Godzilla: The Planet Eater Review

Review:

Humanity, their alien allies, and Godzilla all enter their endgame as the powerful destructive entity known as Ghidorah arrives on Earth.

We started off 2018 with the review of the first animated Godzilla movie, Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters. Now, we are beginning 2019 with the review of the third and final installment in the animated Godzilla trilogy, Godzilla: The Planet Eater. I went into this movie not expecting much after how disappointing the second movie turned out. As a result, I actually found this to be a little bit better than what I initially thought it would turn out.

The story continues where Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle left off. Just like the previous two movies, Godzilla: The Planet Eater focuses mostly on the human characters more than Godzilla. However, it takes a sort of dark turn with the story. The movie tells the story kind of in the style of Lovecraft with the Exif religion having this occult feel and Ghidorah being an interdimensional creature beyond our comprehension. This is an interesting idea to take the story with as it adds to the story with the Exif and their religion. It dives deeper into Metphies's character and understand what he is truly planning. With Metphies being the bad guy, it forces Haruo in a position to choose how to confront him. Ever since Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters, Metphies has always been there for Haruo as a close friend. So it turns into a battle of wills instead of a battle with fists. I sort of like how the two fights going on mimic each other. You have Haruo struggling to fight Metphies and Godzilla struggling to fight Ghidorah.

Even though a Lovecraft type movie is a neat idea, it has a little too much going on. While some parts of the movie are pretty good, there were times where the story feels forced like the sudden romance between Haruo and the native girls, Maina and Miana. Also, the ending of the movie was very unsatisfying. To know that there was no second chance for Haruo and the rest of the human race just seemed like there was no resolve. All it seemed like the movie was saying, "Humans are bad because all they feel is hate and we must rid ourselves so the planet can live on without it." The movie could have ended with Haruo and the rest of the humans being given a second chance at living on Earth peacefully and happy. It would have built up the story with the main character resolving his issue with Godzilla and learning to live with the choices he has made. Instead, we get an ending where all of that build up on Haruo from the first, second, and third movies were thrown in the trash.

Ever since the first movie, Ghidorah was mentioned over and over and when he finally arrives it's underwhelming. The build up is great during the summoning ritual, but to appear as gold snakes is disappointing. I mentioned it many times that I was not a fan of Ghidorah's design being giant gold snakes and I still don't. The movie did reveal that he had a physical body, but it was only shown as a silhouette a couple of times and that was it. When the fight with Godzilla begins it is basically what I expected. If you watched the trailers then you have watched most of the fight which is a real bummer since part of the charm to these movies are the monster fights. Mothra actually does make an appearance in this movie, but she is only seen once through out the movie in silhouette. What purpose does that bring to have Mothra appear and not have her do anything other than be a hallucination? Also, why hide her behind a silhouette if you are just using an old design? Do you think that will make her seem mysterious? Of course not. To have her appear for one scene just to never be seen again and be hidden is a waste of using an iconic character.

After three movies, the series overall is very boring. They weren't hard to follow or understand, they were just not interesting. It had interesting ideas that are not utilized enough. The interesting parts of the movie happen at the finale where Godzilla is awake and active. If you take Godzilla out of these movies, you would still get mediocre post apocalyptic movies. So many monsters and so little use came out from them. It just seems like the first two movies were just teasers leading up to the third movie, which is infuriating. Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters introduced a new monster called the Servum, which are servants to Godzilla. Yet, they get very little screen time and they just seem to be used only as flying punching bags. MechaGodzilla was heavily marketed for Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle, but MechaGodzilla was replaced by a factory city turned into a fortress. What is the point of marketing MechaGodzilla if the robot is not even in the movie? Then, we get Ghidorah, which was teased to be the most powerful being to exist, and the only thing he does to Godzilla is bite him and lift him up into the air. Finally, Mothra shows up only to appear in one scene as an hallucination and never be seen again. If I were new to Godzilla then I would still not know what all of these monsters are suppose to be. I would be confused by MechaGodzilla being a bunch of buildings or that Ghidorah is just a bunch of snakes. I wouldn't know what Mothra is either because her name was mentioned only once and I would only see her once as a silhouette. So I would think that she is just a figment of some hallucination. The trilogy as a whole just seems like someone was jingling a bunch of keys in my face in the most insulting way possible.

Final Thoughts On Godzilla: The Planet Eater:

Godzilla: The Planet Eater is not the worst Godzilla movie ever made, but it has a lot of issues. I like the direction of the movie being a Lovecraft or cosmic horror story, yet some parts feels forced or uninspired. The ending was unsatisfying and didn't really resolve the issues the previous movies had.

Final Thoughts On The Trilogy:

The animated trilogy as a whole felt very rushed and underdeveloped. While Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters had a good start to the story, it was only an okay movie. Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle was boring and didn't deliver on what was promised making it lackluster. Even though Godzilla: The Planet Eater had an interesting idea with the story, everything else was unsatisfying to watch. So do I hate it? Well, I don't like it, but I don't hate it. It's a mixed bag. These movies were to attract new fans, but not even I would recommend these movies to new fans. If you want to introduce Godzilla to a new fan, there are better Godzilla movies to show than these movies.

Finally, it's all over. What are your thoughts on Godzilla: The Planet Eater? Did you like the movie? What are your thoughts on the trilogy as a whole? Make sure to leave a comment in the comment section on your thoughts of this movie and the series. Make sure to follow me on my Facebook page and Twitter to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.