Godzilla 1: Kaijuu Wakusei

Really sad to see this sequel and the first Godzilla film getting such hate. For anyone put off by the large number of negative reviews it's just worth keeping in mind expectations.

Are Godzilla films supposed to be 'good'? No. They all about a ridiculous monster blowing things up and a ridiculous plot that really shouldn't work but it does and it's bloody brilliant. it's why they became so famous. why Godzilla became so iconic.

This newest incarnation of the Godzilla films do not have mind-blowing plots, super detailed characters with fascinating developments who are memorable.

It has brilliant visuals, awesome soundtracks and a REALLY badass ... monster blowing s*** up. What's not to love??? Why criticise something for being bad when it's not supposed to be (sarcastic quotes) 'good'? I think these films are extremely well done in their relative simplicity. i personally really enjoy the world building, even if there is a lot of 'pointless dialogue' as some reviews have accused it, i don't feel thats fair. The world setting is quite interesting. I love watching the imagination unfold. Seeing their minds-eye of a world 20,000 years after a Godzilla apocalypse! It's sweet!

honestly people manage youre expectations a bit and just appreciate what were given!! How many times do we viewers accuse animes and stories of having 'no world-building'??? and then when a show takes the time to include it... We complain!

TL DR: This show is a Godzilla film. Big Monster vs Crazy Human Plot. It's awesome! visually awesome, it has super cool explosions and a pretty sweet soundtrack to boot. sit back and enjoy it even if it's not some mind-blowing plot!!

And this is why you must be kind to nature. You just had a giant lizard minding its own business, not doing anything to anybody. It's just hanging out, roaming through the forest, having little dragon babies and such, living a life of peace for tens of thousands of years, just chillaxing. And, boom, humans gotta come through and start shooting and stabbing it. Poor giant lizard. It did nothing wrong. Shame on humanity. SHAME!

In all seriousness though, this was a decent film. You know the synopsis from the front, Godzilla runs humans off the ... planet, then humans come back to try and take it back. That's really all this is. I do have to say that for a 3D animation film, it was gorgeously done. The characters still had that bland 3D look, but the action was very nicely animated.

But, the movie is devoid of any kind of character. Almost everyone but the MC and the Priest were just faceless fodder there to fill up action scenes. As such, you don't really care much when they face the inevitable fate of those who oppose the King of the Kaiju. So, the entire movie is pretty much 30 minutes of showcasing spaceship despair, 30 minutes of prepping to fight Godzilla, and then 30 minutes of fighting Godzilla. There's not much in the way of drama, charisma or emotional gravitas. But, hey, it's a Godzilla anime.

But, its saving grace and most awesome moment comes at the end. The ending rocked. That's why I give this anime a 7 as opposed to a 5. 2 points for the dope finish. If you want to watch more explosions than a Michael Bay film and see giant lizards, watch this anime. If you're looking for something deeper, don't.

Quickie Review:

Glad I fell asleep halfway through this one or otherwise I’d have never seen it.
Very weak anime that doesn’t use its full potential and makes a predictable and weak anime that waste the Godzilla license.

Pros: Animation wasn’t awful, premise was interesting and at least wasn’t a rehash of some other Godzilla story.

Cons: Weak story with predictable storylines and characters, no characterization for anyone, anime itself looks ugly (just a mix of grey’s, blacks, and whites with an occasional blue or orange), animation wasn’t bad but CGI just looks cheap and dated no matter when and how it comes out.

I remember the first time I came across Polygon pictures back in around 2014, where the anime section of Netflix was a new thing for Irish people so I felt the need to check out what stuff they had that I’d never seen before. One of the shows they had that caught my eye was this space adventure series called Knights of Sidonia. I put it on, and dropped it in around 2 minutes because why the fuck is it all bad CG. This bad CG I would later realise is the aesthetic that polygon pictures want to achieve…this was an intentional decision.

I’ve had my ... fair share of fully CG anime since knights of Sidonia, some good, like Houseki no Kuni, and some…uh…we don’t talk about-(Berserk 2016 Vietnam Flashback Intensifies) with Polygon pictures consistently hitting that middle ground, consistently adapting beloved series into mediocrity over and over again, consistently utilising their talent to the most passable extent possible. It has never outright ruined a show, but at the same time there hasn’t been anything that Polygon pictures did up to this point that I found particularly engaging.

