Gojira: Fainaru uôzu (2004)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Ryûhei Kitamura

Writers:

Isao Kiriyama (screenplay)
Ryûhei Kitamura (screenplay)

Release Date:

4 December 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Earth: Out-numbered, Out-monstered, Out-done.

Plot:

Godzilla's 50th Anniversary project, in which Gojira (Godzilla) travels around the world to fight his old foes plus a new, mysterious monster named Monster X.

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Godzilla | Tokyo | Paris | Gojira

Cast

Masahiro Matsuoka	...	Earth Defense Force Soldier Shin'ichi Ôzaki
Rei Kikukawa	...	UN Molecular Biologist Miyuki Otonashi
Kazuki Kitamura	...	The Controller of Planet X
Don Frye	...	Douglas Gordon (Captain of the Gôten)
Akira Takarada	...	UN Secretary General Naotarô Daigo
Kane Kosugi	...	M-Facility Soldier Katsunori Kazama
Maki Mizuno	...	Newscaster Anna Otonashi (Miyuki's older sister)
Masami Nagasawa	...	Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Chihiro Ôtsuka	...	Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Kenji Sahara	...	Paleontologist Hachirô Jingûji
Kumi Mizuno	...	Earth Defense Force Commander Akiko Namikawa
Masakatsu Funaki	...	M-Unit Commanding Officer Kumasaka
Masatô Ibu	...	The Xilian General
Masanobu Takashima	...	Major Kita
Mick Preston	...	New York Cop

Also Known As:

Godzilla: Final Wars (International: English title)
The Godzilla (Japan) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence.

Runtime:

125 min | Argentina:125 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Japan | Australia | USA | China

Language:

Cantonese | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Taiwan:PG-12 | USA:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd.

Trivia:

According to producer Shogo Tomiyama in a "G-Fan" magazine interview, he intended to revive Godzilla Junior for the 50th anniversary film. In the first draft screenplay he and Wataru Mimura wrote, this Godzilla was Godzilla Junior from the Heisei series (which is why everything is on the 100 meter scale again) and Godzilla was imprisoned in the ice at the South Pole in the late 90s. The main action of the film was to have taken place in 2032. When Ryuhei Kitamura and his writer rewrote the script to their liking, this plot device was pretty much removed, making the specifics of the action of the film unknown.

Goofs:

Continuity: Drill-head battleship Gotengo rams Xilian deathstar. Bad guys teleport into battleship bridge, kill a lot of redshirts, and kidnap the heroes. When the heroes return to their ship later, all the dead redshirts have vanished.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Wars and pollution, relentless fighting and environmental destruction, have all awakened vicious monsters. Humankind therefore joins forces with one another in order to drive off the monsters, instead of killing each other. Thus, the Earth Defense Force is born...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features Daikaijû Baran (1958)

Soundtrack:

Be Nothing

Surprising Godzilla movie

A very unusual Godzilla film.

It Moves very fast. The monster battles are not like any of the previous films and the human side of the story is as much a focus as the Monsters tale is and surprisingly it is interesting. It works mainly as an adrenaline rush though, it's cathartic. The "monsters" have a lean, muscular look and move fast- they are not the puffy slow moving beasts of the past.

No long drawn out scenes of endless wrestling, this is more like boxing and Godzilla is the master dispatching them all. No need to be a fan to find it entertaining.

This movie does something similar to what "Aliens" did way back in '86. It redefines Godzilla as an Action Hero and goes past what any casual viewer might expect. This is a hard core action film that never lets up and leaves you drained.

The main negative is that it cribs way too much from the film "The Matrix". While Matrix lifted from Asian cinema generously, Final Wars does a Xerox of the copy and in several places has a tin ear regarding some things that are now considered trite and overused the world over.

The movie is just a lot of fun.