| What is Godzilla: Final
Wars? Aside from being Toho’s 50th
anniversary Godzilla film and likely the last
Godzilla film for a while, it’s also quite
the enigma. It’s perhaps simultaneously
one of the best and worst films in the whole series
and despite the fact that Tomoyuki
Tanaka is likely spinning in his grave over
it (remember, this is a man who accused Yoshimitsu
Banno of “ruining“ the Godzilla series),
I absolutely love it.
After showing the famous "TohoScope"
logo (a somewhat inappropriate and in my eyes
almost blasphemous thing to do, as the film shares
little in common with the many Ishiro Honda classics
graced with said logo), the film opens sometime
in the past, with Godzilla battling a vintage
style Gotengo and being buried under the ice caps
of Antarctica. Jump cut to the not too distant
future, where mankind has decided to stop fighting
each other (fat chance) and instead focus on battling
the hordes of giant monsters that now infest the
Earth. So thus the Earth Defense Force is established,
using a group of genetically altered humanoid
mutants to battle the beasts. However, soon monsters
begin appearing all over the world. No sooner
do the monsters mysteriously disappear than a
group of aliens, the Xiliens, make themselves
known, telling mankind that a giant asteroid by
the name of Gorath is on a collision course with
Earth. However, once it is revealed that the aliens
are in fact up to no good and are insectoid monsters
out to harvest mankind's mitochondria, the Xiliens
launch a full out attack on mankind. Captain Douglas
Gordon, commander of the Gotengo, however, has
an ace up his sleeve. He flies the Gotengo to
Antarctica to free Godzilla from the ice. Once
free, Godzilla travels around the world and mows
his way through monster after monster before taking
on the Xilien's final straw: Monster X, in Tokyo.
Technically, this is actually a
very poor Godzilla film, the monster battles,
with the exception of the Monster X/Keizer Ghidorah
fight are far, far too short for example and far
more attention is paid to the film’s human
and mutant characters than its monsters, the film
relies far more on flash than substance and is
awash in various digital color and grain filters
that give the movie a very music video like-look.
Ryuhei Kitamura, in my opinion, was actually a
pretty poor choice to direct this film. Unlike,
say, such men as Shinji
Higuchi and Shusuke
Kaneko, he is obviously not a huge fan of
the Godzilla series or the kaiju eiga genre. Indeed,
rather than lovingly pay tribute to the Godzilla
films he enjoyed as a child, like Kaneko and Higuchi
did with the Heisei Gamera trilogy (or as Peter
Jackson did with the original King Kong
in his 2005 remake), Kitamura crafts what is essentially
an ANTI-Godzilla film. Indeed, it feels far more
akin to a Hong Kong John Woo film than it does
a Godzilla movie, with similar flashiness and
breathless, hyperkinetic action. I can completely
understand why this film disappointed fans to
such a degree. Most of us go to a Godzilla film
to see giant monsters go at it, not to see a couple
of mutants battle on motorcycles.
However, the thing is that, like
Godzilla
vs. Hedorah (1971), Godzilla: Final
Wars is not a typical Godzilla film in any
respect and one should not approach Final Wars
expecting that. If you watch the film with an
open mind and more as a Ryuhei Kitamura film than
a Godzilla film, than the film is actually quite
rewarding and fun. In fact, most of my favorite
scenes and elements in the movie, such as the
motorcycle chase, Don Frye and Kazuki Kitamura’s
performances, etc, are not really involving Godzilla
or kaiju at all. The film also features some surprisingly
iconic little moments, such as, of course, the
infamous moment where a black pimp’s heated
argument with a NYC cop is interrupted by the
arrival of Rodan and a scene featuring Minira
riding in the back of an old Japanese hillbilly’s
truck. The film does not take itself even remotely
seriously. It’s an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink
roller coaster ride with black pimps, a burned
out pro wrestler lead, a 30 second battle between
the Japanese and American Godzillas, mutants prancing
around in jumpsuits and an alien leader who acts
like he’s under the influence of mind altering
drugs.
From a technical standpoint, this
looks and feels almost nothing like a Godzilla
movie. Rather than shoot on 35mm like all previous
27 films, Kitamura instead opted to shoot the
film on HD. Yet oddly enough, in what is certainly
one of the strangest artistic choices in any film,
Kitamura chooses to make the HD look like film
by adding a layer of grain to the whole movie.
