Godzilla: Final Wars

Godzilla: Final Wars

Japanese film poster
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
Produced by Shogo Tomiyama
Screenplay by Isao Kiriyama
Wataru Mimura
Starring Masahiro Matsuoka
Rei Kikukawa
Don Frye
Kane Kosugi
Maki Mizuno
Kazuki Kitamura
Masakatsu Funaki
Kumi Mizuno
Kenji Sahara
Masami Nagasawa
Chihiro Otsuka
Masatoh Eve
Jun Kunimura
Akira Takarada
Tsutomu Kitagawa
Narrated by Kōichi Yamadera
Music by Keith Emerson
Nobuhiko Morino
Daisuke Yano
Themes:
Akira Ifukube
Cinematography Takumi Furuya
Fujio Okawa
Edited by Shūichi Kakesu
Production
company
Distributed by Toho
Release dates
  • November 29, 2004 (World Premiere)
  • December 4, 2004 (Japan)
Running time
 125 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Budget $19.5 million
Box office $12 million

Godzilla: Final Wars (ゴジラ ファイナルウォーズ Gojira: Fainaru Wōzu) is a 2004 Japanese Science fiction Kaiju film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, written by Wataru Mimura and Isao Kiriyama and produced by Shogo Tomiyama. It is the 28th and final installment in Toho's Godzilla film series, and the sixth final film in the Millennium era. The film stars Masahiro Matsuoka, Don Frye, Rei Kikukawa, Kane Kosugi, Maki Mizuno, Kazuki Kitamura and Tsutomu Kitagawa as Godzilla.

The film is set in a future where mutant soldiers are in the ranks of the Earth Defense Organization. An invasion by the alien Xiliens unleashes a legion of giant monsters across the world, leaving behind only a few surviving humans. The survivors travel to the South Pole to free Godzilla from his frozen prison before attempting to infiltrate the alien Mothership and take out the Xiliens.

As a 50th anniversary film, a number of actors from previous Godzilla films appeared as main characters or in cameo roles. In addition, various Kaiju (monsters) made reappearances, as most were last seen more than 30 years earlier. Godzilla: Final Wars premiered on November 29, 2004 in Los Angeles, California and was released on December 4, 2004 in Japan. Before the world premiere, Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[1]

Director Ryuhei Kitamura has compared Godzilla: Final Wars to that of a musician's "Best of" album,[2] stating "We picked lots and lots of the best elements from the past and combined it in a new way. It's what I love about Godzilla and what I don't love about recent Godzilla movies".[3]

Plot

In 1964, endless warfare and environmental pollution had resulted in the creation of monsters and the Earth Defense Force (EDF) is established to protect the planet. During that period, the frequent occurrence of enormous monsters had become commonplace, and thus, the Earth Defense Force (known in short as the EDF) was established by the Japanese government. The sole purpose of the force was to combat the monsters and hopefully restore peace to the world. During the worldwide wave of monsters, mutant humans with superhuman strength and extraordinary physical capabilities were discovered whose origins or mutations were not yet understood. The EDF realized the potential and effectiveness of the mutants as super soldiers, and established a subdivision known as the M-Organization. The organization is equipped with the best technology, weapons and soldiers, as well as mutants with special abilities. Godzilla was first sighted in 1954 and is the EDF's only unstoppable opponent. The EDF's best combat vehicle, the Gotengo, corners Godzilla at the South Pole and buries him under the Antarctic ice, freezing Godzilla alive. It was only with the help of a large earthquake that the crew of the Gotengo was able to finally triumph against Godzilla. The earthquake had caused the ground to split and cave in beneath Godzilla, causing him to fall into a seemingly bottomless pit which was followed by an avalanche of ice and rock caused by missiles fired from the Gotengo that buried Godzilla and imprisoned him in an icy tomb.

Forty years later in 2004, the EDF discovers a mysterious mummified space monster off the coast of Hokkaido and is being suspended by large support cables in the EDF warehouse and being researched. It was calculated as being 12,000 years old and found out to be a cyborg consisting of machine and organic tissue from another planet, whose DNA was discovered to contain M-Base, also found in the M-Unit soldiers. The mutant soldier Shinichi Ozaki and the United Nations biologist Dr. Miyuki Otonashi are sent to study it. Shortly thereafter, after they get teleported to Infant Island the two encounter the Shobijin, fairies of the guardian monster Mothra, who reveal that the monster is Gigan, an alien cyborg sent to destroy Earth 12,000 years earlier and sent to wipe out all life on Earth, but was subdued by Mothra. They also warn that a battle between good and evil will happen soon and that Ozaki, because of his mutant capabilities, must choose between the two. They give Ozaki a small sword saying that he has an important destiny coming up and he must choose his own fate.

