The last Godzilla film produced by Toho to date, Godzilla: Final Wars is very much a tribute to the Godzilla movies of the sixties and seventies. The result is a movie that never takes itself seriously; reveling in camp at levels the series hadn't seen since then. One of the most notorious examples of this comes at a point in the film where Godzilla encounters Anguirus, Rodan, and King Caesar. All three are under mind control, leading to a 4-way monster rumble..that proceeds to devolve into a game of soccer, with Anguirus used as the ball! This whole fight is played for laughs. Anguirus curls into a ball and bounces around on the ground; ricocheting off Godzilla's chest and getting tail swiped into Rodan, which causes him to plummet to the ground. King Caesar sees an opportunity, and actually karate kicks Anguirus right into Godzilla, who takes the role of goalie and tries to catch him. Hey, remember when Godzilla was the embodiment of nuclear catastrophe? Yeah, sometimes you just can't believe how versatile the character of Godzilla can be in terms of tone and intention. It is a moment where, even in a film as silly and over the top as this, you're smacked in the face with how ridiculous the whole scenario is. It is another moment of humanization of the monsters, but with an added quirkiness that could only come from the Land of the Rising Sun.
