Customer Reviews

Godzilla - Final Wars

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This remake of the classic Destroy All Monsters maintains the wonder of all those monsters but is darker in nature. Monsters are springing up all over the place attacking civilization. Then aliens arrive and eliminate the monsters. Are they our saviors or something much worse?

Eventually the truth about the aliens is learned and all out war ensues. The monsters return and it is up to a small group to go to Antarctica and release the imprisoned Godzilla. Hopefully Godzilla will handle the monsters while the people can handle the aliens. Monster mayhem ensues.

This movie is far better than Tokyo SOS. We see Manda in a more active role than previously as well as a number of other monsters from the early years of Godzilla. We even see the American Godzilla and an upgraded Gigan. There is a montage that shows Godzilla through the ages. The only thing I didn't like was seeing King Seesar as a villain. Seeing the alien leader have fits when things don't go right was almost priceless. All in all this is the Godzilla movie that really delivers what all the hype promised. Check it out.

I'll just get this out of the way right now: Ryuhei Kitamura is one of my favorite directors. He's the Japanese equivalent of our Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez. He has an eye-catching visual style, the talent to write entertaining dialogue, and nobody in Japan does action better. He's also able to take pure cinematic cheese with elements of other genre films and meld them together in exciting ways that seldom fail to entertain, even if you occasionally roll your eyes. I'm also a lifelong kaiju fanatic who grew up watching Godzilla and Gamera on Saturday afternoons and saving up my shoddy allowance to buy the films on VHS. Ah, memories...
That said, my excitement level over this film was naturally huge. I consider the millenium series of Godzilla movies to be among the greatest, boasting decent special effects and serious storylines which past kaiju films were known for lacking. This movie takes all of the improvements in those areas and throws other aspects waaaaay back to the sixties and seventies, when the movies weren't afraid to not be taken seriously. The funny-dressing aliens we all remember are back with a vengeance, looking like cosplayers at a Matrix convention. Hilarious. Speaking of "The Matrix", Kitamura flaunts it's influence on his filmmaking shamelessly throughout this movie, creating a team of mutant humanoids that could have stepped right out of the film and have all of the over-the-top abilities we saw in that series. This makes for some very exciting non-kaiju fight scenes; a first in a Godzilla film. The characters are also among the first truly memorable heroes and villains in G-film history. After this, I might get into some minor spoilers, so if you want to see the movie without knowing anything about the plot, now's the time to leave. Just trust me, the movie's good. Check it out.
Now, onto the monsters. Every major (and most minor) classic era Godzilla foe puts in an appearance (except for Kong, Megalon, and Mechagodzilla). As a bonus, the infamous American Godzilla even gets a guest-starring spot. Needless to say, he doesn't last long against the real thing. Then again, neither do any of the other monsters, aside from the uber-powerful Monster X. There is also a hilarious dig at long-time Godzilla competitor Gamera in the film that made me laugh out loud, but don't blink or you'll miss it. Godzilla is largely absent for most of the film after being buried in Antarctica in the first scene. But once he's unleashed as humanity's last weapon, following a kaiju-powered alien invasion resulting in the destruction of all civilization, he wastes no time leveling every single foe in the film, one after the other. The fights are short and occasionally riotously cheesy. There is one shot reminiscent of "Shaolin Soccer" that I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. I giggled about that one shot like a schoolgirl for, like, 2 days afterwords. As I have stated before, Kitamura embraces the cheese in the best possible way. The lead villain is also a riot. The guy throws an honest-to-god hissy fit nearly every time his monsters lose, which is always. It's hilarious to watch. He's also pretty much insane in typical Kitamura villain fashion which just adds to the entertainment value. However, this film isn't perfect; the pacing is off and many scenes feel like they were slapped together too quickly, a common problem in the budget and deadline-plagued Japanese entertainment industry. The balance between kaiju action and human action becomes hectic to in the second half of the film with so much going on. Some of the kaiju battles could have been a little cooler, too (Ebirah and Hedorah come to mind). Also, Mothra looks extremely good in this film but her performance as Godzilla's only non-human ally leaves much to be desired. Altogether, this is pretty much a no-brainer for old-school Godzilla fans and new-school sci-fi fans alike. Despite it's flaws, there is just too much damn fine entertainment in this film to pass it by. This isn't the ultimate Godzilla film (in my opinion, that's GMK); but as a celebration of 50 years of Godzilla stomping Tokyo, kicking ass, and taking names it is a rousing success.

