Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle is the second film in the constructed Netflix original anime trilogy. With the finale not yet released, this second installment hopes to ride the wave of enthusiasm and fervor that the first part stirred. In Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, we were offered the glimpse of how humanity battled the gigantic horror and escaped the planet as intergalactic refugees. Contriving a plan and returning to earth only to once again suffer defeat. Our protagonist Haruo Sakaki, the leader who is hellbent on destroying Godzilla and reclaiming earth for fellow man is left in despair, distraught and all alone. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle picks up with Haruo trying to discover who brought him to safety and how is it possible that another species has survived on this planet other than Godzilla.
Unlike its predecessor, Godzilla City on the Edge of Battle lacks that drive that pushed the narration forward, instead is slugs through a path full of empty character motives, uninspiring dialogue and frankly just dull action. For a Godzilla film you expect to witness the awesome destruction that this beast can inflict, but instead you are dragged through nonsensical drama between characters you will eventually forget about and left waiting for more action moments. In the first film we learn that the original creature that forced the humans off the planet is not the only one, in fact there is a greater Godzilla. Awesome you would say correct? Well not so, since most of the second film doesn’t let you experience the monster and when it does show up, it’s just a glimpse of it slowly rising or trudging forward. I will say that when the creature is presented, the animation sequence and audio is rather amazing, so why such little screen time for the big bad lizard?
What is truly bewildering is the fact that when the humans returned to Earth, the planet’s ecosystem and environment has changed so much (its been 20,000 years or so) that its mostly uninhabitable. So why even return to a planet where you can’t breathe on? Motivations like these are left unanswered, as the only force driving the story is a maniacal plot to destroy the creature that clearly overpowers humanity in ungodly proportions. The humanistic view of how earth belongs to us is hammered on constantly, but perhaps it would be wise to let it go and stay on our fancy galactic spaceships.
As a casual kaiju fan, I was really intrigued and surprised by how the first film was able to capture the destruction and pain caused by Godzilla. The story had some loose ends but revolved around a functional sequence of actions. Flee the planet from the monster, figure out how to return, now let’s bag ourselves a huge thermonuclear reptile. I was honestly looking forward to what would come next in the second film, so I was quite disappointed that I had to sit through a slosh of irrelevant pseudo religious mythology and boring dogma. I can only hope that the humans come to their senses and let the lizard king be, as we seem to be the pesky bugs on his windshield…
2 out of 5
