Godzilla: La Dernière Guerre

The 2004 movie "Gojira: Fainaru uôzu" (aka "Godzilla: Final Wars") wasn't actually all that bad, and it was definitely in the ranks of one of the better movies in the franchise for some time.

"Godzilla: Final Wars" was actually good entertainment from start to end. At least for the most parts. Certainly, there were some less than mediocre things to the movie, so it wasn't all gold and happy days.

There was a good amount of Kaijus in the movie, most of which were familiar monsters, and even some with some upgrades. So that was nice and had a good feel of familiarity to it.

However, there was just a bit too much going on throughout the course of the movie. Some parts were just a bit too silly for me, and that was working against the movie in my opinion. It felt like director Ryûhei Kitamura was trying to accomplish a little bit too much in terms of what was actually delivered in the movie. And also felt like they wanted to experiment a bit too much in terms of how they could push the boundaries of the "Godzilla" franchise.

The aspect with the Earth Defense Force was just a little bit too comical for me. Especially since they were essentially just people - well mutants, actually - wearing snazzy black outfits and carrying heavy firepower. But for a task force created to take up the fight against Kaijus they seemed horribly underequipped and understaffed.

"Godzilla: Final Wars" was definitely entertaining, but it wasn't the best of the movie in the franchise.

For those who love to see Godzilla as the true, unstoppable King of Monsters, GFW is a true return to form. Godzilla has never seemed stronger, or been portrayed as more of a force to be reckoned with. However, it is this, and only this that seems to find familiar ground with the rest of the series.

Godzilla:Final Wars is a drastic and puzzling step in a different direction for the Godzilla franchise. While TOHO should be given credit for being willing to take their creation and franchise in a different direction, they should also be more careful in the manner to which they do so.

Godzilla: Final Wars feels like many different movies in one, and by this I do not mean any of the films to which it owes it's inspiration. At times, the film feels like it is a pure action take on the King of Monsters. At other times, it feels like it is an exercise in camp excess. But it is these two varying points that makes Godzilla: Final Wars both hard to classify, and hard to comprehend. The film suffers from not having a set mood, or set atmosphere for the viewer to really settle into. The plot and atmosphere simply take too many turns too many times for the viewer to get comfortable with the film.

I won't go into too many plot details, as I don't want to ruin the film or any of it's points for those who have yet to see it. But briefly, this film takes a cue from the Godzilla films of the Showa era and brings back the Xilians, once again bent on world domination.

GFW features a huge all star cast of kaiju. However, the shear number of kaiju may be impressive, their appearances are not always of the same result. Kaiju such as Hedorah, King Seesar, and yes Minilla are sorely out of place in this film, or if nothing else, sorely misused. While I applaud Ryuhei Kitamura for casting a kaiju all star cast, I feel that fewer monsters would have sufficed had they been given more screen time, and stayed a little truer to form.

However some of the films kaiju make truly great returns, most notably Rodan, Angillas, and most importantly..Gigan. These three monsters are my personal favorites in Godzilla Final Wars. Rodan looks better than ever, and while the monsters screen time and fight time are limited, it makes a fantastic impact during a scene in NYC. Angillas, a long time favorite of so many GFAN's, is given his respect in GFW. The monsters new design is fantastic, and the kaiju maintains its beloved fighting spirit and comes complete with some new tricks to boot. However, it is Gigan that steals the show. Gigan returns to the Godzilla franchise, and in many respects does so in the wrong forum. This Gigan deserved a chance to face Godzilla in it's own movie. The new design is amazing, sleek and deadly, with new weapons, and old weapons never before seen.

Overall, Godzilla Final Wars is an entertaining film, but it is certainly not the best of the Millennium Series, nor the best movie it could have been given the talent and resources at it's disposal. The film is an interesting take on the Godzilla franchise, but note the farewell that the Big G deserves. If TOHO were smart, they would allow Godzilla his time away from the screen, and take some of their newly revamped kaiju and give them their chances at real screen time in some new adventures.

If this is the last Godzilla as said, then I can say the series had a good run and ended on a high note. Perhaps not the highest note possible, this is a very flawed film. However, it is the second best in the Millennium series (next to Megaguiras).

If you read my Godzilla, Mothra, Mechagodzilla review, than you can easily see why i say so. Many of this series have had this annoying habit of having about thirty minutes of plot, then an hour of monster combat. This one gives equal time to storyline and action sequences.

