The one that copied The Matrix, Star Wars and X-men, where an overpowered Godzilla destroyed all monsters
The Good: Memorable characters, dynamic directing style, intense fight scenes, highly entertaining
The Bad: rips off too many other movies, inconsistent tone, disappointing musical score, cheesy writing, sub standard CGI effects, over the top acting
***********Review***********
Godzilla bows out on his 50th birthday with the massive multi monster mash up GODZILLA FINAL WAR. Stylishly directed by horror action director Ryuhei Kitamura, GODZILLA FINAL WAR is essentially a modernized remake of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
Godzilla, the king of monsters, lies trapped under the Arctic ice, but earth is determined never to be caught off guard again by giant monsters. The Earth Defense Force trains an elite team of soldiers comprising men and women enhanced by a mysterious mutant gene. Led by captain Douglas Gordon, the man who first defeated the legendary Godzilla many years ago, this M-Organisation hunts down monsters across the globe.
The discovery of an ancient cyborg creature called Gigan leads to a monster invasion of titanic proportions. Giant beasts appear across the globe, wrecking havoc. Captain Gordon leads his team of mutant monster hunters in the Gotengo, an advanced spacecraft armed to the teeth. But just as the counterattack is underway, the monsters are seemingly disintegrated by human like aliens known as the Xilliens.
The Xilliens come in peace, but Captain Gordon has his suspicions. These suspicions are proved right when it is discovered that the ancient cyborg, the mutant soldiers and the Xilliens share the same mutant gene. This same gene allows them to be put under mind control! With chaos reigning from within and from beyond, captain Gordon initiates a plan to turn Godzilla loose on the invaders.
Sure we have seen this monster mash up scenario play out across multiple forms of fiction, but only here does it play out under the keen direction of Ryuuhei Kitamura. Kitamura brings a stylish dynamic look to FINAL WAR; visually it looks on par with blockbusters 10 times it's budget. His direction in action scenes is intense and fast paced, using a good range of camera tricks to bring out the scale and ferocity of the monster clashes.
Yet mr kitamura's visual acumen cannot make up for all the other flaws of this movie. First and foremost being the story, which manages to rip off Star Wars
, x-men, the matrix
, Independence Day,
and many other far superior Hollywood films. The unoriginal premise and plot comprises a range of over acted characters trying to be "edgy". The actors turn in fine performances with nothing entirely cringe worthy, but the fault lies in the writer who pens some truly cheesy lines right out of bad fan fiction.
I do however appreciate the diverse ethnicity of the characters, under utilized though they may be, which gives the movie a broader international feel. You may recognize Kane Kosugi, Hollywood actor and son of the classic ninja actor Sho Kosugi, as well as Don Frye channeling the best of middle age macho through his character of Captain Gordon.
Being a 2004 movie, one should not expect too much in terms of special effects. Is it then too much to expect for special effects to improve just a little bit from the mid 1990s? Sure the movie is in HD but the miniatures, monster costumes and pyrotechnics look just as good (or bad) as Godzilla movies from the 90s.
Basically, the more elaborate a monster design, the stiffer it moves. More agile monsters like King Caesar, Gigan and Monster X look like something out of power rangers.
Godzilla himself looks leaner but has a weird tiny head, rat like ears, a perpetual squint and moves just as stiff as most millennium era Godzilla movies.
Unlike other Godzilla movies where the big G gets up close and personal to deliver the beat down on enemy monsters, Godzilla in FINAL WAR is a living deus ex machina overusing an over powered nuclear breath to solve every conflict.
This fight strategy of blowing away enemies with a giant mouth laser soon becomes real old real fast. So the creative team throws in some truly hilarious scenes like having Godzilla play soccer with 2 other monsters while using another monster as the ball.
It is instances like this, and much of the hammy human dominated scenes (not to mention every appearance of Godzilla's baby Minila) that makes this movie more like a parody than a serious blockbuster.
No doubt that GODZILLA FINAL WAR was an ambitious project, but the skills of director Kitamura and the film's actors were hampered by an insultingly bad Japanese script (and a laughably horrid English dub), an unoriginal convoluted story with too many sub plots, weak special effects, and a synthesizer soundtrack right out of some old video game. This would be the movie that drove the Godzilla franchise into a 10 year hibernation until it's revival in the 2014 Hollywood remake.
***********Review***********
Entertainment: A
Story: B-
Acting: C+
Characters: B+
Music: D+
Replay value: B+
"Brains":D+
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