The biggest problem I had with the studio I’d say is that aside from using fully CG works, they like to adapt gritty, edgy work into this style. To say that Polyon pictures aims for a desaturated colour pallet would be the understatement of the century – a black hole would have more colour than one of their shows.

Yet, for some reason, despite this Godzilla movie doing absolutely nothing differently from the typical Polygon Pictures production, I had an absolute blast while watching it and I think that’s because Godzilla is at its best when it takes all of its goofy elements seriously. There is the occasional moment when mentioning elements like mecha-godzilla in such a grim and serious tone can’t help but come across as clunky, even if it’s a nice nod to the beloved franchise, but I think that what this tone adds does more than justify these moments.

This CG Godzilla movie take place 22 years after humanity lost to the ferocious beast, gave up and ran away. Now is the time when they strive to reclaim their homeland from the monsters. Their home planet which has been abandoned for almost 20,000 years because time works differently in space. Before humanity fled however, literal aliens helped them come up with their failed fighting tactics, gave them the technology to build spaceships and eventually joined the crew and even started spreading their own space religion. This take on the Godzilla franchise is obviously weird, but more than that its completely new. The film thrusts humanity into the position where they already tried and failed to overcome the king of monsters and they’re still defiantly trying to fight again, thus, staying true to the theme of hope in dire circumstances that makes the series so fun to return to.

This film is far from perfect, but considering how low my expectations were when going into this, the end result did nothing but shock and delight me as a viewer. I haven’t seen the other two films in the trilogy as of this review, but what I will say is that unlike certain other films that launch trilogies, I actually want to continue. I actually want to watch more, and see what happens to the crew as their forced to learn more about what their home planet has become. Goddamit I really liked this film.

7/10

This Review is actually the script to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-XUZnJHr1w

Check that out and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more reviews like it.

Overall this was a very enjoyable movie. The story was kinda lacking, but that's to be expected. Its a 3 part movie series. If you don't like cliff hangers or minimal knowledge of the characters then I would advise you to wait for the next 2 parts and watch it in one go. this way it will feel more natural and hopefully they end it with all questions answered. BUT AGAIN THIS IS A 3 PART MOVIE SERIES. You will Not get all the info you want on the first movie.
The art was good for the style they were using. Its not my favorite ... art style but they pulled it off in my view.
The sound was excellent from the intro to ending and everything in the middle. lips were synced in the dubbed version perfectly.
For the characters again you don't get that much. Its part one and you really only get partial background for the main character and even less for others but there's sure to be more info in the next couple movies so again if you don't like cliff hangers or like good character backgrounds wait for all three movies to be done and watch in one go.
I enjoyed the movie and will most likely re-watch it before i watch the next movie.It has great fighting scenes. The beginning will be a bit slow but the later half will be fast paced and enjoyable. I hope my review helps you.

As a total Godzilla Nerd I may have a bias toward this movie and the one that follows but I honestly feel this is a solid attempt at bringing the big guy to the anime world. The story while sort of slow is still interesting enough. The plot doesn't get away from its self and keeps a decent pace that keeps you interested in the movie. The characters are solid enough to draw you in and capture your attention but they are definitely not on par with some of the stronger anime series out there. The monster its self is not very threatening and I ... think that has a lot to do with the lack of things to destroy. The Godzilla franchise has always used the destruction of towns to evoke fear in it's viewers. This monster simply has nothing to destroy other than a few human ships and hover bikes. I think this hurts the film but doesn't make it unwatchable. The the end is pretty cool if you understand the metric system and have some idea of the size of past Godzilla's from the older live action movies. If you don't know how big Godzilla normally is then this reveal probably won't mean a thing to you.

All and all this is a solid film with decent animation and good story. It could have been better but it also could have been so much worse. If you are a fan of the Godzilla movies go ahead and watch this film because you won't be disappointed. Overall I give this film a solid 7! I can't wait for the third film to come out next year.

As a big time Godzilla fan I found this was probably the most unenjoyable of the movies out of the good 90% of the films I've seen of the entire series. Even when considering the older cheesy Godzilla schlock those movies could be alternatively enjoyed in an ironic way. This one is neither good legitimately, nor good ironically.

-Once in a while the movie has a good concept, but the concept doesn't go anywhere. Concepts like the alien's relationship to the humans or the "world remembering humanity" creating this manifest destiny feeling of the monster world were great ideas. Nothing really came of it though.

