Rating: 
Summary: And yet another disappointment . . . . .
Review: . . . . . Come ON, Toho, get it right!!!!!I mean, only one of the four Millenium Series of Godzilla films has been good (that one film being GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK). Godzilla seems to have been caught in some sort of slump. It's getting reeeeeeaally annoying how Toho feels the need to keep reinventing the Godzilla history over and over and over again! (Can you spell "Overkill?") The only reason I gave this particular entry two stars is because I didn't see all of it, so for all I know it could have a spectacular ending. But from what I saw of it, I couldn't finish it. This is probably due to the fact that it's done by the same nimrods who gave us the atrocious GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS. Thus, GXMG shares the exact same flaws that GXM did: it was boring, the action was poorly staged, the special effects shoddy, and the plot seriously lacking. Furthermore, I wish they would give us a truly good Godzilla suit and just STAY with it! GMK had an excellent and scary G-suit; all they had to do was get rid of the unfortunate pot belly and use it again for this film. But noooooooooooo, they had to go back and copy the suit from GODZILLA 2000 and GXM. That suit just plain sucked. But they made some changes to this newest suit, so luckily it's not quite as bad. Heck, it could've been great! But it is kept from greatness for one main reason: it . . . . just . . . . stands there! And does nothing! It doesn't even flinch to anything. I miss the good ol' days, before the Heisei series, when Godzilla had a little mobility! Then comes another flaw: MechaGodzilla (or "Kiryu" in this movie). The design is okay, I guess, though I prefer that of the Heisei MechaGodzilla. But both these robots share the same problem. You see, in the original two Godzilla flicks with MechaGodzilla, it was just a robot being controlled from outside. Now, ever since the Heisei series, every single robot has been controlled by pilots from the inside. I'm sorry, but all that succeeds in doing is looking like a carbon copy of Power Rangers, as well as take away MechaGodzilla's mobility. Now, all he does is stand there and shoot some sort of laser or rocket or something. This makes the battle scenes just plain boring. (Like I said, I didn't see all of it. I only saw up to the part when Kiryu went haywire, for a really stupid reason I should add. The ending might be good, but the rest of a film should be strong enough to make the viewer actually care about, and want to get to, the ending. It is in this that GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA fails . . . . . miserably.) So, in short, a rather pointless entry in the Godzilla saga. The only reasons for it's existence are: 1) To include a MechaGodzilla, which seems to be a requirement for every cycle of Godzilla films. 2) To serve as a predecessor to GODZILLA, MOTHRA, MECHAGODZILLA: TOKYO S.O.S., which looks absolutely fantastic. And if not even that, there's always GODZILLA: FINAL WARS to look forward to. They'd better bring back Anguilus . . . .
Rating: 
Summary: good. stupid. but good.
Review: What do you do if your country is attacked by a gigantic lizard bent on destruction? Kill it. But it won't die? Then the only logical solution is to construct a robot duplicate of said robot using DNA from its mom's skeleton which you found at the bottom of the ocean in Tokyo Bay. What could go wrong with that plan? Well, everything really, as the Godzilla DNA turns the Robot Godzilla into a rampaging attack machine, that runs roughshod all over Japan. Good plan. Then the scientists talk for EVER and finally they fix the robot, but they don't really explain how, and then its time to fight again. This time the "Ultimate Weapon" on the Robot's chest manages to not only destroy a few office buildings but also freezes the entire ocean, no doubt wiping out the fishing industry in Japan and causing massive starvation. But no problem, they can eat Godzilla's corpse right? Well, no, he gets away. And then they all celebrate even though they failed. Yay! If this movie were in school it would be in special ed, but its so dumb its good. And robots fight lizards. Grown men in robot costumes fight grown men in lizard costumes. YAY!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent monster battle.
Review: This most recent addition to the Godzilla series features yet another incarnation of Mechagodzilla, but is called Kiryu, save for one slip of the tongue, and is more cyborg clone than actual robot (which leads to a nicely handled malfunction during the first face-off with The Big G). Screenwriter Wataru Mimura and Director Masaaki Tezuka have boiled down the stories and concepts to the most chemically pure Godzilla movie in ages. The human element is well developed, but overly simplistic, and the film compensates with monster battles that are nothing short of spectacular. This movie is a briskly paced 88 minutes of pure monster mayhem that no Kaiju fan will want to miss out on. It just misses the classic mark by a split hair. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Another well-done DVD, and it's a fun Godzilla film as well!