No matter how short, the monster battles are always entertaining, the high point being a fight between Mothra and Gigan. This battle is relatively quick but still very entertaining. Gigan is one of the most powerful foes in the movie, and it was good to see Mothra getting to fight the second most important monster.

Monster X looked like something that would be creepy if it was human size, or maybe a little taller, and crept around in the shadows of a space station. However it didn't matter when he was easily the most powerful monster in the film (or, at least could transform into it).

The human battles were all done very well, accept for an annoying motorcycle chase which had the dumbest use of Matrix style special effects I have ever seen. However, many disappointed fans exaggerate the Matrix influence. It is clearly there in the action scenes, don't get me wrong, but other than the one I mentioned they are well crafted fight scenes.

I rather not talk about the film's flaws, after all, when they are flaws you find in any action film, what are you going to get from going over them. And that in itself is a flaw: This is an action film. Don't expect a monster movie, it is an action film that happens to have a lot of the action being done by monsters.

With an ending that could bring a tear to one's eye. So the Godzilla series (presumably) ends on a good note, much better than Godzilla vs. Destroyah (Terror of Mechagodzilla was not an ending in my opinion). This is a film to be enjoyed, and should have a place in your collection. Its the movie that every now and then you might just want to pop in the DVD player, just because.

***/**** stars

My favorite Godzilla movie since TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA (Toho; 1975)! Since 2000, I felt the series was a string of indistinguishable films. I was also never impressed by the 'heisei' or post-GODZILLA 1985 series. So for better or worse, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS stands out. It tends to emulate the more over-the-top Godzilla movies of the 1970s, which I certainly don't mind. Instead of following the exact same pattern as all of GODZILLA 2000's (Toho; 2000) predecessors, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS takes a more creative approach and swipes ideas from THE MATRIX (Silver Pictures; 1999), all them X-Men comic books, and spatterings of typical Japanese TV hero stuff. While all these mixed genres may not play off each other perfectly and we have a mess of a film at times, at least we've finally got a Godzilla movie that actually stands out from the rest (I think the only other stand out film is 1971's GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER).

However, its over-the-top approach was headache-inducing: The fast pace is overkill (in sharp contrast to every movie in the series starting with GODZILLA 1985), and reminded me of crazy Hong Kong fantasies of the 1980s or 1990s, specifically Tsui Hark farces like ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (Golden Harvest; 1983). It got frustrating trying to keep up, amid all the quick edits and flashy gimmicks which hide a fairly simple story we've seen before (space invaders attack Earth and control giant monsters). Yet despite all this, I still like the movie a lot, and consider it an improvement over everything to come out of the series in the 1980s and 1990s.

The human characters at least offer old timers like Kumi Mizuno and Akira Takarada some interesting roles, and I didn't recognize Akira Takarada right away. The younger actors are interesting too-- better than the generic, boring soldiers of the last few movies, at any rate. The main villain, in his typical post-MATRIX black cape, has this eerie make-up, but is so emotional and bumbling that he's more clown-like than scary.

Many Godzilla fans dislike the movie, but with me, you're seeing it from the point-of-view of a fan of superheroes & martial arts. So I think this puts me in a position to evaluate & appreciate the over-all movie on another level. When the heroes and villains clash, it's fairly exciting action, but being a post-THE MATRIX movie, everything is over-enhanced with CGI junk. Their plight is diminished because we know there's really no thrilling stunt work. I met action choreographer & stuntman Tsutomu Kitagawa last year, and we did some comical martial arts moves for video cameras. His karate skills are first rate, having studied at Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club and made his debut in superhero programs such as the classic AKUMAIZER 3 (Toei; 1974) series. Unfortunately, his work is diminished because of the CGI 'enhancements' which give all the choreography & stunts an artificial feel. What's the point of a high-speed motorcycle chase that isn't real? It's like a radio ventriloquist; simply defeating the purpose. While it might not impress the average dai-kaiju fan, there are fans of superheroes & martial arts who will find fun in GFW. Though the typical Godzilla fans might hate GFW, the typical Kamen Rider fans will like it.

