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To sum up Godzilla: Final Wars
in one word: disappointing. It's hard to place
"blame" for what went wrong on Godzilla's 50th
Anniversary film, as, to be blunt, many things
go awry during the movie. Although chief fault
should probably rest on the shoulders of the film's
director, Ryuhei Kitamura, whose extremely fast
pacing for Final Wars ultimately forgoes any opportunity
to properly develop the movie. This ultimately
leaves the viewer with a very shallow feeling
by the time the final credits do roll. Not to
undersell the film entirely, though, as certain
aspects are done nicely. The story isn't bad,
the special effects are generally good for a Japanese
production, while the acting tends to be at least
competent. Despite these somewhat positive aspects,
though, there are many flaws to the film, such
as director Kitamura's unnerving pacing, the complete
lack of character development and Keith Emmerson's
"made for TV" score for the film. More complaints
with the production are to be had, though; another
problem, that will likely leave many "die hard
Godzilla fans" unsatisfied, is how the film burns
through its cast of monsters quickly and, for
the most part, without a memorable moment for
quite a few of them.
The story itself tends to be interesting
on occasion, although director Kitamura never
gives it time to properly develop. The most intriguing
part of the plot would have to be the inner turmoil
within the Xilien ranks at the beginning of the
film. The current leader, played by Masatoh
Eve, feels that the conquering of Earth should
be done in a non-violent matter, citing that force
shouldn't be a first resort. On the other hand,
another Xilien, played by actor Kazuki Kitamura,
feels that they have the necessary technology
to quickly enslave Earth and shouldn't bother
trying to rule humanity through guile. After a
nice sequence where it's revealed that the UN
Secretary has been replaced by a Xilien in disguise,
the Captain of the Gotengo, Douglas Gordon, barges
in to chuck a dead Xilien, whose disguise has
been removed, on the stage. Sensing that their
current plan is in ruins, Kazuki Kitamura's character
shoots his predecessor and announces his plan
to take control. Unfortunately, from this point
onward the film falls apart into an orgy of short
lived monster fights amongst attacks from the
tooth looking Xilien vessels and their mother
ship: a ball like craft with three giant "spikes"
at the base that allows the director to use a
scene "inspired" by The Return of the Jedi
where a fighter plane flies into a duct in the
ship to take out the shield generator. In the
beginning, the story starts out strong with a
unique approach to the alien invasion plot and
leaves room for satisfying scenes with the film's
large cast of kaiju. The international feel to
the film does pay off in spades on occasion as
well, like Anguirus' attack on Shanghai, although
a lot of the global feel tends to die off as the
film progresses. Sadly, once director Kitamura
puts the film into "overdrive" the story quickly
takes a back seat, and the ending result leaves
the viewer very jaded as it's hard to care about
the human cast or the monsters in the film.
Although special effects director
Eiichi Asada never quite captures the same level
of quality that he did in the previous year's
entry, Godzilla:
Tokyo S.O.S. (2003), his work here is
still a notable grade above what the Godzilla
series is used to. Those expecting a new level
of excellence in regards to special effects, after
hearing about the enlarged budget, will of course
be disappointed. However, there was really no
reason to expect such, considering that a great
deal of Godzilla: Final Wars' budget was
used for location shooting. That's not to say
that the special effects aren't without their
faults, as there are a couple of cringe worthy
scenes like the fake looking tanks which assault
Ebirah (a shame, as they tended to look much more
convincing in the two Kiryu films) and the all
too stiff flying Gigan prop. As a final complaint
regarding the special effects, the ending shot
that has Godzilla and Minilla swimming away into
the sunset is a horrible composition, on par with
Godzilla in Godzilla
2000: Millennium (1999) coming on land;
the fact that the movie ends with such a horrendous
shot is just astounding. For all the faults, though,
there are a lot of scenes which are done very
well. Monster X changing into Ghidorah, for example,
looks good, while Mothra appears even better here
then she did in the previous entry in the series.
Some brief landmark destruction, such as the shot
of the toppled Statue of Liberty in New York,
also look great as well. In fact, Rodan's attack
on New York, as a whole, is one of the better
done sequences in the film, both from the SFX
standpoint and the power of the scene itself.
