Godzilla: The Planet Eater (spoilers)

[lhb412]

Drops on Netflix... today!

[angilas]

Thanks for posting this. If the other two deserved their own thread, this definitely does. My favorite of the trilogy and I’m only 2/3rds through with it. This was kind of worth the buildup. The plot even makes some sense.
. Of course that’s just wishful thinking. The film isn’t perfect and Godzilla still moves with all the speed of a tree. But this wasn’t terrible and was more like what I’d hope Toho would do with an anime, showing something that would be difficult to show in live action. Had to run on an emergency but I’ll score it when I finish.

[O.Supreme]

I've stated as some others have, I don't *hate* these films...Still here I am, supposedly a HUGE fan of Godzilla & Star Wars. There was a time where I was doing literally anything I could, including purchasing bootleg copies of Godzilla films, just to see them early. Now I have a double-feature (Godzilla 3, and Solo) waiting for me on Netflix when I get home today, and I have all the enthusiasm of a sloth.

[GFan]

I hated this movie. I didn't think it could be more disappointing than the 2nd, but it was.

My mind is still trying to comprehend the ending...

[Zack Metoyer]

The ending is quite layered, and I don't expect the typical fan to decipher any of the meanings. Haruo's decision, while shocking, is not out of the blue.

It was a slow burn, but overall I enjoyed each film more than the last.

[DannyBeane]

This trilogy was garbage.

[MechaMinya]

The last hour of this was really quite compelling. The philosophical and spiritual themes were actually interesting. Yes, it is a bit heady but I ultimately welcome this new approach.



Part 1 was a bit of a bore. Part 2 was beautiful to look at. Part 3 was quite satisfying.

[lhb412]

The problem with these movies is that they're so long-winded. There are a lot of interesting ideas in these, and quite a few really neat visuals - especially in this last one. The problem is it always takes so long to get anywhere. If this had been a mini series consisting of three hour long episodes I think a lot of my complaints would be minimized.

Spoilers, naturally...

King Ghidorah was really interesting, in both the way he looked and the reactions to him, like how he affected all of the equipment temporally, causing the people on the bridge of the ship to monitor their death before it happened, which is a very nice macabre touch.

I wasn't even disappointed in Mothra's very brief cameo, because I thought it was one of the neatest parts of the movie! The dream sequence going from Einstein's study into the cockpit of the Enola Gay, only for the plane to be halved by Mothra was inspired.


Once the epilogue to the big battle began I could see the Serizawa parallel coming in. Of course, the end credits stinger leaves it ambiguous weather Haruo's sacrifice really worked or just set humanity on the same path again.

[klen7]

I laughed a lot during the first act at dialogue and developments that I found unintentionally humorous, but this is easily the best entry in the trilogy if only because it actually tells a story. I think you could recut the trilogy into a single entry by losing all the exposition dumps. I thought the Mothra bit felt completely shoe horned. The ending worked for me. This still feels like a wasted opportunity. The biggest Godzilla ever, but never any context to show it, the biggest body count, but never feels like there are more than 25 characters, no physical constraints but the action is slow and plodding.

This is the first anime entry that isn't straight to the bottom of the list for me

[jellydonut25]

More things actually happen but the writing is actually sloppier and the way this brings up and just drops subplots makes this maybe the worst one of the bunch as a movie.
So it’s another one that’s awful. Not shocking.

I’d rank them 3, 1, 2...? I guess. 3 is the “best” but they’re all beneath the bottom of my list for ranking the franchise.

[Benjamin Haines]

Godzilla: The Planet Eater is a beautiful, chilling and riveting conclusion to this trilogy of anime features.

(Spoilers ahead, for this is a spoiler thread.)

I was surprised by the true nature of Metphies and the Exif. At first I thought they might have secretly been responsible for Earth's monster outbreak with the goal of conquering the planet, like the Xilians in Final Wars. The second movie instead made me think that the Exif were similar to the Silver Surfer heralding Galactus, that they escaped the destruction of their home planet with a pledge to serve Ghidorah by summoning him to other consumable worlds. I thought that the Exif were hoping that Godzilla would defeat the monster that destroyed their homeworld and set them free. Where they ended up going with it was so much darker and more haunting. The Exif were an ancient civilization whose technology advanced to the point that they were able to calculate the inevitable end of existence. Their science became the basis of their faith in a higher being and they lost touch with what it means to live. Life is fleeting to the Exif in service of Ghidorah and they actually welcomed his destruction of their home planet.