-The protagonist ... is a generic vengeful hero without a satisfying story arc.

-The use of pixel shaded 3D anime style could've been tolerable if not for the god-awful color choice. Making the movie completely boring to look at. The action is nothing to write home about either.

-The movie does nothing to play on the strengths of the kaiju genre. Nor does it try to do anything new.

Overall it's very bland and mediocre as a movie, and pretty bad as a Godzilla movie.

Improving the CGI use and trying to make something new with an overused licence are the 2 issues this movie had to deal with. Actually, it is not a 100%, but the movie has good qualities and deserve some attention.

First, let's talk about the CGI animation. This is not bad! The "3D" animation used to be very bad and unnatural, less lively than the classical animation. But recently, it is becoming better. And, according to me, this movie show this ! Indeed, the movie has a real style which allows to accept very easily the "3D" animation. There is also a good use of the ... CGI to make some great camera movement, especially during the battles actions.

But a movie is nothing without a story. Here the story is not revolutionary, to be honnest, but it is still a good point. They did not just use the same monster-like story, but they decided to show the humanity destroyed in its all greatness. The humanity have to leave its own house, and the movie quickly show how impossible it is. The other really good point of the scenario is the jump in the time, which is not extraordinary in itself, but which permit to show an earth planet really changed by Godzilla. The way they show that, and the new mysterious world created by this writing method is really fascinating.

The bad point of the movie is, for me, the characters. Even if they show a nice thinking on the situation and the different problem they face, they are still to stereotypical.

Eventually, This movie is a good experimentation on CGI and give the watcher a enjoyable and not brainless moment. Far more than what I expected!

"He is the punishing iron hammer for the arrogant. For the species who pronounce themselves as lords of creation, a divine avenger will pay them a visit. And so, he will..."

So, after 63 years we finally got a full animated Godzilla film. Was it worth the wait? Ehhhhh. It's hard to judge the entire story to this one based solely on this film alone since it is part of a trilogy and therefore incomplete. However, as a film on it's own its nothing terrible but it's nothing amazing either.

In the last summer of the 20th century, giant monsters began plaguing Earth and humanity is driven ... to near extinction by one monster which eliminated the others: Godzilla. Two alien races with ulterior motives, the religious Exif and the technologically advanced Bilusaludo, came to Earth and offered their assistance against Godzilla. After the Bilusaludo's gambit with Mechagodzilla failed before it could be activated, both the aliens and humanity were forced to abandon Earth and emigrate to Tau-e via the spaceship Aratrum. The time is now 20 years after the exodus from Earth and 11.9 light-years away, and the Aratrum contains the remaining humans accompanied by Exif and Bilusaludo refugees. After 2 decades of bad luck, humanity turns around and heads back to earth, arriving 10,000 years later they discover Earth is still inhabitable but Godzilla still remains...

Directors, Kōbun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita both do an excellent job and provide us with some great battle sequences and lighting techniques, very visually appealing, which is step one. However, I feel they played it too safe in some areas so it comes across as rather flat. I was a little iffy about Takayuki Hattori returning to compose for this franchise after his efforts on SpaceGodzilla and 2000, but the musical score for this one is by far his best yet. It still lacks in certain cases but he has certainly improved since the 90s. The main characters aren't anything memorable, the humans especially as they simply come across as hyper angry meatheads, but the cast all do a decent job both subbed and dubbed.

Overall, Planet of the Monsters as the first part in a trilogy wasn't anything overly memorable and suffers from unlikable characters. However, the art and sound design are top-notch.

"This planet can go to hell."

This series is immensely enjoyable if you make it to the end. While it is average anime as a singular movie, each movie adds more and more depth to the Godzilla myth so it keeps you wondering and watching. The Godzilla movies from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s are source material for this new storyline. Given those awful plots, the makers of this anime should be praised for this new, cohesive, and comprehensive story. Overall this movie series is a masterpiece because the payoff is incredible! That makes it a must watch series for fans because it is a "holy" reference for ... all things Godzilla.

