NYAFF Report: Godzilla Final Wars Review
It seriously pains me to not be able to attend the New York Asian Film Festival myself so, just to spread that pain around a bit, we've got a trio of men on the street in New York to tell us all about what we're missing. Here's Mark Gilson on Godzilla: Final Wars. There are some spoilers in what's to come, so proceed at your own peril ...
It has been a great year to be a Godzilla fan in New York City. First we had the theatrical release of the beautifully restored print of the one that started it all, the 1954 masterpiece Godzilla. Then the Film Forum ran a Godzilla retrospective that featured not only classics, but recent gems like Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla X Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. So when the NYAFF lineup was announced and Godzilla : Final Wars was one of the films being shown, I couldn't be happier. Judging from the line that snaked around the block at the Anthology Film Archives, I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
Now in the interest of full disclosure, I need to state that I am pretty much a full-blown Godzilla freak. Heading into this film, I'd heard that it really polarized the Big G's fanbase, and having seen it for myself , I can really see why. GFW is in essence a remake of Toho's 1968's monsterfest, "Destroy all Monsters". The film opens in the South Pole with the Atragon (Toho's resident supersub from the film of the same name) locked in battle with Godzilla. The Atragon literally puts Godzilla on ice, where he remains for a good portion of this film. In place of good old kaiju chaos, we're treated to a hodgepodge of scenes and ideas lifted from Hollywood's back catalogue, served up Kitamura style.
As the opening credits roll, clips from almost all the classic Toho "kaiju eiga" are shown, explaining that Godzilla was just the first of many monsters that rose to threaten humanity. In response, the people of earth banded together to form the Earth Defense Force. At the same time, mutants were discovered living among us, and have been used as a kind of super anti-monster S.W.A.T. team. This is because of the M-Base, a chemical building block found in all mutants, also present in the recently discovered 12,000 year old mummified corpse of Gaigan.
As the film goes on, kaiju suddenly appear to wreak a few minutes of havoc and then suddenly disappear just as quickly from all over the globe. Amidst the chaos, the newly elected Japanese Secretary General of the U.N. goes missing, only to return after the disappearance of the giant monsters aboard a giant spaceship that appears over Japan. He tells us that his captors in fact come in peace, and introduces us to them. The aliens introduce themselves to us, telling us that since the name of their home planet is too hard to pronounce, that we should just call them Xilians (though in Japanese they call themselves the X-Seijin, a nod to the classic visor wearing baddies from beyond of the Showa Godzilla films). They explain that a giant runaway planet called Gorath (another nice nod to a classic Toho film) is on a collision course with Earth, and they have come to save us. The Xilians quickly become pop culture stars in Japan with throngs of fans, and The U.N. quickly becomes the United Star Systems.
But things are not right. The Secretary General seems...different. When a sample of his blood is obtained after a convenient assassination attempt, we learn that he is in fact an impostor. And all the images of Gorath hurtling towards Earth have been faked (using a powerful alien technology known as Photoshop?). Not knowing who to trust, our mutant hero, EDF soldier Shinichi Ozaki releases the one man he knows he can trust from the brig: Atragon Commander Douglas Gordon, played brilliantly by longtime wrestler for the New Japan promotion, Don Frye. Frye's cop mustache and deep voice make him the perfect badass for the job.
In a page taken from the 80s TV sci-fi classic "V" we learn that the Xilians in fact have sinister intentiions. We even get the televised "our benefactors are not what they appear to be" revealing of their true forms on television. In addition to being evil aliens who refer to the people of Earth as "cattle", it turns out that Xilians also have the M-Base, and can use it to control not only mutants, but monsters. They proceed to unleash the monsters across the globe, who do what comes naturally, and start wasting cities. But Gordon knows what to do. The world has already gone to hell in a handbasket. It's time to take a trip to the South Pole and really put things into overdrive. It's time to awaken Godzilla.
What follows is a whirlwind of Mutant versus Xilian scenes, with the occasional monster fight. For a film with a cast of 11 kaiju, there is surprisingly little screen time devoted to any of them, which is the biggest flaw of the film, along with the almost complete lack of any of the classic Godzilla scores, instead relying on one by Keith Emerson. One of my favorites, Hedorah ( the Smog Monster) appears and disappears so quickly I wondered why they even bothered making the suit. Instead we get the now standard stripmining of action scenes from the Matrix Trilogy, with some Star Wars thrown in for good measure. In a nice touch of Japanese flavor, it is a lone kamikaze pilot who takes down the Xilian's Death Star-on-a-tripod mothership Luke Skywalker style.
It's a shame that there is not more monster action, as the suits have been designed to be lighter and more mobile, with several monsters executing spinkicks and other high-flying martial arts moves. The best kaiju battle takes place between Godzilla, Angilas, Rodan and King Seesar, wherein Angilas, doing his best armadillo impression is kicked around like a spiky soccer ball, complete with Godzilla jumping to make the save and keep the enemy team from scoring. Other than that, most fights end too quickly to really be appreciated. Gaigan gets decapitated. Twice. Even the much anticipated battle between Godzilla and G.I.N.O. (Godzilla In Name Only, Notzilla, the American Godzilla) is disappointing because Godzilla goes through ALL these guys like a hot knife through butter.
The one monster that poses a real challenge, and thus gets any screen time is Monster X, who powers up to become Kaiser Ghidorah, a weird, 4 legged incarnation of the classic alien villain. KG gets the drop on Godzilla, who is saved when our mutant hero Ozaki realizes his true power Neo-style, and channels it to Godzilla to destroy KG and save the day. When the dust settles and Godzilla is about to turn on the Atragon, comedy relief / adorable abomination Minilla shows up, having inexplicably (but not surprisingly) revealed himself to a little kid and his Grandfather earlier in the film. Minilla stands between Godzilla and our heros. Godzilla turns and walks away, and Minilla follows him, the pair swimming off into the sunset. (I still don't believe that's really his kid. He's definitely adopted).
All in all, GFW is a fun film, and entertains despite its flaws. The whole production seemed really rushed, and lacks any kind of pacing or story development. But then again, this is Godzilla we're talking about. I'd be lying if the series hasn't heavily relied on campiness in its history, and this film is a celebration of those 50 years. Kitamura does a fine job of recreating that classic flavor while adding his own signature flair to the film. He was hired to deliver a flashy, contemporary take on a classic, and that's exactly what he did. The actors all seemed like they had a lot of fun in their roles. Overall this is much more of a Kitamura film with Godzilla in it than anything else, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Reviewed by Mark Gilson.
