TALKBACK #28: Godzilla Final Wars

[jellydonut25]

[eabaker]

[Jorzilla]

I wouldn't call GFW modern anymore. When I watched it a few nights ago it actually felt quite dated. It's made of a lot of fluff that was popular 10 years ago, but everything else is rotten. Even a film like GMK, which is older, feels more recent since it wasn't relying so heavily on external tropes.


Either than or children have no taste.

[KingKaiju]

I was just watching this movie earlier today, and I've never been a fan of it, but while watching it today I just kept thinking "This is a really really weird movie..." There is a laundry list of things that I could use to go off as to why I didn't like this movie, but simply, it felt like an live action anime film, featuring Godzilla. Just didn't work for me. I felt like the director tried too hard to throw in this superhuman/high paced martix style action into the film, and it just didn't click. With the line up and the director's track record, I was hoping for a fun all out modern day Destroy All Monsters, with tons of Kaiju action. But it seems like what we got was another Versus, which I thought was highly highly overrated, with a sci fi twist that featured Godzilla. Just didn't feel like a Godzilla movie for me. BUT, with that said, what DID click for me was all the cameos from guys like Ray Sefo, Gary Goodridge, Masakatsu Funaki, Nobuaki Kikuda, and of course, the great Don Frye. As a long time fan of combat sports, I LOVED the little cameos of all the K-1 and PRIDE stars in the movie. It was a good combination of the two loves of my life, Kaiju films and combat sports. Plus, it makes total sense why they'd mesh them together. PRIDE and K-1 were absolutely HUGE in Japan at the time, I don't think Japan will ever see an era where Mixed Martial Arts and Kickboxing was so big there ever again. At least, not for a very long time.

Edit: I also really really really liked the updated Gigan suit, especially when he got his upgraded with the double chainsaws and all. Didn't think Monster X was all that cool, a little too... "humanoid" for my taste, but Keizer Ghidorah was cool. I know it's nothing too different, we've already seen the 4 legged Ghidorah design with Death Ghidorah, and he's pretty much got the usual King Ghidorah powers(given that they were taken up a few notches with this one), but still, I really liked his design. Obviously resembled the usual king Ghidorah, but tweaked up and different enough to convince me to make an argument that this is not THE King Ghidorah that we're all use to. That's just how I feel anyways, I can't really disagree and argue with anyone if they felt the opposite.

[king_ghidorah]

Just wanted to say that I appreciate all the positive feedback on the latest episode of Movie Wars.

There will probably be another Godzilla related one in the near future and maybe I can go into a little more detail on why I love Godzilla Raids Again so much.

Cheers!

[Showa Mothra]

It was all good, clean fun. Still, I prefer the 70s Godzilla movies to Final Wars. Nevertheless, I was entertained so I guess that's what counts.

[MekaGojira3k]

Listened to the Movie Wars commentary. Liked it. Gonna check out the vs. MechaGodzilla 93' one some time this week.
As for Final Wars I think this is not only homage to the 70 films but, as with Versus, has a distinctly cheesy 80s streak running through it. There is the issue of what was intentionally funny and what wasn't, but that's part of the fun of this film.

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

Thanks for the words, Eric!

Maybe one day we can do a Gojicast crossover.

[jellydonut25]

[MekaGojira3k]

[MouthForWar]

I typed that at 3 am while I was drifting in and out of sleep. Alex knows I know his name. I mean I even name dropped his podcast.

[DannyBeane]

Question. 40 years from now do you think fans are going to talk about Final Wars, in the same way we talk about the masterpiece Godzilla vs Gigan?

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

i'll still be embarrassed of the New York scene...

[DannyBeane]

[jellydonut25]

I'm gonna shoot him foist then you!

Delicious.

[DannyBeane]

I'm just going to leave this here... Actually watching that makes me want to pop that abomination in my blu ray player. Alcohol would of course be needed.

[Ernesth100]

[jellydonut25]

I think it's the third half hour of the film that's lacking...you could probably excise it in its entirety for the most part, clip the film down to about 1:40 and what you'd be left with (especially if you chunked out the motorcycle chase which is really pointless) would be a top 5-10 Godzilla film for me. Instead as-is, it's like a top 15.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I can see this as a 15ish film. It's not that it's bad as much as I barely consider it a Godzilla film.

[klen7]

Without the New York scene and the Matrix scenes, and the motorcycle scene and the Independence Day scene. this sits a lot higher on my list. I am not annoyed by the short fights, but think they would have worked a little bit better if they had treated all the short fights like montage sequences rather than complete fights. i do like the movement in the suit, especially with the arms.