Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Final Wars is too sloppily executed and scripted for me to agree. If I want brilliantly-embraced-absurdity, I'll pop in Zebraman 2.

I also don't feel like you CAN'T take absurd concepts seriously. What matters most to me is emotional realism. Gamera 3 is about a giant, tusked, fire-spitting turtle and other such things that are patently absurd on a very superficial level but when dressed as such a powerful revenge tale (your mileage may vary), I'm perfectly comfortable with accepting the seriousness of the whole affair.

Sloppily executed is the best way to sum up Final Wars on every level, from script, to directing, acting, the score (worst ever in a Godzilla film) and even some of the suits.

I don't feel like Final Wars is embracing its own absurdity, I feel like it's dismissing the possiblity of being anything but absurd. I find it condescending to its genre and its audience. The, "Somehow we escaped!" moment you cite is a perfect example of this. That's not embracing absurdity - embracing absurdity would entail showing the audience an absurd escape - so much as an open declaration that storytelling doesn't matter at all.

I'm not saying that was anyone's intent, but it is the sensation the movie evokes in me.

Which would still be something I could forgive, if I didn't find pretty much every stylistic aspect of the movie so gratingly obnoxious.

Ultimately, I don't care that much whether it's a good movie or a bad movie (I've made the case on another board that it can be read as a kind of experimental film, and isn't strictly subject to traditional standards of narrative cinema); it's a movie that visually, rhythmically, and auraully annoys me.

The idea of an absurd, post-modern Godzilla film seems appealing to me, honestly, but Final Wars itself isn't appealing in the least. Again, you can be silly and absurd and well-executed (Scott Pilgrim, Zebraman 2, half of Gilliam's filmography, most of Jeunet's, and I'd even make an argument for the live action Lupin the Third movie) but Final Wars is not. It's far too riddled with poor scripting and editing choices. GEHARHA is leagues better as an absurd, referential, post-modernist kaiju film. That film embraces the absurd and really goes all-out to make it work while also being a fantastic monster movie in its own right. Final Wars wishes it could be half as good. Hell, episodes of Ultraman Max do this better than Final Wars.

Big Man Japan is a better absurd kaiju film. Hell, Monster X Strikes Back is a better absurdist movie than Final Wars

Big Man Japan fell kind of flat for me, honestly, though I need to try it again with better subtitles.

I"m scratching my head, trying to figure out what there is to "get" and I'm not coming up with any answers. Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure it's just poorly-scripted thanks to the rushed production schedule and the involvement of Wataru Mimura, who's not really got much in the way of competent screenwriting skills.