GFW Reviews Thread & Discussion (Spoilers)

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[Robert Saint John]

GFW @ Fantasia review from (edited by me for language):

Godzilla: Final Wars

Don’t ask me why, but GODZILLA 1985 (I know, it’s actually ‘84) is one of my top ten favorite films of all time. It’s not because it’s a great film (which it isn’t) but because of what it represents to me: Discovering cinema during my childhood. I love the film to death. I’ve been more than disappointed with the Godzilla films of recent years. None of them seem to capture or even understand what made the films of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s so enjoyable. Most of them are surprisingly boring and completely forgettable. I think the last Godzilla film I thoroughly enjoyed was Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla II made back in ’93 (I think). It was at least energetic and fun, and contained that sense of giddyness the early films had so much of. Plus, the score **** owned. When I heard Ryuhei Kitamura was helming the final Godzilla film I was more than enthused. Versus may be a repetitive display of brutal carnage and nonsense, but it’s still really **** fun. Alive and Aragami are both interesting and entertaining small scale thrillers that definitely showcase the talent of a giddy film geek pysched to be making genre films. Most importantly though, Kitamura demonstrated his ability to make a large scale character driven genre film with the insanely awesome samurai adventure AZUMI. Which is in my opinion his best film so far. Those films, among his others, clearly establish Kitamura as a perfect choice for a huge Godzilla film.

Godzilla: Final Wars is an enormously anticipated fetish film for geeks all around the world and the event film for this year’s Fantasia festival. Check out the line:

The audience was **** pysched for this film. For those of you that haven’t experienced the Fantasia crowd, I highly recommend you visit Montreal next summer and discover them. It’s truly a one of a kind experience, especially if you get a film like this. I had pretty enormous expectations for the film. Above anything else, I just wanted to have a blast with a crowd of people just like me. For the most part, I did. For the short, simple, and spoiler-free review I’ll say the film is certainly entertaining and energetic, a definite Kitamura film, and more than worthwhile overall. If you’re a Godzilla or genre film/cult monster movie fan you’ll definitely enjoy yourself. Godzilla: Final Wars is extremely entertaining...........

Okay, now to piss everyone off.......

Godzilla: Final Wars was in NO WAY what I expecting it to be. Again, let me clearly restate what I just wrote prior to this and maybe elaborate just a bit - Godzilla: Final Wars is extremely entertaining........in a hip, new-age, techno-charged, completely modern way. It is NOT vintage Godzilla and hardly recaptures the sense of giddyness of the early films - and that’s not to say the film isn’t giddy. It certainly is, but in a completely different way. When I first read about the film, I thought Kitamura was going to finally bring back the old-fashioned roots of the series and put on the Quentin Tarantino cap and make a classic 60’s, 70’s, Destroy All Monsters remake. I thought every aspect of the film would look, sound, and feel like a cult film from long ago.

I was wrong. VERY wrong.

The only thing remotely similar to the old films is the inclusion of classic monsters - which I presume will be more than enough for most fans. I however, wanted something different. The thing that irked me most was the **** score. Holy ****, what were you people thinking? Techno/heavy metal? Whaaaaaaaaaaat? What happened to the classic Godzilla theme? Matrix costumes? A bigger focus on on hyper-active martial arts than monster mashes? Whaaaaaaaaaat? I don’t want to see a **** Matrix knockoff motorcycle/freeway chase - I want to see an extended battle between Godzilla and *whatevermonster*. The final climactic battle in the film cuts between the lead actors having a martial arts duel and Godzilla battling Monster X/Ghidora. I swear to god, the people get more **** screen time. No, no, no, no. The concept of the aliens wasn’t ridiculous enough for me to really enjoy. It wasn’t anything compared to the batshit cult insanity of some of the other films. I did enjoy the performance by the main villain though, and loved seeing many of Kitamura’s regulars - not to mention a cameo by the director himself.

The monster battles were fun though. Very fun. It’s always a pleasure to see Godzilla battle Gigan, and Ghidora happens to be one of my favorites. You also get Rodan and a pretty classic sequence with Mothra. I don’t really care to spoil all the monsters as each introduction is incredibly exciting. I will say that Godzilla vs. Gino is as enjoyable as you’d like it to be with my favorite line in the entire film following the battle. It’s **** hilarious. Unfortunately, Mechagodzilla didn’t make the final wars, but it’s okay. There are PLENTY of monsters in this thing. Godzilla: Final Wars is the best of the recent Godzilla films and a crazy and hyper-active Kitamura film. If you’re expecting an old fashioned 70’s homage, you’re not going to find it here. Overall - very enjoyable.

Oh, and the crowd **** ruled.

[Daikaijuu Rojira]

May it be of interest:
http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.as ... _id=49262#

Roger

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[Jet JoJo]

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[Goji66]

An endless series of quick cuts involving the same redundant imagery is NOT what can be considered a fast pace.

A fast pace requires the action to move forward, not spin on itself like GFW does.

GFW's dramatic action takes a LONG time to unfold, with way too much exposition and posing. Then once the violence occurs, the violence itself never changes -- the camera angles change and the edits become fragmented, but the action itself remains static. It never increases intensity, never looks dangerous, never becomes suspenseful. Instead of drawing the audience in with an emotional hook, GFW's violence pushes them back into empty voyeurism. It's cinema violence as prolonged masturbation -- only good for the director and no one else.