Best End of Era Film

[Legionmaster]

The ending of FINAL WARS isn't any more different than it is from most of the 70's entries, so I don't see what's so special about it.

Because Captain Gordon gets to repopulate Japan with sexy leather-clad nymphomaniacal scientists.

"GO RIGHT INTO IT!"

[antovald20]

Hey! GxG, i think it's pretty cool that you wanna be a film critic, and your kind of flexing your critic muscles here. No wonder u leave long posts, anyways good luck with that dude.

[Goji]

The ending of FINAL WARS isn't any more different than it is from most of the 70's entries, so I don't see what's so special about it.

Because Captain Gordon gets to repopulate Japan with sexy leather-clad nymphomaniacal scientists.

"GO RIGHT INTO IT!"

Lol Well when you put it that way, it's actually pretty awesome.

[Blackout286]

I doubt Godzilla had any real understanding of the world, and I doubt he really cared about it.

What I meant by that was Godzilla died for reasons that he most likely did not understand. Everything that he knew about the world, how things died and whatnot, was thrown out of the window because he didn't understand why he was dying. I know that's how I would act if I were dying from an illness that I didn't understand and no one could tell me what it was.

The only thing that mattered to him was his territory, surviving, and much later on, his adopted son (When MechaGodzilla II came around).

And Godzilla lost all three of those in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Birth Island was destroyed, he lost his son, and he didn't survive.

Although as stated by another member, TOMG's ending was pretty ordinary, I don't dislike it, but it didn't make me feel anything and it didn't really leave me satisfied with how things wrapped up.

I would gladly take "ordinary" over "cruel and jarring".

Besides, at the time Terror Of MechaGodzilla was made, it wasn't intended to be the last Showa film, it just so happened to be the last one. Looking at the lost projects section of the site, you can see that there were many plans to make other Godzilla films after ToMG. The creators tried to bring Godzilla back, it just never worked. Meaning, Terror Of MechaGodzilla is the reluctant ending of the Showa series. It wasn't designed to be the last one.

So, for what it is, I'm fine with the Showa era ending on that high note: With Godzilla defeating two very powerful monsters with no other monsters to aid him (something he had never done before), stopping an alien invasion, and essentially being at peace with himself. Walking off into the sunset seems appropriate for that situation.

Godzilla died for reasons he did not understand, and did not know why he was dying. I think Godzilla clearly knew the concept of death (hint Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah after being gravely wounded and left for dead), I'm certain he did not understand why those small creatures were around, and why his body was being torn apart by things that were most likely too fast for him to even see from floating metal creatures in the water. Then left for dead by creatures that brought all of that chaos near his territory in the first place. Beyond that, when Godzilla himself had taken the life of other creatures, I'm positive Godzilla somewhat understood that everything had an expiration date, even himself. True, he most likely did not know what was ironically killing him, but I think Godzilla understood that he, himself, was mortal and could easily die as well despite him being a powerful force. He almost experienced death before, actually twice (If you include his near death experience against Super MechaGodzilla in which that particular movie originally was suppose to kill off Godzilla). So how things died and what not, I think he understood fairly well despite his own situation.

Godzilla did not really loose his territory, he had others areas of it hinted by films before Destoroyah, like Godzilla vs. Mothra when the meteorite struck the area Godzilla resided within. Your suggesting as if Godzilla just marked one place as his own, when, much like animals when driven by instincts, generally mark more than one place as their territory. So one territory sinking down isn't really a big lost when you have others to go to. Hell even Junior was heading back to where was originally born after Birth Island went under, so we can pretty much assume that Junior found that to be his own territory and newly labeled home when his previous one was destroyed.

Losing his son and never seeing that he was the one who resurrected and given his son new life is tragic, but since his son was brought back through his death, then he managed to save his family and leave a legacy behind. Again, yes he did not see all of that. But still, his family survived and became a symbol, and in the end, isn't that all that matters for a closure?

For surviving, I'll direct you to my first post again. Although to be clear, I doubt that Godzilla understood that he was literally dying until he started physically melting in the 1100's, then again, he was too focused on Destoroyah. So he probably didn't understand completely until he actually melted down. Before that he acted like he normally would on a normal day.

[Legion1979]

People who keep saying Terror of Mechagodzilla has a happy ending obviously haven't seen the uncut version.

[Living Corpse]

For surviving, I'll direct you to my first post again. Although to be clear, I doubt that Godzilla understood that he was literally dying until he started physically melting in the 1100's, then again, he was too focused on Destoroyah. So he probably didn't understand completely until he actually melted down. Before that he acted like he normally would on a normal day.

Even if he didn't know he was gonna die at least not until near Meltdown he probably did know something was really wrong from the start of the film. He spends most of the time in the ocean in this film to keep himself cool so he clearly felt pain and probably knew he was "sick" in some way.

[Blackout286]

For surviving, I'll direct you to my first post again. Although to be clear, I doubt that Godzilla understood that he was literally dying until he started physically melting in the 1100's, then again, he was too focused on Destoroyah. So he probably didn't understand completely until he actually melted down. Before that he acted like he normally would on a normal day.

Even if he didn't know he was gonna die at least not until near Meltdown he probably did know something was really wrong from the start of the film. He spends most of the time in the ocean in this film to keep himself cool so he clearly felt pain and probably knew he was "sick" in some way.

