Godzilla - Final Wars
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Don Frye, Masakatsu Funaki, Masatô Ibu, Rei Kikukawa, Shigeru IzumiyaBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.40:1
Running Time: 125 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-13
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Godzilla - Final Wars
Movie Review: Great as an action movie, average as a Godzilla movie
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1954, Toho created a one shot Kaiju movie featuring a monster by the name of Gojira/Godzilla. "Gojira" turned out to be a huge success and thus multiple sequels were created. In 1975, Toho put Godzilla to rest when the series started to dwindle in popularity. They brought the series back in 1984 with "Godzilla 1984," which was a direct sequel to the original movie, and omitted everything that happened between "Godzilla Raids Again" through "Terror of MechaGodzilla." This new era was given the title of the Heisei series, and lasted until 1995 when Toho ended the series once again with "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah."
Godzilla was once again brought back to life in 1999 with the first movie in the Millennium saga, "Godzilla 2000 Millennium." Each movie in the series did not feature any continuity between the two sans "Godzilla x MechaGodzilla" and "Godzilla x Mothra x MechaGodzilla Tokyo S.O.S." Finally, for the fiftieth anniversary in 2004, Toho decided their new movie would once again be the final one for the next five to ten years. They hired Ryuhei Kitamura, currently one of Japan's most popular directors, to do the "final" movie, which has been called "Godzilla Final Wars."
"Godzilla Final Wars" features various monsters from the entire series of movies, even the American Godzilla that Sony created in 1998. Some of the monsters like Mothra and Ghidorah have been seen in every series of movies, while others, such as Gigan, Hedorah, Ebirah, and Minilla have not been seen since the Showa era. These six monsters, among many others, have been brought back to give a grand celebration to the king of the monsters' anniversary.
Toho has stated that "Godzilla Final Wars" is the final Godzilla movie for the next five to ten years. Question is, is the movie worthy of being the final Godzilla movie for now? The answer is yes and no. As an action movie, Kitamura did a wonderful job making it an interesting and great looking film worthy of being the final movie. As a Godzilla movie though, it is pretty weak and it is not worthy in being the end to the franchise.
First off, the human characters take up most of the screen time in the movie, and most of the plot. In fact, out of the entire two hours, they have at least a good hour and a half of it, maybe more. While sometimes the humans have had most of the screen time back in the Showa era, the plot revolved around the monsters though. This movie on the other hand could have done without the monsters and would have been a great action movie on its own. It seems like Kitamura had a movie with this idea in mind, but when he was asked to do the "last" Godzilla movie, he took his movie's plot and just added the monster's to it.
One of the really interesting things in the human department though is the fact that Toho brought in quite a few actors from previous Godzilla movies. Naotarô Daigo, the UN Secretary General, was played by Akira Takarada, who played Fuji in "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero" and Yoshimura in "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster." Then you have the Kumi Mizuno as the EDF commander Akiko Namikawa, who also played in "Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster" as Daiyo and "Godzilla x MechaGodzilla" as the Prime Minister in 1999. Masatô Ibu, from "Godzilla x Megaguirus," played the first X-Seijin Commander. Then you have the man who has been in every Godzilla movie since "Godzilla vs. Biollante," Kôichi Ueda. Finally, Akira Nakao played the Gotengo commander in the beginning of the movie. Akira played the second Prime Minister in "Godzilla x MechaGodzilla" and "Godzilla x Mothra x MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." He also starred in the last three movies of the Heisei era. Kazuki Kitamura plays the second X-Seijin commander, and he pulls off a really wonderful psychotic villain. It is also worth noting that Kazama's actor, Kane Kosugi, played the black ranger in "Ninja Sentai KakuRanger."
Douglas Gordon was played by an actor named Don Frye, who had an interesting role in this movie. Frye did not speak one word of Japanese at all during the movie. A character would talk to him in Japanese, and then he would just reply back in English (with Japanese subtitles). Sometimes another character would say something to him in English, but ninety percent of the time it was just in Japanese. This made some conversations quite interesting, especially when he said he wanted to free Godzilla from his prison, and the Japanese commander frantically replied in Japanese, and then Frye said something like, "Yes, I know, but there isn't a world left for him to destroy."
Unfortunately, for the humans having so much screen time, there is hardly any character development between them at all. Their scenes are constantly cut from one to another without a second thought. The only development actually given is with Gordon with his mention of being on the Gotengo when they first buried Godzilla in the ice, and some during the battle with the two X-Seijins, but other than that, characters were left empty and just there.
The designs for characters were an interesting lot. The mutants wear skin-tight black outfits with silver armor over parts of their body such as their chest and shoulders. They were very plain and simple, and they work quite well, but one has to wonder how something so simple could really do any good against a monster attack. The human characters' clothing looks like they had no other choice on what to wear because some of it just looked awkward. Gordon had on a muscle shirt with a long green coat, and it just did not seem to go together well. The X-Seijin's on the other hand, had some spiffy looking outfits. While they were black and plain, it fitted them perfectly well in the style department. Their coats look like they are made out of vinyl or leather, but very durable. Also, the leader seems to love to flaunt his coat every time he pulls off a move while fighting, which was both cool and funny at the same time.