A recurring theme through this trilogy is that civilizations will ultimately manifest themselves in the form of monsters. Humanity prospered as the dominant species on Earth until the atomic age led to the age of monsters and finally produced Godzilla. The Bilusaludo likewise produced Mechagodzilla and their idea of securing their own existence was to become one with their monster and overtake this planet as their new home. Taking that concept even further, The Planet Eater reveals that just as these various primate races have a similar hominid appearance across different worlds, there have been many other worlds before Earth whose civilizations ultimately produced a Godzilla. This is far from the first time that the Exif have made an offering of a Godzilla and its accompanying planet to Ghidorah. That brings a huge level of tension to this showdown.

This take on Ghidorah is just nightmarish. His classic traits are reinterpreted in a way that's wildly fresh and still true to the root of the character. More than just arriving from beyond Earth, Ghidorah comes from the void outside this universe. He is a being antithetical to life as we know it, capable of distorting the fabric of space and time. While he retains the traditional golden color and three serpentine necks, his gravity beams are reimagined as the ability to generate gravitational singularities. The way Ghidorah emerges into our universe above Earth from these singularities is a sight to behold.

The dramatic stakes are orchestrated powerfully with Ghidorah's ability to defy our universe's laws hinging on his connection to Metphies, tying the battle to Haruo's emotional conflict. Thanks to Maina and a cameoing Mothra, Haruo succeeds in holding on to his humanity and making it possible for Godzilla to fight back against Ghidorah. Haruo comes to accept that Earth can only exist with Godzilla at this point, which isn't the worst thing compared to total annihilation of the planet and everyone on it. As Lazzari demonstrates to him, though, even after finding a peaceful life with the Houtua, humanity is still prone to revert to its old ways, the same unchecked embrace of the potentials of technology and science that produced Godzilla in the first place and led Ghidorah to the planet. Haruo recognizes the innocence of the Houtua in the way they don't have a word for hate. He knows that it would be better for him not to influence them, so that Maina could continue to not understand how his fear of Godzilla turned into hate. He thus removes himself from the equation along with his people's option to resurrect the mistakes of humanity's past, and he does it with Yuko by his side, freeing her from the permanent nanometal coma in the process. The post-credits scene shows how the Houtua go about reconciling their fears, but even after the assistance that Mothra provided against Ghidorah, the image of the Houtua worshiping in front of a huge likeness of Mothra recalls the theme of civilizations ultimately manifesting as monsters. After all, Mothra did seem to be another interdimensional being like Ghidorah, one with which the Houtua communicate. As their civilization continues to advance over time, who knows what might become of Earth?

I loved it. I'm a fan of this whole anime trilogy. Each entry keeps improving and The Planet Eater actually makes the previous two better by sticking the landing so effectively. I'm glad that Toho took such a bold chance with this trilogy. It's thought-provoking, visually striking and totally unlike anything that Toho or Hollywood would ever attempt as live-action Godzilla movies. What a time to be a Godzilla fan!

[angilas]

[tbeasley]

I watched all 3 films back to back to wrap up my thoughts on the trilogy.

Planet of the Monsters (Viewing #3) - I always though this was pretty good, the worldbuilding is nice, I dig the creature and mechanical designs, Polygon's signature animation even grew on me (I did check out Knights of Sidonia and Blame beforehand, so maybe that helped). The ending is great and I generally felt everything was set up nicely for a 3 part story.

City on the Edge of Battle (Viewing #2) - I was much more lukewarm to this on my first viewing mainly due to the ending, which I felt was too much of a repeat of the first film's - just on a larger scale with a larger Godzilla. And of course there's the lack of an actual Mechagodzilla, which is kind of a bummer. But I do like how each film is a different race's approach to Godzilla - humans in Part 1, the Bilusaludo (what a name) in Part 2 and the Exif in Part 3. If there's a highlight to these films is the clash of ideologies between these cultures. So I did enjoy it a good bit more this time.

The Planet Eater (Viewing #1) - I was left with the same feeling I had for Part 2 on that initial viewing - mainly based on the ending again. What Haruo does at the end feels a bit sudden and drastic, like they were trying to hastily wrap things up. But the movie as a whole feels like a psychological thriller with elements from Gamera 3 and End of Evangelion. So heady is definitely the word to describe it, but it will likely give some people a headache in the process, especially those impatient for monster action.