As you may have gathered from my title, this movie is awesome. I suppose I'll get my two complaints out of the way. First of all it's not got quite the proper ratio of monster violence to other stuff. There's a whole lotta monster mashing, yes, but at 2 hours and 5 minutes it could've stood to have a little more, or just have been a bit shorter. The monster's generally look great, and they are, as a whole mostly of the rubber-suit variety, though there is quite a bit of CGI too, particularly for Zilla and the flying monsters. Still, they usually tried to use conventional fx so long as they were feasible, and they generally allow for the best results. I dunno about you, but there's just something about watching two dudes in rubber suits have a fist fight that makes me very, very happy. The only notable absence with regard to the monsters is the lack of Megalon, but what ya gonna do. Ya got Rodan, the Seamonster, Anguirah, King Ghidorah, Gigan, Mothra, the G-Man himself and more. I also would've liked to see a bit more city smashin'. If there's anything that I like more than watching to rubber-suited men duke it out, it's seeing a besuited man smash a miniature city. Particularly the tanks, definitely needed more tank smashing. My other major complaint is the lack of classic Godzilla music. The modern stuff is okay, generally, but I love the classic Godzilla themes, so they shoulda had more of that stuff. Nevertheless, these complaints are lost in a sea of deliciously cheesy dialogue, costumes, sets and monster action. Seriously, how anyone could watch this movie and not have a helluva good time is beyond me. Yes, it's got a bit too much people, not quite enough monsters, but that's always been the way with Godzilla movies, from my experience. And the non-monster stuff here is generally a whole lot more entertaining than what you'd find in other Godzilla movies.

The movie does have a lotta hand to hand action, generally of the 'Matrix' knockoff variety. (This was directed by the dude who directed 'Versus', so this should come as no surprise.) It's pretty damn over the top, but that's the manner of the whole film, of course, so I can't knock it too much. It's got amusingly hammy performances too, particularly from the main villain with evil eyebrows and the American captain.

Again, this is a very goofy film, but it's goofy-fun rather than goofy-moronic, so it works very well. Personally, despite the very modern nature of most of the film, I still think it manages to have the same basic tone of an older Godzilla film, which makes it a fitting enough anniversary feature.

Yeah, this is fun. Check it out.

Grade: B+

I really hate that this movie is as bad as it is. I'm a huge Godzilla nut (have been since I was 4) and have even gone so far as import Godzilla DVDs from Japan and Hong Kong in order to see films before they were released stateside. In fact, I originally saw this film in the form of a ::cough:: archival copy from Thailand. Rest assured, however, that I also have the U.S. release, so I'm not basing my review on a bootleg version.

"Final Wars" is Godzilla's 50th anniversary film and was intended to blend the best aspects of the Godzilla series into a single movie and allow the character to bow out in style. Instead what seems to have happened is that Ryuhei Kitamura was making a cheap Matrix rip-off and was then hired to paste a few scenes with Godzilla in them into his lame martial arts film. Rest assured that though there are more than dozen monsters in Final Wars, most of them are around for mere minutes before being obliterated so we can quickly get back to the badly scripted, poorly choreographed human action. Bizarrely, GODZILLA HIMSELF barely makes an appearance until the final act of the film. Beloved monsters such as Hedora, Anguiras, and King Seesar really, truly, have maybe 8 minutes of screen time total between them. All the while, however, Kitamura's cookie cutter heroes drone on and on and fight battle after unimpressive battle.

When the monsters do finally get to fight (And it's rare- There's about 30 minutes of monsters in this 2 hour long film), the action is solely based on the goofy, "Showa era" films of the 60s and 70s, with monsters smiting each other with pro wrestling moves, doing comic takes and pratfalls, and even having goofy sound effects like tires squealing when they come to a stop. This movie was not made for Godzilla fans: It was made, by all appearances, to cater to the stereotypes about giant monster films as silly kiddie fare. If you actually want to see a good modern Godzilla film, I would recommend "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack". You'll enjoy it far more than this farce. If you like goofy monster wrestling, then buy all means look into the classic Godzilla films like "Godzilla vs. Gigan" and "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster"- they're far more entertaining as well.

"Godzilla Final Wars" is a terrible film, doubly so for actual Godzilla fans. I recommend it only for the morbidly curious or completists who absolutely have to have every Godzilla film.