Review: Praise Sony/TriStar for their quick release of this recent (December 2002) Godzilla film! Although there are no extras, this DVD offers fans of Japanese giant monster movies exactly what they want: the film in Japanese with subtitles! (You can choose to watch it dubbed as well, a good option for younger viewers.) Not only that, but the film is in gorgeous widescreen and 5.1 sound. Keep it up, Sony/TriStar! This is the way Godzilla should be seen. The film is a fine piece of monster-mashing, better than the metaphysical and out-of-step "Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack" (2001) and the somewhat slow "Godzilla 2000" (1999), but not as wildly fun as "Godzilla vs. Megaguirus" (2000). The director of "Megaguirus," Masaaki Tezuka, returns and displays his usual sense of fun and deep love for giant monster movies (there are many homages to other Japanese monster films throughout). Godzilla faces an old foe here. Mechagodzilla first appeared in the 1974 film, "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla," as an alien-built robot. He came back the next year in what would be the final Godzilla film of the classic era, "Terror of Mechagodzilla." The robo-monster returned in the 1990s Godzilla series, this time constructed by the Earth organization G-Force, in "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II." This new science-fiction adventure brings the metal Godzilla look-alike back with a new origin story. Like all the recent films, "Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla" revises the entire Godzilla timeline and starts from scratch. The first Godzilla died in 1954, but a new one suddenly appears in Japan in 1999. The government, accustomed to attacks from other monsters over the years, has a special military organization prepared to deal with Godzilla, but Godzilla is too much for them. As the years pass between attacks, Japanese scientists hatch a wild plan to stop Godzilla: use the first Godzilla's skeleton and DNA to create a bio-robot, a 'mechagodzilla' that they name "Kiryu" (a Japanese guardian dragon). Unfortunately, the bio-robot has a rather destructive design flaw... The monster fights are tremendous, with huge amount of city smashing and the beasts engaging each other in close, furious combat. Kiryu's rampage in Tokyo is a jaw-dropper for sure; the opening with military laser guns trying to stop Godzilla in a typhoon gets things off to a roaring start, and the lengthy final duel will please every monster movie fan. The visual effects are quite good, but not as creative as in "Giant Monsters All-Out Attack." The score from Ohshima Michiru is fabulous; she's the best composer on the Godzilla series outside of the original maestro Akira Ifukube. What holds the film back are some slow patches in the first half-hour and many unexplained details about Kiryu. The redesigned Godzilla suit, adapted from the one used in "Godzilla 2000" and "Megaguirus" also presents problems. Godzilla moves far less here than he usually does, and it often seems that no one is in the costume. He exhibits much less personality and animation, and doesn't dominate the film the way he should. Kiryu instead steals the show: this is the best Mechagodzilla of them all, and it's astonishing to watch it in action. The human story is surprisingly well done, with excellent actors who take their jobs seriously. The heroine is a pilot with a guilt complex about an earlier debacle against Godzilla who gets her second chance to prove herself against the monster. Her relationship with the lonely daughter of one of the designers of Kiryu is quite touching. (Strangely, the final scene about this relationship occurs AFTER the end credits. Weird place for it, so make sure you stick around until the very end of the film.) Japan has already released a direct sequel to this movie (in which classic monster Mothra also gets involved!), so let's hope Sony/TriStar will release that one soon as well. If you love giant monsters or good old-fashioned science-fiction film fun, get this DVD. ROAR ON GODZILLA!
Rating:
Summary: Another awesome Godzilla film.
Review: I grew up eating, drinking, and breathing Godzilla. I cheered him on in my youth, laughed hysterically at him during my adolescence (god, some of those old ones were cheesy!), and almost shed a tear when he melted down some years ago. Now things have come full circle and I am thrilled with the new millenium Godzilla series. No more crummy effects, laughable attacks, crappy dubbing, or kiddy music. Godzilla's back for real. While this movie's not as good as GMK, it's not too inferior either. The characters are good, Mechagodzilla (dubbed "Kiryu" in this version) has never been more awesome, and the effects are, at times, just beautiful. Kiryu's "Absolute-Zero" weapon is amazing. Godzilla himself gets a bit shafted in this film, though people have made too much of the couple of seconds where there appears to be nobody even in the suit. In, fact, Godzilla doesn't do much at all aside from the opening sequence and the final battle. However, Kiryu more than makes up for his organic double's lack of action by freaking out and trashing the city all day until his power runs out and his handlers go to collect him. The story is genuinely interesting rather than the typical waste-time-until-the-next-kaiju-battle plots of movies past. The big payoff at the end of it all is absolutely worth it. The final battle is possibly the most exciting kaiju battle I've ever seen. When Kiryu comes flying in to halt Godzilla's advance it's shot so brilliantly you'll have to see it again and again. The best part, however, is when the heroine climbs into the downed Kiryu and takes manual control of the giant robot monster. The tactics she uses agains Godzilla and the way the whole sequence plays out just makes you feel like a kid cheering your favorite kaiju all over again. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great effects and battle sequences.
