Godzilla: Final Wars

Weird as ever. Slightly better special effects. Doubtful story. Japanese Godzilla rebooted.

If you like giant monster flicks, then Godzilla has got to be one of your favorite beasties. Over the years, there has been no other destructive force that can equal him. Godzilla films have always been pretty bad but the creativity and imagination have never been in short supply. "Final Wars" is no exception.

There are more monsters, more battles, more aliens...heck, more everything in this movie than in any other Godzilla movie I've ever seen. The plot is preposterous, the acting is way over the top, and Godzilla is still a guy in a rubber suit. But who cares!! If you rent or buy a Godzilla film, you know exactly what you are hoping to see, and that's monsters destroying things. And this movie delivers more of that than any other in the Godzilla series.

So it took 1h 9min for Big-G to make an appearance, and then several 1 minute or less mini battles.. So much time wasted on the human element here when it could have been a battle royal for the ages. And BTW.. Gigan would NEVER go down that quickly.

One thing you certainly can't accuse the grand finale of the Suitmation era of the Godzilla franchise of is being boring. "Godzilla: Final Wars" is so jam-packed with monsters and abstruse ideas that the movie is practically exploding out of control. I don't know if the plan was to make a trash movie, but they definitely succeeded. Because whether it's the crazy costumes, terrible acting, a stupid story, questionable directing and editing choices, or completely exaggerated characters, you can never really take "Final Wars" seriously.

Nevertheless, I can appreciate that there are numerous allusions to the earlier parts of the series here. Above all, it is an homage to the Shōwa era, for example with the alien invasion by the Xiliens (including Elon Musk as the chief villain) or the presence of annoying Minilla. This is especially fun if, like me, you've just seen all the previous parts. But it's not exactly a good movie, as it ultimately lacks focus. At most, it has a few moments that work as fanservice. And if you like trash, you can't go wrong with "Final Wars" anyway.

I'm pretty sure Don Frye had more action scenes than Godzilla himself. Don Frye lugging himself around looking like Blade and Super Mario's love child doing bad fight choreography. For a movie that pits Godzilla against a high count of monsters, there sure isn't enough of Godzilla.