(This review is valid for the entire Godzilla trilogy, with some slight changes at the end of each one, for each respective film)
So much potent out the window, the premise of a Godzilla movie/anime does not have to be complex to be good, after all, what we want to see are giant monsters fighting, that's a nice thing, remembering, It's GODZILLA, do not confuse like reflective works like Monster, Shigatsu, Code Geas, right then. To summarize the story revolves around our planet earth having been dominated by Godzilla, causing humans to be forced to flee into space, and accompanying the attempt to retake the planet ... through the destruction of Gozilla, are also shown some other races, which are basically humans who have evolved in other ways, films also deal with religious beliefs and fanaticism, in a slightly generic and weak way, but they treat, the central protagonist is very simple, those protagonists who are decisive, optimistic and with a sense of justice and duty, the rest of the cast of characters has no muuuuita relevance, of course, they have, mainly, the blond / white guy Metphies, and the twin sisters who actually live in the land, well, at least he has good soundtracks, some I just hope that being a CGI anime would have more action scenes, after all, it's the studio that made Knights of Sydonia, but it was not what happened, unfortunate mind. My real problem here is: The planet, seriously, as soon as they arrive all the fauna and flora has changed, everything is new and harmful, from animals (like dragons) to the environment (water attacks the characters) and all this is derived from Godzilla, and yet there were people living there (or at least one kind of mutation). Unique part for "Godzilla 1: Kaijuu Wakusei", has shown to have a potential in developing characters and the world (in exploration), bringing elements of survival, adaptation and strategies, which we agree is a specialty of humans and this could have been stoned in its sequence, but, as said before, it has been discarded/misappropriated. (I apologize for my spelling mistakes)

(PT-Br) (Essa review vale para toda a trilogia de Godzilla, com algumas leves mudanças no fim de cada uma, para cada respectivo filme)
Tanto potencial jogado fora, pela janela, a premissa de um filme/anime de Godzilla não precisa ser complexa para ser boa, afinal, o que queremos ver são monstros gigantes lutando, isso sim é algo legal, lembrando, É GODZILLA, não confunda como obras com cunho reflexivo como Monster, Shigatsu, Code Geas, certo então. Para resumir a história gira sobre nosso planeta terra ter sido dominado pelo Godzilla, fazendo com que os humanos fossem obrigados a fugir para o espaço, e acompanhamos a tentativa de retomada do planeta através da destruição do Gozilla, também são mostrados algumas outras raças, que são basicamente humanos que evoluiram de outras formas, os filmes também tratam sobre crenças e fanatismo religioso, de uma forma levemente genérica e fraca, mas tratam, a protagonista central é bem simples, daquelas protagonistas que são decididas, otimistas e com um senso de justiça e dever enorme o resto do cast de personagens não tem muuuuita relevância, claro, eles tem, principalmente, o cara loiro/branco Metphies, e as irmãs gêmeas que vivem de fato na terra, bom, pelo menos ele tem boas soundtracks, algumas te passam tensão, só esperava que por ser um anime em CGI teriam mais cenas de ação, afinal, é o estúdio que fez Knights of Sydonia, mas não foi o que aconteceu, infelizmente. O meu real problema aqui é: O planeta, sério, logo quando eles chegam toda a fauna e flora mudou, tudo é novo e nocivo, desde animais (como dragões) ao ambiente (a água ataca as personagens) e tudo isso se derivou do Godzilla, e ainda assim haviam pessoas vivendo lá (ou pelo menos um tipo de mutação). Parte única para "Godzilla 1: Kaijuu Wakusei", mostrou ter um potencial em desenvolvimento de personagens e do mundo (em exploração), trazendo elementos de sobrevivência, adaptação e estratégias, o que convenhamos é especialidade dos seres humanos e isso poderia ter sido lapidado em sua sequência, mas, como dito antes, foi descartado/mal aproveitado.

Coming off watching select Godzilla films from the first 1954 one to Shin Godzilla, I was very interested in Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. The plot is very unique; it’s a far step from the tried-and-true formula that Godzilla movies tend to follow. Despite this, Planet of the Monsters ended up being duller than the Japanese government trying to repel Godzilla for the nth time. There were three things that made the synopsis of this movie enticing: how Godzilla won this time, what a future Earth would look like after being dominated by Godzilla, and of course what Godzilla does during the movie. None of ... these lived up to their expectations at all.

The worst part about this movie is how dull it looks throughout the entire 1.5 hours. You start the movie on a spaceship with lifeless colors, characters in copy-pasted uniforms, and pretty bad character models that don’t do lighting well. Earth itself also has a greyish hue over everything, and not just because of the fog that covers it. While you can argue that it represents how awful it is to live on the spaceship and how dark a world ruled by Godzilla is, it’s exhausting to look at pretty quickly.

