GFW Reviews Thread & Discussion (Spoilers)

[ginsu]

[Benjamin Haines]

[kpa]

[Benjamin Haines]

[kpa]

[CyHunter]

[kiryugoji04]

Well, I bought the new DVD (and viewed it) this evening, and I've kinda revised my opinion of the film.

I don't hate the movie itself (not as much anyway). Rather, I hate what it is: Godzilla's 50th anniversary film.

I could accept this film if it were made a year earlier and was not the 50th anniversary film but the fact is that it IS the 50th anniversary film. Everything (ripoffs excluded) sounds good on paper, but the final product is terribly underwhelming. The script is absolutely dismal and that's really the film's biggest problem. If the writing were better, I doubt very much that the film would be as bad. Fifteen monsters is great and all, but if the original six-monster script was better written than the piece of crap we see on screen, I'd be willing to sacrifice the other nine. At least we still would've gotten Gigan.

God. And that's another thing. Maybe this is my inner fanboy ranting and raving but I'm still pissed as hell with Kitamura's treatment of Gigan. First off, couldn't we have sacrificed a mere ten minutes of the unnecessary humanoid fights (X Seijin included) to at least give the most revamped kaiju in the film a bit more time to shine? Chainsaws are a nice upgrade, but I would have greatly preferred more of his screentime devoted to the wicked awesome un-upgraded version. And I highly resent Gigan being playing as little more than an idiot stooge throughtout the whole film. Kinda like Gomer Pyle, only evil and nowhere near as entertaining.

And don't call me a "hater who's brutally murdered his inner child" (or something similar, anyway) because I can have a ton of fun watching this movie. But it's still bad. And I hate the "it's so bad it's good" angle people say you ought to watch this with. This is the 50th anniversary! I'm sorry, but IMO it's *supposed* to be "ZOMGWTF AMAZING w/ WAFFLES AND PENGUINS!!!" (or, again, something similar), not "well, if you watch it like you would MEGALON..." Ultraman got an absolutely famazing film in THE NEXT, and that was *two years* before his *40th*!!! (Goji got Spacegodzilla for his...)

Yes I had high expectations but why shouldn't I have?

50th Anniversary + 15 kaiju + X seijin + Purportedly HUGE Budget + Eiichi Asada + a hell of a lot of other cool stuff = HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Geez... I own 4 Kitamura films, I've seen 5 and out of all of them, I see them as some of the coolest films I've ever seen... except GFW. It's got so much great stuff going for it but, IMO, as an overall movie, it's just a miserable couple of reels of film.



I mean, sure the film has its moments: the "Kaiju Apocolypse" kaiju attacks, for example, are kickass. Ebirah Vs. the Mutants is cool, the X Seijin controller as played be Kazuki Kitamura is a brilliant piece of work (though he has little to work with) and I really want a DVD with JUST the Goji Vs Jira fight! But overall, the film is a major, major letdown.

Hell, I was going to write a lot more (no, seriously!), but I just read and that just about sums up everything else perfectly.

[/rant]



-Kiryugoji04

[Robert Saint John]

[kiryugoji04]

[Shigamado]

[Elliot Gay]

[kidnicky]

[Giganfan]

[Robert Saint John]

Guide Rating - 3 stars

The Bottom Line

With Toho having announced GODZILLA: FINAL WARS as the Big G’s ultimate appearance for at least five to ten years, they’ve thrown just about everything in their catalog into the mix, including 15 monsters; two versions of the Gohten (from the 1963 Toho SF movie ATRAGON), MATRIX-inspired special effects, mutant martial artists, music by Keith Emerson, among others, and space aliens with stylish hair.

Pros
- Relentless action
- Breathtaking monster scenes
- Excellent cast

Cons
- Confused (as opposed to confusing) script
- Very brief monster appearances
- Endless kung-fu fighting

http://horror.about.com/od/internationa ... zfinal.htm

[B5Erik]

[Nippon]

[BrianBuck]

[Aaron Smith]

[Robert Saint John]

[Lysocanth]

Well, I finaly saw it. I loved it. This is my favorite G-movie in the last 10 years or so. Loved the monster fights, loved the sound track, loved the story. Don Frye was great. He was like an Anime character come to life.

More from me later.

[JimPV]

[Lysocanth]

[Rodanex]

[Xenorama]

[Rodanex]