Death Waltz / Mondo (2023)
The second movie in the Godzilla Millennium series was Godzilla vs Megaguirus. While it uses essentially the same suit as Godzilla 2000, it's not a direct sequel or related to that movie in any way. It's another complete reboot of Godzilla that acknowledges the events in the 1954 movie (sort of) and that's about it. I don't know why they did it that way. I can understand the need to reboot Godzilla every so often so you can reuse some of his more famous adversaries, but I would prefer the reboots be starting up a new series with new continuity from movie to movie. Having the Millennium series be several standalone reboots has always made it more difficult for me to get invested in them. Though to be fair, the up and down quality of each film doesn't really help in that regard.
Godzilla vs Megaguirus is an alright movie. I just rewatched it so it would be more fresh in my mind and it's another one that I'm not sure I had seen since originally picking up the DVD 20+ years ago. The human storyline isn't as good as the one from Godzilla 2000, though the monster fight scenes are maybe a little better. I'm not sure Megaguirus really works as a compelling adversary as it's another one of those morphing-through-various-stages type of monsters that I think slow things a little. Plus when one of its main features is that it flies really fast, you get a lot of Godzilla standing around shooting off his atomic heat ray and not as much rock 'em sock 'em as I'd like. It's fine, but not amongst the great Godzilla films.
Michiru Ohshima handles the soundtrack and it's serviceable enough. Like all Godzilla scores, it feels like it comes alive the most when an Akira Ifukube passage sneaks in. But Michiru Ohshima does a good enough job having the music be plaintive when necessary and rousing when the action kicks in. Like the movie it scores, this soundtrack is fine, but not great.
Death Waltz and Mondo do a good enough job with the presentation of this soundtrack, but we have yet another annoying slipcover that adds nothing and diminishes the otherwise excellent artwork of Attack Peter. I don't know why they are so obsessed with these extra slipcovers. All they do is increase costs and there hasn't been a single one that is any better for having it. I do really like the D side screen prints they've been putting on the vinyl though, that's always a nice touch.
If I wan't trying to collect all of the Godzilla soundtracks, is this one that I'd buy on its own? Doubtful. I can't imagine playing it all that often, but it's nice to know it's on the shelf if the mood strikes me.
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus:
https://youtu.be/oFjT1F8lkBo?si=VrHoCHn-sIog-gUR
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