Released in 2004, was the last Godzilla movie made until a decade later, in 2014, Godzilla: Final Wars.
Where do I even start with this one? How about ‘INSANE’. Actually, no. One word alone can’t sum up this movie. Not two, not 20, not 1,000. The only thing I can do is try to express how amazing this film is. It may have some negatives to it, but for the most part, it’s like nothing else I’ve seen!
I have seen both the Japanese version and the dubbed version. Both are equally great.
For Godzilla’s 50th anniversary, Toho went completely nuts with their ‘final’ Godzilla movie. It’s like Destroy All Monsters, in a way. But Destroy All Monsters had boring humans and very short action scenes. Final Wars has entertaining humans, and significantly longer fight scenes. If you ask me, this is one of the best Godzilla movies ever made, but not without a couple flaws.
The story is about a group of mutant superhumans that form an Earth defense force… kinda like the mutants from X-Men. These mutants have an extra base in their DNA called M-base. Their job is to defend the world against any kaiju, and Godzilla was one of them, until he got frozen in ice in the south pole.
Then, some scientists discover some ancient cyborg creature named…Gigan? Really? The last time he was in a film was in 1973. Look at this thing! He’s so stupid!
All the sudden, a bunch of kaiju start attacking cities all over the world. Anguirus attacks Shanghai, King Ceasar attacks Okinawa, Kamakarus attacks Paris, Kumonga attacks some guy’s trailer in Arizona, Rodan attacks New York City, and… the 98 Godzilla attacks Sydney? They actually put Zilla in this movie, all done in CG, which is surprisingly more convincing here than in his own film made with a much higher budget! Wow.
In the midst of all this glorious death and destruction, there’s a random scene with… Godzilla’s son. For some reason, they decided to shove Godzilla’s retarded son Minilla into this movie. Why? I have no idea. And why does he look like the original design from the 60’s? It looks terrible!
This side plot goes absolutely nowhere, and it’s always annoying whenever the movie cuts back to it. All the filmmakers use it for is to tell us how mankind made Godzilla mad with the atomic bomb, and how he can never forgive. I don’t buy it.
Luckily, this side plot doesn’t take up much of the run time, and it doesn’t damper with the overall epicness of the film.
All the kaiju disappear when aliens arrive and beam them up into pods. These aliens refer to themselves as Xiliens, and as we all know, aliens in a Godzilla movie cannot be trusted. This becomes obvious when the UN secretary general, played by Akira Takarada, of all people, starts acting weird. He’s an alien in disguise, as seen when he’s shot on live television, and reverts to his true form.
The Xiliens begin their attack on the entire world, and wipe out our civilization. I almost forgot I was watching a Godzilla movie while all this was going down. Keep in mind, these characters aren’t sitting around and talking all the time and worrying about some stupid romance, or shoving some crappy moral into people’s brains, or anything. They’re actually getting stuff done and fighting! The fighting in this movie never stops! You get scenes with people fighting, kaiju fighting, more people fighting in between, a bunch of ships and lasers flying around, more kung fu stuff, more kaiju fighting, it never quits!
But this movie still keeps a good pace. There are some calm scenes, and those aren’t so bad. The action scenes aren’t just there for the thrill, it’s there for the story, too. A good portion of the story is through the action, and it surprisingly works! The characters aren’t bad either. They’re likeable, and pretty awesome. I can’t decide which one is my favorite. I’m stuck between Colonel Gordon, and X, the alien leader. Gordon is all sorts of amazing. He has a mustache, a katana, and he has so many great lines. He’s played by an American, Don Frye. While I wouldn’t say he’s the best actor, he makes his character as cool as possible.
X is the alien commander. He randomly killed the original, then took over. I absolutely love this guy. He’s crazy and hilarious. I might even say he could rival Loki… maybe. It’s obvious that the actor had a blast with this one, and so did the guy dubbing him! It’s one of the few times the dubbed voice works with the character.
The main character, Ozaki, is also good. He and the other mutants are extremely skilled in combat. When Ebirah is attacking a power plant, a few of the mutants are dispatched to deal with him. How are 5 humans going to stand up to a 200 ft tall lobster shrimp thing? I have no idea how, but they manage to take him down with handheld weapons in about 3 or 4 minutes! Wow. They’re all jumping around like the Matrix, shooting their guns, and dodging random explosions in the background. I do mean random. Ebirah has no fire, no lasers, no nothing. Why are there so many explosions in that one scene? Who cares? It’s awesome.
There are a lot of other humans with great moments, like the guys in the Area-G station, monitoring Godzilla’s ice prison, or the gangsters and the cop in New York City. I have no choice but to give full points for the characters on this one. Not because they’re ‘well written’ or ‘relatable’, but because they’re so awesome and hilarious!
The big highlights are the kaiju fights. Godzilla is unstoppable here. Nothing hurts him! He just annihilates everything in his path! He blows Gigan’s head clean off! He obliterates Zilla with one blast of atomic breath! He defies the laws of physics on several occasions, but it’s too fantastic to question! The only time he meets a kaiju that can stand up against him is when Monster-X appears. Who is Monster-X? Just a pre-evolved form of King Ghidorah. Technically, it’s Keizer Ghidorah now. This is one of the best looks that Ghidorah has had.
But what about Gigan? How on Earth could they possibly take something so stupid as he is, and make it even remotely-
-COMPLETELY F%#KING BAD@$$!!!!! What next? Is he going to have chainsaw hands?
Oh my god that is so metal.
The kaiju are well designed, the fights are intense, and the special effects are at their best. Even the CG parts looked good. What else could they possibly have done to make this film even more incredible? How about an incredible score? From start to finish, this movie delivers one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard! It fits every scene perfectly. I’m running out of words to describe things in this movie! It’s too good.
The only negative I think there could be with this movie, other than the Minilla side plot, is the resolution of that side plot. In the end, Godzilla is about to finish off the humans, but all the sudden, his dumb@$$ son arrives and spreads his arms in their defense. The stupid little kid does the same thing to the rest of the people. I guess Godzilla saw the strange sight in front of him and thought, “Ugh, I don’t need this crap. I’m going back into the ocean.”
That he did. He went back into the sea, turned around and roared one last time. After all that everyone just went through, that ending was… eh. The music there was good, but his son ruined it.
In conclusion, this is the ultimate Godzilla movie. It has a few negatives, and it does take a while before the big action starts, but it manages to stay entertaining throughout. I love it, I’m glad that I own it, and I highly recommend it. Again, the subtitled Japanese version is easier to watch than the dubbed version, but you can do whatever. It’s equally amazing.
FINAL RATING: 48 / 50
STORY: 5 / 5
ACTING: 4 / 5
CHARACTERS: 5 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 5 / 5
ACTION: 5 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 5 / 5
TONE: 4 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
The Godzilla Countdown isn’t over yet. I still need to review the games, the comics, and one more thing, but it’s a surprise. Be sure to share your thoughts on this movie, and check back for more reviews. I promise that I’ll get back to reviewing movies that don’t have to do with Godzilla soon, because after 25 reviews of nothing but Godzilla, I think some might be burned out.
No comments:
Post a Comment