Coming off watching select Godzilla films from the first 1954 one to Shin Godzilla, I was very interested in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. The plot is very unique; it’s a far step from the tried-and-true formula that Godzilla movies tend to follow. Despite this, Planet of the Monsters ended up being duller than the Japanese government trying to repel Godzilla for the nth time. There were three things that made the synopsis of this movie enticing: how Godzilla won this time, what a future Earth would look like after being dominated by Godzilla, and of course what Godzilla does during the movie. None of these lived up to their expectations at all.
The worst part about this movie is how dull it looks throughout the entire 1.5 hours. You start the movie on a spaceship with lifeless colors, characters in copy-pasted uniforms, and pretty bad character models that don’t do lighting well. Earth itself also has a greyish hue over everything, and not just because of the fog that covers it. While you can argue that it represents how awful it is to live on the spaceship and how dark a world ruled by Godzilla is, it’s exhausting to look at pretty quickly.
Only one of the few notable characters isn’t dull. And while the single character that stands out is fortunately the protagonist, the more unfortunate part is that he’s unlikable and single-minded. To make matters worse, his mantra of saying that Earth belongs to humans completely clashes with the message of humility that the entire concept of Godzilla is based around.
Godzilla is the most passive and dull he’s ever been. With no cities to minimize the damage of, there’s no sense of urgency besides him killing the crew. All he ever does is fire his laser, and it loses a lot of its magnificence because he only ever fires it for 0.5 seconds at a time. If you’re here for Godzilla being cool, I think literally any other Godzilla movie is better. At the very least, this movie has a revelation about Godzilla’s biology that’s new and interesting.
The one thing I think this movie does right is how the plan against Godzilla is coordinated and executed. As much as I don’t like the main character, the way he’s able to make orders, change plans on the fly, and make big calculated risks makes the battle with Godzilla exciting. And with this crew being the last stand against Godzilla, the stakes are the highest they’ve ever been. Considering that finding out how to stop Godzilla is the actual point of Godzilla movies, Planet of the Monsters getting this part right at least redeems it somewhat.
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters is a movie I feel like I should hate, but it doesn’t really do anything that actually draws my ire that much. The concept is interesting and the execution of that concept is actually mostly competent (…ignoring the few plot holes that the movie even brings to your attention). At the end of the day, I just feel an uncomfortable apathy for this movie. If you’re really curious you can give it a shot, but as for me I don’t think I’ll be continuing the trilogy.
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