From the very beginning of the opening title sequence, there is
sense of excited nostalgia that builds within the viewer. An erratic
sequence which compacts highlights from Godzilla's 50 year history into
just under a minute. And from then on, the film just gets more
ridiculously fast-paced and manic. Here's the idea. Paris, New
York, Sydney, Shanghai... More than 10 classic (copyrighted) monsters
appear around the world at once, wreaking hovock on everyone in their
path. The United Nations wages final wars against the monsters
combining the power of all the Earth Defense Force to save mankind.
However, people are panicked by the enormous power of the monsters and
the forces take the defensive. While the intense fighting
continues all over the world, suddenly, an enormous flying object
appears and extinguishes the monsters with a beam in a matter of
seconds. Aliens who call themselves "Xiliens" propose a peace treaty
with the Earth - and before too long - they get decidedly unpeaceful and
release the monsters once again. Leaving the one and only Godzilla to
take on every single one of them in order to save the world from
destruction. Final Wars has everyone - from Mothra and
Rodan to Gigan and even a brief appearance by "Zilla" (the computer
generated monster from the widely panned 1998 American remake) everyone
is on board, which is unbelievably exciting for fans of the series. The
film itself, however, is indeed a "mixed bag" of greatness and
mediocrity. The script is loosely held together by both Godzilla's
plight and that of the humans, but the film quickly turns into an
explosion of visual stimulants. The deliberately fast paced nature of
the action is spectacular, for no other reason than there are no slow
points in the film. The explosion per minute ratio is nothing short of
astounding, however, there are points when there's so much going on -
it's much like late night channel surfing between several sci-fi,
Martial Arts films and Hotdogs Up-Late Gameshow, all playing at the same time. The special effects are at times spectacular and beautiful...while at others, it looks as though the cast of The Power Rangers
were finally getting some work again. Director Ryuhei Kitamura cleverly
mixes some impressive state of the art effects (Special recognition
must go to Zilla's daytime attack and night time fight with Godzilla in
Sydney, Australia) with enough dodgy "Men in poorly constructed Monster
Suits" to satisfy the traditionalists. It's hard to work out
whether to love, hate or laugh at this movie. It literally is the
pinnacle of a B-Grade Monster flick, however if it wasn't - fans of the
series would be decidedly disappointed. Those familiar with Hollywood
will notice that several of the films action sequences seem to borrow
heavily from M:I:2 and in particular The Matrix (star
Masahiro Matsuoka is a spitting image of Keanu Reeves) however, don't
possess anywhere near the same effectiveness as the originals. But,
it's all good fun. At the end of the day, cheap or expensive or just smart on the producers behalf, there is something undeniably likable about Godzilla Final Wars. Much like Freddy Vs. Jason or The Flinstones Meets The Jetsons, merging classic characters in the one story is always a welcome novelty - heck, I'd enjoy a Steve Erkel Meets Full House
Movie...hang on, that's not a bad idea...but I digress. And this film
merges over 10 cult characters. That's no mean feat. There is never a dull moment, which is
a big task for a movie which runs just over two hours, and overall it's a
great bit of Friday night popcorn fodder. If "Size Does Matter", then Final Wars is a Whopper with Cheese. DVD Extras The extras are really impressive here, especially for fans. There's some interesting Behind The Scenes
footage of several of the fight sequences, which is a fantastic watch,
if only to see the guys within the suits and the amazing size of the
miniature sets. One of the most impressive features is a Meet The Monsters Interactive Gallery which gives the back story on all 15 monsters and allows you to watch individual Monster battles. Along with that there are original Production sketches, Promotional Posters and trailers for both Final Wars and several of the 1970's installments. There is also a complete Godzilla filmography is included dating back to 1954. One of the better all-round DVD packages on the shelves at the moment. Conclusion:
Movie 80% Extras: 80% 
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