Suddenly, giant monsters appear in major cities. Rodan attacks New York City, United States, Zilla attacks Sydney, Australia, Anguirus attacks Shanghai, China, King Caesar attacks Okinawa, Japan, Kamacuras attacks Paris, France, Kumonga attacks Phoenix, Arizona, and Ebirah attacks Tokyo, Japan. The EDF engage the creatures but they mysteriously vanish at the same moment when an enormous alien mothership is seen over Tokyo. The aliens, known as Xiliens, warn the world of an incoming planet called "Gorath" will soon impact with Earth after assigning a peaceful union between Earth and Planet X. The Secretary General is revealed alive when he is teleported from the ship, claiming that humanity will one become the Space Nations and that the United Nations should be disbanded because of their peaceful nature as the security cover increases as establishment of the project starts.

Ozaki, Miyuki, her sister Anna and several others distrust the Xiliens as it begins to fume. Using research and practical experiments, they discover that the Xiliens are actually the ones who have unleashed the monsters and have also replaced several members of the EDF with android duplicates, including the high political leaders. To make matters worse, the image of Gorath was fake and it was nothing more than a hologram. Ozaki tells that there is only one person whom they could trust, Captain Douglas Gordon, who fired the missiles that sealed Godzilla in Antarctica. After having their true intentions exposed on national television, the Xiliens explain the reason behind their invasion which was to use mankind as a food source - they needed the mitochondria in human cells to survive. Using his species' control over M-Base, the Controller assumes of all of the Earth's mutants except Shinichi. The others escape from the channel studio as former M-unit Muasaka holds off the mutants, sacrificing himself in the process. However, their escape vehicle and plan is partially hindered by a controlled Kazama, a fellow mutant, whom Ozaki is able to subdue. After the Regulator awakens Gigan from mummification, the Xiliens unleash the monsters once more and destroy the rest of civilization.

On Mt. Fuji, a hunter, Samon Taguchi, and his grandson, Kenta, discover Minilla, Godzilla's son, while they go hunting. They are successful in keeping a low profile and hiding from the Xiliens' assault.

Captain Gordon proposes freeing Godzilla to allow him to defeat the other monsters. But the only risk is that Godzilla also might be controlled by the Xiliens to which Miyuki rejects, saying that Godzilla's DNA does not contain M-Base, a compound which both the mutant soldiers of the M-Force and Gigan possessed in their DNA. The surviving EDF members set out on one last, risky resort trip to Area G, the South Pole, to save the remaining members of the human race. But the Xilien Regulator unleashes Gigan, their ancient weapon, to follow and destroy the Gotengo.

Using the Gotengo, the surviving EDF members travel to Antarctica and awaken Godzilla, who then battles Gigan. Godzilla uses his thermonuclear ray to decapitate Gigan and the Gotengo leads Godzilla across the Pacific to battle the other monsters on its voyage to Tokyo. Godzilla encounters Zilla, who has been unleashed by the Xiliens in Sydney to defeat him. Godzilla quickly uses his tail to send Zilla flying into the Sydney Opera House and uses atomic breath to finish Zilla off, much to the Controller's dismay. Godzilla then battles the rest of the monsters unleashed by the Xiliens across the Pacific including Kumonga, in Papua, New Guinea, Kamacuras in Manazuru, Kanagawa, beating Rodan, Anguirus and King Caesar single-handedly near Mt. Fuji, and obliterates Ebirah and Hedorah in Tokyo Bay. The Gotengo then returns to Tokyo to engage the Xiliens and infiltrate the Mothership.

The Gotengo attempts to destroy the mother-ship but its shield is too strong and is protected by fighter ships. Kazama takes a fighter right through, destroying the generator and sacrificing himself, allowing the Gotengo to drill through to the core and attempt to fire the Maser. At that moment the Xiliens to beam on-board and kill the non-essential crew-members, bringing the four most important ones, Ozaki, Miyuki, Gordon and pilot Akiko Namikawa to the Controller. Inside the Xilien mothership, the humans confront the Xilien Regulator. Ozaki is revealed to be a "Keizer", an nigh-omnipotent being capable of controlling Earth and all life on it. Kaisers are able to control any other lifeform by telepathic means if that organism has M-base. Deciding to stay with the humans, Ozaki fights the Xilien Regulator, who is also a Keizer. But the Controller attempts to turn Ozaki to his Xilien nature only for the process to be stopped by Miyuki, who uses the Shobijiin's sword to free him. Ozaki defeats the Controller in battle and ultimately wins. However, the Controller says he won't die alone and sets the Xilien Mothership to self-destruct. Moments before the Xilien Mothership comes crashing down around him, the Controller is seen screaming in anger and agony among the explosions due to his defeat. After an extended battle, the humans are victorious and flee the mother ship's destruction.