And then of course, there’s the color filters,
which are quite tacky looking. It’s a far
cry from the meticulous digital grading done on
many Hollywood films in that the hue of everything
is just one color. The inside of the Gotengo is
blue, the inside of the Xilien mothership is bright
orange, etc. Yet somehow, these visual flaws only
aid the film in it’s bizarre charm.
The music by Keith Emerson
(of Emerson, Lake and Palmer), who also scored
Dario Argento’s Inferno, is
quite frankly terrible and feels totally out
of place in a Godzilla movie. But like Riichiro
Manabe's cacophonous score for Godzilla
vs. Hedorah (1971), it is strangely
appropriate to what is in essence not really
a Godzilla film at all, but a 128 minute action
music video.
The acting is, like the film itself,
simultaneously the worst and the best in the entire
series. First off, we have Masahiro Matsuoka and
Rei Kikukawa in the leads, as Ozaki and Miyuki
Otonashi, respectively, both of whom are serviceable
but unremarkable and don’t make very much
of an impression at all. The real treat here is
pro-wrestler turned actor Don Frye’s performance
as Captain Douglas Gordon, which is no doubt the
most memorable performance by a Caucasian in a
Japanese film since Robert
Dunham tried to steal the yakuza’s diamonds
in Dogora
(1964), Nick
Adams’ howled “You stinkin’
rats!“ in Invasion
of Astro-Monster (1965) and Vic Morrow
drunkenly stumbled across the screen in Message
From Space. His performance is so awful yet so
incredibly charming that one cannot help but absolutely
adore it. Also contributing a wonderfully hammy
performance is Kazuki Kitamura (who prior to this
film appeared in Ryuhei Kitamura’s sword
flick Azumi
and played a Crazy 88 member in Quentin Tarantino’s
grind house film tribute Kill Bill),
who just chews the scenery as the Xillian leader,
throwing a Rita Repulsa-like hissy fit every time
one of his monsters loses to Godzilla. Kane Kosugi
is another major player here. The son of famous
martial artist Sho Kosugi, Kane first appeared
opposite his father as a child in 1983’s
Revenge of the Ninja and since then has
appeared in everything from the failed American
Ultraman spinoff Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero
(or in Japan Ultraman Powered) to sentai
shows such as Kakuranger. He very amusingly
manages to throw the occasional English one liner
into his mostly Japanese speaking performance.
The film also features such familiar faces as
Akira Takarada, Kumi
Mizuno and Kenji Sahara, but they are also
more or less overshadowed by the likes of Frye,
Kitamura and Kosugi.
In terms of character development,
there isn't much of it in Godzilla: Final
Wars, though Ozaki and Kazama have a sort
of rivalry that peaks when Kazama is put under
mind control and the two square on the motorcycles.
Feeling extreme remorse, Kazama then decides to
sacrifice himself to destroy the Xilien mothership's
shield. A slight romantic interest is also hinted
at between Douglas Gordon and Anna Otonashi, Miyuki's
news anchor sister, but the film otherwise focuses
almost entirely on action.
There are several films that this
film highly reminds me of. One is Hua Shan’s
1975 Shaw Brothers superhero opus The Super
Inframan. The film boasts a similar breathtaking
pace, also features an entourage of wild monsters
that are dispatched in a very quick amount of
time by the title character and not to mention
a similar tone and feeling of constant insanity.
Another is Kinji
Fukasaku’s grand space opera Message
From Space, again, for its general tone.
The scene where Kazama suicide pilots his ship
through the Xilien mothers even closely resembles
the “chicken run” through the Gavanas’
palace in Message (though it is likely that this
scene may very well be simply a reference to Return
of the Jedi, which also contains a similar
scene). And just as films like Message From
Space and Bye-Bye
Jupiter (1984) perfectly reflected the
post Star Wars “space movie” craze
of the 80's, Godzilla: Final Wars so
perfectly reflects the action, video game and
flashy music video crazed 2000's.
So all in all, the film is absolutely
no masterpiece, but it is such insane fun that’s
quite frankly it’s hard not to adore it.
Godzilla: Final Wars could be the ultimate
party film as well, it's the kind of film one
could invent a drinking game around. Did I also
mention that it contains a black pimp?
|
(3.5/5)