Fifty years. FIFTY YEARS! Five DECADES worth of Godzilla cinema. It seems so long, but in the context of human civilization, it’s a blink of an eye. Technology during this particular time was rapidly developing, leading to a boom in digital effects. A far cry from the boxy wireframes of the Dire Straits’ Money For Nothin’, CGI had recently been pushed to its limits and used to spectacular effect in major film franchises like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. So where does that leave Godzilla? For fifty years and seven actors, the King of the Monsters has been portrayed by a guy in a suit. RIP, Kenpachiro Satsuma who recently passed away. Some films have toyed with these new tools, but nothing as pervasive as their Hollywood counterparts. 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars embraced this debate over digital and practical effects in microcosm, stealing a lot from the Wachowski’s Matrix films in the process.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. had the poorest box-office haul ever, but there was no way Toho was going to let the 50th anniversary of Godzilla fall by the wayside. The Millennium era hadn’t hit the mark with new audiences, except for a niche few like myself. The franchise was languishing, and numbers drive production. This isn’t the first time Godzilla stared down the barrel of obscurity, and producer Shogo Tomiyama recognized that reality. Toho would produce one last, big, swing-for-the-fences film to mark Godzilla’s anniversary, before going dormant as they had done after Terror of Mechagodzilla and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, waiting for the next generation to take up the mantle. Enter Ryuhei Kitamura, a young filmmaker bucking the trend of safe, formulaic, cookie-cutter productions that conservative studio execs were going for, but were no longer delivering.

Kitamura was a huge fan of the Showa era films, saying “I loved the Godzilla movies back in the ’70s, but not so much the ones released in the 1980s and ’90s. Godzilla movies back in the ’70s were never just monster movies, there were always messages and themes that reflected the time and world within which they were made, and they combined this so well with straight-out entertainment. They lost that touch in the ’80s” – and this love shows. The themes here are a little vague and weak though. It’s not like he didn’t have a lot to draw from. The early 2000s saw ecological disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, record breaking temperatures, and international conflicts like the Iraq war, Al-Qaeda bombings, Hamas suicide bombings, Israeli airstrikes, civil wars in Sri Lanka, Liberia, and Sudan. And unfortunately, not much has changed. Final Wars sets the stage in a near future where wars and pollution have summoned monsters to attack the Earth. And that’s…pretty much where its themes end. This is not a deep film by any stretch of the imagination, but hot damn is it a fun one.

Love it or hate it, Final Wars is probably the most unique film of Godzilla’s history. It’s not just totally bananas, it’s pineapples and coconuts too. If you had invested in pleather in 1995, you would’ve been getting paid gangbusters in the early 2000s. 1999’s The Matrix inspired a wave of techno-industrial slick black-clad endeavors like Equilibrium, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, The One, and even Fox’s X-Men. Ryuhei Kitamura was very much trying to catch that bolt of lightning in a bottle with this film’s visual and musical style. The opening immediately sets the vibe as the classic Ifukube theme fades into some heavy riffs on electric guitar, deep resonating drums, synth keyboards, and breathy chanting a la Sephiroth’s theme from Final Fantasy VII. This is composed by none other than Keith Emerson from the renowned prog rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Kitamura was a fan, saw him in concert and reached to Emerson asking him to score the next Godzilla film. Emerson had worked on some horror films and said he was “honored to contribute music to such a legendary iconic character.”

The film hits the ground running with a scene of a whacky sci fi drill ship locked in battle with Godzilla. It launches missiles into a mountainside burying him, reminiscent of the ending in Godzilla Raids Again. Having defeated the main monster himself in the first two minutes, the movie takes a hard left turn into info-dump mode with Emerson’s synths sounding like a corporate training video. We learn about how wars and pollution have awakened monsters like Varan, the Gargantuas, Titanosaurus, and Megaguiras – Final Wars is another standalone film in the continuity (or lack thereof), so all the Toho monsters exist in this universe, it’s just that their films aren’t canon. Not even any of Godzilla’s own entries. An Earth Defense Force was created to combat the monsters, including superhumans known as mutants who practice gun katas – a direct mishmash of X-Men and Equilibrium. The opening credits highlight almost every previous movie before diving into another battle between the drill ship Gotengo (taken straight from the movie Atragon), and the long, snake-like dragon Manda. Eiichi Asada helms the special effects and does a superb job balancing the practical and digital, especially in this scene. Models are used on closeups, and rendering is done for quick bursts of action, aided by the otherworldly glow of an underwater volcano. The Godzilla suit is donned by Tsutomu Kitagawa for the last time, and really showcases his athleticism. It has kind of catlike features and thinner, muscular legs than other designs. I can imagine this helps out a lot in the many action shots.

Captain Douglas Gordon of the Gotengo barks orders with all the acting talent you might expect from American professional wrestler and MMA fighter Don Frye. This role was written particularly for him, and he just eats it up as the unorthodox hardass who gets the job done, and doesn’t give a hot damn about court martials. After defeating Manda and getting chewed out by the president, Kitamura takes the opportunity to show off his “mutants” fighting in a laser-tag arena to some techno beats. We truly are living in the future here. Masahiro Matsuoka plays Shinichi Ozaki, a mutant assigned to guard a biologist. He of course feels babysitting some dusty old scientist is beneath him, but quickly eats his hat after finding out the biologist is the smokin hot Miyuki Otonashi, played by Rei Kikukawa. I say this because that’s the trope they’re playing into, wearing a fashionable silver jacket with matching heels. For some reason the mutants are dressed like nazis in all black with red armbands; this future has very dystopian undertones that go entirely unexplored. Miyuki is researching the crusty remains of an ancient monster from space, who looks suspiciously like Gigan… and apparently shares the genetic structure that makes mutants so powerful.