Godzilla destroys Gorath just before it crashes, unleashing Monster X. Gigan, who has now been revived and upgraded, aids Monster X, but Mothra arrives to counter him in battle. Gigan perishes as Mothra turns the cyborg's own power against him, just as the remaining crew are victorious. Godzilla is still fighting Monster X on his own, who soon transforms into his true form, Keizer Ghidorah, and starts to drain the life force of Godzilla. Ozaki transfers his "Kaiser energy" to Godzilla, restoring his strength and turning Godzilla into a Keizer also. Godzilla destroys two of Ghidorah's heads and tosses them away before slamming Ghidorah into the ground a few times. Finally, Godzilla hurls Keizer Ghidorah into the air and uses his red atomic breath to destroy him once and for all. Godzilla then turns to finish off the Gotengo, but Minilla, now in a bigger form (upon witnessing the battle between Godzilla and Rodan, Anguirus and King Caesar, Minilla's height grew to 45 meters) arrives, along with the hunter and his grandson, and blocks Godzilla from harming the humans, which causes Godzilla to realize that he must forgive mankind. The survivors watch as Godzilla and his son Minilla return to the ocean peacefully. Godzilla then lets out one final roar.

Cast

Nearly every monster in the Toho Kaiju stable appears in this movie at some point, even those such as Hedorah who were otherwise barred from use by Toho. In addition to being a nod to fans, this was to make the Xilien forces appear as numerous and threatening as possible while keeping the budget under control by using costumes already on hand. Several computer animated monsters were created for use in the film. They consist of Manda, Mothra, Kamacuras, and Zilla. Stock footage from previous films were used for other monsters, such as Varan, Gaira, Baragon, Gezora, Titanosaurus, Mechagodzilla, and Megaguirus. The costumes for Rodan, Anguirus and King Caesar were used for fan events after the plans to destroy them were removed.

Production

Godzilla's new design for Godzilla: Final Wars dubbed the FinalGoji.

Just like previous Godzilla films, Godzilla: Final Wars makes extensive use of practical effects rather than CG. The special effects were directed and supervised by Eiichi Asada, who also directed the special effects for Godzilla: Tokyo SOS. Commenting on the special effects, Kitamura stated at the film's world premiere in Hollywood, "We stick to the special effects. That’s what we've been doing for 50 years. And that’s why Hollywood don’t do it. So on the first meeting, I told everybody that we stick to the special effects, and the live action instead of CGI. So it’s a CGI-monster-Hollywood Godzilla versus our man-made live-action monsters."[4]

Music

The music in Godzilla: Final Wars was composed by Keith Emerson, Daisuke Yano and Nobuhiko Morino, while the band Sum 41 contributed the song "We're All To Blame" to the soundtrack (and received high billing in the film's opening credits sequence). Some critics expressed concern with the music of Final Wars, arguing that Emerson's score would be better suited for a campy made-for-television movie or video games, while others pointed out that it made a refreshing change from the music of previous Godzilla films.

Akira Ifukube's themes were mostly absent from the movie, though Godzilla's original theme can be heard at the beginning of the film. However, Keith Emerson did cover the Godzilla theme which is available on the film's official soundtrack. The cover is entitled "Godzilla (Main Theme)".

The bands Sum 41 and Zebrahead contributed the tracks "We're All To Blame" and "Godzilla vs. Tokyo" respectively, to the film,[5] however neither song was on the film's soundtrack.[6]

Filming locations

Godzilla: Final Wars began filming in July 2003. The locations of filming included Sydney, Egypt, New York City, Paris, Shanghai, Arizona and Tokyo.

Critical reception

Godzilla: Final Wars has received extremely mixed reviews from film critics and fans alike. As of May 2011, review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 44% of critics gave positive reviews for the film based on nine reviews.[7]

Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique called the film "utterly fantastic" and "a rush of explosive excitement."[8] Jim Agnew of Film Threat gave the film four and a half stars out of five, saying "the good news for kaiju fans is that Godzilla: Final Wars is a kick-ass giant monster flick."[9] Drew McWeeny of Ain't It Cool News remarked, "Godzilla: Final Wars earns a special place in my heart. It's fun. Pure lunatic fun, every frame."[10] Sean Axmaker of Static Multimedia said, "Directed by a true fan of the old school, it's lusciously, knowingly, lovingly cheesy."[11] Craig Blamer of the Chico News & Review called the film "a giddy and fast-paced celebration of the big guy."[12]

Conversely, David Nusair of Reel Film gave the film one and a half stars out of five, saying that "the battles are admittedly quite entertaining" but felt that director Ryuhei Kitamura "is absolutely the wrong choice for the material."[13] David Cornelius of eFilmCritic gave the film two stars out of five, calling it "the dullest, weakest Godzilla movie I've seen in a long, long time."[14] Ty Burr of the Boston Globe gave the film one and a half stars out of five, saying it focused too much on action and not enough on story, and calling it "35 minutes longer than is necessary."[15]