Speaking of, the 'fight' between Godzilla and Ghidorah is kind of underwhelming. You never see Ghidorah's whole body (only as a silhouette), just his necks extending from black holes. You also see Mothra's silhouette in a trippy sequence, but that's it - her design looks neat though.

So all in all while I do feel the trilogy offers plenty of cool stuff: an intriguing premise, engaging drama, stylish designs and animation, it does lack some of the more exciting aspects you yearn for in a Godzilla/giant monster movie - aspects you think they would gleefully take advantage of in the medium of animation. At least we have KOTM later in the year for that.

[LoneWolfandCub]

The entire Godzilla animation trilogy was one big stinking pile of doo-doo. It was AWFUL.

[GFan]

One thing that really bugged me and my girlfriend as we watched these movies.. why did the aliens have to look exactly human? It's not like a 60s live-action film where they didn't have the budget to do elaborate designs.

Also...

[angilas]

[jellydonut25]

The level of credit people are piling up on this thing's doorstep for tangentially mentioning some ideas that it ultimately leaves by the wayside in favor of having characters clack loudly on keyboards and spew technobabble while literally narrating the action on-screen a la the horrendous Godzilla Raids Again dub is just....astounding.

Essentially, what people are saying is, the only difference between barely coherent, broken English posts on Facebook from people saying things like, "I am love Godzilla. What if him was made of electric. It something I wonders about." and the creators of this movie and the validity of the points being brought up, is a few million dollar budget, because that's the extent to which this movie actually explores any of its themes.

[GiganGoji]

It was awesome how they teased Mothra from the beginning and then 6 hours later gave us a silhouette for three seconds. It was also awesome how they teased Mechagodzilla only to find out that it’s just furniture. The big battle with Ghidorah was cool though - I love the way Ghidorah bit Godzilla and...I guess that was it.
I felt like the monsters were just props and plot devices.

I have a whole lot to say, but that can all be boiled down to: this trilogy is my new GINO.

[GFan]

[Gentleman]

I applaud Toho for trying something new in a franchise that rejects that notion more often than not. The Godzilla series settled into a rut years ago, and that rut and the comfort level that comes along with it probably went a long way towards any negative feelings the anime trilogy brought on. That being said, I didn't enjoy any of the films at all, save for Godzilla's reveal at the end of part 1. The animation never gelled with me, I found most of it to be too long winded (geez, we get it: Ghidorah doesn't show up on your scanners), and I found most of the characterizations to be stale and wooden. I never minded the premise as, like I said, I like the originality, just the final product I found to be as plodding as the title character with very few redeeming qualities.

[tbeasley]

[Zack Metoyer]

[jellydonut25]

[msweets13]

Overall this trilogy has been such an interesting watch for me. Don't get me wrong. I think most of us can agree that this series is uneven, and poorly executed. The ideas and exploration of spirituality, the eventual demise of Earth through civilization and technology is fascinating to me. I get the sense that the creative team behind the film were far more interested in exploring philosophical viewpoints, the nature of life, spirituality and humanity rather than monsters and Godzilla fights. In fact, I don't think they really cared about the monsters at all beyond what they represent, which is probably why they didn't feel the need to include Mechagodzilla or Mothra in any real capacity. Despite this, I did dig their representation of Ghidorah. A harbinger of death with no physical form. We know death is inevitable, but we just don't see it (like the sensors couldn't pick up Ghidorah).

I'm glad I watched the trilogy. I especially really enjoyed the trippy sequence in the third one where Metphies puts Haruo in a trance and go on a mind adventure. I even like it when Mothra showed up (a surprise given how the series treated Mechagodzilla). However, I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

In the end, I have a feeling that this trilogy will end up being largely forgotten. A dusty piece of trivia akin to the Star Wars Ewok movies. Interesting, but no real reason to watch.

[lhb412]

In terms of actual ideas, the thematic content, I think the trilogy is pretty strong. Urobuchi's script is fine (minus the propensity for weak female characters), but the execution: the glacial pacing, the fact that a lot of the scenes are just staged in a dull fashion, the fact that (often cleverly set up) tense or suspenseful situations often have their energy dissipated by the aforementioned pacing - it can make it hard to appreciate the good stuff when you feel like you've had to wade through so much foam packing peanuts.