Well, now that you have been bored with the human characters, it is time to move on to the part everyone wants to read about, the Kaiju. Godzilla has a greenish body and looks more like the version from the Heisei movies rather than the more recent Millennium saga because his spines are not huge and pointy. His body is very thin looking when compared to all the previous versions since the Heisei series, which Kitamura said he wanted it that way so Godzilla could easily travel across the world. The eyes are orange, which brings in memories of the "Burning" Godzilla from "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah." The design of Godzilla looks flawless until he is shown on his side. His head looks too round on top, and it makes it look a little deformed, especially in the scene when Rodan flies his spiky chest over Godzilla's head. If it were not for that, this incarnation would probably be quite impressive.
Next up is Manda, who also looks impressive for the short battle he is in. Manda looks like a large snake with little arms and a dragon's head, which gives him a nice distinct look. There is really nothing wrong with this design as he is not around long enough to find one. In fact, if you think of what a live action version of Dragonball's Shenron would look like, then you have Manda.
Rodan's design looks like a combination of both the Showa and Heisei series one. He has the elongated neck that seems to move around unnaturally at times as the Showa era's used to do, while his body is reminiscent of the Heisei design. His face is also more like the Showa's as he only has two spikes curving toward his body instead of three spikes with the two on the sides curving upward. He has a reddish colored body, and his wings are quite long. Also, while Rodan is attacking New York City, you can see the air vibrate due to his speed, causing everything in its path to explode.
The Godzilla that was made by Sony for America even has a part in this movie. The main difference is he is just named Zilla in the movie as Toho does not consider him to be a real Godzilla incarnation (also known as GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) by many purists). Zilla looks just like he did in his own movie, a giant iguana-like lizard, just not as good looking. The CGI looks unfinished as he travels through Sydney during the day time. Fortunately, it is not as noticeable during the night battle with Godzilla, but the battle only lasts about twenty-two seconds, so there is not time to notice it. For those that hated how Zilla only ate fish in his movie, well fear not, because in this movie, he decides to chow down on some fresh humans.
Like Manda and many others, Anguirus has not been seen since the movies of the Showa series. Anguirus was last seen in 1974's "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla." In this version, Anguirus' overall look is similar to the old one, but he looks more ferocious and serious. Gone are the big bulgy eyes and replaced with small yellow eyes that show he is not to be messed with. The spikes on his upper shell curve toward his head instead of his tail so that he can roll up in a ball and cause mass destruction. His head's spikes look like he has a crown on his head, and his body color is a grayish green, while the spikes are yellow.
King Ceasar, also has not been seen since "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla," does not look all that different from his appearance in that movie. The biggest change is he does not have as much hair as he did then, and it works. He has armor on his body like breast plates (makes you wonder if his name is really Queen Ceasar), on his knees, and on his heels. It is still hard to determine if he is a giant dog or a giant lion though. Nonetheless, King Ceasar is still a cool monster, but he does not do much of anything other than jump at Godzilla.
There is no way to really describe Kamakirasu and Kumonga as they both just look like giant insects. Kamakirasu is green instead of red as Mantises are, while Kumonga is brown with yellow stripes. Neither of these monsters did anything to Godzilla either, making one wonder what their point was. Seeing the Kamakirasu take down an EDF ship in Paris was quite enjoyable though.
Next up is Ebirah, who like Kamakirasu and Kumonga, was just a useless giant lobster. Ebirah's skin is a reddish tone with spikes going down his body on the sides and back. One of his claws is smaller than the other, but this monster gets beaten pretty easily by the mutants before he is teleported away.
The terror begins as Minilla is the light hearted monster in the movie. Minilla looks just as cute as he did in the Showa era, only his skin is green instead of grayish. His eyes are just as big as they were thirty-six years ago, as is his smile. He starts out human sized, but grows right after he tried to blow flames out of his mouth. Nothing has changed with Minilla since the days of the Showa era, which has both positive and negative effects to the movie's atmosphere.
Gigan is given two different forms in this movie, and both are probably the most unique and best designs in the entire movie. To start, Gigan looks more like a cyborg in this movie rather than just have a saw on his chest with a green and gold organic looking body. His skin has a blue tint to it and the skin overlaps each other as if they were scales. Red is used for his eye and wings. Silver is used on both of Gigan's claws, his beak, spiked knee braces, body saw, spikes on his back, and the end of his tail. Gigan's "Powered Up" form replaces his claw arms for double-chained saws and a silver neck brace. His first form's claws have two smaller claws close to his elbows that launch and wrap around their target so Gigan can either strangle them or pull them close to him so slice with his body saw.
