Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017) User Reviews

Weird fractured story, like they couldn't decide what to add and what to remove

[siderite · 6/10 · 20 January 2018]

The animation was fine, the Japanisms in full force. Protect, regain your honor and dignity, die in the name of God or against one, etc, but what annoyed the hell out of me was the sloppiness of the script. One moment an old guy says they have traveled for 20 years and can't take the trip back, the other the ship is taking a one minute jump and it's back where it started. One moment a guy is basically court marshaled, and people are telling him he's insane and asks for too much, the other he is commanding landing forces. There is an alien species that landed on Earth right before Godzilla messed everything up which has no real purpose. There is a scene where they land back on Earth and there is a guy in the leaves, and that's the only scene where we see any people on the planet. There is a conspiracy theory that gets announced, then never mentioned again.

And the characters. They have names and they do things, but you don't know why. There is no character development at all. Who is the shy girl? Why are people referring to her like I should know her. Is this an episode of something? No, it's a part of a trilogy, but it's the first part!

It's just... weird. I can't imagine going through the effort of drawing all of this on the basis of a stupid script. Who does that? I can only consider this a failure, because it is clearly not what was intended to be.

A very underwhelming entry.

[inkdcub · 5/10 · 18 January 2018]

I know that this is the first entry in a series, but the entire thing seemed dull and underwhelming. The story seemed so rush to get to the end that none of the characters were developed enough for you to care about them. The main character Haruo was very one-note, displaying anger but nothing else. No attempt was made to flesh him out or give him any more depth than that. The plot about his parents being killed as the reason for him wanting revenge against Godzilla was nothing new. The angry human who wants to avenge a fallen loved one has been done in other kaiju films before (Godzilla x Megaguirus, Gamera 3), but those previous films conveyed it much better; here it seemed like a half hearted after thought. For having a title Planet of the Monsters, there were hardly any monsters, Godzilla doesn't show up until the end. Everything up until the climactic battle seems like run of the mill checkmarks just to get to that point. For it being an animated film, they had so much potential to be creative without the constraints that a live action film would pose, how they came up with such a wooden, lifeless story is kind of a shock. If their goal is to make a series then they should've put more time and energy into making the first entry more entertaining, as it stands, when it's over you're left not really caring enough to want to see any more of the story.

Good Enough For Godzilla Fans - Might Be Bad For Others

[neener3707 · 6/10 · 20 January 2018]

Beautiful animation and epic, well directed, action sequences combined with terrible writing and unbelievably thick exposition, creates an interesting futuristic take on the Godzilla story. I'll skip a story synopsis since IMDb has the plot up already. Being a big fan of Godzilla, I did enjoy most of the film, I loved the animation style, the environments are beautiful and the model for Godzilla is similar to newer films and still bad ass. The fiery action sequence were engaging and intense, though there wasn't as much as I would have hoped. With those good aspects in mind, lets talk about the bad, and some of it was REALLY bad.

The writing in this film is very bad, much like many Godzilla stories, but this one was bad for a different reason, exposition.... LOTS of exposition. Exposition is necessary for films but in this film, nearly ALL dialogue is explaining things. Many times 20 seconds into the explanation, I understood the idea/plan and found myself wanting them to shut up after 15 minutes of exposition, and move on. When planning attacks, I again understood the plan in 20 seconds in and waited several more agonizing minutes while waiting for the admittedly great action sequences. This film is filled to the brim with painful exposition related dialog that almost made me fast-forward through it.

All in all a cool first film with upcoming parts, most Godzilla fans will enjoy the effort here, while non-fans might not like it.

Entertaining and refreshing.

[kevinxirau · 7/10 · 20 January 2018]

You know, you'd think that since anime and Godzilla are so big in Japan that they'd combined the two a long time ago. Surprisingly, it took 60+ years to actually do so. Now, we have the first of a brand new animated trilogy called "Godzilla: Monster Planet", released not too long ago in Japan and more recently on Netflix (complete with English dub).

