Earlier this week, Netflix has released another remake of Godzilla, which is in glorious anime form, with a retelling of a story that has been retold countless times. this time, however, it seems that they are shedding the good guy Godzilla and is leaning towards bad kaiju Godzilla, a role which has been set in some of the western remakes.
But unlike western remakes, we are back to the land of its origin, Japan, with the original creators, Toho Studios in line with Polygon Pictures bringing back the massive kaiju in all its glory with better CG and even better storyline.
In this version, mankind has been beset by a wave of Kaiju attacks, and the straw that breaks humanity’s back is the appearance of Godzilla, who personifies the power of Hyper Beam/Atomic Breath. In this era, when mankind was on the verge of destruction, 2 new alien races pop up to take advantage of us, the Exifs and the Bilasaludo, with one trying to convert humanity to its religion and the other offering to immigrate to Earth by promising to defeat Godzilla. Needless to say, Godzilla curb stomps them both., which leads to all 3 humanoid races fleeing the Earth in search of a better planet. 20 years later, humanity attempts to come back in an attempt to reclaim the Earth.
One thing this feature film gives us for sure is the sheer power of bass, as each step from Godzilla is like a subwoofer gone to its full potential while the animation uses the current trend of CG cell shading in all its glory. I will say, that this time, the character modelling is way better than that from its likeness in another anime called Knights of Sidonia.
Plot-wise, it can only be said that we already know what is going to happen, so rather than guess the story as a whole, it directs us to guess how they are going to accomplish these scenarios which have been done many times in all its different iterations and how they will differ from them. Of course, for the nerd souls out there who enjoys sci-fi flicks, this anime has plenty of pseudo-sciences that will keep you happy throughout the film.
There are a few kinks that this movie has to work out in its following sequel which is the character development. While we know that Godzilla is the main star here, the characters don’t seem to have any depth to them, which is something that the anime platform has struggles with, but with another 2 more films underway, we hope that we can see some character development in the sequels.
All in all, Godzilla: Planet of Monsters is definitely worth the watch, if not for the amazing effects than stay for the glory that is Godzilla.