Godzilla – Final Wars (2004)

Godzilla – Final Wars: Directed by Ryûhei Kitamura, Koji Hashimoto, Shûsuke Kaneko, Toshio Masuda, Kazuki Ohmori, Takao Okawara, Masaaki Tezuka, Kenshô Yamashita. With Masahiro Matsuoka, Rei Kikukawa, Don Frye, Maki Mizuno. Godzilla’s fiftieth Anniversary project, in which Godzilla travels around the world to fight his old foes and his allies plus a new, mysterious monster named Monster X.

“I attended the world premiere of GODZILLA: FINAL WARS in Hollywood tonight, and I must say the experience was incredibly exciting. The film itself, however, was indeed a u0026quot;mixed bagu0026quot; of greatness and mediocrity, and I left Graumanu0026#39;s Chinese Theater a bit conflicted.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI found the filmu0026#39;s much anticipated title sequence to be too rushed and erratic, much like the film itself. The titles were not easy to read as they literally flashed on and off of the screen on top of distracting clips from classic Godzilla films.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe filmu0026#39;s script was as confusing and scattered. The film started with a good, deliberate pace but quickly degenerated into an orgy of images and scenes spliced together in such quick succession, as one person I talked to put it, it was like you were channel surfing between several sci-fi and kaiju films playing at the same time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe special effects were at times spectacular and beautiful…at other times they looked as if they had been executed in a rather hasty fashion. Some notable effects sequences: the Earth Defense Forceu0026#39;s battle with Ebirah, Rodanu0026#39;s attack on New York, Godzillau0026#39;s battle with Kumonga in New Guinea. Deserving special recognition is Zillau0026#39;s daytime attack and night time fight with Godzilla in Sydney, Australia. Zillau0026#39;s CGI was very well executed. There were a handful of effects shots that were not totally bad, but could have used some fine tuning. Manda attacking Atragon could have used some more work, for example.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKeith Emersonu0026#39;s electronic and pulsating music must be the most unique ever heard in a Godzilla film, but well done and intriguing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs mentioned earlier, the pace of the film is so fast and erratic, it is hard to keep up with. Without giving away specifics, this must be one of the most out-of-control, if not THE most out-of-control script in the series.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt will take me a few days to figure out my true feelings about this film, but I imagine, with its high points and its flaws, this will be one of the most controversial films in the series among fans.”