In this refreshing iteration, mankind lost the war for dominance over the Earth to the kaiju, chief among them Big G. With the help of two alien races, the survivors set off to the stars to colonize another planet, but it proved incompatible. Low on resources and options, they return to retake the Earth. However, it's been 20,000 years since they left and not only is there now an ecosystem of monsters but Godzilla, still alive after all this time, reigns supreme. Who will win, man or monster?

Right from the start, they show you of just how grim a situation humanity is in as hope and pride are barely holding on by a thread. In fact, it gets pretty dark at certain times. The humans are in such a sorry state that you sympathize with them but there are tiny hints that they as a species had it coming. There are also religious themes weaved into the story, including references to divine retribution. The cast is a mixed bag. The protagonist is Haruo, who is basically Ahab or Eren Jaeger from "Attack On Titan" (for anime fans reading this). He's passable I guess, though he tends to repeat himself from time to time, which gets old. Scientist Martin and commander Leland are a little more interesting as are two of the main aliens, but the rest are pretty bland and it's hard to say whether they'll get more development in the near future.

As for Godzilla, I love his design. He kind of resembles his 2014 look but with his body looking like a mix between muscle and tree bark and sporting new variations on his abilities. It's also the largest version yet and the animation emphasizes his immense size with slow, foreboding movements. He truly feels like a force of nature and he's got the power to boot; if he has you in his sights, you know you're screwed. New to the franchise are Servum, dragon-like beasties that are nice secondary threats to the humans. Most of the other kaiju are nothing more than cameos in the opening montage. Given the title "Monster Planet", having them show up more in the story would've provided more exploration of this ecosystem.

The overall story is good, though the first half is a touch slow. The reason is simply to establish this universe and provide exposition on the characters' plight and plan to reclaim Earth. This does provide decent suspense and once the monsters show up, it's mostly action. Speaking of which, the battles offer enough thrills to satisfy, pitting futuristic technology against beastly power and the animation allows for great visuals that you normally wouldn't get in live action. Expect a few good plot twists, one hell of a cliffhanger, and an after-credit scene.

Despite the aforementioned flaws, I'm still glad I saw this. The sequel expected to be released this May, this time featuring Mechagodzilla, which I look forward to. It's weird now seeing three separate Godzilla series happening at once, which is a first (Monsterverse, Shin, and Anime). Long live the King of the Monsters!

Much better than Shin Godzilla in my opinion!

[Mind-Boggling · 7/10 · 18 January 2018]

After Toho tarnished Godzilla with Shin's ugly ass face, my expectations for future Toho films were in the dirt. I'am not a fan of movies that warp or dilute Godzilla. And thankfully this is not one of those films. I went in with low expectations and found my self pleasantly suprized with Planet of Monsters. So Planet of Monsters is the first time Godzillla has ever been animated, unfortunately with cgi. But thankfully it's pretty well done and Godzilla himself looks fantastic, even if he only shows up for three minutes right after his son is blown to smithereens! Yeah you read that right only three minutes; the rest of the monster screen time in the movie is relegated mostly to his son. And also some classic Toho monsters get brief cameos at the beginning. Most of the monster action is close to the end and there isn't necessarily a lot of it either. But what is there is very good. There are a lot of human characters in this movie and none of them are very well fleshed out, there all mostly one dimensional. Although the dubbing is not too shabby so they do at least come off as charismatic. Overall I'd say this is a fun, tense movie, one of the better Godzilla films for sure.

If you love Godzilla, you might be overjoyed.

[zackplog · 7/10 · 18 January 2018]

Anyone that has ever watched anything pertaining to Godzilla has things in it that are simply crazy and you must accept in order to enjoy the film. Everyone should also remember that the writing is almost always sub-par. That being said, this movie should be seen within the Godzilla standard of films. *I can say the same about Star Wars films.

