Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle Review

Six months have passed since the U.S release of the first ever anime Godzilla film, Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. The film received a mostly middling reaction upon its release, including from myself, with the broad consensus being that the film moved too slow, the characters were barely fleshed out, and the stiff CG animation was a disappointing look for Godzilla's first long-form foray into animation. Does the second film improve on its predecessor, or does it fall into the same traps as before?
Unfortunately, I have to say the film leans more towards the latter part of that question. Like Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle is not a bad film per se. It's just a disappointing one; a film that could do so much more with its medium of choice. This film does improve in some key areas, namely character development, but now that we're two-thirds into this trilogy, it's almost time we call this thing a waste of potential.

Once again, City on the Edge of Battle relies too heavily on dry exposition and monologue-heavy dialogue to pad out its runtime. The film is barely 100 minutes, and yet it feels so much longer because the exciting beats are simply too few and far between. This isn't a necessarily bad thing, as many Godzilla films have pulled this structure off quite well. The problem here lies in the weak script and uninspired direction, once again.

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle begins almost immediately after the cliffhanger ending of the previous film. Captain Haruo Sakaki is nursed back to health by a girl that appears to be a descendant of the human race. He reunites with the survivors of the original Godzilla's devastating attack after they are rounded up and taken to the underground village belonging to the girl's people, a group of telepaths who call themselves the Houtua. They worship an egg left behind by one of Godzilla's many foes before humanity fled Earth, and the girl turns out to be half of a set of identical twins who can communicate between the egg, the Houtua, and the survivors. The twins lead the party to Mechagodzilla City, a massive production facility created by the self-replicating nanometal used to build Mechagodzilla before it was destroyed by Godzilla. Now, the survivors plan to use Mechagodzilla City to unleash another all-out assault against Godzilla, knowing that this decisive battle might cost them everything, including their humanity.

Considering the pedigree of the man behind the screenplay, Gen Urobuchi, it is extremely unfortunate that he seems to have dropped the ball here. Many of his familiar themes pop up once again (religious commentary, evolving past humanity, over reliance on technology), but this time he forgot to include a cast worth giving a damn about. Most of the characters lack in any kind of personality, and spend most of the film's runtime discussing, once again, how to kill Godzilla. The film changes its tune in the final act, but not before two-thirds of technobabble followed by or accompanied by reiterating the direness of their situation. Though the film is rife with intriguing concepts we've simply never seen before in the Godzilla franchise, including a few that are paid off well, this world building means nothing if the story has no heart. Just ask George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels.

There are a few exceptions to this weak cast however. Notably, Haruo, our protagonist, is written far better in this installment. Here, we see some actual character growth as he slowly transitions from a single minded Godzilla killing machine into a stronger leader whose love of humanity becomes a more tangible trait audiences can latch onto due to the events and trials he's put through this time. Without giving too much away, Haruo is really put through the wringer and it makes him a fleshed out character. He's still not one of the best characters that Urobuchi has written, but it's a lot harder to call him "Eren Jaeger but smart" now.

Other highlights of the cast include the Bilusaludo race of aliens, given a much meatier role in this installment. As the creators of Mechagodzilla, they view their creation much like a proud parent would view their offspring, and it makes for some cool explorations into their culture and values. One of the film's most powerful themes is how much they're willing to put on the line to destroy Godzilla. Though our two main Bilusaludo aliens are pretty much interchangeable, the film is at its strongest when they're the driving force behind the plot.

Unfortunately, that's about it for this cast. Martin Lazarri gets to show some flashes of personality with how excited he gets over examining the ecosystem, but he's mostly used to spout off technobabble. The Houtua twins seem to show some character at the beginning of the film, especially in the contrast between how violent they are, and that differentiates them from being so obviously this trilogy's interpretation of Mothra's twin fairies. Unfortunately, it's quickly brushed aside once they reach the city and they become mouthpieces spouting out cryptic dialogue, much like Metphies' role at the end of the last film. Speaking of Metphies, he's hardly in this film, and when he is, he's mostly there to lay down teases for the third film and continue nudging Haruo along (you can't have an Urobuchi story without a master manipulator after all).

The character that easily suffers the most here is, naturally, Yuko Tani. In the first film, Yuko is barely a presence in the plot, so her presence was simply forgettable. Here, she's somehow worse. She gets herself in danger recklessly, gets jealous, and dislikes the Houtua for ridiculously sexist reasons. Considering this is the same man who wrote Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, and Psycho-Pass, it's odd to see his recent works giving female characters such weak material. When her romance begins to bloom with Haruo, it's hard to really care. By the end of the film, it's clear she exists only to push our male hero forward on his quest. Extremely lame stuff.

Once again, because the cast is weak overall, the pacing of these films feels glacial. However, things pick up once the plan to attack Godzilla commences (mostly because it's the only time we get actual Godzilla action in this film. That's right, it's in this film LESS than the first one). Here, the themes Urobuchi present actually come together in an exciting fashion, and characters have to make tough choices that I could actually invest in. Unfortunately, this just means that the ending is the most exciting part yet again.

This might not be a problem if the directing was inspired, but once again Hiroyuki Seshita and Kobun Shizuno provide us with a surprisingly boring looking film. From the stiff character animation to the muted colors to the static camera work, the film is just a chore to watch for most of its runtime. Even the film's sparse action scenes lack much imagination, using many of the same beats as the first film. Want to watch mechs fly really close to Godzilla again and pull away just before getting blasted? Well, you're in for a treat.

The film's biggest visual crime; however, might be making Godzilla not the powerhouse it was in the last few minutes of Planet of the Monsters. Here, Godzilla spends most of its time on screen walking very slowly before stopping to charge and fire its atomic ray every few minutes. Not only that, but the film makes the very odd choice of not giving Godzilla the same scale it had in those last few minutes. I understand the directors wanted to give the film scale by showing plenty of super wide shots to frame just how powerful Godzilla's ray is, but it creates the opposite effect and diminishes Godzilla's power and its presence as a whole.

Well, it's time to wait another six months (four months for the Japanese theater-goer) for the final installment, Godzilla: The Planet Eater. Though there are certainly some interesting plot threads still dangling, I unfortunately find myself only watching the next film mostly out of obligation as a Godzilla fan and as someone who's already seen the first two parts of this trilogy. It's becoming more and more apparent that Godzilla's highly anticipated first foray into anime is a bit of a failure, and unless the crew can pull off a magic act and deliver a mind blowing final chapter, I think most Godzilla fans will agree with this assessment.

There's still plenty to like here, but it repeats too many of the mistakes of the first film. And while it does fix some (Haruo's character arc), it makes new mistakes in their place instead (Yuko's character arc). I've rewatched every Godzilla film, including the ones I dislike, except for Shin Godzilla (though I will soon enough). These films though? That sounds like a chore. And it says a lot that, from what I've seen, Godzilla fans were more excited for news about next year's Godzilla: King of the Monsters that dropped on the same day a brand new anime Godzilla film hit the United States.