Godzilla: the Planet Eater - TOO MUCH ANIME

Well, the first two movies of the anime trilogy were MASSIVE letdowns, so now we're at the end of the road. Godzilla: the Planet Eater is the last, and in my opinion best film to come out of the anime trilogy. But is this exactly a compliment? Well, in my opinion, yes. I will concede that by no means does this redeem or make the rest of the trilogy better, but it is a better made film. The Planet Eater is a movie that TRIES to cut the crap that plagued the last two movies and deliver some monster action. And what it does not fully deliver in monster action, it does deliver in some interesting IDEAS. Honestly, the best thesis for the entire anime trilogy is good ideas; bad execution.And this one tries, it tries REALLY hard to execute those ideas right, and in the case of King Ghidorah, it pushes some cool new ground. Ultimately, I do think that like the rest of the trilogy it closes off that the Planet Eater is still quite flawed, a little boring and not anything close to what I was hoping for, but it's not that bad. I think if you stick through to the end and want to see the close of an, I'll say, interesting chapter in the Godzilla saga, then I say be my guest and give this one a spin.

After the destruction of Mechagodzilla City, Godzilla still controls the Earth but is resting after the massive damage done to him during the destruction of the nanometal metropolis. During this period of rest, Metphies has been busy at work converting all remaining humans to the religion of the Exif in praise of their grand deity: King Ghidorah. As Ghidorah is now on Earth and warping the powers of reality, Haruo must find a way to destroy Metphies' evil summoning ritual in order to save the Earth from King Ghidorah's horrible wrath. But can Godzilla stay alive long enough to keep Ghidorah distracted while Haruo tries to beat Metphies as his own mental game?

SO, let's get this one out of the way: yet again, the monsters of the movie are VERY non traditional. And while this worked as a negative for some of the previous movies, in particular City on the Edge of Battle, I think it works for this movie, quite well in fact. Though it's not the easiest thing to swallow, watching the movies will force you to accept that the monsters aren't going to be like the interpretations we've seen in past movies, so it's whatever. And because of ultimately being forced to accept it, we ultimately to accept these different interpretations. So, why does this matter? Because I ADORE this version of King Ghidorah. Yes, we only see the heads "physically" appear on screen, he's basically a god and doesn't really physically exist and doesn't really shoot lightning at all, but I'm okay with that. The anime series' largest intent ultimately is to make the audience feel pathetically weak and small. From both Godzillas massacring hundreds easily and Mechagodzilla becoming the size of a city, it's clear that the monster battle is not one the humans can even try fighting. So why not go insanely over the top with Ghidorah then? Ghidorah gets some really fascinating stuff in this movie, basically distorting time and space around him, not physically existing until the very end and ultimately just being scary as hell. My favorite moment in the entire movie, and honest even in the whole trilogy is when Ghidorah first emerges and starts eating his human worshippers through their shadows. This is some CREEPY stuff and it works because it's clear this is not a traditional Ghidorah at all and is 100% intended to be something never before seen, attempted, or even thought off before. Going into basically a Lovecraftian horror version of the three headed dragon is something I never would have thought of, and for as insanely strange as it is, I love it. Now, of course. Is this truly Ghidorah? That's up to interpretation. My qualifications of Ghidorah are quite simple: is he gold, does he have three heads and is he Godzilla's ultimate rival? That's what I need out of Ghidorah. If your Ghidorah fits that criteria, I'm happy. And does Ghidorah fit the criteria? Yes. Absolutely.

Now, how about Godzilla? Well, unfortunately he's still not the stand out character you'd love him to be, but he actually gets some cool moments in. I love watching him kill the first Ghidorah head, snapping its jaw effortlessly once Metphies' bead is destroyed. Godzilla is still not the monster you wanted out of the series, but like the last two movies, he ultimately gets in one cool moment in the end that almost makes you say "I guess that was worth it."

I'm happy to say that the human cast is actually tolerable in this one. Main mention for this movie goes to Metphies, voiced by Takahiro Sakurai. A character who intentionally heralds the arrival of an elder evil god has got to be played crazy and played right, and the nail is perfectly hit on the head here. Metphies unlike the Bilusaludo works as a villain in this movie because he's always seemed kind of off, and so when he goes full on crazy here, it feels like a welcome entrance of evil, and yet unexpected. Metphies has been one of the "good guys" up until this point. So when he goes about his evil antics, it is somehow shocking and it fits perfectly. He and Haruo have some really fascinating interactions which are the best part of the movie, Metphies digging in his mind basically and showing he was behind the incident that brought them back to Earth and also thinks it is only fair for Ghidorah to kill the Earth after the atrocities of man over the years. It is a really cool character change, and it makes his character that prior was bland, albeit a little odd really interesting and fun to match wits with here in the final. As for Haruo, I definitely don't think he's as obnoxious here. He still gets in one good GENERIC ANIME SCREAM OF ANGER in the very end, but most of the movie, he actually does a good job keeping his cool, stuck between wanting to kill Godzilla and wanting to keep Earth alive. He gets to actually be challenged in the movie, emotionally and physically with Metphies. And when he ultimately dies in the end, it's not a bad send off. It doesn't have the full weight they were aiming for because of how flawed his character was in the prior movies, but it is not a bad death.

The biggest problem with the movie however is that it is WAY too slow. Not as slow as City on the Edge of Battle, but it feels a lot longer than it actually is. I think it's mainly because of how long it feels until Ghidorah first appears, but most of it is solid build up. When it does start to get a little irritating, it does start to pay off, because then we start getting introduced to Ghidorah. I think if you can muster a pace that is a little off, I think you'll find an enjoyable enough time. I don't think you're going to walk out feeling positive overall about the anime trilogy, nor will you find yourself hating it. It does a good job wrapping up a flawed trilogy however. Now if you don't mind, I don't think I'll be watching any anime anytime soon, so, this was an interesting experiment. I guess maybe it's not for me.

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Tomorrow, we got a big one: TWO MOVIES! Why? BECAUSE KING OF THE MONSTERS FINALLY COMES OUT ON FRIDAY AND IN ORDER TO GET PREPARED WE'RE GONNA REINTRODUCE OURSELVES TO THE WHOLE MONSTERVERSE! Yes, it's only two movies, but they're two super awesome movies. Once that's done, I'll see King of the Monsters, but let me take some time to get the review up. Before that is available for reading, expect my top 10 and recommended reading up. Till then, thank you for reading, and long live the King!