>>REVIEW
GODZILLA FINAL WARS
DIRECTED BY Ryuhei Kitamura
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2004
You would think that a movie that is billing itself as the last in the long line of Godzilla movies would want to go out with a bang. The sheer number of monsters in Godzilla Final Wars ensures that there are a few good fights, but at over two hours, the filmmakers spend way too much time developing characters that should be nothing more than targets for the big green guy.
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, a man known as Japan’s Quentin Tarantino, Godzilla Final Wars isn’t content to be the definitive instalment in the Godzilla franchise. With the help of some lazy screenwriters, Kitamura takes a perfectly good monster movie and clutters it up with so many derivative and meaningless subplots that it almost derails it.
As the film opens, the world is under attack. Tokyo, Japan, Sydney, Australia and other cities all over the globe (even Vancouver, Canada) – are being decimated by Rodan, Gigan and Anguillus and others. Clearly, the Earth Defense Force has its work cut out for it. Then, out of nowhere (well, actually from outer space), a bunch of aliens (looking suspiciously like castoffs from The Matrix, with their shaved heads and long leather coats) show up to quell the attack. Of course, no one on Earth seems too concerned that these guys have the power to control the monsters. If only they had watched Godzilla Versus Monster Zero, they might have had an idea of the danger afoot.
Still, things don’t sit right for a young and beautiful scientist and her intense military protector, and faster than you can say "evil aliens are trying to take over the Earth and use humans for food," this pair of amateur detectives have uncovered the deadly secret. Did I mention that one of them is a mutant that has fighting powers akin to the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Not that it matters – the film doesn’t make much sense and one hour into it, Godzilla is still nowhere to be seen.
Once the head alien’s dastardly plan is revealed, he takes it as his cue to start overacting and set all the monsters loose to destroy Earth. However, there is one monster that is not under alien control. So the remains of the Earth Defense Force pile into a super cruiser and head to Antarctica to wake up Godzilla. The big guy is understandably pissed and mercifully he gets to take out his aggression on almost every monster in the Godzilla universe, including a new and improved version of Gigan (who actually has double-barrelled chainsaws for hands).
As you have probably realized by now, there is way too much going on in Godzilla Final Wars to make for a cohesive film. Watching Godzilla destroy Tokyo is always fun and with old friends like Mothra, Hedorah and Monster X showing up, the scenes with the monsters are quite impressive. The problem lies with any scene where the cast members aren’t wearing latex monster suits. While the motorcycle fight is impressive (even though it was totally ripped off from Mission Impossible 2), and the swordfights look good (even though they cribbed the humming blade from Kill Bill), the story is just too convoluted to be entertaining. Plus there is a pretty lame subplot involving Minilla (a.k.a. Baby Godzilla), which only serves to finally give the smoke-blowing mini-monster his superpowers.
The other problem with the film is that even though Godzilla’s monster confrontations are fun to watch, they are over way too fast. Fights that would usually be the basis for an entire film are over in two or three punches. I guess Kitamura was content with quantity over quality.
Overall, the film is on par with many of the new-school Godzilla offerings, but ultimately it has nothing on the classic films from the ’50s and ’60s. In truth, I would probably be pretty choked if I thought this was actually the last ever Godzilla movie. Even with the word Final in the title, I’m pretty sure this isn’t Godzilla’s last hurrah. Remember Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – they weren’t the last in a line either. Even when Godzilla "died" at the end of Godzilla Versus Destroyah in 1995, Toho Studios still managed to keep the franchise alive. Like many Godzilla films, Final Wars ends with Godzilla not dying, but merely wandering back into the Sea of Japan. I’m sure it won’t be long before we see our big green friend again. |
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