark blue with shades of black, his armor and spikes are silver and his visor and wings are red. 

Gigan's head is very impressive, the visor is a clear plastic piece that looks great with the right lighting. He can open his mouth, but because of his teeth he can never fully close it and he always looks like he has this sadistic smile at all times. I really love that, it fits his character well.

But looks aren't everything and Gigan does have his share of shortcomings. While most SHMA figures are easy to handle, Gigan is not. There are spikes all over his body and they are quite sharp.
Gigan's blades, or Bloody Triggers, which should be the sharpest parts are actually not that sharp unless you really try and hurt yourself with them. (please don't)

Getting into the articulation:

Gigan's head/neck and look up/down, left/right and lean side to side. One point that needs to be addressed is Gigan's back spikes. Because of his neck articulation they tend to overlap and there is the risk of them snapping off.

Because of the buzzsaw on his torso, any movement there is all but impossible. The most you get is a tiny bit of a side to side lean.

Gigan's arms can move in and out at the shoulder and make a full rotation. And the shoulder pads are moveable to allow for better movement. There's a nice bend at the elbow and the Bloody Triggers can rotate at the wrist and have a pivot.

Gigan's legs move forward/backward and move in/out a tad. They also come with a sleeve to hide a hip gap. Knees can bend. Curiously there is an extra bit of rotation and pivot between the knee and foot. The feet can rotate and bend. 

Gigan's back fins can also move. The center fin moves up/down and the side fins move in and out. The fins move to simulate Gigan flying. You're going to have to get creative to even think about displaying Gigan in a flying pose though.

That brings us to the tail. The tail can move and curve well enough. However, the spikes on the tail are more numerous than the neck and are even more of a risk. The way they bunch up makes me very nervous about moving the tail too much You can also rotate the spiked tip on the end if you want to.

Gigan comes with the accessories that turn him into Modified Gigan. A new horn, pair of mandibles, extra neck piece and of course the BLOODY CHAINSAWS!!!! 

In order to complete the transformation, I suggest holding Gigan's sides with your thumb and index finger while wiggling/pulling the neck off carefully. Remove Gigan's horn and mandibles before removing the head.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the top piece of the neck will become loose after removing the head, so make sure you're doing this in an area where you can easily keep track of the pieces. 
Carefully attach the new neck piece, attach the head, add the new horn and mandibles. Finally swap the scythes for the chainsaws. 

Now you have Modified Gigan! 
All these accessories are amazing. You can even move the spikes on the chainsaws as they are made of rubber. 

 

GREAT DECISIVE BATTLE Version

Had I not already bought the original release, I would have gotten this figure regardless. But the prospect of getting those extra accessories and having both standard and Modified Gigan SHMA figures on my shelf made this an instant pre-order for me. 

As far as sculpt and paint goes, It's the same ole' Gigan 2004 figure. Even comes with the same accessories to make Modified Gigan. the only real difference I found were tighter joints and it was a lot cleaner than mine, I've had this thing for over almost 6 years after all.

The big selling point for this release would be the extra accessories. 

Let's start with the laser beam or "Gigarium Cluster" as it's officially known. The piece itself is pretty cool, the stand is fine. It doesn't stick, it just sits so getting it balanced can be a chore and the stand itself has no articulation. I would have preferred a standard Tamashii Nations stand.

Another point about the beam is that the end pieces feel delicate and probably will break off unless you handle it with the utmost care. 

For the other new accessories we need Gigan back to his regular mode as he comes with a new set of Bloody Triggers which you can attach Gigan's new F**king Anchors Hooking Anchors, basically grappling hooks.

To attach them, you need to remove the side hooks, a process that can be a little difficult at first. Just do some wiggling while you pull, be sure to hold the whole piece carefully while doing this and then maybe do it again a few more times to make it easier the next time. 

Once the hooks are removed, you may attach the new hooks which are attached to 20" bendy wires. The cylinder pieces can also be moved up and down the wires to your content, I honestly don't know why. Shouldn't they each be in one place? 
The wires can be a bit of a hassle, but with a little patience and creativity, you can make some very nice displays. 

