Superhero Media: Godzilla Final Wars

Chances are, if you're familiar with a Godzilla film outside of the American ones or the original it's Final Wars, a masterpiece of what-the-fuck and IP management that is simultaneously the Batman RIP/Turtles Forever and the Avengers Forever of Godzilla. In the not-too-distant future, an international team of soldiers and superhuman "mutants" pilots their flying submarine with a drill head to victory against Godzilla, ending the years long "Monster Wars" with a win for humanity. A few years later, the arrival of the alien "Xillian" race prompts international chaos and the return of many Kaiju thought long gone; with most mutants falling quickly under alien control, a desperate plan is hatched to free Godzilla from the Antarctic ice and begin the "Final War" for human survival. If that's already too much for you, maybe give Final Wars a miss, because I've barely scratched the surface of the crust of gonzo that encases one of the most highly regarded Godzilla films of all time. No, I'm not kidding, this thing is nuts in the best ways. 

For the uninitiated, Japanese Godzilla films tend to be roughly divided into two eras (technically it's more like four, but that's not important right now), the Showa era and the Toho era, named for the companies which produced the films at the time. Though it's not a hard rule, it was generally considered that the two eras were separate continuities, but that all changed with Final Wars, which makes a herculean effort to unite Godzilla under one continuity. Yes, Final Wars combines everything from oxygen destroyers, Minilla, Mothra's fairy guardians and even the 1998 American "Zilla", who dies brutally and quickly to the real thing in one of the film's best moments. Suffice to say, Final Wars is hardly a character piece, so if you have a favourite kaiju or like some development in your monster films, this one may leave you cold, because the focus is clearly action, and plenty of it. Final Wars has some of the best kaiju fights ever put to film, with my only real complaint being that many are too brief and the mix of rubber suits and CGI can clash pretty badly at times. Of course, I'm not watching Final Wars for anything other than a killer good time with Kaiju, so even criticising it for being too fun is pretty much a waste of time; this film is exactly what it wants to be, unashamedly. 

Although Final Wars is considered among the best Godzilla films ever made, it is clearly not intended for new viewers and is really not a good place to dive in if you don't just want something to laugh at. Even as a fan, this is kind of a mood thing for me, like when I'm in just the right mood, I'll watch Final Wars, but if I just want a Godzilla fix, I'm more likely to pop in Shin Godzilla, Godzilla II: King of the Monsters or Godzilla Vs. Hedorah to get it. This one, like Avengers: Endgame, is for the fans, not a new introduction or a good place to land on accidentally. An entire cottage YouTube industry built around parsing the madness of Final Wars is still going strong, especially with the terrible dubbed version that pops up regularly on Netflix. That said, Final Wars is a great film, I love it, but be warned going in that it pulls no punches and does not include any exposition for the Godzilla minutiae happening. Hail to the king.