Gojira: Fainaru uôzu (2004) Directed by Ryûhei Kitamura

Kind of ironic how all of the other 26 Gojira sequels managed to avoid all of the usual sequel trappings, except for this final one.

This movie is very typical for a sequel. It's trying to be bigger, more spectacular, more expensive looking and louder than any of the other previous sequels. It's very obvious that they were trying very hard to turn this into the definitive and ultimate Gojira sequel, in celebration of the series its 50th birthday. So how does it do this? By basically featuring every single kaiju that previously had appeared in one or more of the other Gojira movies. The end result is a very messy, overcrowded movie, that trying too hard to please the fan-boys, without focusing on anything that made most of the previous Gojira movies such great, effective and memorable ones.

In case you couldn't tell yet, I'm really not too impressed with this movie. Guess watching this movie in cinemas must still have been a great experience for 12-year old boys at the time but other than that, I just can't see how anyone, especially those who are fans of the Gojira series, can enjoy this movie. It's dumb, loud and overblown and not even in an entertaining kind of way.

In a lot of ways, the movie even feels more like a video game. One monster shows up and after when he/she is beaten, it's time to introduce a new and bigger one. It all feels very random really. Not only how all of the kaijus show up in this movie but also the story itself, that involved Gojira traveling around the globe to beat up other kaijus.

But still the foremost reason why this movie feels like an incredibly messy and random one is because the movie is trying far too hard to feature as many different Gojira movie elements in it as possible. So besides all of the kaijus, there is a new G-force type of team of soldiers, aliens, the twin fairies, a plot line involving a kid, a plot line involving a professor and the list just goes on and on and on. It unfortunately didn't seem to realize that some heart and messages were also required for the movie to work out as a both engaging and entertaining one. It basically just is a very shallow movie, that's focused on brining you entertainment but had no real clue of how to effectively do this.

It's definitely true that a lot of the Gojira sequels ripped off from a whole bunch of other, popular, movies but I hardly ever mentioned this in any of my previous reviews, since it honestly never bothered me that much. Well, this movie is a different story though! It very obviously is trying to be like the two The Matrix sequels, in terms of style, effects and action. It only works out as incredibly annoying though, since it's obvious that the film-makers involved with this movie neither had the talent or money at their disposal for things to ever work out.

And because it's trying to like The Matrix sequels, it also features a The Matrix type of soundtrack, that however is absolutely horrible to listen to. If this movie was supposed to celebrate and remember 50 years of Gojira, than why not use some of the classic Akira Ifukube musical themes as well? Lots of the other sequels did this, so why not this movie as well? Guess it wasn't cool enough for this movie to do, since it's obviously made for a younger and more modern crowd, who probably hadn't even seen most of the earlier and classic Gojira movies.

Another thing that really bothered me about this movie were the special effects. It's absolutely terrible and cheap looking and again, it's also incredibly random how it uses some of its effects. Some of the kaijus are entirely CGI creatures in this movie, while others are still portrayed by men in rubber suits. It makes you wonder why really why some of the kaijus are still played by guys in rubber suits, while others are completely CGI, especially when they are in the same scene- and fighting each other. There never seems to be any real logic behind it and it takes away a lot of the movie's magic and fun.

Still it's nice to see some old familiar kaijus pop up in this movie again, even when they are only in the movie for just a couple of seconds. Even some of the more obscure ones, such as King Caesar appear, as well as some unwelcome ones, such as Minilla. Seriously, why not use Godzilla Junior instead? He at least looks like his dad and isn't as annoying, weak and ugly as the far more childish Minilla.

And speaking of bad characters; so here we have a movie with a new G-force, or in this movie known as Earth Defense Organization (seriously, why couldn't they stick to just one name?) but instead of fighting kaijus with giant robots or airplanes, the organization is specialized in fighting kaijus with swords and ordinary small guns. Ehh, what the...?!? Where is the fun in that? And needless to say, it also isn't terribly convincing. Yes, a giant robot fighting a giant lizard is more convincing and credible than a guy with a sword trying to take down Gojira, in my opinion.

Lets just hope that this won't be he last Japanese Gojira sequel. As of yet, 10-years later, it still is but I'm convinced of it though they we'll get to see the big guy in some more and new Japanese adventures in the not too distant future, to help to wash away the bad aftertaste of this movie!

5/10

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