[Dr Kain]

First I’m just going to straight off say that this movie is bad, very bad. As a Godzilla movie, it is downright terrible. Godzilla does not even show up until an hour into the movie, and by then, we have been given so much exposition, so much filler, too many characters and monsters without any rhyme or reason for it, that you are ready for the movie to be over when the big G finally shows up. This movie feels more like Kitamura was planning to make a Matrix type super hero movie when he was asked to do Godzilla, so he just adapted his script to include as many beloved Toho kaiju as possible into the movie regardless of whether or not we see them on screen for more than 10 seconds. Honestly, there was no need to even bother with “Zilla” or Hedorah, as their scenes are just pointless and add nothing to the so called plot (other than showing how much they hate the US version).

The human characters feel like they are just going through the motions of the movie to the point that you cannot even take them seriously. Don Fry seems to have these reactions as if he has no idea what is going on outside of his own lines, so they feel forced and very much scripted. The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable, which is a shame since they even have Kane Kosugi in this movie. His talents are definitely wasted as instead of utilizing him, he is there to give one bad line in English and become nothing more than background for the remainder of the movie until he ID4’s himself. Ozaki has more personality in his hair than his entire performance, while both Anna and Miyuki are there just to have some fan service added to the mix. I’m not sure if Miyuki figured she was going to die and wanted to look pretty when she kicked the bucket on this mission or what, but who the hell is going to wear high heels to a big battle like this? Even the X Alien villain of the movie seems to not even be taking this thing seriously, but at least he appears to be having fun with his role.

As for the monsters, they are a mixed bag. Some of them, such as Gigan and Hedorah, look great, while others, like King Ceasar and Anguirus just look goofy. I don’t hate their new designs, it is just that their heads really look like the rubber they are made out of instead of monster heads. If there is one thing they did not look like in the originals, it was rubber monsters. Speaking of modern inferiority, what is up with Kumonga’s spider web? It is clearly just rope tied together. Did they run out of a budget before they filmed his battle with Godzilla and just used the first thing they could find at a dollar store? I do like Kaiser Ghidorah’s design even if it does stray from the King Ghidorah we all know and love. He feels like that final boss he is supposed to be, so it works despite how ridiculous it is to see Godzilla just tossing him over his back as if it he was hollow on the inside. Speaking of Godzilla, that brings me to my final piece when it comes to the monsters, I do not like his design at all. I get what they were going for by making him thinner, but it makes him look more like Godzilla Jr than Godzilla. Most of all, his back looks lazily put together. The spines just look so far apart from each other and too small. One of the best things about the Godzilla designs from the Heisei era was his back, and here there is nothing to praise outside of giving the designs an E for Epic Failure.

The movie itself is quite subpar. It definitely feels like a Kitamura movie, which is great if that is your thing. I definitely enjoy a bunch of the man’s movies, which is why I do not outright hate this movie. On the other hand, if you do not like Kitamura’s movies, or was just looking for an updated version of Destroy All Monsters, you will be disappointed. Aside from being an action movie first and a Godzilla movie second, the movie suffers from pointless characters, subplots that did not need to be there (seriously, there is no reason for Minilla to be in this movie at all), monsters that were there just for the sake of being there, and a score that is a mixed bag. There are some great pieces to be found, with some homages to the music of old, but then there is a lot of crap that sounds like it was ripped out of a Nintendo game from the 80s. Overall, I’m giving Godzilla Final Wars a 4/10. Sadly, it isn’t the worst Godzilla movie ever, and it does have action to make up for everything else, but it is not even that good of a movie in the long run.

[Matrixbeast]

Godzilla Final Wars is by no means a good movie or even a good Godzilla/Kaiju movie. But it is enjoyable, which is something that I never quite understood until my cousin who doesn't like Kaiju watched and loved it. It took me a while until I saw why he liked it. Some love Kaiju for the cheesy effects and watching 2 men mud wrestle in monster suits. Others just love a good monster movie. But he loved it because it gave him what he was wanting. Action. Every mildly slow dialogue moment is wedged between a monster just wrecking havoc or having the X-Men take down monsters or whatever. I can finally see why people like it. It's not trying to deliver a heavy handed moral on pollution or a radiation message, it's not aiming for the absolute lowest denominator, it's just action on action on action. While Godzilla doesn't show up for a good while, the aliens (Xilians? Can't remember) and mutants do cover until he shows up.

As for my personal opinion, Final Wars is something different, and attempts to put a little of everything in the mix, making an end result that has no idea what it wants to do. I think it's bad for pretty much the reason why everyone thinks it's bad. It wants to be the Matrix, then it wants to be 20,000 Leagues, but then it wants to be Godzilla. The human/mutant subplot is boring and serves little purpose, the alien invasion doesn't amount to much, Gigan being an ancient alien or something was practically dropped as soon as it was mentioned, and there just was too much for there to be any real focus on Godzilla.

