Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)Director:Masaaki Tezuka
Writers:Isao Kiriyama (screenplay)
Ryûhei Kitamura (screenplay)
Wataru Mimura (story)
Shogo Tomiyama (story)
Starring:Masahiro Matsuoka ... Earth Defense Force Soldier Shin'ichi Ôzaki
Rei Kikukawa ... UN Molecular Biologist Miyuki Otonashi
Don Frye ... Douglas Gordon
Maki Mizuno ... Newscaster Anna Otonashi
Kazuki Kitamura ... The Controller of Planet X
Kane Kosugi ... M-Facility Soldier Katsunori Kazama
Kumi Mizuno ... Earth Defense Force Commander Akiko Namikawa
Kenji Sahara ... Paleontologist Hachirô Jingûji
Masakatsu Funaki ... M-Unit Commanding Officer Kumasaka
Masami Nagasawa ... Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Chihiro Ôtsuka ... Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
The Plot:Endless warfare and environmental pollution has resulted in dangerous giant monsters. The Earth Defense Force (EDF) is created to protect the planet. The organization is equipped with the best technology, weapons and soldiers, as well as mutants with special abilities. Godzilla, a giant mutant dinosaur, is EDF's only unstoppable opponent. The EDF's best combat vehicle, the Gotengo, manages to corner Godzilla at the South Pole and bury him under the Antarctic ice, freezing him.
Decades after Godzilla is buried, the EDF discovers a mummified space monster. Mutant soldier Shinichi Ozaki and U.N. biologist Miyuki Otonashi are sent to research it. The Shobijin, fairies of the guardian monster Mothra, reveal that the monster is Gigan, an alien cyborg sent to destroy the Earth 12,000 years ago, and that a battle between good and evil will happen soon.
Suddenly, monsters appear all around the world at major cities and the EDF swings into action, attempting to drive away the monsters. They have little success, with Ebirah being the only monster actually defeated. The various monsters include Anguirus in Shanghai, Rodan in New York City, King Caesar in Okinawa, kamacarus in Paris, Kumonga in Arizona, Zilla in Sydney and Ebirah near Tokyo. After destroying much of their cities, the monsters vanish as an enormous alien mothership hovers over Tokyo. Aliens called the Xilians insist they are friendly and that they eliminated the monsters. They also warn the Earth about an asteroid called Gorath that will crash into the planet. The Space Nation is established, an alliance to unite the universe. Ozaki, Miyuki, and several others distrust them. After a lot of research and undercover work, they discover the Xilians are lying. The Xilians turn out to be the ones who unleashed the monsters, and they do so again. The EDF eventually loses and Earth's cities are destroyed.
On Mt. Fuji, a hunter and his grandson discover Minilla, Godzilla's son. The trio are successful in outrunning the Xilians' assault, keeping a low profile.
With no more options left, Ozaki and the leftover EDF soldiers settle on a risky decision: free Godzilla. They pilot the Gotengo to Antarctica and are chased by Gigan. As soon as Godzilla is released from his hibernation, he quickly destroys Gigan with his atomic ray. Spotting the Gotengo, Godzilla immediately follows it. The Gotengo returns for Tokyo, hoping Godzilla will unwittingly defeat the Xilians. The Xilians send all the monsters they control after Godzilla. He defeats them all in short battles and the Gotengo and Godzilla arrive at Tokyo.
The Gotengo attacks the mothership and a pitched battle ensues. Meanwhile, the meteor falls to Earth and Godzilla destroys it. However, a powerful space monster, Monster X is inside and a vicious battle between the two ensues. Gigan, who has now been upgraded, aids Monster X, but Mothra arrives to engage him into battle. Gigan blasts Mothra with his laser and the burning Mothra flies into Gigan, blowing him up. Inside the Xilian mothership, the humans enter to begin the final attack and, after an extended battle, they eventually win.
With Gigan and Mothra dead, Godzilla continues his battle with Monster X, who reveals himself as Keizer Ghidorah. Godzilla rips one of Ghidorah's heads off and makes Ghidorah fire his laser at other head, blasting it apart. He then throws Ghidorah up into the atmosphere and obliterates the monster with his atomic ray. He then turns to attack the Gotengo, but a now much larger Minilla confronts him. Godzilla listens to his son and turns to leave. Minilla turns to the humans before leaving and manages to fire his own atomic breath into the sky. With that, he and Godzilla return to the sea, with Godzilla letting out one final roar to mark 50 years of victory.
My Thoughts:This one was made for people like me, fans who knew all of the 50 years of Godzilla and enjoyed every single one of them no matter how dark, silly or somewhere in between that they happened to be.
The story lifts a bit from previous films as does the look of the aliens, they and their plot is very close to "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero"'s antagonists, which honestly makes the G-Fan in me smile.
This was the most expensive Godzilla film ever produced by Toho and it shows. The sets, the monsters and the effects are the best they have ever been and we get to see monsters fight it out all over the world! Like I said, this is a movie for the true G-Fan. If you are not sure whether or not you are a TRUE fan of Godzilla there is a monster battle within this movie that will show your true colors. The abomination that I call, Faux-zilla (the one from Roland Emmerich's cacophony of a film) shows up to fight Godzilla.. that fight doesn't last long.
