The film opens with a bit of revisionist history and selective kaiju amnesia. Following the destruction of Tokyo during the first of three attacks by Godzilla on Japan (in 1954), the capitol was moved to Osaka. Japan no longer uses nuclear energy, as that was what attracted the monster, but remains concerned that he may return, so the 'G-Graspers', an elite anti-Godzilla combat team was formed. In attempt to construct a space-based black hole gun (odd: there seems to be no word for 'black hole' in Japanese), a wormhole is opened through which a giant primordial dragonfly emerges. The creature lays an egg which hatches in the Tokyo sewers: Megaguirus has arrived. There is much more GGI in this film than in previous Godzilla films, which combined with an excellently detailed adult model, makes the megaguirus in its various morphs one of the best realised monsters in the series to date (although at times the supporting wires are visible). The Godzilla suit is the same one used in Godzilla 2000 and still looks great and most of the special effects are very good, especially the scenes of a swimming Godzilla seen from above or when he wades through the Tokyo harbour. The scenes featuring the swarm of moulting meganulon in the flooded city and their subsequent attack on Godzilla are also very well done. The human characters are pretty typical of the genre: heroic G-graspers, a young rogue scientist with all the answers, the little kid who is instrumental to the plot (in this film, the kid is OK and doesn't overstay his welcome) etc. - they are all fine but secondary to the action. The latest anti-Godzilla flying machine is the 'Griffin', which is mostly visualised through CGI and looks a lot more airworthy than the various flying tanks in the Heisei era. I watched an English-subtitled version, which was generally well done although I was surprised to see "G-graspers" in English on the side of the team's vehicles as it is an odd name and I initially assumed that it was simply is an awkward translation of Japanese term. The film (25th in the franchise, 2nd in the 'Millennium series), differs in tone from the Heisei-era films. In the latter, characters felt empathy for Godzilla and objected to attempts to destroy him, while in this film, the characters have lost friends to the rampaging kaiju, hate him, and are motivated to some extent by revenge. As usual, the plot is based on pseudoscientific nonsense (e.g. creating a 2 meter black hole in orbit around earth would obliterate planet; the professor seems to know a lot about the life cycle and behaviour of a creature that has been extinct for 350 million years and is only known from a single fossil, etc). Minor flaws notwithstanding, the imaginative story and excellent special effects make this a standout film in the series.

This is one of the best Godzilla movies ever!!! The first Millennium G-film I ever saw ( on Sci-Fi). It is a huge improvement over "Godzilla 2000" and in my opinion should've been released in American theaters instead. This movie gives the feeling of the classic Godzilla films, but at the same time still has that modern awe that is much better than in disappointing "Godzilla 2000".The characters are fantastic and deliver great performances. It was good to see Yuriko Hoshi return to the G-franchise, and Kirko and Kudo both kept the emotional side going with some actually funny humor. I LOVE the whole conspiracy idea with Sigiura, all thanks to the marvelous screenplay. We can understand the characters and why they do what they do, even Godzilla. Mazaaki Tezuka directs the film amazingly, and I love the opening scene with the original "Gojira" footage, but with the new Godzilla added to it. The plot was an excellent piece of writing by Wataru Mimura and Hiroshi Kashiwabara. Dimension Tide was a very cool new weapon that was nicely done. Kenji Suzuki's work is great and the flooded Tokyo is totally convincing. This leads to our spectacular monsters.Godzilla looks mostly the same but is much better characterized as the symbolic anti-hero. The nuclear message is a nice part of the story. Both the Meganulon and Meganula look incredible, and the metamorphism scenes look just as good. One of the film's best shots is when the whole side of a building is covered in Meganula, who metamorphize and begin to wreak havoc on Tokyo. Megaguirus is an excellent villain, much better than Orga. We finally see a true battle of speed and the battle between Godzilla and Megaguirus is one of the best ever!! Megaguirus' energy vacuum needle was a clever attack and the fight is interesting because the Monster King is forced to fight without his heat ray. Another nice touch is the 'camp' that fits in great during the final battle. The island battle with the swarm of Meganula was an excellent display of modern Toho effects at work and the action is superb in this film. The dramatic final climatic showdown between Godzilla and G-Graspers is a nice ending that ( stay tuned after the credits) gets even better! The film would be truly incomplete without Michuru Oshima's excellent score.All together this is one incredible G-film that I'm glad to have seen. If you haven't seen it, you definitely need to buy yourself a copy. Now!!