It did have it's upsides, that being some of the fights were really cool to watch. I'm not a fan of the mutants, but watching them take down Ebirah was neat, the fight against King Caesar, Anguirus, and Rodan was goofy, but I had a giddy smile on my face the entire time (And it was nice that they were spared. Nice little shout out to Godzilla's past team ups with them), and the climax with Mothra, Ghidorah, and Gigan was honestly really cool to watch (It might just be me fangirling over Mothra, though. Damn, I love her). Commander Gordon, while barely important to the plot, was just a blast to watch, and the Zilla fight was pretty funny (Not important or impressive, but still funny).
In addition, just seeing some of the characters again was nice. While Mothra has had a constant presence throughout the franchise, others like Caesar or Kamacuras, have not. While they weren't the most impressive characters visually (I'll agree that Caesar's new costume could have used a little more work), it was just nice to see characters I love be relevant again.

However, the negatives far outweigh the positives. Most of the fights featuring the aliens or the mutants were just Matrix rip-offs and uninteresting to watch, the human invasion/body snatcher/replacement subplot served little point, a lot of the monster cameos (As much as I loved them) could be cut and the movie wouldn't suffer at all for it, and not even Gordon's mustache could save him from the fact that, ultimately, he really wasn't that important.

Final Wars ultimately suffered because the director didn't know how he wanted to take the movie. It had moments where it seemed like it wanted to be martial arts, then it shifted to a darker toned kaiju movie with the mass destruction, then it shifted to a light hearted kaiju movie with Anguirus being a soccer ball, then it went more akin to Heisei style Godzilla for the climax, with snippets of Independence Day all cut in between.

So, in short, it's not good in the slightest, but it is still an enjoyable popcorn film.

[xSkullheartx]

Final wars to me was a farewell nod to the fans.Isn't this about the time they wanted to retire Godzilla and his roar? Anyways,I agree with Matrix.It wasn't the best movie,but it was very enjoyable.It was Godzilla going around and "tying up loose ends".The over the top martial arts I could've gone without.They could have just done normal martial arts and it would've been better.I will admit they gave us one of my favorite human characters in any Godzilla movie ever,and I bet you all know who it is.

[Matrixbeast]

If I recall, Toho never intended to retire Godzilla. Final Wars was intended to give Godzilla 5-10 year break to help renew interest in the character.

[Dr Kain]

Yeah, Toho just wanted to take a break from the monster, and I think it is a good thing. If anything, the Showa series showed that if you go on for too long, you fall apart and just start doing random nonsense that does not make sense. Just look at everything that came after DAM, which was originally intended to be the final Godzilla movie back in the 60's. We got a clip show piece of garbage, a shit monster, a movie about cockroaches and stock footage, and then a giant cockroach monster with an Ultraman wannabe. The only positives that came out of the post-DAM movies were the two MechaG ones.

Toho played it smart by only doing both the Heisei and Millennium series for a short time before taking breaks. I expect the new US movie will inspire them to start up again.

[XW1n5t0nX]

Personally, it's my favorite of the series. I agree that it isn't all that great, but hey, I like it.

[ZeoRangerV]

The human stuff is a bit grating but eh, I enjoy it for what it is. Plus dat Gigan.

[Guyver Spawn]

I remember the hype for it back in 2004 and I had to wait for it come out on DVD in 2005. I got the movie for Christmas at the time and I was really let down by it. It's Godzilla's big anniversary and he's hardly in the movie. All of the monsters get killed off way too easily and they are hardly in the movie.

Even as a action movie of it's own, it's still a bad movie. The acting is awful, the human characters are dull and the movie rips off of other action scenes from other movies like The Matrix, X-Men and Jet Li's The One.

[Dr Kain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guyver Spawn

I remember the hype for it back in 2004 and I had to wait for it come out on DVD in 2005. I got the movie for Christmas at the time and I was really let down by it. It's Godzilla's big anniversary and he's hardly in the movie. All of the monsters get killed off way too easily and they are hardly in the movie.

Even as a action movie of it's own, it's still a bad movie. The acting is awful, the human characters are dull and the movie rips off of other action scenes from other movies like The Matrix, X-Men and Jet Li's The One.

It was the only time I actually went out of my way to find a recording of it online to download (which also turned out not to be utter crap). I was completely unsure what to think then, imported the R2 DVD, still not sure. Got the Sony DVD for Xmas, and then I bought it again when Toho released it on BD in Japan. Now I am asking myself, was it really necessary to buy this movie that many times? And I know that if Sony ever releases it on BD in the states, I'll buy it again. UGH!!

[Guyver Spawn]

I do like Gigan's design in the movie, but I hate how weak he was in the movie. One blast from Godzilla killed him, nearly every monster battle in this movie was way too one sided.