It's nice to see Rodan's shockwaves, which are
created in its wake, actually animated, as opposed
to the unconvincing shockwaves left behind by
Rodan in the 1993 film Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II. Another thing worth
mentioning is Zilla. While some of the daytime
shots are unimpressive, a gross exception being
the classic foot perspective of the creature,
the night time footage tends to be good. No, it's
no where near as good as what was seen in GODZILLA
(1998), but it's better than what one would expect
an all CGI monster to look like in a Toho film.
In terms of the the acting, while
it's far from the best seen in the Godzilla series,
it's at least adequate. It's really hard to gauge,
though, as most actors aren't given a whole lot
to work with here. There are no outstanding performances
in the film, that is for sure, but then none of
the actors bog down the film either. One thing
that should be noted, though, is Don Frye's performance.
It's not really great, by any regard, but it's
a hell of a lot better than an English speaking
character seen in a Toho film since the 1960's.
Something else worth mentioning, that will be
important for Toho fans of the "Golden Years",
is the sheer number of Toho regulars seen in the
picture. There are a lot of familiar faces here,
some more recent stars like Koh Takasugi from
the Kiryu saga and Takeshi Obayashi from Godzilla
2000: Millennium (1999), while others
like Kenji Sahara and Akira
Nakano have been in Godzilla films for quite
a while longer. Showa, Heisei, Millennium, there
is a good mixture of actors from all three Godzilla
series here, which is a welcome addition to the
film. As it would be an injustice not to mention
it, the Xilien leader, played by Kazuki Kitamura,
is amusing in the way that actor Kitamura plays
the character so over the top, and manages to
steal the film on a couple of occasions.
Despite the good aspects of the
film, there is a lot here that goes wrong. Kitamura's
pacing, unfortunately, leads the way in this regard.
From the very beginning of the film, after the
triumphant return of the "Toho Scope" logo, this
problem can already be seen, as the introduction
is edited together in such a way that I actually
thought I was watching a trailer before the actual
picture was going to start. The editing doesn't
remain this bad, but it doesn't improve a lot
either. The opening credit sequence, which is
done with a color filter as stock footage from
a variety of films are displayed (from Rodan
[1956] to Prophecies
of Nostradamus [1974] and nearly all of
the Godzilla pictures), is edited in a similar
fashion as the credits flash on for such a short
amount of time that many names are impossible
to read. In the editor's defense, though, they
are in English, so chances are he had no idea
how long it would take someone to read them. Hopefully
this English title sequence was unique to the
LA print, and a better Japanese title sequence,
one that feels less like it belongs in a video
game, will be used, although I doubt it. Beyond
these early problems with the film, the rest of
the movie feels like the director almost seems
afraid to develop any aspect of the movie, instead
content to jump all over the place. One second,
there are people outside a radio station happily
screaming "X", while the next it seems like the
film's protagonists have already uncovered the
Xilien's plan. The film just never allows the
audience to get used to anything before quickly
changing gears into the next portion of the plot.
Sadly, this extends to the monster battles as
well. As noted during Final Wars' production,
battles in Godzilla films tend to drag on for
too long. While that criticism is, without a doubt,
true, Kitamura's "solution" is even worse. The
director tends to go for battles that last 1-3
minutes long, often times the other kaiju never
even gets a hit in on Godzilla before they are
quickly destroyed. Yes it might have been funny
that Zilla's battle lasted only a minute, but
the fact is he is not alone as most other monsters
in the film are dealt with just as quickly. It
takes Godzilla fighting Rodan, Anguirus and King
Caesar to get a decent four minute bout with the
King of the Monsters, and even then the monsters
only get a couple of hits in before Godzilla defeats
all three with relative ease. Sorry, but fight
after fight that are this short and one sided
just aren't fun to watch. It isn't until the battle
with Monster X does the film finally have a good
fight, and even then Kitamura seems unimpressed
as he cuts away for almost ten minutes, while
the fight is taking place, to the Matrix
rip-off happening inside the Xilien mother ship.
