Anyone who has known me for a while should know my fondness for the original Japanese Godzilla films. When Godzilla 2000 hit theaters I was first in line to see it. I anxiously bought each and every film I could find. Then I somehow found myself bored. I suppose looking back it's not difficult to realize that there are only so many times you can watch the same 25 or so films. While new films were coming out, after Godzilla X Mechagodzilla, I decided to call it quits.

After watching the otaku orgasm known as Final Wars I was in no hurry to check out SOS. It's too bad as it seems to be the only semi-decent Godzilla film of the Millennium era outside of Godzilla 2000.

Tokyo SOS is a sequel to the incredibly boring Godzilla X Mechagodzilla. In this new timeline Godzilla has appeared in 1954 and was killed and later Japan decides to dig its bones up and use it as the framework for a new version of Mechagodzilla. After losing the first fight, the Japanese try again and this time Mothra's in for the ride. What we end up having is nothing more than a setup to a 45 minute long battle between the three monsters which, while exciting at times does drag on and I kind of wish they had made the characters somewhat more likable.

The real treat of the film is the first appearance of Hiroshi Koizumi since 1984. Here he reprises the roll of Dr. Chujo from the original Mothra film. It's a nice surprise and he plays the part nicely.

The biggest problems that this and the other Millenium films is that it seems to have become old hat. Godzilla, Mothra and Mechagodzilla have all been pretty much used too much. The Mothra trilogy of the 90s breathed some new life into the kaiju genre and it would be nice to see something like that. Unfortunately my guess is if they do start making Godzilla films again, they will be as stale and tired as this one.

I wonder if it's possible to go back in time and ask Toho to write a whole mess of Godzilla scripts using the sort or imagination they had then. If only ...

Labels: Godzilla, Japanese, sci-fi