Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray Movie Review

What the...?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 6, 2014

Note: 'Godzilla: Final Wars' is currently only available as part of a two-pack with 'Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.'

Just because it's called Godzilla and features Godzilla doesn't make it Godzilla. Final Wars isn't Godzilla. It's more like The Matrix meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets X-Men meets Independence Day with some notable Godzilla creatures in the middle of it all. No, this movie is more about lasers and precisely crafted fight choreography and high-flying wire acts and over-the-top characters and all sorts of random stuff that ties in Godzilla and franchise mythology but doesn't really honor it. This is moviemaking concerned only with flash and bothered by substance. Audiences that wish to view a movie from which they can completely disengage and, almost literally, leave the brain at the door might find value here, but anyone expecting classic Godzilla should run far, far away.

Surrounded.

If some good has come of the monstrous rampages, it's that man has banded together to stop them. No longer does man fight amongst himself but rather alongside those from other corners of the globe, all under the umbrella of the "Earth Defense Force," in the unending effort to stop monsters once and for all. Mutants with great powers have been folded into the Earth Defense Force under the title of "M Organization." When monsters dating back millennia are uncovered, monsters rise up all over the world. Almost simultaneously, Earth is visited by extraterrestrials and the monster attacks cease. However, not all humans are certain of the validity of the aliens' peaceful overtures. When the aliens' true plans for humankind are revealed, man has no choice but to turn to Godzilla to save the planet.

Godzilla: Final Wars sees the final evolution away from the more classic lines and refined styles of the Heisei series and toward the new blooded, high powered, reckless, and relentless Millennium Series. The film takes the radically different tone found in both Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. and further reshapes the series into something that's practically unrecognizable when compared to classic franchise stylings. It's a celluloid smorgasbord if there ever was such a thing, a veritable hodgepodge of stuff that's all thrown together under an admittedly interesting but obviously forced narrative umbrella about aliens and monsters and mutants and the battle for control of the planet. It's just too much, to spread out, too chaotic. Perhaps it would have worked better under a different name, with different monsters, with different expectations, with different pacing, with different characters, with different everything. There's a fun movie in here somewhere but it's not this movie, not this one that doesn't hurt for energy but lacks the balance necessary to keep the audience from going into its own nuclear meltdown that's a result of an excess of cinema bedlam.

All of that said, the movie's core action elements can be a blast when taken at face value and in a vacuum, not as part of the larger Godzilla universe. The monsters admittedly look fantastic, nicely detailed and menacing, if not a bit rubbery and fake even at the macro level. The monsters move very fast and with an obvious flow and feel to them, organically battling rather than waddling about as seen in previous films. This results in battles that feel far more organic and destructive both to the monsters and to the environments in which they fight. The scale feels large and the tension remains thick. The human-focused scenes are another story. The film's acting ranges from passable to laughable. The characters are neither inwardly nor outwardly complex, most of them just pieces within a greater whole, some necessary, some not. The human versus human action emphasizes movement and a wannabe "cool" factor over more story-based action scenes. In short, the film is a great success in creating visual havoc but not much of a success in providing the audience a reason to care.

Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Godzilla: Final Wars' 1080p transfer satisfies on a very general level but never really escapes the doldrums of high definition mediocrity. In general, the image offers serviceable details, revealing basic definition on clothes and faces. Monster textures are fair, showing decent attention to detail in up-close shots but failing to find the precision, nuanced textures associated with the best transfers. Light grain is present, and the image does take on a fair film-like appearance, but at the same time it's terribly flat and even a bit soft. Colors never really impress. The film takes on heavy tints at times, from pale green to cool blue, but offers a decent array of hues that never pop or stand apart but that provide a colorful basic context for environments and objects. Very light banding and compression artifacts are visible from time to time. This is by no means a showstopper, but it's a watchable image that's not too far removed in terms of quality from the other classic Sony Godzilla releases.

Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Godzilla: Final Wars features an aggressive and satisfying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese language lossless soundtrack. This is easily the most dynamic and exciting of the Sony double-feature bunch, providing plenty of ear candy through explosive, dynamic sounds and constant surround support. Music plays big and aggressive but doesn't sacrifice clarity along the way. Godzilla screeches and other monster sound effects are full and loud. Collapsing structures, cracking ice, and other heavy sound effects play deeply and loudly but also accurately, never coming across as an undefined wall of sound but rather precise, seemingly lifelike elements. Laser blasts and aerial battles enjoy a heavy crisscrossing effect that sends sounds all over the stage, out of one speaker and into another, effectively placing the listener in the middle of the mayhem. Dialogue plays firmly and clearly from the center. This disc also offers the best English dub of the eight classic Godzilla films Sony has released. The differences between it and its Japanese counterpart are minimal, from music to dialogue, from spacing to bass. Fans who wish to enjoy the film in English are in for a treat. For those who wish to stick with the original, Sony has included optional English, English SDH, and French subtitles, should they be necessary.

Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Godzilla: Final Wars contains a featurette, several teasers, and a theatrical trailer.

• Godzilla: B-Roll to Film (SD, Japanese DD 2.0, English subtitles, 17:54): A classic "fly on the wall" feature that takes audiences inside the making some of the film's key scenes, followed by a clip from the end product.
• Original Trailers (HD): Teaser 1 (Japanese DD 2.0, English subtitles, 0:41), Teaser 2 (Japanese DD 2.0, English subtitles, 0:41), Teaser 3 (Japanese DD 2.0, English subtitles, 0:42), and Theatrical Trailer (Japanese DD 2.0, English subtitles, 2:11).

Godzilla: Final Wars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Godzilla: Final Wars represents everything that's wrong with movies that emphasize style over substance or, at least, don't present them in some sort of appropriate ratio. The film feels nothing like a Godzilla movie and instead plays like some mashup featuring Godzilla characters zapped into The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, X-Men, and Independence Day. It's a fun movie on its surface provided one goes in with his or her brain completely turned off, but anyone hoping for even a smidgen of a reason to care about what's happening on the screen will walk away terribly disappointed. Sony's Blu-ray release of Godzilla: Final Wars features passable video and engaging audio. A making-of supplement and some trailers are included. Rent it.