If you're a Godzilla fan, I suggest you skip this flick. I couldn't wait for it to come out on DVD in the USA, and when it did, I watched it right away. Boy, was I disappointed to find out that during this movie that is OVER 2 HOURS all of the monsters, except for Godzilla, had an AVERAGE OF ABOUT 74.5 SECONDS OF SCREEN TIME EACH. Godzilla HAD ONLY 12 min and 53.3 SECONDS OF SCREEN TIME. THAT IS CORRECT - 12 min and change of screen time for the title character. As a matter of fact, here is the breakdown by monster & their screen time:

Hedorah (smog monster)- 12.5 seconds
Kumonga (giant spider) - 35.4 seconds
Gino (American Godzilla) - 35.4 seconds
King Seesar - 39.5 seconds
Manda (Giant lizard/snake thing) - 34.6 seconds
Anguirus - 1 min 50.6 seconds
Kamacuras (giant grasshopper) - 43.7 seconds
Mothra - 50.9 seconds
Rodan - 56.6 seconds
Ebirah (Sea Monster) - 1 min 17.8 seconds
Monster X (new monster) - 1 min 54.8 seconds
Keiser Ghidorah 0 3 min 11.8 seconds
Minya (Baby Godzilla) - 4 min 2.5 seconds
Gigan - 3 min 24.1 seconds
Godzilla - 12 min 53.3 seconds

I say unless you're into a sub-par Star Wars / Matrix movie, avoid this, and find your Godzilla fix in some of the other Godzilla movies. Save yourself the disappointment.

I love Godzilla movies. I have since I was a kid. I've found some of the 'Millenium' series movies to be quite entertaining.

So, when I first read about Final Wars, I was pretty geeked. All of my favorite monsters (with the exception of Megalon) engaged in a 'Destroy All Monsters' style rampage through the cities of the world. Sounded great. And, it seemed like an idea that could not be screwed up. Big guys in suits fight in detailed miniature cities. Kids of all ages rejoice. Pretty straight forward.

So, it was pretty darn disappointing when it was clear that the film-makers forgot the most important ingredient in a Godzilla movie...namely, monsters. For a 2 hour long movie, it felt like the monsters (including the Big G himself) had little screen time. Another reviewer actually added up the amount of screen time per beast and let me tell you, it felt like even less. I do not want to see aliens in capes fighting mutants in X-men knockoff armor. A good story and acting can work in a kaiju movie; see Godzilla: All Out Monsters Attack or any of the new Gamera films for examples. But the film makers responsible for these movies knew that the main reason people are watching is to see guys in suits crushing model cities. They are not tuning in to see some sub-Matrix fights and interpersonal melodrama that is both confusing and boring.

So, if you are a fan of the Big Green Guy, stay away from this movie. Otherwise, you will be disappointed.

Oh and as a bit of a ps, I agree with all the reviewers who were critical of the score. Godzilla films have almost always had strong scores. Not G:FW, which had a generic techno-rock soundtrack.

I'll put this mildly - I never wish anything bad to anyone, except in this case that the director and producer of this movie never get work again for what they did to Godzilla.

I am a hardcore Godzilla fan - I even liked the movies with the smog monster, Megalon, and the kid who daydreamed that he was a friend of Godzilla's son but "Final Wars" I hated like Bush sr. hates brocolli.

The movie pretty much tries to be an update or remake of the classic Godzilla movie "Destroy all monsters", where aliens come to this planet and pretend to be our friends but the only one who can save us is Godzilla.
Seems like a good premise but unfortunately they try to add in mutants (ala X-men rip-off), an alien take-over conspiracy, and the hand-to-hand combat between the people is a mix of Power Rangers and Matrix-wannabe. The acting is stilted and terrible, to match with the terrible direction of the movie.

At least the director did not mess up the monster battles and the only bright spot was Godzilla whooping the US version with a flick of his tail.

Whatever you do - Just rent this movie!!!

Then form a petition to Sony/Toho Studios to make another Godzilla film using the same creative group that made that GMK (Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorha), they also made that recent excellent Gamera trillogy - let's see if we can get a Godzilla Trilogy to properly send the Big G off.

In 2004, it was announced by Toho, that yet again, they would be retiring their famous star monster, Godzilla. Fans such as I were disappointed, but excited to hear that big shot director of Versus Ryuhei Kitamura would be helming the film, which would have the biggest budget of any previous Godzilla film, with an all star monster cast. It looked as if Godzilla was gonna go out with a bang. Godzilla: Final Wars was meant to be a collage to all previous films, especially the showa era. While it had some good concepts, the film kind of let me down. It is a decent enough pic, but wasn't good enough to be the final godzilla film...