Anyone that has every watched a Godzilla movie within its classical format should expect to go, "Yeah yeah, aliens, vengeful scientist, whatever, get to the battle." Anyone that expects more is deceiving themselves. One of the greatest parts about this film is that it didn't fall victim to one of the greatest anime failings ever which is breaking its own rules. This anime interpretation presented some outlandish laws on nature and space and time, but it then continued with those rules, no matter how crazy they are. Which, if you're accepting a giant, atomic-breath wielding monster, you should be ready for some craziness, especially when it's from a series containing an enemy that was friggin Mothra back in the day. A moth. So go into this movie knowing and accepting it for what it is. Do that and you'll have fun. That is why I did not rank it higher though Because it's a movie that you have to step into the Godzilla universe and know that the first half is basically skip-worthy, it doesn't deserve a 10. Within the universe...without revealing spoilers, I was on the edge of my seat with excitement over just how over-the-top they made Godzilla. He's nearly a demi-god in his own right. So that just made me excited beyond my initial response of telling people, "I'm happy. Can you tell I'm happy? Because I'm happy. This makes me happy. I'm happy."

Speaking to my previous asterisk: *(This part might end in me being called a heretic) Star Wars movies are fun but, let's face it, they're not the greatest when it comes to writing, directing, and acting (with obvious highlights). No one can tell me that Mark Hamill was a good actor, especially in Episode IV. I can, however, accept it within an incredibly intriguing universe that overcomes Leia's spoiler-free, space, force shenanigans in Episode VIII.

Nice idea, yet it seems like it was done in a rush, without much thinking

[cmartinport · 6/10 · 27 January 2019]

Its has an interesting approach on the Godzilla theme, and I like the story central idea. Yet I found the execution of it to frail, like if it was done in a rush without thinking it to much. The characters, the dialogues, the way the story unfolds, it´s not bad, yet it lacks some sense in it, leaving you the idea that it could have been easily improved, yet there was not much effort in doing so. Apart from that, The animation is not bad, it gets the point done, but leaves much to improve. The voice acting could be much better, at least in the Japanese version of it, but again, is not a deal breaker. Still, i enjoyed enough that I watch the rest of the trilogy, without regretting it.

This could had gone better

[sanbene · 3/10 · 19 January 2018]

I was excited for the release of this film hitting Netflix and the introduction of Godzilla into Anime culture, as I can imagine many of you were, but sadly, I was disappointed. Okay first thing first, as many have pointed out in other reviews, the story/writing is less than desirable. For instance, the plot hole that others have pointed out, but also the findings of Godzilla's weaknesses/tactics is just plain random. I feel the writers just put that in to move the story forward without caring how one person(our MC), without the aid of research/facts, just wrote random things and everyone blindly follows it. I mean seriously this is the same guy that just threatened to destroy the human race in the very beginning and somehow he turns out to be the hero of everybody. The characters are bland, generic, and uninteresting. Our MC here is set to mindless revenge that it consumes him throughout the entire film. Seriously, every line the MC will say with include "Kill Godzilla" in some way or another. From the very beginning I found him annoying and it just makes you cheer for Godzilla to kill his a**. The other characters aren't much better, they feel like extra/filling characters instead of being supportive characters. I guess when you have a film dedicated to revenge that everything else just becomes extra then focusing on anything else is unnecessary. As many have pointed out, this movie is heavily dialogue driven with very little Godzilla show time until the very end. That wouldn't have been a problem since it would set everything up for the second film, but regretfully the entire dialogue is filled with futuristic equipment talk that should had been short and should had actually focus on a real plot, God preaching from a character that has no presence whatsoever, and REVENGE! REVENGE!! from the MC. Overall, this could had been better with a more impactful story and characters that don't blend into the background.

Grade: B- "Attack on Titan! In Space! In the Future! Godzilla is also there!"

[itcamefromamonstermovie · 7/10 · 20 October 2019]

The start to a unique and "controversial" entries in the 65 year legacy of the atomic menace that is Godzilla, we at It Came from a Monster Movie had a very interesting review for this movie. While we highlight that this film's narrative has flaws, there are some interesting and if you go into without expectation, you might actually surprise yourself with this film!

For more, please check out episode 3 of IT CAME FROM A MONSTER MOVIE for the full review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Shamezilla

[shhhh-39620 · 1/10 · 18 January 2018]

I wasn't expecting too much from this movie

Story: Even a 5 years old kid could written a story with less plot holes than this one. There is a "HUGE" plot hole just in the first 20 minutes that ruined entirely the story for me.

