09 Jan Godzilla: The Planet Eater Review

GODZILLA: THE PLANET EATER

This is part of my ‘Re-Review’ series, where I revisit a movie that I haven’t seen in awhile to evaluate if my opinion has changed with time.

With the release of the first full trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong, I decided to re-watch six of my favorite Godzilla-centric movies, including the precursors to the new film.

Old Opinion: A solid trilogy capper to the Toho/Netflix anime Godzilla movies…

New Opinion: …that suffers from a weak villain in Ghidorah, but cements Godzilla as the redeemed hero

As before, if you haven’t read the re-reviews of the previous two chapters, this might not make sense.

The Planet Eater finds the humans falling into line with Exif leader Metphies, who has been a strong supporter and ally of Haruo throughout the previous films. And Metphies has one focus: convert the humans to his religion, which has both scientific, magical, and spiritual powers on display at any given time.

Long story short: the Exif were expelled from their own planet by a galactic monster known as Ghidorah, whom they worship in secret, and have decided to bring from its cross-dimensional prison to Earth to prove its power over Godzilla. After humans failed to kill Godzilla in the first movie, and the Bilusaludo failed in the second movie, the Exif decide that they will sacrifice themselves, all humans, and planet Earth to destroy Godzilla by bringing King Ghidorah to do…exactly that the title of the films says!

Ghidorah is an interesting monster, summoned into reality by gruesome Exif rituals that introduce some body-horror elements into the trilogy that were missing from the previous entries. Ghidorah himself is a monster of incalculable size, as you never see the whole creature, only the parts that emerge from a trio of black holes that allow him to enter into Earth’s atmosphere and attack Godzilla, who is helpless against an enemy that seems to be out of phase in such a way that he cannot inflict damage on the planet eater; at least, initially.

Although the idea of Ghidorah as the messiah for a death cult is interesting, the execution is both overly gruesome and anti-climactic. Ghidorah is completely immune to Godzilla…until he isn’t, and it has nothing to do with Godzilla’s abilities, but Haruo’s discovery of the Exif betrayal. That aside, the dynamic of a religion that worships a god who destroys every planet it encounters is certainly a bigger threat than Godzilla, which opens the doorway to Godzilla saving the Earth and every human left on it. The stakes are raised sufficiently high as the previous battles and encounters with Godzilla have left the humans with virtually no functioning technology by the end of the movie, and in this the solution to survival of the human race becomes evident.

Although this entry is the weakest, it also does not shy away from exploring more challenging themes related to the intersection of religion, magic, technology, and morality. Many American movies shy away from incorporating religion in anything but a profoundly negative way, and while the Exif religion emerges as a terrifying death cult, the native humans that have learned to live with Godzilla also embrace a religion based on simplicity, respect, and compassion that eschews technology and facilitates symbiotic survival with Godzilla, something no other groups have managed; and they are ultimately triumphant because of this strongly Native American-esque religion.

Ghidorah was a fascinating concept, being an inter-dimensional monster that travels through time and space via black holes the Exif have learned to summon at will. But in the end, Godzilla’s fight is too short and is not nearly as amazing as the Godzilla/Ghidorah fight in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Nonetheless, the film comes to a very clear conclusion and, taken as a whole, the Toho/Netflix anime Godzilla trilogy is great!

Pros:

• Seeing and cheering for Godzilla is always great
• Perhaps the most visually interesting of the three films, particularly the unique design of Ghidorah
• A strong message that brings all of the characters stories to a clear conclusion

Cons:

• Overly gruesome imagery of ritualistic human sacrifices and mutilation…although it’s animated, so slightly less disgusting
• Underwhelming final fight for a trilogy-capper

Rating: 3/5
A disappointing third entry in the trilogy, but still stronger than a LOT of second sequels.

Review by Jim Washburn