In between the Heisei and Millenium eras, the first Godzilla movie fully produced in America was released, directed by disaster darling Roland Emmerich. It features a radically different Godzilla design in comparison to the Japanese films, more similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex, I personally strongly dislike this design. Though the actor’s charisma can carry sections of the film, Godzilla (1998) is held up by them, the special effects, and the scale of the film, and yet, the thin legs of this movie’s Godzilla remain a major distraction (as a Godzilla addict who’s used to his appendages being chubby).
In my opinion, the Millenium era is the least consistent, I wouldn’t personally consider it a series like the Showa and Heisei era films, it’s better explained as five reboots and one duology. It starts with the 1999 reboot Godzilla 2000 (which ignores all of the previous films except for the 1954 original), which feels like a combination of the stylings of the Heisei Series and the 1998 American film, leading to a unique tone that results in an average, but interesting film. The next movie, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus also ignores all 22 other Godzilla sequels yet again!!!! It’s actually an ok film, but the tendency to ignore what has already been created bothers me.
2001’s Godzilla, Mothra, And King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack is my second favorite Millenium era film, again rebooting as a direct sequel to the original, in this iteration, the time that the monsters have laid dormant abruptly stops, and then the titular All-Out Attack commences! The next reboot, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002), and its sequel Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) aren’t very good in my opinion, of course I love the design of Mechagodzilla 4 aka Kiryu, featured in both films, but I don’t find the first one to be interesting at all. The second features Mothra, my personal favorite kaiju, so I gain more enjoyment from it, but it’s still not very interesting (and it’s revealed that the original Mothra and Frankenstein films are canon within this duology).
The best film of the Millenium era is undoubtedly the 50th anniversary Sci-Fi epic Godzilla: Final Wars, which is the second Godzilla movie that ignores the 1954 original, and exists in its own universe separate from it, after the 1998 American film. It takes place in a future where a race of aliens called Xiliens arrive, and release many of the monsters from previous Godzilla films, and Godzilla is the only thing that can defeat them. Featuring out-of-this-world duels between the Xiliens and the Earth Defence Force, and most importantly many excellent monster fights.
