This is one of those movies that I like a bit more each time I watch it, but willl definitely *never* love it. When I first watched this, I absolutely *HATED* it, and that's putting it mildly. I sold the dvd off after one viewing, and only rebought it years later. This has kind of been discussed to death elsewhere on this forum, but what did I notice on this viewing?
I still love the intro credits. Coming from Atragon in last week's viewing thread, it was kind of neat in that this starts out with a Gotengo vs Manda battle, but it's also a reminder of what I really don't like about this movie. The monster battles are way too hyper-kinetic. I prefer the sloppy movement of the Showa puppet to the over-quick smooth cartoon movements of the CGI model. Because of this viewing thread experiment, I'm much more familiar with Gorath, so its mention here means a bit more to me now.
I still dislike the suits overall. They're *way* too anthropomorphic in appearance and especially in action, which I think is done on purpose. The soccer scene continues to be offputting to me for this very reason. The mutants repeatedly aiming their pistols sideways irks me even more each time I see this, and it happens quite a bit. You're not aiming if you're aiming like that! I don't care how "cool" it looks.
One of the very few scenes where I feel a sense of scale.
The irony is that there's a good Godzilla story in here with a nice Toho history. It's just told in an over-the-top manner and is in *DESPERATE* need of some editing as well as trimming. If the monster battles had some weight to them, the surrounding destruction had some actual meaning rather than being a backdrop, and if the mutant fights were trimmed back to a reasonable level, we'd have a good Millenium movie (or at least one I would like more).
"I knew that tuna-eating monster was useless!"
I still own the dvd, and didn't mind this viewing. So I guess that says enough.