Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle picks up
immediately where Planet of the Monsters ended.
Our heroes, defeated by the massive Godzilla, encounter a race of tribal
humans with psychic powers. They learn the
whereabouts of the remains of Mechagodzilla and try to get it up and running to
fight against Godzilla.
This
new series of Godzilla movies was originally intended as a TV show but were
eventually strung together as a trilogy of features. (The conclusion of the trilogy is supposed to
be released to Netflix later in the year.)
Like Planet of the Monsters, there is a LOT of talk and the whole thing
suffers whenever The G-Man isn’t on screen (which is most of the movie, I’m
afraid). Part of the fun of the Godzilla
series is seeing giant monsters stomp on cities and fight other giant
monsters. Setting this trilogy in a
future where Earth has become a desolate pseudo-metallic jungle was a bold
choice. The downside is that it doesn’t
offer much for old school fans like me.
I mean, I can accept a CGI monster, even though I love men-in-suit ones.
It’s just that they never find very much
for Godzilla to do.
Godzilla
certainly looks cool. I don’t know about
his massive frame in this one (which makes him by far bigger than any of the
other previous Godzillas), but the animation is such that it’s hard to get a
sense of his scale, so it doesn’t really matter anyway. The revisionist idea that Mechagodzilla is a
nanotechnological entity is intriguing.
The problem is, the set-up is laborious, and the payoff is anticlimactic.
It’s
not all bad though. The twin tribal
girls are probably the best part of the movie.
They’re kind of like a blend of the twins from Mothra and Jaylah from
Star Trek Beyond. Maybe they’ll get
something worthwhile to do in the conclusion of the trilogy.
Speaking
of which, I’m sure all of this will get wrapped up eventually. There’s a post-credits stinger that teases
the return of a fan favorite monster.
Maybe the final installment will also contain some of the old school
monster mashing that’s sorely lacking in the first two entries. As it stands, City on the Edge of Battle is a
step down from Planet of the Monsters.
It’s mostly a talk-fest, and what little Godzilla action we do get is disappointing
and unsatisfying.
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