On that note, I would have to tip my hat to Kitamura
though. The man must have tremendous balls in
order to so shamelessly rip off "The One" sequence
in the Matrix, where Neo realizes his true
power and stops the bullets in mid-air, although
this time it's Shin'ichi Ozaki, played by Masahiro
Matsuoka, who realizes his true power and stops
a series of laser blasts in mid-air.
As expected from the complete lack
of pacing within the film, the cast of characters
end up with almost no character development. Quite
honestly, I found myself relating more with the
cast of Godzilla
vs. Gigan (1972) then anyone here. For
example, let's look at the film's main character:
Earth Defense Force Soldier Shin'ichi Ozaki. What
is discovered about the character during the course
of the film? Well it's revealed early on, according
to another character, that he has "too big a heart".
So how does Kitamura play with this? Hardly at
all, as the only thing the character does where
this would come into play is when he spares the
life of his longtime partner who is being mind-controlled,
which seems natural anyway. Beyond that, we learn
nothing about the character's personality. What's
all the sadder is that Ozaki is actually one of
the more developed characters in the film. In
fact, the only other character that is even noteworthy,
in terms of development, is Gotengo captain Douglas
Gordon. Surprisingly, Gordon is the most developed
character in the film, although still not saying
much, as we learn of his stance of winning a battle
no matter the risk and attitude about acting first
and then deal with the consequences as they come.
Consequently, it's not surprising that Gordon
will be most people's favorite character from
the film. It's a shame that the rest of the cast
is so thinly developed, though. A couple of the
movie's more major characters do in fact die,
and although the other actors might try to appear
sad, the audience won't care in the least as one
knows nothing about these characters by the time
the movie does kill them off. There are a lot
of lost opportunities in regards to the lack of
development as well. A good example of this is
the scene where the mutants are turned against
the other humans by the Xiliens. This might have
been a very powerful and disturbing scene if the
audience had any sort of attachment to at least
one of the mutants, and I should add that one
of the film's more major characters (played by
Kane Kosugi) is amongst those being controlled,
but sadly this isn't the case and it would be
hard for one to be impressed by the scene as is.
Unfortunately, the complaints just
don't stop with issues regarding the pacing of
Final Wars. In fact, after hearing composer Emmerson's
work on the film, it's hard to imagine how he
ever got the job. In his prime, the composer might
have done some impressive scores, but seeing as
how his last film score was for the 1989 movie
The Church and after that he went to work
on Marvel's 1994 animated Iron Man series,
the composer is obviously a little rusty. The
end result is an entirely unmemorable "made for
TV" quality score whose only redeeming original
track is a nice retro sounding theme that plays
when the Gotengo takes off. It's a shame Kitamura
felt that the film's composer should be outsourced
from Japan itself, as there are numerous Japanese
composers who have never touched the Godzilla
series that would have likely turned in a much
better score for the film, like composer Masamichi
Amano just to name someone off the top of my head.
If there is one nice thing to say about the soundtrack,
though, it's that two great Masaru
Sato themes were picked as stock music. The
two pieces in question are Minilla's theme, from
Son
of Godzilla (1967), for when Minilla first
appears, and Sato's Mechagodzilla theme, from
Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), which the two
guys who are watching over the frozen Godzilla
are listening to. So at least it's a nice change
of pace to see two of Sato's better tracks appear
as stock music here, as Sato's
themes haven't appeared in a Godzilla film since
his departure from the series in 1974.
Despite these other aspects, I'm
sure that a lot of the more "die-hard" Godzilla
fans are more interested in how the monsters themselves
are handled. Well my response is, not much better.
I'm sure it's well documented already that Hedorah
is given a very small role in the film: the creature
is tossed on land, with Ebirah thrown into him,
and then blown away by Godzilla's ray. His part
is small enough that if one has seen the footage
of Hedorah in the trailer, you have basically
seen his role in the film. Baragon, in Destroy
All Monsters (1968), is given more screen
time in fact. However, since people were already
prepared for that, and since there isn't much
to talk about anyway, I will try to deal with
the other monsters in the film that failed to
impress. Mothra would be another shameful example
of this. The gigantic moth shows up on screen,
causing the Xilien leader to smirk that another
monster is coming, as Mothra then does battle
with an improved Gigan. The battle is short, as
Mothra gets one of her wings cut very fast, but
I will have to sadly admit that its one of the
better fights in the film. Mothra does come out
with one moment of dignity, where she gets to
knock over both Gigan and Monster X. Her death
though is where most people should find a problem
in regards to the character. Yes, the well documented
"Fire Mothra" scene is in fact Mothra's death,
as she is ignited by Gigan's laser beam and then
rushes herself into Gigan, killing them both.