Final Wars really tries its best to hit every Godzilla trope imaginable and wastes no time doing it. Miyuki and Shinichi are transported to Infant Island where the Shobijin give him an amulet and tell a little story about Gigan and Mothra being age-old enemies. Next comes the most bizarre and out of place scene in the entire franchise. I mean Jet Jaguar is kooky, and Hedorah had a lot of trippy bits, but they fit with the overall feel of their respective films. We cut to New York City where a black pimp is yelling at a white cop not to touch is bright purple Cadillac as it’s being towed, while a hobo eggs them both on, drinking a 40 wrapped in a paper bag. They either did this in one take without caring or twenty before giving up because it’s obvious the actor playing the cop cannot restrain himself from dropping F-bombs they have to dub over. The exchange gets dangerously heated, and seems to almost be a commentary on gang violence and police brutality before the hobo spots Rodan approaching, who blows both the cop’s and the pimp’s hats off their heads with looney tunes cartoon sound effects. This scene is so insane you will have to watch it a few dozen times.

While that scene is peak crazy, Final Wars doesn’t let up on the gas by much after that. In addition to mutants, monsters, and magic amulets, the Earth is naturally approached by aliens too. Like I said, they’re really trying to check all the boxes for this one. The aliens in question are Xiliens, who you may remember from Invasion of Astro-Monster. The commander even has their visor! They come bearing news that a rogue planetoid is headed straight for Earth and all the humans should, uh, fire all their weapons at it to stop their impending doom. As things get underway, the humans and mutants try to uncover the mystery behind the Xiliens, the connection between mutants and monsters, and uncover a plot to replace the world leaders with shapeshifters. There is a lot going on, and some rad fight scenes. After finding out the Prime Minister has been replaced with a Xilien, who controls all the world’s monsters (another nod to Astro-Monster), the only option left is to wake up Godzilla. They play the greatest hits with Rodan, Mothra, King Caesar, Ebirah, Hedorah, Gigan, and Anguirus like you’ve never seen him before. He’s super-mobile and launches himself around in a big spiked ball. It’s delightful to see how much love Kitamura has for the Showa era, using these monsters in new, inventive ways. Godzilla swings the giant spider Kumonga around by its silk and launches it over a mountain, just wild fun action all around.

The film itself is one of the longest to date at 2 hours and 5 minutes. It could have benefitted from cutting out about 20 minutes, as the plot starts to drag and retread its steps towards the end. But even so, it’s such a good ride. There are so many zany, bonkers things going on in this movie that I can’t mention them all. We’d be here all day, folks. The back half has some pretty off the wall scenes that can’t be passed over though. There’s an outpost at the south pole where Godzilla is buried, and it’s staffed by two big oiled up muscle dudes, one wearing a Hawaiian shirt, the other wearing a red mesh tank top – if this wasn’t weird enough, they are just chillin out waiting for the world to end and BLASTING the Godzilla vs. Anguirus track from 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. You know, like you do! Gigan gets revived and has dual chainsaws for hands, and shoots buzzsaws out of his chest. It’s like they let a twelve year old design him, and I’m totally here for it, the look is phenomenal. And our animated friend from Roland Emerich’s American Godzilla lands in Syndey, Australia! She gets fed her own ass in about ten seconds flat. That alone is worth the price of admission. While making good use of CGI where needed, it’s clear where Kitamura and Asada land in the effects department: polyurethane suits win over digital every time.

Towards the end, the audience starts to wonder: We’ve seen all the classics, but what about the biggest, baddest mamma jamma villain of all time? Where’s King Ghidorah? Well just like the Xiliens themselves were a wink, nudge bait and switch, we have Monster X descend from space after hitting Godzilla with a meteor. It’s an incredible reveal, leaving the city looking harrowingly similar to New York after 9/11. But if you’ve been with us this far, you might notice Monster X sound suspiciously similar to Monster Zero – a.k.a. Ghidorah. Monster X is bone white over a black body, and almost looks like it’s using King Ghidorah’s remains as armor, especially because the shoulders seem to be split halves of skulls. That’s just the first form though, as X transforms into Kaizer Ghidorah, a four legged version of the space monster we love to hate.

This showdown is loads of fun with multiple decapitations before blasting Kaizer Ghidorah back into space. Humanity still has to deal with Godzilla though, but come to save the day is Minilla! Yeah there’s also been another small side plot where a child finds Minilla and brings him to Godzilla in the end. They both stand between Godzilla and the military driving home the theme that the cycle of violence won’t stop until someone chooses peace. It’s a good message, but a little watered down be the fact that we just spent over two hours watching monsters duke it out over some awesome heavy metal guitar riffs. Don’t make fighting seem SO COOL if you want us to choose peace!

That’s a wrap on Final Wars, and the Millennium Era. And, effectively on suitmation. We had fifty great years worth tokusatsu suitmation, pioneered by the late great Eiji Tsuburaya. From Haruo Nakajima, to Shinji Takagi, to Isao Zushi, to Toru Kawai, to Kenpachiro Satsuma, to Tsutomu Kitagawa, to Mizuho Yoshida, and all the rest of the kaiju actors, each brought their own take to the characters, expressed solely through motion manipulating huge heavy costumes. We may never again see such love and creativity brought to bear with physical costumes, models, and sets. Toho keeps the tradition alive with short, five minute featurettes, which I adore, but it doesn’t seem like feature length films are viable. It saddens me, because Final Wars seemed to strike a satisfying balance, heavily featuring the practical and augmenting it with the digital. Gone too soon was this approach, I could have watched a dozen more movies in this style, with rockin metal soundtracks. Maybe someday, there will be a new wave of guys and gals in suits, a renewed passion for the craft itself – making something with your hands – and then destroying it for the camera.