It’s time to put my revisiting of my favorite movie monster to bed (it was a helpful part of my Godzilla twelve-step program) with a review of the final, and most bad ass Godzilla movie of all time!  Godzilla Final Wars is the final film of the Millennium series and the 28^th film in the entire Godzilla franchise.  Despite its title, this is not the last Godzilla movie, but rather a time for Toho to “temporarily retire” the character for a period of time.  The latest Godzilla gossip has his probably return in 2013 or 14 for the 50^th anniversary of the king of monsters.  

Before we look at this film, I need to spend some time talking about the Millennium series of Godzilla films.  Unlike the Heisei-era of films, the storyline in these movies do not extend beyond the picture itself.  Many times we even see a reinventing of the Godzilla lore in order to tell the story.  The only exception is the Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla III and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. where the stories do actually tie together.  I chose to skip these two movies because Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla III is not available for streaming, and it’s even more Power Rangers than MechaGodzilla II.  (Personally I kinda dig the Power Rangers, but don’t tell DJI…)  If you are going to check out any other Millennium series movies, be sure to rent Godzilla 2000.  Here we see Godzilla’s new look, and the new look and feel of the series as a whole.  Toho released this film right after Sony’s lame version of Godzilla here in the U.S.  Here we are reminded of what a true Godzilla movie should be like.  You can still tell it’s a guy in a suit, but its so much more polished that it’s easier to suspend your disbelief.  The only things that is really lacking in the film is the truly awful English dub. 

Godzilla: Final Wars was released as part of the 50^th anniversary of the Godzilla franchise.  Many of the actors and monsters from the previous films made appearances as major characters or cameos in the film.  Some of the monsters had not been seen on the silver screen in more than thirty years!  Another awesome cameo in the film is the space combat vehicle Gotengo.  The Gotengo (or the Atragon) is a submarine battleship that has appeared in several Toho Studio films starting with the movie Atragon in 1963.  The ship is heavily armored and has a giant drill on the bow of the ship.  If you have ever been up late and caught a Japanese sci-fi film from the 1960s or 70s, you’ve probably seen this ship.  Seeing the Gotengo in the film sent my geek hairs on edge. Truly epic.

The plot is a modern retelling of Destroy All Monsters, with a lot of references to the other 27 films.  Years of war and pollution has brought forth giant monsters.  As a result, the Earth Defense Force (EDF) is created to protect the planet.  The organization is equipped with some of the best of technology and weapons, warships and soldiers, as well as mutants with super-human abilities. Godzilla is EDF’s only unstoppable opponent and so they dispatch their best combat vehicle, the Gotengo, to destroy the beast.  The Gotengo manages to corner Godzilla at the South Pole and bury him under the Antarctic ice, cryogenically freezing him.

Decades after Godzilla was buried, the EDF discovers a mummified space monster.  A mutant soldier, Shinichi Ozaki, and U.N. biologist Miyuki Otonashi are sent to research it. The Mothra fairies show up and reveal that the monster is Gigan, an alien cyborg sent to destroy the Earth 12,000 years ago, and that a forthcoming battle between good and evil will eventually arrive.

Suddenly, monsters all appear around the world at major cities and the EDF is seemingly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them appearing at once.  After destroying much of the major Earth cities, the monsters disappear as an enormous alien spaceship hovers over Tokyo. The aliens, called the Xiliens, insist they are friendly and that they have eliminated the monsters as a token of goodwill towards the Earth.  They also warn the Earth’s governments about impending danger in the form of an asteroid called Gorath that will crash into Earth.  Ozaki, Miyuki, and several others distrust them and after much research they discover the Xiliens are not who they say they are and here to conquer the Earth.  The truth about the Xiliens is revealed and they unleash Gigan and the rest of the monsters to destroy Earth.  The EDF forces are overwhelmed and Ozaki and his friends escape in the Gotengo.  Their plan, release the most powerful weapon that Earth has left to defeat the Xiliens…Godzilla!

There are several things to love about this film.  First is that the film looks especially good.  There is just the right mix of Toho magic and CGI.  The sets are large and impressive, and the wasteland that once was our modern society is particularly gloomy.  Second, there is a ton of action in this film, and not just monster action.  Matrix-style fight sequences between the Xiliens and Ozaki are exciting and fun to watch.  Kung-fu in a Godzilla film…that makes sense, why didn’t we see more of this?  Finally, seeing all of the monsters that Godzilla has to trounce is a ton of fun.  Just when one fight is over, another monster arrives and it’s on like Donkey Kong!  There is even a very CGI creature named “Zilla” who looks strikingly similar to the Sony version of my favorite monster.  Of course, in an applause inducing moment, Zilla gets his ass whooped quite convincingly by the REAL Godzilla!  When everything is finally over, you can’t help but feel just a bit tired, it’s a lot to take in. 

Some may argue that taking everything that was good about the previous Godzilla movies into a blender and hitting puree is a bad thing.  But I for one completely disagree.  If you’re even remotely thinking about watching one of these movies we have talked about, it needs to be this one.  So grab your friends, a Japanese dictionary, and huge bowl of popcorn and enjoy the Final Wars…

Thanks Japan!

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Tags: Destroy all Monsters, Gigan, Godzilla, Mothra, Xilliens

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 7:30 am and is filed under DVD/BluRay, Film/Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.