by Benjamin Haines » Tue Jan 03, 2006 6:08 pm
Critically, in technical terms of how well it was made, I'd give it 2 stars. I don't think it's as horrible as some other people do, but I do recognize that it is a very flawed movie. It's main weak point is the plot. It's filled with plot holes, and is very derivative of plot elements from other movies. Plus, the pacing is often quite jarry, which is amplified by often-poor editing. Also, the special effects are very inconsistent. They range from some of the best SFX in the series to some of the poorest. There are some underdeveloped characters, but the leading cast members do get good development (Ozaki, Miyuki, Gordon, Daigo, Xilian Commander). On the plus side, most of the acting ranges from serviceable to very good. The exception would be Don Frye, who is an admittedly bad actor, even though he is incredibly cool and dominates the screen. But Kazuki Kitamura easily turns in the best performance. He is absolutely convincing and delightful as the maniacal Xilian Commander. Also, I think that the music score for the movie is good. Not great, as the music isn't overly spectacular. But 99% of it does it's job ten-full and works perfectly in the scenes that it's in.
From a personal enjoyment standpoint, however, I would give the movie 5 stars. It's just flat-out fun as hell to watch. I know it's not like this for everybody. You really have to be able to like Kitamura's style of moviemaking to be entertained by it, and if you don't, you're certainly not going to like this movie. But if you're like me and you're able to enjoy this unique type of movie for all that is, and are able to turn your brain off for two hours and let your inner child take over, then you will have a complete and total blast watching this movie.
Overall though, I'm no fanboy. I rate movies based on how well they were made, not how much I like them. And with Godzilla: Final Wars, the poor writing, pacing, editing, and execution of the plot are what cripple the movie from a critical standpoint. Those are the major flaws, but it does have some good points going for it, so I give it 2 out of 5 stars, in terms of how well it was made.
But it should be noted that, while GFW is not a well-crafted or good movie from a critical standpoint, it's not supposed to be. A simple glance at GFW or any other of Ryuhei Kitamura's movies makes it obvious that he is a very unique kind of director. When he makes a movie, he doesn't even try to go by technical counts of how to make an all-around good or well-made movie. He seeks only to make his movies highly entertaining and fun to watch. And he does this not by going by what he thinks most audiences want to watch, but by what he finds fun and entertaining. That's why all of his movies have his own unique style to them. If you're the kind of person that is able to openly embrace this abstract style and be entertained by it, then Kitamura has succeeded with you. But obviously, not everybody is going to find this one specific style entertaining, and therefore not everybody will be entertained by it.
Bottom line: Godzilla: Final Wars is not a well-made movie, but it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be an entertaining-as-hell fun fest, and in my opinion, it succeeds at that tremendously.
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Benjamin Haines on Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
) Hedorah was tops on the list, and he was really given the shaft in GFW! What monster action there was is nice, but the film certainly would've benefitted from even just an additional 30 min. of monster action spread throughout the movie. Aside from that complaint, the only thing that kinda bugs me is the techno score, sure it has its good moments but overall I could do without it. Overall, though, the movie is a lot of fun to watch and ranks very highly on my fave G movie list 
