Godzilla: Final Wars

[Andrew]

I liked it.  Of course, it's a film with advanced technology, crazy aliens, and lots of monsters.  I do wish that more care had been taken with some of the battles.  They were too cartoony for me.

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/godzillafinal/index.html

[daveblackeye15]

The movie has grown on me but I did like it initially.

Hopefully the next monster movie Toho makes will have the same crafting as Godzilla 1985 and Biollante got. Took them four years and they did those right.

[Potato king]

The movie has grown on me but I did like it initially.

Hopefully the next monster movie Toho makes will have the same crafting as Godzilla 1985 and Biollante got. Took them four years and they did those right.

I totally agree with you, "Godzilla: Final wars" could have been even better, if they had had more time to concentrate on the special effects, especially all the monster scenes seemed pretty shoddily made to me. Don't get me wrong, folks, I love this movie, but with more time it could have been a masterpiece of Kaiju genre like GMK.

[RapscallionJones]

I was really happy with this movie.  I think it moves a little too slow for my liking and spends way too much time on the mutants, but there's a fight on two moving motorcycles, for crying out loud!

The mid-movie smackdown when G finally faces down all the monsters (and roasts American Godzilla) was awesome.  That big American guy also sold me on the movie big time.

[GoHawks]

Overall, I like this movie.  It's not a question to me of if the film is good, but rather what is good about it and what isn't.  This was the big G's 50th anniversary movie, and Toho tried to pull out all the stops on this one, with mixed success.

Almost everyone complains along the lines that the monster fights are too short and too silly.  I agree with this assessment, but one must realize that for every monster that appears in this movie, that's either that many more minutes that must be added to the running time or that many more that must be removed from other monsters' fights.  Still, if the human (and alien!) part of the film were shortened, that would open up time for the monsters.

Much of the human part of the film was obviously influenced by other recent movies (e.g. The Matrix) and it shows.  I feel this is the weakest part of this movie.

What does work well in this film?  The monsters.  This is a (Godzilla) daikaiju film.  It's supposed to be about the monsters.  Is there any other film that has as many as this one?  Mostly, they are well done with only a smattering of CGI (e.g. Anguirus when he's a bowling ball).  (I had a hard time figuring out who Zilla was supposed to be until the Real Godzilla put the smack down on him.)

I don't watch daikaiju films for the 'kung-fu action', but the fighting action that was in this film was pretty good.  (Yeah, even the <cough><Tom Cruise><cough><Mission Impossible><cough> motorcycle scene wasn't bad, if unbelievable.)

I would not recommend this film to be someone's first Godzilla film, but I would recommend it as a 3rd or 4th.

[Toho] said 2013, but they've said they have absolutely no interest in doing any more daikaiju films for a long while.

I'm showing my American ignorance here, but just out of curiosity what kind of films other than daikaiju does Toho even make?

Finally, just one quick anecdote.  Above, RapscallionJones says "That big American guy".  One must never assume that a Caucasian in an Asian film is an American (although in this case the actor is and I'm sure RapscallionJones knows this).  When I was in Singapore (in the U.S. Navy), I came across a typical redneck type family waiting for the subway.  I couldn't figure out for the life of me why a family of rednecks would want to go to Singapore, or for that matter how they could afford it.  Then I heard them talk and everything became clear to me.  They were from Australia (which is right near Singapore).

[trekgeezer]

There was way too much of the Matrix- style stuff and not enough monster action.  I loved the part where big G drop kicks Roland Emmerich's CG monstrosity into the Sydney opera house.

[Shadow]

There was way too much of the Matrix- style stuff and not enough monster action.

I would agree with that assessment. I like the film, but it really needed more time spent with the monsters.

[akiratubo]

I would have to call Final Wars a failure as a Godzilla movie.  Honestly, it felt like they were making an alien invasion movie when, all of a sudden, Toho bosses called in and said, "Throw some Godzilla scenes in here!"

The monster scenes were very rushed and you could edit them out without really changing the movie much.  And, hell, Godzilla himself basically just makes a cameo appearance!

So, yes, a failure as a Godzilla movie.

However, as a big dumb action movie, they don't get much better than this!  Watching Final Wars was like listening to a little kid tell a story: it didn't make much sense, story threads came out of nowhere and went back in a hurry, but there was always something happening!

"Godzilla was fighting a tank and got buried in ice and then -- Oooh!  And then Manda was fighting a submarine except it was really a plane and then there were aliens and mutant people and -- and --!!!"

Aside from that, there were just enough scenes that were right.  For instance, when Godzilla faced off against Angilas, King Caesar, and Rodan, you could tell he was wondering why his old buddies were trying to fight him.  And he simply beat the hell out of them instead of killing them because, hey, they're his buddies.

The ending was pretty crappy.  Aw, look, the damn kid and Minya are stopping Godzilla and the humans from fighting.  Awwwwwwwwbarrrrrrrrf.

Fortunately, before that, we had the Planet X guy going "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" while things blew up around him.  No movie that includes and image like that can be that bad.

[Jim H]

I enjoyed it, but it should have had twice as much Godzilla and about a half hour of people crap cut out.

[Joe the Destroyer]

I'm showing my American ignorance here, but just out of curiosity what kind of films other than daikaiju does Toho even make?

Check out Toho Kingdom (www.tohokingdom.com), and on the right click on "Movies."  Nowadays, it seems they do more comedies, drama, and action flicks than anything else, but they also do a lot of fantasy, horror, and samurai films.  In fact, most, if not all, of Kurosawa's old samurai films were produced by Toho.  They also distribute a lot of films in Japan that other studios make like Reincarnation (of Horrofest fame) and Ringu.

Interesting fact: Toho produced the film Milo and Otis.

[horseshoe crab]

The working title was Milo vs. Otis.

[Megalons Revenge]

The one part I didn't like about this movie was how all the monster fights scenes were way to short. Other than that, I thought it was pretty good.

[Just Plain Horse]

The one part I didn't like about this movie was how all the monster fights scenes were way to short. Other than that, I thought it was pretty good.

...not only that, but they seemed more like references to other things in Japanese cultures, in a way:

The "Godzilla vs. Angiurus, Rodan & King Seesar" fight, where Anguirus rolled up in a ball and got kicked around reminded me of Shoalin Soccer...

...and the "Godzilla vs. Ebirah & Hedorah" fight reminded me of Neogensis Evangelion when Godzilla's beam blasted not only his foes, but moved the entire building behind them as well!

I liked the final match between Godzilla & Monster X was pretty good, even with the intervention of Gigan and Mothra- I just wish the rest of the monster battles were as good.

[Tsukasa Macleod]

I don't care what others say, THIS IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE GODZILLA MOVIE.  The fight with King Ghidorah is spectacular and Gigan's new makeover was awesome. VIVA FINAL WARS!

[Kent]

GFW is one of those Godzilla films where you either enjoy it or you don't. You have very few fans who are in between.

Personally, I didn't really know what to make of it when I first watched it back in December of 2005. After a few more watchings, the human drama is growing on me and the movie, as a whole, has as well.

I still have a problem with the short kaiju battles and the hit and miss coverage of the Godzilla Vs. Monster X battle.

Still, it isn't perfect, but it's a fun movie.

Gets a  from me.