While some of the monsters were pretty pointless, none of them can match the uselessness of Hedorah. Hedorah lands next to a building, but before you could even get a good look at him, Ebirah flies into one of his eyes and they are both blown up by Godzilla. The only time you can get a good look at him is by looking at pictures drawings or by pausing the movie, but even then you do not get a good look at him. From what can be described, he looks just like he does in the Showa version, a big blob of pollution with one huge round eye, and an oval-shaped eye.
Mothra is pretty much the same as he/she has looked over the last forty years. This incarnation has quite a bit of hair, and could have just been the same model used for "Godzilla x Mothra x MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S." The wings are humongous and look gorgeous in details.
The new monster of the movie, Monster X, is the only monster to really give Godzilla a challenge. He has a black body which looks like his muscle tissue, with a grayish skeleton on the outside covering parts of his body. His shoulders have what looks like half a dragon skull on each side, with his head in between them. His head has two horns in the center of it, and looks like the skull is covering some ugly black head underneath it. Monster X's eyes are as red as blood and he has two tails. While the design is excellent, it is easy to tell that there is a person in the suit by the way it moves.
Finally, Monster X mutates into the behemoth dragon Kaiser Ghidorah. As always, Ghidorah retains a golden color, three heads, wings, and two tails. What is different with this version is he has four legs, similar to Death Ghidorah from 1996's "Mothra" movie. Ghidorah also has blue highlights intermixed with the golden body of his. Each one of the heads are shaped differently such as the one on the right having three horns on his head, two horns that branch out for the middle head, and two curved horns on his left head. There are also claws on his wings. Just like with Monster X, his eyes are a blood red. Kaiser Ghidorah is certainly an interesting version of Ghidorah, and quite a powerful as well. It is unfortunate that his battle with Godzilla is not as long as it was when he was Monster X.
The special effects in "Godzilla Final Wars" are just as impressive as the monster designs, aside from a few issues. As mentioned before, Zilla's CGI does not look that great, but when it comes to explosions, Toho knew what they were doing, as always. The scene where Manda turns yellow from the lava's heat looks a little awkward, but works just great thanks to the dark background. CGI is not the only issue in the special effects area though. While fighting Godzilla, Kumonga mostly attacks by spitting out his webbing, but it is easy to tell the web is made of rope. The web looked fine once it hit Godzilla, but if it were not for the battle being so short; it could have taken away from the mood. Aside from those issues, the movie's effects looked wonderful. The Gotengo and the other EDF and X-Seijin ships looked realistic throughout the entire movie, so there are no complaints in that department. Although they are not the best effects in a Godzilla movie ever, they are definitely close to the top, especially with the effects used when Rodan flew through New York City.
The monster battles themselves have something left to be desired though. To start, some of the battles were pointless (as mentioned above), while others were good but one sided. The one between Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus, and King Ceasar is a good example. The four monsters come running toward each other (or flying in Rodan's case), but Godzilla uses Anguirus' head as a springboard to leap over the oncoming monsters and cause them to crash into each other. When Anguirus rolls into a ball, Godzilla and King Ceasar have a little "Shaolin Soccer" moment with him. Once the fun is over, the three monsters are knocked unconscious without warning and Godzilla moves on to the next battle. While some Zilla haters will love seeing Zilla get beaten within thirty seconds, it would have been an interesting battle had Toho not used it to make fun of the monster. Finally, there is Hedorah once again, the most useless piece of junk (no pun intended) in this movie. He did not have a point at all and Toho did not need to waste their money making a costume for him.
The soundtrack itself is a mixed bag. Some tunes come out perfect and really fit the mood (such as Godzilla's techno theme at the beginning of the movie and during the battle with Kaiser Ghidorah), while other times it sounds like something out of the 1987's "Masters of the Universe." Keith Emerson is given the most credits for the soundtrack, as most of it is done by him, with Akira Ifukube doing a remix of the Godzilla theme for the opening of the movie (which shows clips of the different versions of Godzilla throughout the last fifty years). Also, Masaru Satô's Minilla theme is played when Minilla first appears, and his MechaGodzilla theme is heard on the radio two guys stationed at Area G (where Godzilla is imprisoned) are listening to. Also, Nobuhiko Morino and Daisuke Yano worked on the soundtrack as well. They are best known for the music they did in Kitamura's "Versus." There is a song in here from the band Sum 41, which at first you think it does not belong anywhere in the movie, but after hearing it played during the battle with Zilla, it fits very well.
In the end, Kitamura made a very entertaining movie for everyone to enjoy. Whether there is only one specific era of Godzilla movies (Showa, Heisei, Millennium) you like, there something in here for every one, even those who are not Godzilla fans.
Once again, the question remains unchanged, is "Godzilla Final Wars" worthy of the being the final movie for now? I highly recommend you watch and decide that for yourself.
Score as an action movie: 5/5 stars
Score as a Godzilla movie: 2.5/5 stars
Summary of Godzilla - Final Wars
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