"The human race escaped from earth due Godzilla destroying the civilization, to colonize other planets on a spaceship and traveled for over 20 years on a space-ship to reach their destiny, with lot of people dying over their travel. Just to go back to earth in less than 1 minute with their warp jump technology due some random ideas never proven from someone that minutes ago wanted to kill what remains from the human race and other alien races that coexisted together, when they could use that warp tech to reach the planets that whey were aiming earlier".

Characters: The main character is simply too annoying to express in words, from the beginning to the end, i was rooting for Godzilla just to eat this guy since the beginning of the movie.

The rest of the crew members are just too plain. Hardly i could distinguish one from another. Due the bad written story, the characters lack of realism, they are like "Lemmings" waiting in line to commit suicide by the orders of a wacko "terrorist" main character by killing themselves trying to prove if Godzilla can be hurt.

The only good thing about this movie was Godzilla destroying everything in its path.

I wasted my time watching this.

Excellent presentation of an ancient theme

[Snootz · 8/10 · 19 January 2018]

When we read these reviews we see a mixture of those greatly appreciative of this film, and those who consider it garbage. To the later I can only guess two things apply:

1) They are not aware this is PART 1 of the movie. More to come. 2) Some quite likely don't understand the Japanese mentality or the Godzilla mythos. In such case this will make no sense. Those who understand both Japanese cinema and the Godzilla mythos understood this film and rated it highly.

First regarding the film itself: animation was top-quality, with an excellent mix of anime and realism with computer graphics. The blend is fairly perfect, so much so that one forgets we are watching an animated film-- until something strikes us as particularly well-done.

The story line and plot-- and even the very final after-credits scene-- contrary to some claims makes perfect sense, is consistent and follows a logical flow. It is a well-done story... and I am very critical of films with lousy stories and plots. Of course to understand, one has to understand Godzilla. If one thinks Godzilla is just a "scary monster" or a dinosaur on steroids, they have no idea what Godzilla really is.

So considering the terrific animation, good voice-over acting, well-done story line and consistency with the Godzilla theme, we have a real kicker of a Godzilla movie... one of the best I've seen. I tend to be very critical of movies and don't cut them much slack in the case of sloppy production. This was done well and is definitely worth watching... unless of course, one understands zip about Godzilla. It does help to be acquainted with the concept going in.

Character writing was piss-poor, everything was great!

[beetle-259-554148 · 7/10 · 18 January 2018]

I know I posted a review before, but due to IMDb constantly giving me an error message when I tried to edit it, I had to resort to posting a new review. Why did I change my rating? Because the more I thought about the movie, the more positives that stuck out and it seemed unfair to give the movie a bad rating just for two screw-ups.

The writing for the characters in this thing was terrible, if not just awful. We're given no reason to care about the main character, much less ANY of them! There is literally no reason to care about any of the human characters, not to mention the big gaping plot hole of them using the warp jump drive to get BACK to Earth instead of using it to get TO the new planet and saving many people from death and suffering on the journey.

The writing for the battle scenes, dialogue, and climax were okay. The characters is where the writing shits the bed.

Pretty much the only "good" reason we're given to care about Haruo is Godzilla killed his parents, which is the most cliche reason for a fictional character to hate someone (Bruce Wayne in the 1989 Batman film, the girl in Gamera: Awakening of Iris). Also, there is no reason explicitly given as to why the shuttle exploded, we're just supposed to ASSUME that it was because of the planets atmosphere. Haruo's whole personality is he's angry at Godzilla for indirectly killing his parents and making humanity flee to a planet that turned out to be uninhabitable, though he seems 99% more angry at Godzilla for indirectly killing his parents like "Fuck all the other people who were killed by Godzilla, HE KILLED MY PARENTS!!!". That's it, there is no more depth, nor any development in his character.

It's almost insulting that he was named after Haruo Nakajima. You end up hating the main character because he's so shallow and annoying and you want to see Godzilla kill him. I know I did!

The only reason I stuck around was because Godzilla's in it! Had it not been for Godzilla, I wouldn't have watched it all the way through.

This would've gotten a 10 out of 10 rating but I had to dock three stars; two for the horrendous HORRENDOUS character writing, one for the plot hole that is soon forgotten.

