The final day of Godzilla Week 2013 is here and we will be closing off the series with the last in the millennium series with a very appropriately titled film called Godzilla: Final Wars.  The film begins with a battle in a blizzard between Godzilla and the Japanese army piloting a really amazing looking aircraft that looks like a mix between a submarine and a giant mining drill.  The army is very successful and defeat Godzilla by burying him under a mountain.  Right after that we see the opening credits where it introduces us to a secret government project called "Project M' that finds humans that have a mutant gene (like X-Men) and train them so they can use their abilities to battle giant monsters.  We are then introduced to two of them while they are in combat training and yes you do get to see the whole training which is in the form of a five minute fight.  After that they get called for a special mission which is to guard a very beautiful biologist.  On television we have a scientist talking about his work and then we see him flying on a plane. This flight won't be a smooth one as we see the plan blow-up suddenly from an unknown attack.  If you thought that was all the action we get for this first part you'd be wrong as from out of nowhere we get giant monsters attacking cities all over the world at the same time.  They send out their mutant soldiers to take them on but they only manage to take down one (a giant lobster).  From out of nowhere we see all the monsters disappear and that's all thanks to a giant spaceship that just happens to be visiting Earth.  The aliens beam down from their spaceship along with the scientist we all thought died in the plan explosion.  Turns out the aliens had saved him at the last minute and are here to help us save Earth.  Is this just me or do I smell something fishy?  Do these aliens speak the truth or are they trying to get our guard down?  Only time will tell. (Click "Read More" to read the full review).


This movie is by most far the most insane that the franchise has to offer and a lot of stuff happens.  I had to be a bit picky in how I was going to describe this film due to not wanting to spoil some of what happens as I want you to be surprised as this movie has to be seen to be believed.  The human characters in this film are very interesting and really entertaining although they did take up a bit too much of the screen time to the point where it felt like that the humans were supposed to be it's own separate film but added the Godzilla brand to help it sell.  Not to say that these characters are unimportant to the movie as they do really help make this film great.  I really like the villain in this movie as he reminds me a lot like me if I were to be a bad guy as he is just plain crazy and charming.  The selection of monsters in this film is huge ranging from monsters such as (excluding Godzilla) Mothera, King Cesar, Son of Godzilla, Zilla (from the 1998 Godzilla film), and many more that will get you very excited.

The action is really great from both monsters and humans and they both have completely different styles during their respective fight scenes.  Human fight scenes are very martial art heavy and have a ton of very crazy flying effects that strongly resembles the fights out of The Matrix (1999) and the Dragonball franchise.  Monster action is strictly no-holds barred brawling and there is no mercy to be shown from any of them and they do get very creative with some of the violence.  One thing that felt really awkward with this film is during the battle with Godzilla and Zilla is that you hear the Sum 41 song "We're All To Blame" play for no reason and it is also badly edited in like if it were a YouTube video done by a sixteen year old.

Special effects are really grand with great looking explosions and very gigantic looking sets.  Costumes look great with some nicely done military outfits that just make me want to go out and find some to dance around town in.  One minor annoyance is they really overuse leather costumes to the point where I expect Godzilla to pop out with a leather mask and a ball gag battling Mothera with a whip while handcuffed to the Empire State Building.  The monster effect is a mixture of rubber puppetry and computer generated models.  The computer generated models are used quite cleverly especially with Zilla and blends in with the movie well minus one scene with the mothership as the computer model it uses hasn't aged very well.  All the rubber costumes and puppets all have that charm you all know and love and look great.  This film also mixes in stock footage from old films and I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't seen the films they took the footage from as they blend it in nearly perfectly.

The special features are just as awesome as the movie. You get profiles on all the monsters, some very nice trailers, and the best one of them all is you get around twenty minutes of behind the scene footage of them working with the suits and puppets and it will blow all of your minds.  Overall this was a great Godzilla film and was a great way to close off the millennium series.  Go out and get your friends and watch this film as soon as you can as it is very much worth it.  Great viewing.

Title: Godzilla Final Wars
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Starring: Godzilla, Son of Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, Gigan, Hedorah, Kaiser Ghidorah, Anguirus, Ebirah, Monster X, King Caesar, Zilla, Manda, Kumonga, Kamacuras, Varan, Gaira, Baragon, Gezora, Titanosaurus, Mechagodzilla, Megaguirus,
Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Martial Arts
Running Time: 125 minutes
Distributor: Madman Entertainment/ Eastern Eye (www.madman.com.au)
Rating: M15+ (Mild violence, Infrequent mild coarse language)
Price: $39.95 (as part of the "Godzilla - Millennium Series" box set)
Recommended: Yes

Godzilla Week 2013 Epilogue
Well that wraps up a whole week of nothing but (crudely done) Godzilla reviews.  I had fun writing them and even more fun watching them.  All the movies I reviewed was from the one box set titled "Godzilla - Millennium Series" and overall it is a very solid box set and was well worth my time.  I will most defiantly be doing this again next year and the year after that as there is so much that this series has to offer.  Big thank you to all that read all those reviews and a big thanks to Gaming Beast for contributing to this and helping to fill in that one blank day so this could be a full week of content.  Another thank you for putting up with this rambling paragraph and you can all keep an eye out for the next (and final) themed week of the year where I review all the movies in the Lone Wolf and Cub series... Plus the dubbed film Shogun Assassin.  From the bottom of my heart I thank you all (for the hundredth time) and have a safe one.  Kaiser out!