When people think of the Godzilla films they usually just think of the live action films and nothing more then that which is something that really does make sense as there are quite alot of live action Godzilla films out there. However there really are also some animated Godzilla films out there as well and those films really do deserve to be talked about just as much as the live action films are really regardless of there quality and so then join me as I review the film that saw the king of monsters make his animated feature film debut with the film in question being called simply just "Godzilla: Planet Of The Monsters" enjoy.
The plot of this film is several thousands years after humans abandoned Earth after it was attacked by Godzilla a small ragtag group of humans return and land on the planet hoping to take it back from the king of the monsters. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but at the same time tho this films plot really isn't all that good either as while the concept is a good idea where that idea fails is in it's execution as this films plot is at best wafer thin with it just coming and going as and when it pleases with the plot of this film also being really underdeveloped and not being all that well thought out with the film just relying on it's concept to make it's plot to seem interesting instead of actually giving us a good and well thought out plot and yet when the plot does get good it just comes across as being fan service as all there doing are referencing things and creatures from both previous Godzilla movies and the other two Godzilla animated movies which is great for those movies but at the same time it does nothing for the plot of this movie either with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Chris Niosi as Haruo Sakaki , Lucien Dodge as Metphies and Edward Bosco as Martin Lazzari. Also starring in this film is Jamieson Price as Mulu Elu Galu Gu , Rich Brown as Rilu-Elu Belu-be , Cristina Vee as Yuko Tani , Robbie Daymond as Adam Bindewald , Ray Chase as Eliott Leland , Keith Silverstein as Unberto Mori , Doug Stone as Halu-Elu Dolu-do and Joe Ochman as Endurphe.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Which isn't really something that's all that surprising as alot of this films actors are a bunch of really good actors and have proven that time and time again in various projects but alot of them just come across as either being wooden or horribly miscast with it seeming like that the producers of this films dub were casting these actors on name recognition alone and there for didn't bother to have them audition because if they did then they would have cast this movie alot more differently as Lucien Dodge doesn't make for a good Metphies and Edward Bosco makes for a dull Martin Lazzari with each actor being better suited for the others role and while Cristina Vee is a good voice actor here she's just not given all that much to do and so she feels like she there just for the sake of being there and not really because of the fact that her character actually adds anything to the plot of this film with the actual acting in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Polygon Pictures. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films animation being alot better then what it really had any right to be as with 3D CGI anime the end animation is very usually a mixed bag 'with it not really being something that audiences want and yet with this film it looks terrific and it more then holds up over seven years later with this film animation looking just as good as anything that PIXAR has put out recently as here you can tell that there was a lot of effort into making the king of monsters animated feature film debut look as good as it really could have been and while the film really doesn't take as full advantage of the fact that it's an animated film that doesn't change the fact that when we get to see something look truly wonderful with even Godzilla himself looking really good in animation and while yes there are alot of truly nice looking things in this films animation that doesn't mean that the animation is perfect because it's not as there are a few shots early on in the film that do look kind of rough almost as if the animators just ran out of time to work on them and that kind of thing does lower the animation quality down just a little bit.
While the human characters in the live action Godzilla films are never the most interesting part of any Godzilla film. They do at least have more then one emotion which is sadly not the case for this films lead character Haruo Sakaki whose only emotion in this film is that of anger which is something that does make sense for the film but at the same time tho he's meant to be the main character of this film and yet the film gives no reason to care for him but it gives us plenty of reasons to hate him which makes him come across as being a really unlikable character and while this film is a story told over the curse of three films and so he does learn to soften up a bit over those two other films there should have been more of an effort put into making him a more likable character in this film as he is the one that we're going to be spending alot of time with over the course of this trilogy and there making him a more likable but edgy character would make sense but what doesn't make sense is making him someone who you can't stand to be around because of the fact that he could snap at you at any moment if you so much as looked him wrong with the rest of the characters also just having one emotion which makes them seem like after thoughts and as we're meant to be spending quite alot of time with these characters there should have been more of an effort into making them all more fully formed as characters and into giving us the audience a chance to actually like them rather then hating if not all of them then at the vert least most of them.