What can you expect when you start with a weak story

[kaefab · 4/10 · 21 January 2018]

I love Godzilla, my father used to bring me to the theater when i was 5 years old to see the old 70 movies.

Some good some bad but in this era where everything is made for money this is another good example.

The story is very weak, when you say that a bunch of humans and some extra terrestrial aliens where driven off the earth and searching for a new home in space for close to 20 years because of Godzilla..... mmmmm

After they fail to find any habitable place they decide all else fail to go back to mother earth after 20 thousand years . They find the earth as changed a lot of spanning from Godzilla some new type of monster as emerge. After all this time Godzilla is still alive, but now for some odd reason they have a plan to defeat him.

As you can see this makes no sense at all, and many will start to wonder why was this movie even made, if not with the Godzilla stamp to make quick $$$.

This movie is to be taken with a grain of salt and even if you skip it a part from top notch animation because that's all the movie as to offer the animation is beautiful the rest is just a mess.

ICFAMM! Review: GODZILLA: MONSTER PLANET

[thehuniverses · 7/10 · 2 February 2019]

The third episode of the podcast, IT CAME FROM A MONSTER MOVIE! focused itself on this unique take in the trilogy of animated films of Godzilla's first official footsteps into the realm of anime. What makes this movie such a hit or miss with fans is the direction of it trying to not be a typical "godzilla film" (its been cited that this film is more for the female demographic than usual Godzilla fans) as well taking a fresh if not controversial stance on presenting the King of the Monsters! We discuss this and the failure of the "promises" this film provides in its marketing. To listen to this episode, just search for the podcast "IT CAME FROM A MONSTER MOVIE!"

Animation is a big factor

[gamingey · 7/10 · 2 September 2019]

The good animation is some of the best I have seen, but some of it feels rushed such as lips not syncing with what the character is saying. The storyline is a bit hard to comprehend but if you pay attention you will be able to keep up. I don't like that they put the backstory after the scene with the arrest I say they should have put is at the beginning. Overall, good movie, I recommend

it's lit

[yolojolo-85315 · 7/10 · 10 March 2018]

Skipped the first part but the fighting was a banger tbh it was lit <3

Brilliant.

[Jigsjigz · 7/10 · 19 January 2018]

Great from start to finish, it dragged a little in the middle but then was straight into the action!

A sequel to a non existing movie.

[sebaser · 4/10 · 25 February 2018]

The biggest problem of the 32nd entry in this franchise is that it feels like apart of a series, a middle part, yet at the very same time it has almost nothing in common with the previous movies. While it does have references to the previous movies like Mechagodzilla, and obviously Godzilla himself is the main antagonist both his powers as well the world it takes in is completely original and knowledge of previous entries isnt required or even helpful, meaning no matter if you are new to Godzilla movies or not you will go in and leave equally confused.

In this universe humans live together with another alien race, earth is completely devoid of human life while humans themself long ago abandoned their home star system as they poses space faring technology. This weird but never explained society is ruled by some barely described group that refuses to give up power, they are internally divided among factions never described, and there is a some barely mentioned alien church also struggling for power. On top of that there are resource and living space problems, but how serious we dont know, as well as light speed travel capabilities that seem to be breaking down, or maybe not as the movie dosnt bother to cover this field ether.

And yet nothing of this is part of the story, it feels like there is one movie missing setting up the world and the current political situation, its this very lack of setup that hurts the movie the most when complex internal politics get involved. As most of the time we dont know what going on the movie is forced to constantly explain the situation to us in minutes long exposition dump monologues. Characters will often stop what ever they are doing turn to each other and give an info dump for a minute or two filling us in on the lacking world building as well as explain to use what this futuristic technology is capable of and how it will be used in the next scene. While many of s-f movies set in far away future are guilty of this its rarely to this extent.

The action is passable, but the characterization is awful as there is barely any time left for characters whose role isnt explaining to us one thing or another. If you want to know more about those aliens, something that you would think would be quite a game changer for the series then you are out of luck, they play no real role in the movie.

And to top it all off there is no ending. While the movie is supposed to be fallowed with 2 more sequels, its hard to be satisfied with a fade to black in a middle of an action scene as if someone cut the power at your house. We leave the story almost in the same place we start, with not much resolved but with few of barely developed characters dead.

