Intro: Well guys, here we are. My last review. It's been a wild ride full of kaiju, mechas, and aliens. Now, here's the last (as of right now) Godzilla film from a Toho.
Godzilla Final Wars. Guess what. Reboot.
Plot: Back in the 60s, Godzilla did battle with the military massive flying battleship the Gotengo. After a tense fight, Godzilla is locked away in the ice for decades. Between then and now, an earth defense Force is established and at the same time, mutant humans are being discovered and recruited all over the world. Now why does that sound familiar? They have incredibly physical strength. In present time, the upgraded Gotengo is battling the serpent Manda on the ocean floor near some volcanoes. The ship is piloted by Captain Gordon (Don Frye) and several of the mutants are on board, including one named Kazama and another named Ozaki. Ozaki fires the Gotengo's maser and kills Manda. The ship is badly damaged and Gordon is called in for endangering the vessel and crew. He is put in a cell for striking his superior officer. Back at HQ, Ozaki is assigned to be a bodyguard for the UN biologist Miyuki Otonashi, who has been summoned by professor Jinguji (Kenji Sahara) to examine the mummified remains of a large kaiju. While there, Ozaki, Miyuki, and Jinguji are warped to Infant Island, where the Shobijin explain the origins of the monster, who is named Gigan. 1200 years ago, Mothra battled Gigan and defetaed him. The Shobijin warn that Gigan is evil, and that the mutants have that same evil running through their veins. As the three are warped back to the lab, they are given an ancient amulet.
The Secretary General of the United Nations (Akira Takarada) is on a plane to New York. However, his plane is destroyed by a massive flying object. In New York, the object makes itself known as the massive Pterodactyl Rodan! The EDF quickly sends out forces to combat. Soon, monsters start appearing all over the globe. Anguirus in Shanghai, King Caesar in Okinawa, Kamacuras is Paris, Kumonga in Arizona, and the American Godzilla (Zilla) in Sydney. In an unconnected event, an old man and his grandson find the tiny Minya in the forests of Mt. Fuji. In addition, the giant lobster Ebirah is attacking a power plant in Japan. Ozaki, Kazama, and several other mutants combat it with handheld masers and actually manage to take him down. Before they can kill him, Ebirah, as well as all the other kaiju are suddnely beamed up and disappear. A massive UFO appears over the EDF base and Commander Namikawa (Kumi Mizuno) is shocked to see the secretary general get beamed down from the ship. he tells of the aliens who saved him. They are taken inside the ship where they meet their saviors, the Xiliens. They explain to the people of Earth that another large planet named Gorath is on a collision course with Earth. they plan on helping earth get rid of it. They form a friendship with the people of Earth and the secretary general changes the United Nations to the Space Nations.
Miyuki's sister Anna is suspicious of the general and examines a tape of his speech. She notices that he does not blink his eyelids at all. She tells this to Ozaki and Miyuki. They try to confront the general and a knife wielding man tries to assassinate him. Due to this, they are able to examine a blood sample and deduce from it that he is not human. They begin to doubt the aliens and realize they can;t trust anyone when they find out Namikawa is an alien as well. Oazki claims that Gordon is still trustworthy and breaks him out. Gordon and a team of mutants kill Namikawa, who's skin splits apart and reveals a hideous alien. During a press conference, it is revealed that the General is an Xilien when he is shot and the true form shows itself. The commander of the aliens tries to explain, but he to is shot by the second in command Xilien. A young man who takes control over the operation. He refers to the humans as cattle as puts all the mutants except for Ozaki under mind control and orders them to kill the heroes. They manage to escape, but with Kazama in hot pursuit. After a motorcycle battle with Ozaki, Kazama in incapacitated. The Xilien commander awakens Gigan and re-releases all the monsters on Earth as well as the Xilien army.
