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Released by: Universe Laser
Released in: Fall 2002
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Cast: Chiharu Ní®yama, Ryudo Uzaki, Shirí´ Sano, Takashi, Nishina, Eisei Amamoto
Year: 2001
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The Movie:
The film begins with an American nuclear submarine mysteriously wreaked off the coast of Guam. When the Japanese send some rescue teams down in submarines to help investigate, they see the fins of a giant reptilian creature as it swims away. The next day, a tunnel is brought down in what at first appears to be an earthquake, killing the bikers inside. But itwasn't an earthquake that caused the collapse, it was Godzilla, who's returne to lay one big-ass smack down on modern day Tokyo.
Luckily for the Japanese, General Tachibana is on the scene, and seeing as his parents were killed by the big guy way back when in the original incident, he's ready to take him on. But while the military are getting ready to fight back, the General's daughter, Yuri, and investigative TV reporter, starts digging around. She finds that a mysterious and prophetic old man has been warning of Godzilla's coming for quite some time, and also of the rise of the Guardian monsters, who'll show up at thescene when it happens, to help take Godzilla down. The Gaurdian monsters are Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Baragon.
The rest of the film is pretty much a very large scale wrestling match between the title monsters (Baraga gets taken down pretty early on, but he makes the most of his screen time, jumping through the air and chomping down on Godzilla's arms), with the military and Yuri's TV crew stuck in the middle. Opinions seem to be mixed on this entry in the seemingly endless Godzilla franchise. A lot of fans were upset that Godzilla is shown here as a merciless killing machine who doesn't give a damn who gets in his way. I saw him less as a bastard, and more as an unstoppable force of nature, just doing what hisinstincts would tell him to do. He is definitely a leaner and meaner Godzilla than we've seen before though, so don't go in expecting the cuter, tamed down version that we've seen in other films.
While the story is pretty basic, the fight scenes are not. Using the standard 'man in a rubber suit' technique and combining it with more CGI effects than we've seen in the series to date, the results are different from what I was expecting. For the mostpart, they work really well. The fights come off terrific and the monsters are all really well done and look great. The problem though is in the backgrounds and with some of the vehicles. The underwater CGI scenes look really hokey and just don't cut it and do take away from the movie, as they're very murky and at times, just plain bad looking.
CGI complaints aside however, GMK is a really fun beat'em up monster bash. Some have argued that director Shusuke Kaneko turned the movie into a Gamera film (he directed two of the Gamera films in recent years, both of which fared quite well with fans), but I didn't get that impression. Yes, he has changed things, and it's a different course for everyone'sfavorite green monster, but the franchise has been around long enough now that some fresh blood was needed, and Kaneko serves it up the thrills by the bucket.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 2.35.1 transfer on this disc is excellent. Colorsare sharp and clarity is excellent. The only problem
is that the transfer, being so good, lets some of theproblems with the digital effects shine through more
than they probably should. All in all though, this aone of the best transfers I've seen on a Hong Kong
disc.
While the film is presented here in Dolby Digital 2Channel Stereo, it's an excellent mix and at times
actually sounds like 5.1. I could have sworn I heardnoise coming from the rears on my system.
The cover art is pretty keen, but there's nothing elseon the disc. I would have loved to have seen a behind
the scenes feature or something like, but like most HKdiscs, this puppy is barebones.
The Final Word:
GMK effectively brings the series into the present,but at the same time, pays respect to it's routes.
It's a lot of fun, and this presentation isn't bad atall.