In the end it feels just like another low budget 24 episode s-f anime series only with half the content cut up and sold as a single movie. Its not one i would recommend for ether Godzilla fans or s-f fans.

pretty awesome

[datasian · 7/10 · 19 January 2018]

I have never ever been a fan of english dubbed so kinda made it hard to watch since all of the english voice actors are trying to use a raspy voice as if they are all liam neeson talking to a raspy voiced Keanu reeves(it makes me cringe when i hear it forced so badly) BUT IT IS A GODZILLA MOVIE SO IT IS AWESOME and bearable to deal with the voice acting(remember im pretty biased as i cant accept forced raspy voices). great to watch!

A Terrible Disapointment

[epochink · 1/10 · 29 January 2018]

You come to a Godzilla movie and a well-budgeted anime feature with a certain number of high expectations; a unique premise, good SF or fantasy story and world, strong action and design and direction should all be there. Unfortunately this new Godzilla movie fails miserably in all these areas and is almost unwatchable.

The big problem is the writing. The script is awful with a half-baked SF premise and very juvenile dialogue. It manages to take on the worst aspects of classic bad Japanese anime writing and then push it to a whole new level of painful, obviousness, dullness and illogic.

And the CG character animation and design is stiff and expressionless. Very close to zombiehood. The action scenes are okay, but they don't start until almost an HOUR into the movie so we get a full hour of boring, listless characterization, design and dialogue that wants to make you drive a nail into your skull.

And here's the final shot to the gut; they made Godzilla BORING. The 1,000 foot design is very powerful, but essentially they made him immortal and fully invulnerable so the "heroes" have to go through very complicated loops to do any damage to him. And we don't really even interact with him until the last 30 minutes or so.

Give this turkey a pass.

All Hail The King

[jaymeschmitt-82869 · 10/10 · 17 January 2018]

As a man who has never gotten into the groove of Anime, Godzilla Monster Planet was one flick I was legitimately excited to see. And it certainly delivered. The plot being simple enough was very well done in it's execution. The characters are very well liked and there are many cameos from monsters that haven't been seen for some time (Orga, Dagarla, Dogora). Yes again, as someone totally uninterested in anime, Godzilla Monster Planet has sparked that interest.

The First One Is Innocent

[m-86378 · 7/10 · 20 February 2018]

20,000 years ago, people come back to their terrible planet. Godzilla maybe the choice of nature. It have been here 20,000 years. So long! Maybe, it's the world of Godzilla. No!No!No! Godzilla killed too many people. It's people's duty to revenge on Godzilla for their compatriot. The second one is too big, too strong, and too atrocious! Maybe they need Ultraman! Colored Eggs!

Disapointing

[leeonaduff · 2/10 · 29 January 2018]

A great premise for a Godzilla re-approach but in my opinion the story and action lacked greatly. The characters were overly-trope-y and forgettable, the in universe logic was nonsense. Overly dependent on the nostalgia monster film audience and doesn't lend much to anyone else. Animation was fine but limiting in facial expressions that made it look cheap. Was really looking forward to this one but was let down on all sides.

Bad

[captain_tawfik · 7/10 · 28 March 2018]

This film ruined Godzilla's original films, it's totally different and frustrating..

It's not THAT bad...

[argylerings · 7/10 · 27 July 2018]

Is it a little boring? Sure. Is there a butt ton of exposition? You betcha. But what this film manages to accomplish that few other monster movies do is add an element of serious world building. The uniforms, positions, and even the scorched Earth the characters return to all fits a unique and sophisticated aesthetic. It's hard to keep a focus on individual characters, but the plot, the themes, the overall feel and necessity is clear, which is what I feel the intent behind Planet of the Monsters was. It wasn't trying to be a kaiju flick, it's an anime! With anime themes! Anime writing and anime acting!

If you like monsters, give it a try! If you like crazy cool anime space stuff, go for it! It's far from perfect, and a bit of a snoozefest at times, but I personally believe it was an interesting departure from the Godzilla norm, with a unique plot and setting which understandably generates anger among some viewers, but for a monster fan like me, it's an interesting and exciting change of pace.