Gordon and the remaining survivors organize a plan to go to the South Pole and wake up Godzilla and have him fight all the other monsters. They take the Gotengo and head to Antarctica. They are ambushed by Gigan, but manage to wake up Godzilla. The monster king battles Gigan briefly and ends the fight by blowing off the cyborg's head, much to the frustration of the commander. The Gotengo lures Godzilla through various locations. In Sydney, he kills the American Godzilla in 13 seconds flat. Suck it, Emmerich! In Papa New Guinea, he easily kills Kumonga. In Manazura Japan, Kamacurs meets a similar fate. Godzilla's march continues towards Mt. Fuji where he battles Rodan, Anguirus, and King Caesar all at once. They put up a short fight and Godzilla defeats them, but spares their lives. The Gotengo arrives in Tokyo to attack the mothership. They try to fire, but there's a barrier shield. Kazama takes a small fighter plane inside to sacrifice himself and destroy the shield generator. Now why does that seem familiar? With the shield down, the humans try to attack, but the Xiliens stop them and bring the aboard. At the same time, Godzilla manages to easily kill Ebirah and Hedorah (where the hell did he come from?).
The Xilien commander reveals that Ozaki is a special kind of mutant called a keizer that possess incredible power. The commander himself is also a keizer. Planet Gorath begins to approach Earth's atmosphere. Godzilla notices and fires a massive atomic ray into outer space and destroys the asteroid. However, as the dust clears, a new monster descends on the battlefield. The skeletal beast named Monster X. Godzilla fight it, but the new kaiju is very strong. The commander laughs at Godzilla, considering him a joke. Suddenly, Mothra arrives on the scene. The Xilien smirks and deploys the upgraded Gigan with chainsaw arms. Gigan manages to take Mothra out easily and the cyborg joins Monster X against Godzilla. Ozaki and the controller battle it out while Gordon and his crew battle with the other Xiliens. Back outside, Mothra returns and attacks Gigan, who leaves to pursue. In the battle, both Mothra and Gigan die, leaving just Godzilla and Monster X. In the ship, the crew reunites with the real Namikawa and Secretary General, who had been captured. They fleee to the ship while Ozaki and the Xilien battle to the death. awakening his Keizer powers, Ozaki beats the alien to pulp and thinks the day is won. However, the alien initiates the self destruct feature. Ozaki and the others just barely make it out.
Monster X begins to sprout massive golden wings and his head splits into three. Godzilla and the humans watch in shock as Monster X transforms into the massive Keizer Ghidorah. The dragon begins to suck the life force out of Godzilla, slowly killing him. Ozaki decides to use his Keizer powers to transfer a huge amount of energy to Godzilla. When he does so, Godzilla is revitalized, stronger than ever. with a combination of nuclear pulse, brute strength, and spiral ray, the dragon is thrown in to space and destroyed by Godzilla, who quickly turns his attention to the Gotengo. He fires an atomic ray, knocking it down. Godzilla goes in to finish them, but Minya arrives and tells Godzilla not to attack. Godzilla finally agrees and heads back to the sea, followed by the young one. Godzilla turns and gives out one final roar.
Reflection: Damn this movie is long. This film is really just a pure action film with very little substance. Sadly, none of the main characters are terribly interesting. Ozaki is the perfect definition a Mary sue (or Gray Stu in this case). He has little to no personality, has some chosen one bullshit and pulls weird powers out of his ass. The two main characters that are actually enjoyable are Gordon and the Xilien. Gordon is not acted that great, but the dude is badass who just spits out one liners constantly. Such a quotable character. The Xilien is hilariously over the top. He's so much fun just to watch go nuts. The supporting characters are quite good though. Akira Takarada is great as the Secretary General and Kumi Mizuno is a joy to see. The fact that her character is called Namikawa is a piece of fanservice I just can't resist. Kenji Sahara is also here, so plus one for that.
There are a ton of monsters, so I'll go through them all briefly. Godzilla himself looks great. A lot of people dislike the leaner design of this one, but I like it. Plus I can't imagine the fat 90s Godzilla doing some of these stunts. Despite being in the title, Godzilla actually isn't that relevant to the film. I'm fine with Godzilla having not that much screen time. The original did that flawlessly. Here, he just feels kinda thrown in, as do most of the Kaiju. Manda is a great example of that. He's just there to be killed by the Gotengo. The deign is fine, but he does little. Mothra is given a much smaller role than the last film. I'm fine with this because we had quite a bit of Mothra in the past few films. She looks identical to her Tokyo SOS appearance. Minya has an entire subplot dedicated to him that basically goes nowhere. Somehow, the suit looks less convincing than the one from 1967. I would've been fine without him. Gigan has been upgraded and he looks plain badass. Too bad he's killed so quickly. It's great to see him again though. His second from in this movie has chainsaws for arms. That's fucking awesome.