Among kaiju-related websites, J.L. Carrozza of Toho Kingdom "absolutely love[d]" Final Wars, saying "[it's] no masterpiece, but it is such insane fun that quite frankly it's hard not to adore it."[16] Mike Bogue of American Kaiju said "the film is flawed, but nonetheless entertaining," saying there are "too many [Matrix-style] battles" but that the film "makes excellent use of its monsters" and "Kitamura keeps things moving at a brisk pace."[17] Japan Hero criticized the "[lack of] character development" but concluded that Final Wars is "a very entertaining movie," saying that "Kitamura did a wonderful job making it an interesting and great looking film worthy of being the final [Godzilla] movie."[18]

Stomp Tokyo said "the monster scenes are generally well done" but criticized the film's "incoherence," saying: "It's a shame that Kitamaura couldn't choose a tone for the film, instead shifting the movie's mood wildly from scene to scene."[19] Lenny Taguchi of Monster Zero criticized Keith Emerson's soundtrack but gave Final Wars an overall favorable review, calling it a "fun and good" movie that "tries many things, and generally succeeds at almost all of them."[20]

Director Kitamura commented at the film's world premiere that the reason why he agreed to direct the film was because he wanted to update Godzilla and recapture the same spirit seen in the later Godzilla films from the Showa era.[21] He wanted to incorporate the same speed and power seen in films like Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, which he believed was lost somewhere within the series, stating, "The Godzilla series had lost that kind of taste. I think that back in the '70s Godzilla movies had more power and speed. He was very fast and he was very strong. So in my Godzilla, you know, less dialogue and more action. That’s more fun than watching people discuss and what we should do about Godzilla. As a Godzilla fan I want to see Godzilla punching and kicking, beating up all the other monsters instead of somebody talking again, you know, discussing the operation. That's what I wanted to do is to revive that, but not in the same way, I have to update. This is the updated version of '70s, crazy, monster movies."[4]

Box office

At roughly $19,500,000, Godzilla: Final Wars was the most expensive Toho-produced Godzilla film of all time.

Any hopes Toho had of Godzilla: Final Wars ending the series with a box office bang were stifled when the film opened in Japan on December 4, 2004. In its opening weekend, it came in third at the box office with $1,874,559. At the holiday season box office, it was beaten by Howl's Moving Castle and The Incredibles, both which also pursued the family market. It eventually grossed roughly $12,000,000 at the Japanese box office, with 1,000,000 admissions. Not only was it the least-attended film in the Millennium series, it was also the least attended film in 29 years since Terror of Mechagodzilla.[22]

Home media releases

Sony - Blu-ray (Toho Godzilla Collection) [23]

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

References

  1. ↑ Dovarganes, Damian (November 30, 2004). "Godzilla gets Hollywood Walk of Fame star". USA Today.
  2. ↑ "Godzilla Final Wars: Das Interview mit Ryuhei Kitamura". Outnow.ch. June 29, 2005.
  3. ↑ Wheeler, John (March 26, 2010). "The Art of Collaboration: interview with Ryuhei Kitamura". Asia Pacific Arts.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=18725
  5. ↑ "Gojira: Fainaru uôzu (2004) - Trivia - IMDb". IMDb.
  6. ↑ "CD: Godzilla: Final Wars - Soundtrack". tohokingdom.com.
  7. ↑ Godzilla: Final Wars, Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ↑ Review by Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique
  9. ↑ Jim Agnew, Film Threat
  10. ↑ staff (30 November 2004). "MAN IN SUIT! MAN IN SUIT! MAN IN SUIT! Moriarty Attends The World Premiere Of GODZILLA FINAL WARS...". Aint It Cool News.
  11. ↑ Review by Sean Axmaker, Static Multimedia
  12. ↑ "Chico News & Review - Godzilla: Final Wars - In The Mix - DVD/Video - Film - December 15, 2005". Chico News & Review.
  13. ↑ Review by David Nusair, Reel Film
  14. ↑ Review by David Cornelius, eFilmCritic
  15. ↑ Review by Ty Burr, Boston Globe
  16. ↑ Review J.L. Carrozza, Toho Kingdom
  17. ↑ Review Mike Bogue, American Kaiju
  18. ↑ Review Japan Hero
  19. ↑ Review Stomp Tokyo
  20. ↑ Review Lenny Taguchi, Monster Zero
  21. ↑ "Asia Pacific Arts: The Art of Collaboration: interview with Ryuhei Kitamura". usc.edu.
  22. ↑ "Godzilla: Final Wars - Box Office Report". tohokingdom.com.
  23. ↑ Martin Liebman. "Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com.

External links