Final Wars.

When Hollywood's first attempt at a big-budget GODZILLA movie fell flat in 1998, Japan's Toho studios responded by launching their own Millennium series... Well, "era" might be more accurate. With the exception of the two Mechagodzilla entries, these films did not attempt to maintain any continuity between them, but they did all include the narrative of the original 1954 GOJIRA in their back-stories.

With a new Godzilla flick hitting theaters every year, audience interest began to wane, so Toho realized the Big Guy needed a hiatus. But the 50th anniversary of his first film was coming-up, so they decided to wrap-up with a bang...

GODZILLA: FINAL WARS is a veritable love-letter to the classic "Showa" era kaiju movies from the '50s through the '70s. Updated versions of a multitude of Toho monsters turn-up, and Big G takes-on all comers. Also on-hand is the 1998 American Godzilla, just long enough to get curb-stomped by the real thing. There is some (kinda' bad) CGI, but mostly we get monster suit and model vehicle effects like the good ol' days.

In my opinion, GMK (2001) was the best of Godzilla's Millennium features. FINAL WARS isn't trying to be good, really. It's an intentionally cheesy monster rally with pro-rasslin' grade pops.

Coasting from Summer into Hallowe'en season with sci-fi monsters, just like they used to do on Scream Theater.

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