This is another Godzilla movie that isn't any good. The plot mixes an ancient tale about a beast named King Seesar, with secret agents, with aliens, and finally with the reemergence of Godzilla. With all of these ingredients, I'd like to report that it's a complex but delicately intertwined story. But nope, it's just a mess that substitutes tangled subplots for the monster mayhem that people really watch Godzilla movies for.

There is some good news. This movie features lots of new fight footage. The Godzilla movies that preceded this one used so much recycled footage that it's hard to tell one movie from the next.

There aren't as many miniature effects this time, which is kind of disappointing because they are always so well done. The pyrotechnics are here, though. Man! These guys knew how to do small-scale explosions.

Mechagodzilla is a neat creation but Godzilla himself is in full Cookie Monster mode. He's got big googly-eyes and looks just like the Sesame Street resident from the waist up. I got a few chuckles from the floppy, stuffed scales on his back too.

As I've been wading my way through the Godzilla series, I am still strangely drawn to watch them even though I haven't thought anymore than a few of them have been any good at all.