Review: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 / 4 of 5 / As a 34 year old fan of Godzilla from my youth, it's often difficult to know what to make of the post 1978 version. Nostalgia plays its tricks and epics like Destroy all Monsters take their place in the upper echelons of memory. Besides the 1998 American version abomination with Mathew Broderick, I think the series has been nicely resurrected w/ the Millennium editions. So far this carries on that torch well. As per usual Godzilla surfaces, does initial damage and causes the powers to be in parliament to adopt new defense strategies. This time it's the creation of a new Mechagodzilla grown and grafted of parts from the 1954 version whose skeleton apparently was still submerged from the oxygen destroyer. Mechagodzilla has some bugs getting out of QA but those are worked through before the showdown. The effects in this film are the best so far, the combination of CG, miniatures and rubber suits is terrific. What impresses an old-school fan is the improvement in the tracer shots hitting Godzilla, his breath, and the speed and execution of the jet craft attacking him. Finally there is great hand to hand combat with actual slugging and crosses being thrown, hah. I was actually sort of shocked when I saw Mechagodzilla palm Godzilla's face and then rocket forward w/ Godzilla in tow. Seemed like a slap in the face for big G. The back story is passable, with bumbling father and chief scientist wooing the tormented pilot of Mechagodzilla, still smarting from allowing Godzilla to crush her old teammates. I wonder how the next gen will handle kaiju eiga films, if they'll find them campy and amusing too. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A Decent Godzilla Film
Review: I'm not going to say too much about with the exception of that it was a decent Godzilla film. The movie has plot holes that don't make since throughout the rest of the movie and the action scenes are short, but sweet.
The acting isn't all that bad but the dubbing of the little girl in the movie sounds like she's 20!
All in all, nothing really exciting about this movie. It's a decent Godzilla film that many Godzilla fans will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Very cool
Review: I've been a life-long Godzilla fan, and I've been dying to see this movie for a while. Now that its finally out on DVD, I must say I was entertained by it, but not overly impressed. The best point is that its still a Godzilla movie...watching Godzilla rise out of Tokyo bay to unleash senseless destruction just never gets old. The Godzilla suit in this film is slightly modified from the Godzilla 2000/Megaguirus suit, and looks alot better. But the literal 'shining' star of this movie is MechaGodzilla. This is the best design yet for MechaGodzilla, out of all the 'Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla' movies (4 in all, counting this one, and not the sequel which is coming soon). As others had pointed out, this movie was similar to Godzilla X Megaguirus...too similar, in fact. It had virtually the same pacing and story development, and a nearly identical ending. Other flaws included Godzilla's stationary reactions...he's getting rocked with missiles and 'Mazer' beams, and they just have a big dummy standing there, completely motionless. After the outstanding effects from the last movies, you'd think they could do better than that. And once again, this is an 'origin retelling', in that its another 'alternate universe' storyline that retells Godzilla's origins. I don't think there's been a Godzilla movie at all within the past 15 years that hasn't started the origin of Godzilla over from scratch. Complaints aside, this movie has to be commended on a few things. As already stated, the MechaGodzilla design is probably the best design they've had yet for it. The battles, though somewhat short, were well done. Godzilla was more sinister than usual in this particular film, being much more liberal with his atomic breath and wreaking havoc. The one part that stood out the most in my mind, and is definitely my favorite part of the film, is when MechaGodzilla goes 'berserk'. Clearly inspired from Neon Genesis Evangelion, MechaG's residual DNA memories, being a result of constructing the machine from the corpse of the 1954 Godzilla, get triggered by this new Godzilla's infamous roar, sending MechaGodzilla into an absolute frenzy. Unfortunately that story angle was not pursued any further in the movie, and its something that I hope they go into in the sequel. Overall, Godzilla X MechaG was good...but compared to some of the more recent films, particularly Giant Monsters All-Out Attack(one of my all-time favorites), GXMG just didn't stand out too much. I hope the sequel picks it up at a better pace, since I still enjoyed this film immensely. Nevertheless, if you're a G fan, get this film. You won't regret it...its definitely worth the purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Who needs 3D animation anyway?
Review:
I had not seen a Godzilla movie since the 1970s, so I was surprised by the use of miniatures. Check out the extreme widescreen. Don't buy this movie thinking you're getting Star Wars. It's a B movie. If you keep that in mind, you will enjoy it. I admit I saw Yumiko Shako in "The Princess Blade" before I bought Godzilla, so I was hoping for at least one bikini scene. Maybe next time. The movie moves along pretty quickly without a lot of baloney. I thought the subtitles would have been more accurate because it is the domestic version. I enjoyed some of the jokes in the movie and watching Yumiko struggle with the joystick. (Hey! Shut up!) This is a good movie; just don't take it seriously.
Rating:
Summary: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
Review: I saw this movie I feel it is probley one of the best movies from the man (Godzilla) I have ever seen. It is alittle slow at the beginning just like alot of the Godzilla movies are, but once the fighting begains, you are stuck and your eyes are glued to the action. Mechagodzilla is alot faster in this movie, he is not as slow and clumsy, like in the past movies he has been in, and at the end you are left hanging wondering will there be another battle between the 2 monsters. Highly recomended great action. Review by Lyle, Ocheltree
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