Mothra's self sacrificial death isn't the problem
though, what is, is that no one even mentions
that she is gone. It goes completely unnoticed
by the entire cast that Mothra, who was the only
other monster except Godzilla who was fighting
the Xilien invaders, has perished. It's just so
poorly done that I was amazed that Mothra was
actually dead, and half expected her to show up
later on. Was it too hard for the director to
cut to an actor crying out, or to at least see
a tearful close up of the Shobijin? Beyond Mothra,
Gigan, another supposed monster with a good size
role, has a surprisingly little amount of screen
time. He appears very late in the film, attacks
the Gotengo briefly and then Godzilla, their fight
consists of Gigan shooting out his claw "hooks"
so he can pull in Godzilla to slash him with his
chest until he gets his head quickly blown off.
While Gigan's first form is given about as much
screen time as most of the other monsters, it
still isn't a whole lot. Gigan's second, chainsaw
hand, form then appears to do battle with Mothra
during the climax. Unfortunately, the monster
kills himself, as Gigan fires off two disc shaped
razors at Mothra, who unleashes scales, as they
miss and then boomerang back at Gigan and slice
off his head. Intentional or unintentional laugh
I don't know, but Mothra then collides with Gigan's
beheaded body to destroy what's left of the creature.
On another note, if there are any fans of Ebirah
out there, they will likely be disappointed, as
the giant crustacean is almost killed by five
mutants, three with rocket launchers and two with
handheld masers, before Ebirah is teleported away
by the Xiliens. The monsters in Final Wars, for
the most part, appear to be easily killed, and
in the end are often done so quickly by Godzilla.
Even the giant Keizer Ghidorah is defeated quickly,
as his heads are easily severed when Godzilla's
ray manages strikes one. I suppose one can't mention
the monsters of Final Wars, though, without bringing
up Minilla. He starts out the film human size,
as his scenes are the only ones in the entire
movie which actually slow down the pacing of the
movie. Unfortunately, the scenes send the film
to a screeching halt instead. To sum up Minilla,
his only purpose in the film is to look cute and
to do the sappy "don't shoot" scene, where he
is mimicking a little boy who is doing the same
thing to his grandpa who wants to shoot Godzilla
with his rifle.
One last point about the film,
that I reluctantly bring up, are the deleted scenes
seen briefly during the credits. These sequences
aren't accompanied by sound, and only brief portions
of the scenes are shown, amongst other shots that
did make it into the film. The reason why I reluctantly
bring this up is that whenever most people tend
to hear about a film having a lot of deleted scenes,
they seem to rally behind this notation that had
they been included the film would have been better.
This might have been the case, I'm not in a position
to say otherwise, but I would assume that there
were good reasons for why they were cut as well.
Some of the noteworthy edits include Hedorah attacking
a city at night and Mothra flying home to Infant
Island, a scene which was likely cut as it just
doesn't make sense that Mothra would have survived
but have been absent during the entire Keizer
Ghidorah fight.
In conclusion, it's not so much
that Godzilla: Final Wars is a disappointing
end to the series, although I doubt there won't
be more Godzilla films eventually, or that its
disappointing to see all the lost potential in
what the film was trying to achieve. More to the
fact, Godzilla: Final Wars is simply just
a disappointing monster movie. My standards for
the production were very low as I walked into
the theater, which is how I ended up loving Godzilla:
Tokyo S.O.S. (2003), and even then I felt
let down. Of course, some fans and non-fans alike
will probably love the film. For those people
who tend to fast forward past human development
scenes, they will likely enjoy Final Wars tremendously,
as Kitamura has basically done most of the work
for them.
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(2.5/5)
