Ryûhei Kitamura, director of the stunning zombie movie Versus (2000), takes the reins for the final outing for Japan’s angriest giant city-stomping radioactive lizard. Godzilla: Final Wars mixes martial arts action with science fiction and featuring a line-up of Godzilla’s toughest enemies, including Gigan, Mothra and MechaGodzilla. Former UFC champion Don Frye and Kane Kosugi star in Godzilla: Final Wars.
Godzilla Says Goodbye in Godzilla: Final Wars
Though the film is Godzilla’s farewell he is noticeable by his absence for the first part of the film. Instead the focus is on the human characters as they try to protect the Earth from an alien invasion. The Earth Defence Force includes young soldier Shin'ichi Ôzaki (Masahiro Matsuoka), and tough submarine Captain, Douglas Gordon (Don Frye). The aliens are using some of the world’s most dangerous monsters to destroy Earth’s cities. Berlin, Paris, Vancouver, Okinawa and Vancouver are among the many casualties.
Powerless to resist, mankind’s only hope is to awaken Godzilla. This is not a decision to be taken lightly by the Earth Defence Force as Godzilla has done a fair amount of city trashing in his time. In fact Godzilla tends to leave any city he visits looking like 50,000 Glasgow Rangers supporters have just been in town to support their football team.
50th Anniversary Godzilla Movie
Godzilla: Final Wars was put together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original Godzilla (Ishiro Honda 1954). It combines old-fashioned guy in a monster suit action with a modern The Matrix (Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski 1999) style martial-arts sensibility. Ryûhei Kitamura’s pacy direction keeps the action flowing and moves from one big set-piece to the next with panache. The main reason for watching is Godzilla so it is a shame the big guy is held back for most of the film.
US Reboot of Godzilla Due in 2012
Godzilla: Final Wars is the 28th Godzilla movie and the most expensive of the Japanese series to date. Those who only know Godzilla from the awful 1998 American movie may well be surprised at the level of campiness on show here as well as the relatively lo-fi approach to the monster costumes. It is however a lot more fun than the dismal US blockbuster. Though Godzilla: Final Wars is billed as the last ever Godzilla movie it is expected Toho Pictures will bring him back after a hiatus. There is already another US Godzilla movie in development courtesy of Warner Bros and if all goes well it should arrive in 2012.
Rating 3/5
- Godzilla: Final Wars
- Starring Godzilla, Don Frye, Kane Kosugi
- Written by Isao Kiriyama, Ryûhei Kitamura
- Directed by Ryûhei Kitamura
- Year of Release 2004
- Running time 125 mins
Kevin Sturton - Kevin is a graduate of the 2005 Post-Grad course in Film Journalism run by the BFI and writes mainly about film.
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