There's an impressive list of nostalgic names on hand: Not just Godzilla and Ghidrah, but Rodan, Mothra, Atragon, King Seesar, Minya, Manda, Angilas, Hedorah, Gino, Spiga, Gimantis, and Ebirah all make appearances. This tops the masterpiece DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (Toho; 1968) in that respect (sheer quantity). It's always exciting to see old favorites return. Angilas looked pretty damn slick, but I didn't like the designs of the two new (and over-used!) Gigans, felt Gimantis & Rodan relied too much on CGI artificiality, I never liked the "Godzilla with ears" look, and thought the meager cameos by Gino & Hedorah were way too brief and abrupt; amounting to little more than in-jokes than actual monster battles. Sad to say, for the first time ever, I thought Minya had one of the better designs and was the most interesting monster! So I guess I didn't like the way all the monsters looked, but just seeing them all in one film made it amusing.

All in all, it strikes me as a great film and if it wasn't the "final" (?) film in the series, I would consider it a step in the right direction. -Damon

First, before my review, I have address two points of contention about this film. For starters, the hero (Ozaki), besides having short black hair, black clothes and martial arts skills, no more resembles Keanu Reeves, than a brick resembles a prime-mover. His clothes may have similar pigmentation to the Matrix's Neo but in this film Ozaki is actually wearing white plastic body armour, and his military coat is dark green. Both he and Neo might share martial-arts knowledge. At least Ozaki is from the country that invented a large portion of it! Besides, I thought he looked MUCH more like Noah Wyle. If his coat had been white, perhaps people would say the film was ripping off ER.

The second issue is about the 'Matrix style'. Since even the creators of those films admit that their style harvests greatly from manga, anime, and HK action movies, it would be fair to say that Final War's director, Ryuhei Kitamura is more influenced by his own culture than three blockbuster popcorn flicks. Stopping bullets with telepathy, psychic battles, gravity defying fights, and slow motion have been enjoyed in Japan and mainland Asia for a VERY long time. Unfortunately, many aspects of their fiction have been somewhat hijacked by Hollywood.

The director shows many influences in this film, and it would foolish to deny that the Matrix did not play a part in shaping his approach. However, many film goers are simply unaware of the depth of The Matrix's own influences, and shouldn't attribute too much to them. Anyway, on to the review.

Well, if you are seriously wanting to get anything out of this film, you should probably become a fan of Godzilla and Kaiju genre. Anyone else would probably mistake this film's style, steeped in Kaiju tradition, for faults. It is true that the special effects are mostly 'analogue', and that the monsters are NOT CGI (usually). Yes, they are men in suits wrestling in model cities, but is it a flaw? Heck no! This film is great entertainment, and even a little touching!

The story is simple: a new force threatens the earth and sends monsters to destroy cities and crush humanity. What else? Luckily, the defenders of earth, a collection of mutants themselves, strive to combat the threat and restore peace. Godzilla herself may just be the only weapon left to mankind that could save the human race.

And so stylistically this film is very SF. The human forces wear futuristic body armour and sport hightech weapons. There are flying battleships and alien spacecraft. This may be an angle that some fans don't agree with but atleasy the monsters are all here. I forget how many, but quite a few from the Godzilla bestiary return to wreak havoc, and there are some fantastic clashes between them.

However, Final Wars is as much a human story as it is one of mass destruction at the hands of giants. Yes, that was a little difficult to say. But there is quite a lot of focus placed on the human protagonists this time. They are fighting a new and mysterious new foe. Many of the action sequences, and in fact often the longest ones, involve humans in hand-to-hand.

Even if this raises the hackles of a few Kaiju fans, I can understand: bring on the rubber-suited titans and all that. Yet I think that this dual focus adds an engaging dramatic quotient to the film. The action sequences may also draw a few comparisons to a certain fizzled out sci-fi trilogy, and all I can I say to that, is written above. And the words "get", "over" and "it".

The acting skill of the players varies between that of a seasoned performer to that of a pro-wrestler grapling with his lines. Oh wait, I think he is a pro-wrestler. I feel though, that if viewers are looking at acting skill in a film like this, they missing out on the bigger picture. Rest assured however, that this is definitely not like Devilman, where store-front manikins could have acted better.

Reportably, Final Wars is an anniversary film, and it is, though doubtfully, the last in the Godzilla series. For that reason, regardless if it remains that way, I was very happy to see the film stay true to the heritage it is a part of. It provides a fitting farewell. There is something refreshing, watching rubber-suited actors trample miniature sets - actors pretending to be monsters, waving their claws about. Sure the such things are cheesy and yes the rest is overly stylised, but the film makes no excuses for that, and it shouldn't.

Bring it on!