NEGATIVES:
First off the biggest problem with the film was that Kitamura didn't seem to understand that this is a KAIJU film, not an action/martial arts film. There is far too much human action. Yeah it was cool, and in limited amounts it would have been find. But it was far too excessive. There seems to be more human fighting than monster fighting, and i often find myself having to fast forward through it to get to the good parts. Secondly, some of the simple matte shot effects look like they were done in the 60's. They are of such poor grade. It's disappointing. Also, this film brought back some of the camp (notably the whirling noise effect in the new york scene when the cop and gangsters hats blow off). This movie had the chance to show that godzilla was more than just campy cheesy sci fi and real entertainment. Also, the monster battles are so short. Especially Hedorah, who doesn't even fight Godzilla. I was most excited to see Hedorah, one of my favorite monsters return, and was sad that he got about 2 seconds of screen time. How is it that one of Godzilla's toughest opponents is killed so easily?

POSITIVES:
We get a ton of classic showa monsters, an international approach at Godzilla, Anguirus!, an awesome new monster, a creative updated approach at King ghidorah, an awesome performance from the actor who played The young lead Xian, a return of the Xians, awesome monster choreography, Don Frye has a cool character, cool style, three veteran showa actors, Updated monster designs.

As you can probably tell, the movie unfortunately is outweighed by the negatives. The movie had so much potential, but was a great let down. While I respect Kitamura as a director, I just don't think he was right for the film. They probably should have just brought back Kaneko, our modern day Ishiro Honda. It's really too bad...

A funny thing happened a few years ago: Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin made a big-budget "re-imagining" of the 1954 Japanese classic, "Gojira." It made $400 million dollars at the box office, and yet a few years later, if you ask 80% of internet fanboys about it, they'll scream and whine about how "It's not really Godzilla," "It sucks! Man in suit forever!" or "It's Godzilla in name only!". And if you even hint that you might slightly LIKE the movie, they will tear you a new one.

So it's quite funny that a few years later, Toho decides to send the franchise back into hibernation with "Godzilla Final Wars." Despite what you may have read, this isn't really a Godzilla movie, or at least no more so than the 1998 re-imagining was. Godzilla is in it, sure, but it's not his movie. The movie is actually about a unit of elite genetically enhanced soldiers who have to wage battle against evil aliens, who concoct a James Bond-esque plot that somehow involves giant monsters instead of having their finger on a button. It's true that there are A LOT of monster battles in this movie, but unfortunately, they're all crammed into a montage that lasts all of five minutes.

No, the real bulk of the action scenes in the movie are centered around the super soldiers. And for what they are, they are very cool. Ryuhei Kitamaura definately knows how to assemble a good action scene involving HUMANS, no matter how ridiculous in concept they may be, and that is where the movie truly shines. It's just a shame that the monster battles, which are supposed to be the highlight of a Godzilla film, end up getting completely overshadowed by the battles featuring the human stars. While the human action scenes are fast, energetic, and acrobatic, the monster battles are for the most part slow and hokey just as they would be in any run-of-the-mill Godzilla film, which is a disappointment coming from an action director. It's as if Kitamaura just wanted to make a sci-fi karate movie, and the only way he could get the budget for one was by going through the Godzilla franchise.

In all, if you go into Godzilla Final Wars expecting a derivative chop socky sci-fi movie with really flashy martial arts fights, you'll get what you came for. But if you are one of those internet fanboys who called the American re-imagining an abomination, you should by all means despise this with almost as much mis-directed passion. Personally, I'll take both films for what they are-- decent, but flawed action flicks that don't really go out of their way to re-capture what made the first 'Zilla flick special. Grab some popcorn, unplug your brain, and don't expect to see much of big G, and you might just enjoy yourself. But remember, this is a Matrix-wannabe action movie first, and a monster movie last.

If you really want the best Godzilla movie of the past 10 years, go and get the newest version of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. That movie actually had some great new ideas in it, and has just about everything that make a good Kaiju film. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it over Final Wars if you just want to see a recent Godzilla movie.

I loved final wars first of all godzilla vs everyone and watching him blast gino the rip off monster to kingdom come was worth it and the background story was great it would have been an anime classic even without the monsters