One controversial addition is the American Godzilla from the 98 film. He's just fodder for Godzilla to fight. But let me say this, Godzilla killing the American imposter in just a few second sis one of the best things a Godzilla fan could ask for. May that tuna head rot in hell. Kumonga is back for this film. Sadly, she's axed off pretty quickly. Hell, all the monsters are. That's my biggest problem with them. The monsters could have really used more focus. Unfortunately, there's so many that you can't focus on all of them. Kamacuras is also in this film after a long hiatus. He has the power of invisibility now, but Godzilla still kills him pretty quick. Rodan's role is insultingly small. You would think a major Kaiju like him would play a big part. Nope, just more fodder. It doesn't help that the suit and design for him are ugly as hell. My boy Anguirus is back and it's great to see him. I don't like his new design as much as the old one, but he still looks cool. He now has the ability to curl up into a ball and roll. King Caesar is an old choice and it probably would've been best if he was left out. He does little and the suit is pretty bad.
Ebirah is back and probably at his weakest. Seriously, he gets taken down by a couple soldiers. Ridiculous. The suit for him is pretty meh. The most insulting Kaiju though is Hedorah. By god is he poorly handled. You have Hedorah, one of the most powerful and dangerous of Godzilla's enemies who was pretty much immune to the atomic ray. And how do you respect that? By having him in the movie for less than a minute and have hi killed in one shot. It wouldn't have been as bad if they at least showed him earlier, but nope. He just shows up and gets killed like a pussy. Then there's Monster X. He has a cool and unique design, but just kinda shows up at the end. Then he transforms into his Ghidorah form. I have major problems here. The original Ghidorah was a badass, regal, and psychotic planet killer. Here, he looks like a fucking piñata. Why the hell would you make Ghidorah stand on all fours? It just looks odd and not fitting for Ghidorah. They also set him up as the most powerful monster ever, yet when Godzilla is supercharged with the plot device ray, he kills him easily. Fuck Keizer Ghidorah, give me my real Ghidorah.
The music is a real low point. It's done by unknown Keith Emerson. His music is generic video game schlock. The only two noteworthy songs are his theme for Godzilla and the opening credits theme. Unfortunately, there is no Ifukube in this film except for a couple seconds at the beginning. Seriously, it's the fiftieth anniversary film and you didn't include his music.
This is what pisses me off about this movie the most, what it could have been. This film was made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Godzilla. How do we celebrate? A generic action picture full of clichéd characters, rip offs of The Matrix, X-Men, and Star Wars, and an overall just lack of Godzilla-ness. This film does not feel like a Godzilla film at all. Even films with vastly different ideas and tones like GMK still felt like a Godzilla movie. I get none of that here. There are a couple good things, but as it stands, this was a very poor way to end the Godzilla series.
Final Score: 2/5
I hope you enjoyed these reviews. This is something I'm really passionate about. It's a criminally underrated genre that everyone should see. Whether you're into the more heavy and serious stuff like the original and Mothra vs. Godzilla or the fun cheesy action films like Gigan and Megalon, there's something in the Godzilla franchise for you.
Do you want to get into these movies? If so, I highly recommend this box set.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/8044441?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227001211244&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=t&wl3=42154843870&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=35003745670&veh=sem
It's full of several classic Godzilla film. You have the essentials like the original, MvG, and the two Ghidorah movies. It also has All Monsters Attack if you want some MST3K fun. Make sure you watch the Japanese versions as they are superior. This is especially important for the original film.
Now that my reviews are done, what will I do now you may ask? You know exactly where to find me. In a movie theater. Now go get hyped for Godzilla 2014.