Over the 4th of July weekend, I was fortunate to catch a screening of the most entertaining movie I have seen, and will see, all year. I say “fortunate” because many people will never get the opportunity to catch this flick the way it was meant to be seen’on the big screen. The movie is Godzilla: Final Wars and it’s two hours of virtually non-stop action featuring old-school rubber-suit monster mayhem, fast-and-furious martial arts combat and contemporary digital animation. Talk about getting your nine bucks’ worth!
Granted, this latest and possibly last Godzilla outing from Toho Pictures may not have the technical competency of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds or the serious genre treatment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, but kids and adults will no doubt find it more fun to sit through than Herbie: Fully Loaded or The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl. And I’m confident that it packs more laughs than Bewitched and Rebound combined. Yet those films all got wide domestic release while the big green guy only got to do his thing on a handful of screens at special events here in the states.
Godzilla: Final Wars had its world premiere last year at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood as Godzilla got his very own star on the walk of fame in honor of his 50th anniversary. The latest showings were held at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theatre as part of the American Cinematheque’s Giant Monster Festival. Fans of all ages waited in long lines to get into these precious few screenings of a film that should, in my opinion, be playing in every cineplex.
In this post-Jurassic Park world, I can understand why domestic distributors would shy away from something that has men bounding around in rubber suits. Kids wouldn’t possibly be interested in seeing that, right? I mean, just look at how much they hate Power Rangers. Perhaps if they created a computer-generated version of Godzilla and Americanized him … Oh wait, they tried that and it was a disaster.
The computer-animated mutant iguana from Roland Emmerich’s and Dean Devlin’s 1998 Godzilla effort actually shows up in Final Wars to do battle with his suited counterpart, a sequence that elicits howls of laughter and cheers from audiences. Other CG elements include a flying Rodan that terrorizes New York City and triangular spaceships that swarm from a mother ship like something from Independence Day. Even Mothra has had some digital work done for this installment.
Japanese action auteur Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus) was brought on to direct this 28th film in the series. Working with the biggest Godzilla budget ever, he succeeds in invigorating the franchise with a hip new look and feel while bringing back a dozen or so classic monsters for his hero to fight. The cast is great and the human characters are given a lot more to this time around, which is refreshing to see. Kitamura obviously wanted to take the King of the Monsters out with a bang since Toho claims this is to be the last Godzilla movie. I have a feeling we’ll see him again, though. Perhaps the studio will one day let Quentin Tarantino make the Godzilla flick he’s been wanting to do for some time now.
Godzilla: Final Wars is scheduled for U.S. release on DVD this month, but I suspect it will lose some of its impact on a TV screen, especially with its beautiful, wide-screen photography. Still, you have to see it to believe it. Sure, it’s flawed, but one thing it’s not is dull. Not for a moment. Write your local movie house and demand a screening. Maybe a double bill with Peter Jackson’s upcoming King Kong remake? One could only dream. Here’s looking way up at you, Big G!
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