I saw Godzilla (in Imax and in 3D), but I’m not going to write about it right now except to say, pretty freaking awesome.

Godzilla: 2000 is one of the Toho films from the ‘Millenium Period.’ There is some human tension between those who want to study Godzilla and those who want to kill him (and perhaps harness his near indestructible to… I don’t know, grow new spleens or an army of super soldiers – I can’t remember which). Whatever.

A alien flying saucer on the bottom of the ocean rises, floats over Tokyo and transforms into a monster. The monster steals some of Godzilla’s Wolverine-like healing abilities, but that doesn’t really help when the big guy unleashes his atomic breath. End of alien monster. Godzilla has saved the earth, right? Right, but he hasn’t saved Tokyo. Godzilla is force of nature and does not answer to our individual needs (including our need not to be destroyed). The movie ends with Godzilla rampaging through Tokyo. He is king of the monsters and the defender of earth from aliens (a recurring theme in the Toho movies of the last fifteen years or so), but is different from defending humanity. A force of nature, he defends nature, but, like nature, is pretty indifferent to us.

Spoiler alert: to some extent, that is the vision of Godzilla we see in the most recent movie (minus the aliens).