Only one of the few notable characters isn’t dull. And while the single character that stands out is fortunately the protagonist, the more unfortunate part is that he’s unlikable and single-minded. To make matters worse, his mantra of saying that Earth belongs to humans completely clashes with the message of humility that the entire concept of Godzilla is based around.

Godzilla is the most passive and dull he’s ever been. With no cities to minimize the damage of, there’s no sense of urgency besides him killing the crew. All he ever does is fire his laser, and it loses a lot of its magnificence because he only ever fires it for 0.5 seconds at a time. If you’re here for Godzilla being cool, I think literally any other Godzilla movie is better. At the very least, this movie has a revelation about Godzilla’s biology that’s new and interesting.

The one thing I think this movie does right is how the plan against Godzilla is coordinated and executed. As much as I don’t like the main character, the way he’s able to make orders, change plans on the fly, and make big calculated risks makes the battle with Godzilla exciting. And with this crew being the last stand against Godzilla, the stakes are the highest they’ve ever been. Considering that finding out how to stop Godzilla is the actual point of Godzilla movies, Planet of the Monsters getting this part right at least redeems it somewhat.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters is a movie I feel like I should hate, but it doesn’t really do anything that actually draws my ire that much. The concept is interesting and the execution of that concept is actually mostly competent (…ignoring the few plot holes that the movie even brings to your attention). At the end of the day, I just feel an uncomfortable apathy for this movie. If you’re really curious you can give it a shot, but as for me I don’t think I’ll be continuing the trilogy.

Let's skip the synopsis. The Godzilla franchise has been one of the most popular and successful Tokusatsu franchise in the world, starting from the 1954 film, which has proven to be a hit by the Japanese audience. While it has experienced falls, it is still growing strong today, with Hollywood stepping their feet into the franchise with the success of Godzilla 2014, and the masssive box office hit of the very recent Godzilla Minus One. Few years past, Netflix have also tried to enter their feet into this massive franchise... But it seems it is proven to be difficult.

STORY
Story is pretty straightforward, it is ... exactly what you would expect in a monster anime. I am enthusiastic for science fiction, so i appreciate the inclusion of sci-fi elements in the movie. The exposition however is a slow, taking up about half of the film's length before the rising action. This in turn caused the film to feel somewhat "lacking" in content, but do be mindful that this is an introductory film for the planned trilogy.

CHARACTERS
The film seems to have a lot of attention to our quick-tempered protagonist Haruo Sakaki. The film did a good job introducing important characters, but less so when it comes to developing those who "seemed" important. It's not to say that I do not care for them, but you can only do so much when half of the film took its time explaining the backstory and setting of the whole 1hr length film.

If you're new to anime, you might find the character designs odd. But if you've been watching sci-fi animes for quite some time, you'd understand that the character designs are pretty decent. Not to say that they're bad, they do have a clear distinction between the 3 species, such as their body-types, culture and clothing, but it could've been better.

Considering this is a "sci-fi" anime, there are also mechanical designs in the film. They did not appear as much in the film as i'd like them to be, but they're all pretty neatly designed, without coming off as "generic" or "brutalistic".

And for our titular monster, Godzilla. I love the rugged, muscular shape of the kaiju. It is different, yet gives off a familiar aura. Although at times, he may come off as a bit lanky, such as the lax expression he always gives whenever he appears on screen, making it "less" thrilling.

ANIMATION
The animation of this film seems to get the most criticism, I'd say they're half-right. Again, Godzilla tend to have a very "lax" behavior throughout the course of the film, making it seem like he's not that big of a threat. There's also those weird scenes with environments made in 2D over a 3D background, although not a lot throughout the course of the film. Aside from that, the animation is very expressive and dynamic in a way that comes out as "natural", rather than being lanky, and the action scenes revolving the mechas are pleasing to watch.

MUSIC
The music in the film isn't the most exceptional, but they do stand out in the scene they're placed on. It has a composition that resonates with the themes of science fiction and Godzilla kaiju films, which makes it feel natural.

OVERALL
Simple and straightforward. That's how I can describe this film. Although it's not the most deepest and the most complex Godzilla film out there, it still had its deep moments, and an enjoyable experience. Despite all its flaws, I'd say you should give the film or the trilogy a chance, even if this particular film does not appeal to you. Who knows maybe you might find the next one great!