Gets off to a TERRIFIC start, then peters out. Not a lot of story considering how many writers they had (well, that's pretty common on any side of the pond, isn't it). Really remarkable, stylish direction by Takao Okawara, who keeps improving with each successive picture -- as fond as I am of the Godzilla series, I kind of think Okawara owes it to himself to break out and do something different. He has MASSIVE ability, and I really fear he's pissing it away. If he could do a story that really MEANT something to him, it might be earthshaking. The Japanese film industry is no longer very encouraging of real talent (was it ever? debatable), so I understand why Okawara might be playing it safe, but man, there's a volcano of talent in there just waiting to erupt.

Score is by Takayuki Hattori, who also did SPACE GODZILLA -- such a dreadful, dreadful film that nothing could have helped it, but Hattori's score seemed way out of place. But I was given the CD of it, and liked it quite a bit, apart from the movie -- nice pseudo-Horner-Barry stylings. And last fall I also saw the terrific comedy THE RADIO HOUR, for which Hattori composed a most vigorous and impressive score. (He's the grandson of the accomplished Tadashi Hattori, who did a few Kurosawa pictures, among many other things.)

Hattori's MILLENNIUM score is a whole other thing altogether -- some of the same tics that I recall from SPACE GODZILLA, but none of the direct lifts from scores as obvious as COCOON and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. It's a dark and impressive piece of work, based on the mediocre copy of the movie I just saw (haven't heard the CD yet). Although parts of the movie are so good I wish Mr. Ifukube HAD agreed to do it. Though the open-ended nature of the finale is such that I can see where Ifukube would have found it frustrating -- being asked once more to say his goodbyes to the character, while the machine is already geared to crank the next movie out. (MILLENNIUM actually ends with a trailer for GODZILLA 2001!)

Anyone else seen it? (Why don't we get Japanese visitors to these boards? You can access Japanese Kurosawa homepages and suchlike through the IMDb links, but they never seem to come visit US.)