There's never been a good enough time to buy the SH MonsterArts Gigan 2004 figure. Overall, while the spikes are an issue, I still really love these figures. They look great, the accessories are great and both have some killer shelf presence.
And hey, now that we finally got a full reveal of the SHMA 2004 Godzilla, you know that's going to look amazing next to Gigan.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

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SH MONSTERARTS GODZILLA (1989) | Figure Review

BioGoji, the 1989 Godzilla design has had an interesting history in the SH MonsterArts figure line. It first appeared in a display next to the upcoming SH MonsterArts Biollante figure in 2013, but BioGoji wouldn't get an official SHMA release until 2016 where it was the first and so far only figure under the Kou Kyou Kyoku label.  
It was a great figure, but it didn't have the correct scale when compared to Godzilla's opponents. Now with the release of the new Special Color Version of Biollante, the collectors started clamoring for a new BioGoji figure in the proper scale to compliment her. Well, Bandai has granted our wishes and released such a figure. 
And I have....certain opinions about it...

Look!
Listen!
OK? Just hear me out, please...

Appearance-wise, this figure nails the look of the 1989 suit without a doubt, looking just as great as he did when he emerged from Mount Mihara. The sculpt, detail and textures are all masterfully done and whether or not this is just a shrunken version of the Kou Kyou Kyoku figure is kind of up for debate, but if you look at them side by side there are a few subtle differences. 

The scale should be obvious. However, this figure is just barely under the standard 6 inch scale that the other Godzilla's in the line are. He isn't as short as the SHMA 1964 figure,  though I feel like there should have been like an extra centimeter added to the legs because whenever I look at them, they feel shorter than they actually are. Or is that just me?

At this point with SHMA Godzilla's, you'd have to actually TRY and screw up his skin color. It's in the finer details of the body where the most care should be taken. 

Luckily, the eyes look amazing and are perfectly aligned. 
The teeth seem to be the area where the most QC issues with this figure come from. Mine are painted decently.

The claws on the hand are pretty good, the feet are a bit questionable.

As for the dorsal fins, I think the patches on them should match the color of Godzilla's skin as opposed to being all brightly colored.  

Godzilla 1989's articulation is as follows:

Godzilla's head can look slightly up and with the neck joints can look straight down. The head can also turn to look to the left and the right, but doing this will expose a gap in the sculpt of the neck pieces. Finally, the head and neck can tilt side to side. Also the lower jaw is on a ball joint which can cause it to be misaligned at times.
Pro tip: don't try moving the tongue. Trust me on this.

The arms can move in and out and make a full rotation at the shoulders, there's rotation at the biceps, the elbows bend and twist, and the hands can rotate and swivel.

Legs can move forward, backward and can even move out at the hip, bend at the knee with some rotation and the feet can rotate and pivot. The hips also include an extra piece to hide any potential gaps in the articulation.

The tail has a great range of movement. Much like the Kou Kyou Kyoku figure, the tail segments like to twist and look awkward, but if ya work it just right they'll stay in place.

You may have noticed I didn't mention the body articulation, why? Well, because it's the part of the articulation that I have the most to say about. 
The past few Godzilla releases have come with a separate belly joint that helps expand the movement of the figure. This 1989 figure however has no such joint, limiting it's articulation to only a slight forward and side to side lean. 
Separate belly joints should be the gold standard for SHMA Godzilla figures going forward, in fact, that may also help improve the height of this figure. 

This $90+ Godzilla figure comes with no accessories, you're gonna have to get creative, like me.

If the point of this figure was to make it in scale with their Biollante figure, then Bandai did a pretty good job. It also scales well with the Heisei King Ghidorah figure. 

With all the criticisms I've made, let me make this crystal clear: I love this figure. It's probably one of the better 1989 figures out there, all my issues can be seen as minor at best but still worth pointing out. 

I am more than comfortable giving this figure a high recommendation. 

Alright, time to go back to waiting for that 2004 Godzilla to never be revealed...
That Hedorah figure looks sweet though. 

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

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