Final Wars: Why all the Hate?

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Dunno why a G fan would hate this film,

...You haven't read the past 59 pages, have you?

To be fair, reading 59 pages of negativity can be pretty damn daunting.

He doesn't need to read the entire 59 pages to understand why someone would hate GFW. Reading the first two pages would do that.

[Goji]

I dunno man..I think it's pretty easy to see why a lot of Godzilla fans "hate" this movie. I've been a diehard G-fan for 24 years now, and I can't stand the damn thing. I know plenty of fans (yes, in real life) that feel the same way. It's not some kind of mystery why the film isn't very well regarded in the fandom.

[Megalon-5]

I think it's because of the flashy lights and how Kitamura made Godzilla "badass" (even though he GINOized most of the Toho Showa roster). It barrages people with a non-stop stream of crap that a lot of people fail to notice the severe lack of kaiju. I remember I used to be a huge fan of Final Wars, but after viewing it recently when I wasn't a 10 year old, it left a bad taste after watching it. Kitamura, in my opinion should not have been given the keys to the car for this film. I'm still kinda amazed on how it's not reviled by everybody else in the fandom much how Godzilla's Revenge and GINO are.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

I think it's because of the flashy lights and how Kitamura made Godzilla "badass" (even though he GINOized most of the Toho Showa roster). It barrages people with a non-stop stream of crap that a lot of people fail to notice the severe lack of kaiju. I remember I used to be a huge fan of Final Wars, but after viewing it recently when I wasn't a 10 year old, it left a bad taste after watching it. Kitamura, in my opinion should not have been given the keys to the car for this film. I'm still kinda amazed on how it's not reviled by everybody else in the fandom much how Godzilla's Revenge and GINO are.

That may be the reason to some people, but the hate for Final Wars really boils down to one key factor: That this is the 50th anniversary film for Godzilla, and the film treats Godzilla and friends like trash. They all literally become second banana's in a film that should be about them. In this two hour film, there are only twelve minutes of on-screen footage of Godzilla. That is simply just unacceptable.

[Megalon-5]

Yeah, that's probably the worst factor about FW. The human story really shows that Kitamura wanted to make a Matrix/X-Men type movie and after he shot those scenes he realized "Oh yeah, I'm supposed to make a Godzilla film!" and made about 12 minutes of kaiju footage of Godzilla to make up for it. Toho should've given us the greatest Godzilla film to date and then we get this disappointment. Too bad, I really wish Toho went a special, new direction for this film instead of this.

[Rody]

Well, they kinda DID go in a new direction for Godzilla with FW. It just wasn't a GOOD direction.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

A sharper Gigan design, a nice looking Manda with horns and whiskers, and a Kumonga with enhanced mobility and agility. A very nice blend of suit and CGI as Rodan attacks New York and shatters building glass with its shock wave. The CGI work of Kamikuras and Anguirus was also done relatively well. The Godzilla suit had superb mobility, not seen since the showa era, and the Minya suit was true to to the original while having decent animatronics. All of these things were nice to see, there just was not enough of them to outweigh the crap. As far as the human element was concerned, I'd rather they replaced the mutants with ordinary police officers and pedestrians like they had in the New York scene, caught up in the rampages of these huge monsters.

[Gawdziller]

Godzilla: Final Wars is Super Monster Gamera with a budget.

[Megalon-5]

It's more like if The Asylum made a Godzilla movie.

[GotengoXGodzilla]

I've always felt that GFW feels like a really bad Godzilla fan fiction.

[Megalon-5]

I can just imagine Kitamura walking into Toho with a copy of his poorly written fanfic and proclaiming "Hey! I've got the script!".

[Patrick Alan]

Well my problem with GFW is

1. They threw out the history behind the kaiju, making them less powerful.

2. 50% of the movie was hardcore martial arts action from humans

3. The other 50% was Godzilla just marching everywhere blasting monsters away, which IS cool, but I'd like to have seen more....

3. I don't think Kaizer Ghidorah was too thought out, it's already been done (Death/Desghidorah)

4. And that one scene where that mutant sacrafices himself to destroy the force field around the spaceship with the jet seemed to me like a rip off from Star Wars (The Death Star's destruction)

[Rody]

Well my problem with GFW is

1. They threw out the history behind the kaiju, making them less powerful.

The kaiju don't necessarily need backstory to be powerful.

2. 50% of the movie was hardcore martial arts action from humans

3. The other 50% was Godzilla just marching everywhere blasting monsters away, which IS cool, but I'd like to have seen more....

I'd say 50% martial arts, 30% bland human drama, and 20% monster action, at best.

3. I don't think Kaizer Ghidorah was too thought out, it's already been done (Death/Desghidorah)

I can't really argue with this.

4. And that one scene where that mutant sacrafices himself to destroy the force field around the spaceship with the jet seemed to me like a rip off from Star Wars (The Death Star's destruction)

I think it's also ripping off of the climax to Independence Day. Double Whammy there.

I think we share a general opinion on this film, though.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

S'okay, Independence day ripped off a whole slew of Sci-Fi classics.
City sized ships- original-V series from the eighties.
Nature of the alien invasion, objectives and finally to a lesser extant how said aliens are defeated ("I gave it a cold" as the alien ships are infected by an earth born computer virus. probably more of a homage and clever word play.)
1950's War of The Worlds.
Alien and The Predator-alien design looks so derivative of these I can't say that it looked original. Basically an alien with a face that looks like the Predator's mask hiding inside an organic-looking suit that looks vaguely like the ol' bananna shaped alien's head. add hissing and flashing lights and it totally has an "Aliens" vibe in the interrogation scene. Film still kicks ass though.

[Patrick Alan]

I think we share a general opinion on this film, though.

Agreed, I think we do feel the same.

The movie shouldn't have been trying so much to be a big flashy badass hardcore martial arts science fiction and just be a Godzilla movie.

And I meant, like with Hedorah, we remember how much he was a bitch to kill, but they tossed that one out and made him nothing more than a pile of silly putty. Taking him out and replacing him with Titanosaurus would have made SOOOOO much more sense!

[Megalon-5]

Instead of Hedorah, it should've been the giant condor.

[TechnoForce]

A sharper Gigan design, a nice looking Manda with horns and whiskers, and a Kumonga with enhanced mobility and agility. A very nice blend of suit and CGI as Rodan attacks New York and shatters building glass with its shock wave. The CGI work of Kamikuras and Anguirus was also done relatively well. The Godzilla suit had superb mobility, not seen since the showa era, and the Minya suit was true to to the original while having decent animatronics. All of these things were nice to see, there just was not enough of them to outweigh the crap. As far as the human element was concerned, I'd rather they replaced the mutants with ordinary police officers and pedestrians like they had in the New York scene, caught up in the rampages of these huge monsters.

I think the man hit the nail on the head there.

As far as the human element went I loved Don Frye. I know he was stupid but he was very entertaining. I would have liked to have seen less people but what there was of the human element to have focused more on the crew of the Gotengo.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

Thanks. Yeah, like possibly a scenario where the Gotengo pics up random survivors like the cop, bum and pimp characters that were in New York, similar to how Mike Epps' character joined up with Jill Valentine and the rest in Resident Evil Apocalyps.

[Goji]

Minus the part where you said Minya had "decent animatronics". Minya was done via suitmation only.

[TechnoForce]

Minya has been hideous in every incarnation if you ask me...