#and sci-fi horror style its hacked into everything and hard to stop

[catgirl-or-furry]

Working on a writing project where one aspect is Twitch chat and I'd like someone who spends more time on Twitch than me to verify how acceptable my fake Twitch chat comments are and if there's anything I should add or subtract.

Context for why chat is saying these: first character mentions they watch mcyt including QSMP, SDMP, and TFCS, later gives subpar advice on flood safety. Classic adhd streamer bouncing between random subjects and not answering questions like "what is TFCS?" Because the topic shifted already (TFCS is just random letters) and none of that actually matters to the story its just setting the scene.

[kingoji]

I’ve been giving the Godzilla ‘Millenium era’ movies a bit of a binge rewatch in order this past week, since we finally got a blu ray player in the house that they work on.

It was quite an odd period of movies. Seems to be the selection that opinions are most varied on as well. I’m gonna share mine on a film by film basis.

For the benefit of anyone who’s just happened upon this and doesn’t know the history, the Millenium series is the name given to the Godzilla movies from Japan that were made from 1999 to 2004. Initially they came about as a reaction to Tri-Star’s 1998 attempt (the one with Ferris Bueller and Leon), but the dwindling ticket sales of their previous series of movies, the Heisei era, also encouraged them to rethink their formula some. What was decided was that three standalone movies would be commissioned with different takes on the franchise, and the most popular would be the direction they embraced going forward. This largely fell by the wayside, and all but two of the films of the era ended up becoming standalone features. Naturally, as a result the reactions to the films varied as the tones and themes of the films themselves did.

Godzilla 2000

This is my personal favourite of the Millenium movies, and not only because it was the first one made where I was aware it was being made at the time and, thanks to publications like G-Fan, was able to follow along with updates periodically. I didn’t get online until around 2006 or so, so this kind of niche news was extremely hard for me to get ahold of. Godzilla 2000 had a radical redesign for Godzilla. It may well have been an effort by Toho to show Tri-Star that you *could* be extreme in redesigns while still honouring and being recognisable to the original (I am a fan of the Tri-Star design as a monster, but as Godzilla it was a failure), but it was also a solid way to visually differentiate this series from the previous one. Production values were higher across the board, and it was much more experimental in its special effects, often integrating the suit-acted Godzilla into panning or otherwise in-motion real-world shots. Before this, the technique was only ever used to add Godzilla into static shots or the far background. It doesn’t always hit the mark, but you have to respect that they aimed for something and took a shot. The miniature city sets were actually the largest ever constructed at the time, and the decision to reduce Godzilla’s height by half meant that they could be made larger and more intricate. In other words, the city sets looked more realistic and expansive, meaning they matched the real-world shots better and would be demolished more convincingly. The lighting work was stellar for this film, too, with crimson skies replacing the blue-tinted spotlights of the Heisei.

The human cast here is probably the most realistic and likeable of this series as well. All too often people dismiss the human element and act like the monster stuff is all that matters, but I cannot stress how much I disagree. Having a human cast you care for makes what happens with the monsters more urgent. My favourite character in this one is Katagiri, the director of the Crisis Control Intelligence bureau. He is considered the villain of the piece, and the film supports this by making him needlessly dickish to the main character and dangerously glib as to whether he lives or dies, despite the man posing no threat to him, his company, his position, or literally anything else about him. Thing is, despite this overplayed animosity, Katagiri’s behaviour and personality are actually fitting to his position and responsibilities. If it weren’t for his chafing attitude, he could have been the hero of this film quite easily. He reminds me of ‘The Colonel’ from Akira, only less stoic and serious.

