This is one of the Millennium films and it's not bad. The film did start off on the wrong foot with me by declaring Mothra a bad guy. If they got on the bad side of Mothra they had to have either been messing with her tiny twin besties or trampling the environment, but I digress.

I was impressed with the FL, Yashiro Akane. Women are often prominently featured in Godzilla movies, this time they got it right. Even though the failure of not defeating a new Godzilla with her weapon and being unable to control her vehicle leading to another vehicle getting crushed under Big G's feet were laid squarely at hers she was able to redeem herself. She was strong, smart and no damsel in distress or screamer as is usually required of women in monster movies. A welcome relief. Ultimately, she was put in charge of controlling Mechagodzilla in the fight when Godzilla returned.

Kiryu, the mechanized Godzilla, built on the 1954 Godzilla's skeleton unfortunately had some DNA memory of the destroyer unknowingly coded within it. I wasn't sure or not if this was a deliberate message that building bigger weapons of mass destruction can be as dangerous as the foe before you.

The humans in this movie were the best of any I've watched. However, the training sessions went on too long for me. I watch Godzilla movies for the monsters, not the people. The star of the show was missing for huge chunks of time as if they'd forgotten about him. Long, loving shots of the mechanized Godzilla and the soldiers' training sessions could not replace him. When he finally showed up the fights were good, but lacking in energy and urgency. It's a perfectly fine way to spend 90 minutes on a lazy Saturday afternoon, but it could have been so much better.