No question about that, he most likely had noticed that something was wrong with him and indeed felt pain. Well, besides keeping himself cool, Godzilla was mostly trying to find Junior throughout the whole entire film. It seemed that following and finding Junior was of primary concern to him than his own situation. (Not sure why unless he lost track of him when Birth Island went down, but it was most likely parental instincts kicking in IMO).

[Living Corpse]

He also went and attacked China totally unprovoked, which is another sign that he probably felt pain since Heisei Godzilla usually (key word being usually) only attacks when something pisses him off like people or a meteor.

That and the glowing, the smoke and even the different ray color are hard to miss even for a giant who's mostly oblivious to what's going on around it. Hell even his eyes were burning, that had to hurt.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

I'm still interpreting the question of this thread as "Which of these three films is the best?" not "Which of these films had the best ending?"

In which case, Terror Of MechaGodzilla is clearly the best of the three. ToMG is not only the better film out of these three, but is one of the best Godzilla films overall. The characters are surprisingly deep and complex, the villains are probably the most well developed aliens out of the entire franchise, the fight scenes are done very well (especially given the budget and era that this film was made in) and the (uncut) ending is surprisingly shocking and well done. It really is one of the better films, and I'm glad that the Showa era could end on such a good note.

As I've said before, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is boring and uninteresting until the last 15 minutes, with the some of the most one-dimensional and bland characters of the entire franchise and a go-nowhere pacing. Godzilla: Final Wars is just absolute garbage.

[Ethan]

People who keep saying Terror of Mechagodzilla has a happy ending obviously haven't seen the uncut version.

It's bitter-sweet. Yeah Katsura died, and Ichinose lost his boner, but Earth was saved (until 1999) and Godzilla retreated to the ocean peacefully.

[Legion1979]

People who keep saying Terror of Mechagodzilla has a happy ending obviously haven't seen the uncut version.

It's bitter-sweet. Yeah Katsura died, and Ichinose lost his boner, but Earth was saved (until 1999) and Godzilla retreated to the ocean peacefully.

To me, there's more to a happy ending in Godzilla movies than just "Godzilla saves the day". Yes, the aliens are defeated and the Godzilla wins, but I really don't feel all that good for the human protagonists. Mafune and Katsura were both unfortunate pawns and they both paid a very tragic price.

[Ethan]

There's no doubt about that. But much like Godzilla, there is still a glimpse of hope in the sunset. Ifukube's music is somewhat comforting.

[Manda2012]

In "G vs Destroyah", when Godzilla Junior 'died', you could see Adult G begin the energy transfer - it was a process, & it took time. It finished when Adult G melted. I disagree that Godzilla 'didn't know what was going on'. Animals are smarter than we give them credit for. I have heard too many stories of dogs & cats that after their beloved owner died, they lay down to sleep, & refused to eat, drink, or move, & they died shortly after. Godzilla knew what was happening, but still had the instinct/will to go on. When Big G saw what happened to Junior, he knew it was time to 'pass the torch', in order to save Junior. I doubt Big G knew he'd save the world in doing so.

[DagarahX]

In "G vs Destroyah", when Godzilla Junior 'died', you could see Adult G begin the energy transfer - it was a process, & it took time. It finished when Adult G melted. I disagree that Godzilla 'didn't know what was going on'. Animals are smarter than we give them credit for. I have heard too many stories of dogs & cats that after their beloved owner died, they lay down to sleep, & refused to eat, drink, or move, & they died shortly after. Godzilla knew what was happening, but still had the instinct/will to go on. When Big G saw what happened to Junior, he knew it was time to 'pass the torch', in order to save Junior. I doubt Big G knew he'd save the world in doing so.

I find that a bit hard to believe somewhat, we know that from dogs, but we don't really know what a dying Godzilla does when on the brink of passing. Mainly because that rarely happens, each Godzilla is different, and because we really have no evidence that Godzilla knew what was happening. Even if we were speculating. Most likely, he knew that something was wrong as stated by Living Corpse. He probably knew that much, but I also doubt that he knew what was exactly happening. Its probably difficult to support that Godzilla really knew since he's a fictional character, but if more was given during GvsD then it probably would have been much easier to believe or accept. But its up to the individual I suppose.

[Goji]

In "G vs Destroyah", when Godzilla Junior 'died', you could see Adult G begin the energy transfer - it was a process, & it took time. It finished when Adult G melted.

There is literally no evidence to prove this. You couldn't "see" this happening in the film. I think it's all in your head. No offense.

[GodzillaDude]

In "G vs Destroyah", when Godzilla Junior 'died', you could see Adult G begin the energy transfer - it was a process, & it took time. It finished when Adult G melted.

There is literally no evidence to prove this. You couldn't "see" this happening in the film. I think it's all in your head. No offense.

I'm pretty sure I seen some kind of light yellow/gold mist going into Junior when Godzilla lowered his head towards him. Similar to Rodan in GvMGII but who knows I may be going crazy or maybe I already am?

[RedZillaKing]

Yeah, I'm sure that was Godzilla just trying to revive Junior.

[Living Corpse]

Is he talking about the scene where Godzilla breaths some weird energy mist onto Junior?

[GodzillaDude]

Is he talking about the scene where Godzilla breaths some weird energy mist onto Junior?

That's what I got out of it. I believe it to be true.

[Legionmaster]

Is he talking about the scene where Godzilla breaths some weird energy mist onto Junior?

Yes, which doesn't have anything to do with Godzilla's meltdown.