For some strange reason the makers of this film thought that it was a good idea to copy what Godzilla 2014 did and spend alot of the time with the films human characters. While yes granted films like both Godzilla Minus One and even Shin Godzilla also do that but they also knew to spend just as much time with Godzilla as he's the one that people are actually paying to see and yet in this film Godzilla doesn't get that much screen time and he's the title character which makes him feel like a side character in his own story and heck the plot of the film even revolves around him and while this does allow for the film to showcase it's truly stunning backgrounds it also means that we have to spend alot more time with some really unlikable character when it would have been far better if they got to the Godzilla stuff alot more sooner as it takes a good while for Godzilla to show up when the humans land back on earth and while yes we do get to see alot of him in flashback scenes in those scenes he's quite literally a still image for the most part apart from the scene where it's strongly implied that he killed Haruo's parents but that's not what we want to see from Godzilla we want to see him blowing stuff up and causing chaos and yet it takes a good while for us to actually get to that which is something that does bog this film down quite a it as we are forced to watch alot of boring and pointless scenes that go nowhere and add nothing to the overall plot of the film.
To give this film some credit it does look very visually stunning and the fact that the story is something new even to the Godzilla franchise is to be admired. However at the same time tho this film does feel like a waste of a good idea as the idea of having humans loose the earth to Godzilla and then return years later to try and take it back from him is a really solid idea but the film doesn't go all the way with it's idea as the film is instead more focused on setting up things that won't pay off until either the second or third films in this trilogy which makes this film feel alot more like an extended trailer for those films when alot more time really should have been spent on developing this films ideas and having alot of the scenes from earlier on in the film like the death of Haruo's grandfather play apart of who he is as a character instead of him barely even mentioning that someone who looked after him for TWENTY PLUS YEARS has just been killed right infront of him as that then would be an interesting angle to take that character in and while yes the film does have some entertainment value when it gets to the stuff with Godzilla you still have to sit through alot of painfully long and boring scenes with the characters just sitting and talking and that's not something that you want a film is as short as this one is as every single scene needs to be advancing the plot and advancing the characters and that mean getting rid of all of the stuff that makes the film dull and boring and instead get to the stuff that people want to see and even expect to see in a Godzilla film.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty eight minuets and thirty seconds. Which is a really solid running time for this film to have as alot of the later sixties and seventies Godzilla films did have very similar running times or this film to have and while this film really does have more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time this films story really should have been wrapped up in one film as the film only has enough plot for one film let alone and entire trilogy of films and while the film does make as a good a use of it's running time that it really could have due this is film that really should have been a lot longer as then it would have been able to have the characters get the development that they really did need it and would hopefully allow them to be more likable characters but at the same time tho it would mean sitting through more boring scene after boring scene with nothing actually happening to advance the actual plot of the film which is something that could've only have been fixed with a re-write of the films script and not something that could've been fixed with adding more time to the film as that would only make those issues bigger as now we'd be forced to focus in on them alot more and while yes this film does indeed get exciting it's also film that doesn't know when to cut down on the boring and pointless scenes either as those are scenes that really do bog this film by quite a bit and can at times make this film feel like it's not only a chore to sit through but also feel like that it's quite alot longer then what it actually is but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As it's during this films action that the film not only gets to be really exciting but also shows some promise as it shows us that the human characters actually have to try and work together to even get close to damaging Godzilla where as he can just stand on them and swat away whatever being fired at him like there flies which was an interesting angle to take as it's something that we the audience really haven't seen before in a Godzilla film as alot of the time we just get Godzilla smashing down buildings and that's really and that's great but it's not something that can be done with this film and so we have to get something new and creative from this films action as they can't even show us Godzilla fighting another monster either and what we get out of it whilst it might not be the best action in this franchise it is still some really entertaining and it's something that does take as full advantage of the fact that it's an animated film by doing camera moves that would be impossible to do in live action which might be a small thing but it's something that really does go along way to making this films action as entertaining as it really could have been as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while this entire Godzilla anime film trilogy might not be the best of Godzilla media out there it's still alot better then the 1998 American Godzilla film but this is a film that also really could have been alot better then what we really ended up with as the concept alone was more the enough to make the film work and yet for some strange reason this film really just doesn't work at all in anyway whatsoever in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as being as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys an#d girls and well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Godzilla fandom wiki page and Wikizilla. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very film that I used in this very review being the really great Wikizilla really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very film with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Wikizilla are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.