The
third (and thankfully, final) in the series of Godzilla animated adventures for
Netflix is one of the worst Godzilla movies on record. It’s certainly nowhere near as good as the
old cartoons, that’s for sure. I mean,
would it have hurt the animators to toss in Godzooky?
The
explorers of a doomed space mission are stranded on Earth. Still smarting from not being able to defeat Godzilla
in the previous installment, they set out to find a way to stop him once and
for all. They turn to a cult of
religious fanatics for help, whose “Golden God” winds up being none other than
Ghidrah himself. Naturally, it turns out
to be a big mistake for all involved.
The
Planet Eater starts slowly as it spends a lot of time playing catch-up with
various exposition dumps and arguments about what to do with Godzilla. Godzilla lies dormant for most of the movie,
which means, like the other films in the series, we’re stuck sitting through a
lot of talk. This one is particularly
heavy on boring religious discussions that clumsily try to equate Godzilla as
some sort of God substitute.
The
new design on Ghidrah is… uh… different.
While it sort of retains the same golden dragon look we all know and
love, it has this new ability to transform itself into this snakelike entity
made of energy… or something. The big
confrontation between the two titans of terror is a letdown too as Ghidrah
spends much of the fight leeching energy out of Godzilla. The final fight is also abrupt and anticlimactic. Even after it’s over, the movie continues
on mercilessly for another ten minutes.
While
it’s not quite as bad as the last entry, City on the Edge of Battle, The Planet
Eater is definitely one of the lowlights of Godzilla’s long and illustrious
career. The filmmakers never give him
anything worthwhile to do and he spends too much of the movie in a goddamned
coma. I wouldn’t blame you if you did
too.
AKA: Godzilla:
Eater of Stars.
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