Re-watched
Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah - Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) formerly my 3rd favorite of the series, not sure where I would rank it after this viewing.
Pros!- IMO one of the 3 best G suits/designs ever, might be my #1 if the belly was toned down. The savage mouth & dead eyes fit this haunted version of Godzilla perfectly.
- Godzilla's atomic breath seems more powerful & impactful than it often does in much of the series.
- Baragon suit is good & he is given the brave scrappy personality Anguirus typically has.
- Mothra suit is decent & kinda wasp like.
- Great score that sounds very unique & mythic compared to the rest of the series.
- I love the fantasy/mystical aspect of the film & the WW2 ghost possession motivation for Godzilla to target Japan specifically in this continuity.
- Decent cast & characters. Ryudo Uzaki has a very classy modern samurai look to him.
- Has some elements that prefigure Shin-Godzilla such as the military being unable to act until bureaucrats make their drawn out decisions.
Mixed Elements!- To a extent Godzilla's overwhelming power here fits the persona/mission this version has, that said the battles all feel far too one sided, at the point that Godzilla absorbs & reuses Ghidorah's gravity beam energy we realize how truly futile the 3 Guardian monsters's struggle has been.
- The news station/hack filmmaker crew is fun but a little corny at times.
Cons!- Sets, environments, CGI & battles are not nearly as well realized as the 90s Gamera trilogy by the same director.
- Smallest & weakest Ghidorah of the series & it's suit is also weak aside from some decent facial features.
- Some of the dialogue & handling of the smaller background characters seems nonsensical like the village leader early on straight up excited for Godzilla to return and "visit" his village which would bring tourism?
- The moment of Godzilla killing a girl in the hospital who survived a earlier attack was really mean spirited & felt tonally out of place for this film & the entire series, had it been one of the dude bro punks who tried to drown a dog earlier in the film I could slightly understand what they were going for but this girl was 100% innocent.