Godzilla is busier than you might realize these days. Not only is Hollywood about to give the kaiju a sequel, but Japan has its own plans for the creature. In fact, its anime trilogy just put out its second installment abroad, and a very detailed reaction to the movie has gone live.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the movie is making a good impression.
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Over on Toho Kingdom, Nicholas Driscoll posted his impression of Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, and he did begin with some pros. Despite lackluster marketing and an empty screening, there was some solid pieces to take away from this sequel.
In fact, it seems the movie did a better job in reeling fans into its lore. “Early on in the movie, as Haruo and other survivors meet the natives, I enjoyed some of the world building and design work, accompanied by moody music and various nods to the Godzilla fandom,” Driscoll wrote.
However, it seems a lot of the film’s praise stalls from that point forward. The lengthy review doesn’t go easy on Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle when it comes to animation, a lack of action, and subpar character development. And, as you might expect, the absence of kaiju v. kaiju action is pretty concerning.
“This may be a small spoiler, but Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle has, if anything, LESS monster action than the previous film. Once again we have very long stretches of the movie with almost no monster action, but lots and lots of talking, strategizing, speculating about evolution and so on. Don’t expect a riveting action movie.”
If you’ve got the time and interest, you can check out Driscoll’s full breakdown of the Godzilla movie here. The movie is currently screening in Japanese theaters, but it will go global soon enough. Once those limited theater showings run up, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle will head to Netflix.
If you’re interested in more Godzilla, the next available chance to see new content from the two giant monsters comes in the form of Godzilla’s anime trilogy releasing on Netflix.
Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters was the first of an animated trilogy from Toho and was released in Japan on November 2017 (and on Netflix domestically in 2018). It is directed by Kobun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita, with Toho Animation and Polygon Pictures handling production duties. It also features a strong voice cast for the Japanese version which includes Yuuki Kaji, Takahiro Sakurai, Mamoru Miyano, Junichi Suwabe, Kana Hanazawa, and Tomokazu Sugita.
What do you make of this impression? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!
