Godzilla: Final Wars

Godzilla: Final Wars; science-fiction action, Japan, 2004; D: Ryuhei Kitamura, S: Masahiro Matsouka, Rei Kikukawa, Kazuki Kitamura, Don Frye

Japan. A special force of mutant human soldiers, EDF, has been established to fight the giant monsters and restore peace on Earth. Among those soldiers is Ozaki, who got a new partner, a handsome UN Molecular Biologist Miyuki Otonashi. When the Japanese UN Secretary General Daigo gets kidnapped from a UFO, a group of evil monsters starts to attack all around the world, from Sydney to Paris. But UFOs stop the monsters and with the help of General Daigo declare that they are aliens from Planet X who have came to Earth to save it from a giant asteroid. But then EDF fins out that there is no asteroid and that the aliens just want to harvest humans because they need their Mitochondria. The UFOs unleash all the monsters on Earth, but captain Gordon manages to free Godzilla from the ice on Antarctica. Godzilla battles all of the monsters and wins, while Gordon and the EDF destroy UFO spaceships.

"Godzilla: Final Wars", the 28th feature film from the "Godzilla" film series, is another trash contribution to the weak saga. It's a chaotic, silly and dumb film with a bad B story and even worse special effects where actors, once again, star in rubber suits of the "giant" monsters. Only thanks to some quirky and (not deliberately) funny moments would this film get a sufficient grade, because towards the end everything became so stupid that the viewer can almost loose his patience - what's too much, is too much. The thing is a "guilty pleasure" for the first 40 minutes, but the last 80 are a bore. Among the funny, nonsensical elements is a scene where captain Gordon, who looks like a mix between Super Mario and Stalin, in the Gotengo battleship freezes the Manta dragon that ends up looking like the Chinese Dragon. EDF soldiers battle a giant crab monster in town and say: "Let's eat shrimp!" A giant dragon interrupts an argument between a white cop and a black pimp in New York. Secretary General Daigo announces that, since the aliens from planet X made contact with Earth, the United Nations will be resolved and transformed into "Space Nations". People on the street are holding a transparent that says: "I love X". The whole thing is one giant action soap opera with minimum care for it's characters and a poor directing skills from Ryuhei Kitamura. It's a curiosity why these kind of films are being made, and for whom, when they are much superior monster film present, like "Jaws", "King Kong" and "Jurrasic Park".

Grade:+