In fact, I’m not sure there is a villain in this film. Godzilla is immediately established as a natural threat, but at the same time there are two equally valid points of view voiced about him; that he is a danger that has to be stopped, and that he is an animal doing what he does and should just be contained for study. Katagiri is next to be introduced as someone we shouldn’t like or trust, but see above. Then there is the alien life form which takes longer to fully understand the motives of but is no less destructive in the meantime. The alien, which for the most part is always hidden within it's vessel, had been stranded on this planet for millenia, and for whatever reason cannot leave. So it does what any living creature would do and tries to survive. It engages Godzilla because his DNA contains the key to surviving this new environment, but when things don’t go it’s way the life form resorts to learning what it can about Godzilla from our internet data first. This hacking and absorbing of data is seen as a hostile action and humans treat it as such. Then it faces Godzilla again and gets what it wants, only for things to go wrong again and Godzilla’s DNA mutates the alien from it’s natural state to a grotesque monster which then has to fight for it’s life before being destroyed. Next time you watch the film, pay close attention to how Orga acts when it is revealed. It looks at itself with horror, and when Godzilla advances on it it backs up in a manner which seems to say “Whoa, whoa, time out!” and only really gets into the fight when it realises Godzilla is not going to stop. It’s outmatched from the go and knows it, and everything it does seems born of desperation rather than aggression or strategy. Orga is one of the most tragic creatures in the Toho stable; a creature of genuine intelligence trapped in a brutish, cumbersome form, killed before it can try to do anything about it. Of course, for most of the film the alien is an ass to humanity, so it’s hard to feel too sympathetic to it. Then when Godzilla has “saved the day”, he proceeds to lay waste to Tokyo himself anyway, reminding us that while he may not be the villain, he’s sure as shit not our hero.

Actually, I think that’s the only universal source of contention for this film; after evrything has gone down and before Godzilla goes on his rampage, the human cast wax philosophical about him. One notes that humans created him, and ever since have tried to kill him. another than asks why he then keeps saving us. A third postulates that maybe it’s because “Godzilla is inside each one of us”. Which makes no sense. The first statement is correct, but the question asked is wrong as in this movie’s timeline Godzilla has always been the threat, and only got into this fight for personal revenge. I don’t speak Japanese so I don’t know if this is a bad translation, but I personally choose to interpret the real meaning of the discussion as something closer to the second person asking if we deserve Godzilla, an the final replying that we all carry the weight of responsibility for him. That’s how I’d phrase it if I ever adapted it in some way. It would also lead in better to Godzilla setting the area on fire than the actual “cuz we bros, man” that we get.

Takayuki Hattori is the composer of the score for this film. His only other Godzilla score was 1994′s Godzilla Vs. Space-Godzilla, but in the west probably his better known work was on the anime series Martian Successor Nadesico. I loved his work on that show, and as such am fond of his work on Godzilla. It certainly has a flavour distinct from other Godzilla composers that I’ve often read as “sounding more like Hollywood”, but I actually think it carries over conventions of anime scoring. You have very strong and individual sounding ‘hero theme’, ‘villain theme’, ‘battle theme’, ‘comedy theme’ etc. which you could easily imagine being attributed to an episodic show, often short and punchy. Whereas Hollywood movies are mostly scored to match exactly what fits on screen at that moment, and while you may get repeated cues added into different scenes, rarely is an entire piece applied wholesale to multiple scenes. I think I preferred Hattori’s work for G Vs SG than here, as that was in general a more fantastical film and as such a better fit for his “animated” style. Despite the overt sci-fi elements of Godzilla 2000, it is still comparatively a much more grounded film (there are no maser cannons here, and this film’s idea of advanced military arms is a new missile which is better at piercing armour than anything before). That said, this score is still strong and suitable, and to me feels more complimentary to Akira Ifukube’s traditional Godzilla theme than other scores have been. When it plays in this film it’s fitting to the overall sound, which seems to enhance it’s effectiveness as the familiar “shit, you know what this means” piece to build the anticipation, whereas in the next film it’s a more jarring difference that just makes you go “Cool, they’re using his theme after all”.

As a final piece of trivia, this was the first Japanese Godzilla film since 1984′s The Return Of Godzilla to get a western theatrical release, and the last until 2016′s Shin Godzilla. The trailer for the American release used Rob Zombie’s fast-paced song ‘Superbeast’ as accompaniment, which tickles me to no end given that this film was a response to Tri-Star’s Godzilla and the repeated chorus is “Hey yeah, I am the one that you wanted! Hey yeah, I am the Superbeast!”

Next up: Godzilla X Megaguirus!