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus: 4/10: I know it is a popular pastime to bash "the American Godzilla" but in it's defense I would like to give you exhibit A: Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (easier to type than pronounce needless to say.) Where do I begin?Well let's start with the latest scheme by the Japanese to rid them of Godzilla once and for all. Shoot him with a black hole from outer space. Yup that is practically mishap proof. Now I know that dumping Oxy- Clean into Tokyo harbor killed the first Godzilla, and since then some fairly dubious scientific methods have been used to battle our green friend but a satellite that shoots black holes has to win some sort of award. I love the scene when the scientist asks the military man "after we destroy Godzilla we destroy the satellite right?" (You can practically see visions of Pearl Harbor 2 in the general's head).To make matters even worse they already have a team battling Godzilla embarrassingly called G-Grasper (not to be confused with our satellite scheme "Project Dimension Tide" that sounds like a really bad futuristic laundry detergent.) The G-Graspers are lead by the all too cute Misato Tanaka who looks like Amelie joined the French Foreign Legion. G-Graspers fight Godzilla by shooting RPGs at his ankles while dressed as Fed-Ex deliverymen. Surprisingly this isn't effective. Now I can take miscast actors and silly story lines in a Godzilla film, but at least the special effects are good right? Nope. Megaguirus is clearly on strings in one scene. The fights have groan inducing wrestling moves. Building destruction is surprisingly light. There is way too much bad CGI. In addition there a lot of underwater scenes, which lets face it has never been a Godzilla strong suit.This is not excusable for new millennium Godzilla. On the plus side nice there is some nice Mimic action with bugs killing young lovers. But when you start feeling like apologizing to Matthew Broderick it's a sign of a bad Godzilla movie.

Version: Eastern Eye R4 DVD - Japanese, English subtitlesGodzilla is back to stomp all over Japan, but this time he has to fight a giant dragonfly... Sounds awesome, yes no?In 1996, Japan has been running on clean, renewable energy for thirty years, and has not seen Godzilla since 1966. Clean energy can no longer provide enough power for Japan, the government begins research into neutron energy. Naturally, Godzilla takes the opportunity to announce his coming out of retirement and levels the neutron facility while decimating the anti-Godzilla force 'G-Grasper'. Obviously, military's plan was to confuse Godzilla with a funny name, and then fire a few missiles at him. Needless to say, it doesn't work.Several years later, Kiriko Tsujimori (Misato Tanaka) - a survivor of G-Grasper's 1996 encounter with Godzilla - is now the G-Grasper commander and has a grudge against Godzilla. Obviously G-Grasper need a new weapon to take on Godzilla, and so they turn to Japan's crazy scientists. The result is a cannon called the 'Dimension Tide': a weapon designed to shoot black holes, which they intend to shoot at Godzilla, from space, to minimize the damage to Earth. Obviously no one thought of any possible negative consequences of shooting a black hole - from space, mind you - towards a moving target Earth. The mad scientists have really gone off the deep end here. Of course, they test it first, and open up a rift to another dimension, letting a swarm of Meganuron (over-sized dragonflies) through.Essentially, 'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' is a lighter, happier version of both 'Godzilla vs Destroyer' and 'Gamera 2'. The Meganuron / Megaguirus greatly resembles the Legion from 'Gamera 2'. The shots of Godzilla being swarmed by the Meganuron, look much like the shots of Gamera being swarmed by the Legion. However, going one up on the other two movies, 'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' has better special effects. The 'Alien' style Meganuron look a lot better than the 'Alien' style Destroyer(s) from 'Godzilla vs Destroyer'. Also, it has mad scientists. A big bonus. They might not look like mad scientists, but they certainly think like them.There is some nice monster action, even if it is heavily offset by the human characters running shooting black holes at things. The Tokyo showdown between Godzilla vs Megaguirus is fun. It may not come close to one of the best monster fight scenes, but its funny and entertaining. Smart use of CGI ensures the monsters and fights look good, but on the other hand, for a giant dragonfly, Megaguirus does not beat his wing that often.'Godzilla vs Megaguirus' is a fun Godzilla movie, and should appeal to Godzilla fans. It does drag on a little though - 7/10