Godzilla : Final Wars

While settling back into normal life post con and back into what's seemingly my normal work day after a rough few weeks, I'm reminded by a conversation with Shawn Sunday at the convention. We talked about Final Wars. He's never seen it and I love it. It's hard to exactly explain why I love this insane fever dream of a Godzilla movie... but I do.

First off, it's ridiculous. Completely and utterly ridiculous. Of course if your kaiju film isn't a little ridiculous, you've done it wrong. There's a suspension of disbelief when you've got a giant monster smashing a city, let alone fighting another giant monster. That being said, this movie is completely bonkers. Just crazy and weird and that's part of what makes it great.

The best way I can describe it is, a love note to the Godzilla and tokusatsu movies of the showa era on crazy pills. It kinda doesn't make a lot of sense, there's random high energy action sequences, every trope, and there's Godzilla pissed off and kicking all sorts of tail. Watching this movie is physically exhausting. You'll need to pause it occasionally. It's like Toho poured hummingbird feeder syrup into the film stock or something. It's just manic and crazy... and that's also what makes it so wonderful.

Kaiju and other tokusatsu by default is weird. You've got some movie where a giant monster is attacking the city... and usually a sub plot like aliens are invading Earth. Not to mention, the bulk of the movie is made with miniatures and folks in rubber suits. Add in stuff like kung fu sword fights and space ships... Look, it's not Dances with Wolves... probably because you're actually entertained. Watching is a mix of enjoying the plot and laughing at the visible zipper.

So in Final Wars, you've got a movie that is 100% a love letter to all of that at 100 miles per hour. What's not to love?