Godzilla vs. Queen Megagirus Although Shinsey-era’s second film is not directly related to Godzilla: Millennium, the film uses the same Godzilla costume and, in general, does not contradict the previous film, but rather complements and explains it, giving us a brief retrospective of events in the first ten minutes – something so lacking in Okawara’s latest film, and denoting Godzilla’s motivation to return time after time to Japan, destroying sources of energy.
Moreover, even Godzilla’s ray is still red-yellow, not wanting to return to his blue, which has already become classic, albeit far from the first film, roots. Pink needles-crystals on the back, an elongated angry muzzle - the new design is good, as it was last time, no changes were simply made, and not the fact that it is bad.
The picture presents us with an alternative world where, having abandoned nuclear energy, the Japanese are trying to develop environmentally friendly ways, which are definitely not enough. Then the plasma is used, but Godzilla feels it. Briefly, we are even shown the events of the original 1954 film with the updated Godzilla on retro frames, and then demonstrate key moments of the past, leading to the beginning of the narrative.
Female officer Chiriko loses her captain and most of the squad to fight Godzilla, now in the rank of major assembling a team of the best, which includes lost his friends in the destruction of the laboratory Professor Yoshizawa and a young technician Kudo - a real computer genius. Between him and Chiriko now and then skips a spark, the dotted love line moving along the plot of the picture.
The master of special effects remained the same Kenji Suzuki, but this time he changed his approach. If in the last film most of the effects were reduced to the mashups of Godzilla’s body and real shootings of cities, then Megagirus moves in a more old school way, filling the frame with constantly miniatures of buildings, erecting huge scenery of cities, as in the good old days.
Computer graphics have become less, although it still cuts eyes in a number of scenes. But the practical effects definitely added, and this time the plot again makes a bias towards horror, as it was with “Godzilla vs. the Destroyer” – in the cities there are creepy giant insects – Meganulas, yes, the same ones that have already terrorized Japan in “Radon”, but this time they are not devoured, so they mutate enough, multiply, organize a swarm and feed their queen.
The unit that tracks and studies Godzilla is developing two projects: the Griffon Uber-tech aircraft and the Tidal Wave gun, which creates a miniature black hole, as a result of whose tests and the first Meganulon dragonfly appears. True "Griffin" this scene either looks too plastic, or quite mediocrely drawn on the computer.
In parallel with this, the film at some stage for some reason begins to include the second plot - about a boy, an insect lover, who somehow intersects with the main characters, as if instead of some traditional scientist, to understand all these prehistoric creatures. Well, he is the first to find an egg, which he decides to get rid of after moving to Tokyo, as a result of which a swarm of giant creatures appears.
Somewhere in the middle of the story, the boy is safely forgotten up to a small cameo in the evacuation scene, after which he disappears without a trace, but appears in an extremely important scene after the credits, which, probably, most who watched the film did not see at all.
A tidal wave is placed on a satellite to strike from space, and insects attack the emerging Godzilla, feeling in it a source of powerful energy. So soon wandering through the waves and cities, the atomic lizard encounters the mutating queen of the whole swarm - a giant creature called Megagirus.
Externally, the creature is brilliantly executed, insect monsters always looked better than anyone else. They've done their best here. Except that the monster is somewhat reminiscent of Batra in the shape of a butterfly from the painting in 1992, but this is even for the best. However, unlike the Orgy from the previous film, Megagirus does not shine with special originality.
However, the creature has good weapons: claws, teeth, tail sting, with which it pumps energy from the king of monsters so that he can not even shoot his beam, and also launches nuclear balls. All battles take place during the day, so after spoiling us with night battles Haysey and picking up his tradition of “Millennium”, the new picture looks like some unfinished.
Frankly, it is clear that the director of monsters in some ages is much more interesting than human heroes. Strained flashbacks, template archetypes, too naive and dotted romance – all this is no more important here than sketches with military equipment and evacuation, where nameless military rescue little girls from boats, and residents flee hastily after warning of an approaching kaiju.
Humans are not just a background, but a similar anthill, like a swarm of insects. They fuss, crumble, but at the same time you can not say that the leading characters are spelled poorly. Just the authors are lost in the story lines themselves. The participation of Yoshizawa is too conditional, the boy is generally superfluous, but the major - the type of purposeful and strong woman is quite successfully contrasted with the ferocious and insatiable Megagirus.
The final showdown is above all praise. Almost the entire final third of the film is devoted to the battle with Queen Megaguirus - the fight is protracted, diverse, filled with interesting moments and spectacular action, as well as an abundance of damage on both sides, as a result of which, thanks to severed claws and pierced bellies, the fight does not look like a battle of two toys, but looks like a real confrontation between a terrible atomic reptile and a mutant insect.
But not all of the film's ideas are so good. At the very least, Godzilla's jump episode, while adding to his maneuverability, looks kind of silly. And the fact that the main character lands on the thorns of the monster and swims away without receiving a deadly dose of radiation - somehow sharply reduces the whole serious tone of the picture, which claimed even straight to the horror movie due to all these cruel attacks Meganul on city residents.
If the creators of the film just focused on this urban horror and, for example, instead of a line with a boy, added micro-scenes about the investigation of a series of mysterious murders, introducing characters into the plot more seriously - like police officers and detectives, to smoothly through the tense atmosphere of night attacks of overgrown creatures to fit the film to its final battle of two titans - this would be almost a masterpiece.
Well, Godzilla vs. Megagirus tells a fairly clear story, fixing on the screen every important date, paying attention to monsters many times more than people. And although the film is still not equal to the best paintings of the Heisei era, it quite turned out on the level of Godzilla and the Alien from Space. Here they did not forget about the title musical theme, and the antagonist monster was made new and memorable, while remembering also early paintings. In general, they did a great job, quite successfully continuing the new era!
8 out of 10
Original