The Godzilla series has taken many turns and twists since the first of many sequels to come, "Godzilla Raids Again" was spawned in 1955. Over the course of fifty years, the series has been put on hiatus on three occasions. The first "ending" titled "Terror of MechaGodzilla" was a mediocre Godzilla film. It was the last time Godzilla was exploited as a hero and ended as strictly okay. The second ending, "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah" had the monster's demise at the end in a truly heart-breaking manner and the second ending was a very suiting one. No reason to end the series forever, but it was suitable.
Now, famed Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura tries his hand at his first Godzilla movie, and this new film "Godzilla: Final Wars" will be Godzilla's last film for a while. But "Final Wars" is, I'm very sorry to say, a total disaster. It is definitely the worst out all of the Millennium Godzilla films and the worst Godzilla film since "Godzilla vs. Megalon" in 1973. The film itself is totally out of place, too long, lacking anything creative, has very few good points, and is overall a very campy joke trying to be a great movie, which it is not.
The title is almost inappropriate. It should be called "Earth: Final Wars" or "Shinichi Ozaki: Final Wars", because "Godzilla: Final Wars" does not work for this film. The storyline hardly concentrates on Godzilla or any of the other monsters at all. It's not really a monster movie at all, it's more of a human action movie. Kind of like the 1968 film "Destroy All Monsters", which was and still is, by far, much better than this. Instead of concentrating on monsters, the story of this movie focuses on a bad cast of alternative reality characters trying to fight off against a bunch of X-Men and Matrix-style aliens. That's another point. How much this movie rips off films like Star Wars and The Matrix.
The big thing people expect from a Godzilla movie is monsters fighting each other. But they will all be disappointed here, for very little of the fights, and there are many, are the monsters. Most of them are poorly drawn-out (and Matrix-ripped-off) karate fights. They just go on and on for far too long and offer no real entertainment. I calculate there's at least fifteen or twenty minutes worth of human fights here that could have easily been cut for more monster action. But then, the monster battles themselves aren't really all that impressive. Special effects and graphics are pretty good, but the battles are also too karate and humanlike. In one scene, Godzilla and Monster X seem to be having a Western-style showdown with their hands at their sides and cracking their knuckles as if they're about to draw out some pistols and exchange shots! They're monsters...animals! Not humans! And a lot of the monsters don't get very much screen time, many of them get less than a minute. Now, in "Destroy All Monsters" Baragon and Varan got only a few seconds, but their other stars got plenty of screen time. Godzilla gets the most naturally, but the others are very briefly seen and then dispatched. Now this is what we wanted for the famous Godzilla vs. Zilla fight, but it was TOO fast and the American rock song in the background didn't really help it any.
The music presented before us in "Final Wars" is campy at its highest. It was not composed by Akira Ifukube or Michiru Oshima or any other Japanese artist. Instead, it was done by some American composer. And I'm sorry to say his score is horrendous. The music is annoying at almost every turn. Rarely ever do we get any good themes.
This is a bad film. Not only is it a bad film, but it's a bad Godzilla film. And in some cases, that can mean its a true catastrophe, that must be avoided. Godzilla has had some bad films in the past, some worse than this, but "Godzilla: Final Wars" is the worst one in over thirty years. Whose mistake was it? The director? The screenwriter? I can't say. But if Tomoyuki Tanaka was still alive to have produced this movie, he wouldn't have allowed the final result. It is an insult to Godzilla's legacy. Everybody should stick to the true Godzilla films such as "Gojira", "The Return of Godzilla", "GMK", and the others. I'm sorry Godzilla, but your fifty-year mark is not a good one. Let's hope for a better next "ending".
Now, famed Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura tries his hand at his first Godzilla movie, and this new film "Godzilla: Final Wars" will be Godzilla's last film for a while. But "Final Wars" is, I'm very sorry to say, a total disaster. It is definitely the worst out all of the Millennium Godzilla films and the worst Godzilla film since "Godzilla vs. Megalon" in 1973. The film itself is totally out of place, too long, lacking anything creative, has very few good points, and is overall a very campy joke trying to be a great movie, which it is not.
The title is almost inappropriate. It should be called "Earth: Final Wars" or "Shinichi Ozaki: Final Wars", because "Godzilla: Final Wars" does not work for this film. The storyline hardly concentrates on Godzilla or any of the other monsters at all. It's not really a monster movie at all, it's more of a human action movie. Kind of like the 1968 film "Destroy All Monsters", which was and still is, by far, much better than this. Instead of concentrating on monsters, the story of this movie focuses on a bad cast of alternative reality characters trying to fight off against a bunch of X-Men and Matrix-style aliens. That's another point. How much this movie rips off films like Star Wars and The Matrix.
The big thing people expect from a Godzilla movie is monsters fighting each other. But they will all be disappointed here, for very little of the fights, and there are many, are the monsters. Most of them are poorly drawn-out (and Matrix-ripped-off) karate fights. They just go on and on for far too long and offer no real entertainment. I calculate there's at least fifteen or twenty minutes worth of human fights here that could have easily been cut for more monster action. But then, the monster battles themselves aren't really all that impressive. Special effects and graphics are pretty good, but the battles are also too karate and humanlike. In one scene, Godzilla and Monster X seem to be having a Western-style showdown with their hands at their sides and cracking their knuckles as if they're about to draw out some pistols and exchange shots! They're monsters...animals! Not humans! And a lot of the monsters don't get very much screen time, many of them get less than a minute. Now, in "Destroy All Monsters" Baragon and Varan got only a few seconds, but their other stars got plenty of screen time. Godzilla gets the most naturally, but the others are very briefly seen and then dispatched. Now this is what we wanted for the famous Godzilla vs. Zilla fight, but it was TOO fast and the American rock song in the background didn't really help it any.
The music presented before us in "Final Wars" is campy at its highest. It was not composed by Akira Ifukube or Michiru Oshima or any other Japanese artist. Instead, it was done by some American composer. And I'm sorry to say his score is horrendous. The music is annoying at almost every turn. Rarely ever do we get any good themes.
This is a bad film. Not only is it a bad film, but it's a bad Godzilla film. And in some cases, that can mean its a true catastrophe, that must be avoided. Godzilla has had some bad films in the past, some worse than this, but "Godzilla: Final Wars" is the worst one in over thirty years. Whose mistake was it? The director? The screenwriter? I can't say. But if Tomoyuki Tanaka was still alive to have produced this movie, he wouldn't have allowed the final result. It is an insult to Godzilla's legacy. Everybody should stick to the true Godzilla films such as "Gojira", "The Return of Godzilla", "GMK", and the others. I'm sorry Godzilla, but your fifty-year mark is not a good one. Let's hope for a better next "ending".