‘Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle’ is a monster-sized disappointment

The 31st film in the Godzilla franchise (and 33rd overall if you include the two American interpretations) and the second in the new anime Godzilla trilogy, “Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle” has finally released worldwide on Netflix. After the underwhelming yet intriguing first entry “Godzilla: Planet of Monsters,” fans were unsure of how the next installment would hold up. So, just what did this newest romp with the King of the Monsters bring us? A bag full of disappointment.

The film follows almost immediately after the events of the previous entry, where the protagonist Haruo finds himself within the confines of an indigenous tribe known as the Houtua, a race of surviving descendants of the humans left behind the post apocalyptic planet. The tribe helps him reunite with his crew who all, with no explanation, survived Godzilla’s massive attack from the end of the last film. With the team back together, they continue their mission to reclaim Earth from Godzilla, this time hoping to use a new kind of nanotechnology and the abandoned Mechagodzilla to take the beast down.

Almost any positives associated with this entry are carried on from the first. Like the last one, the visuals do stand out. The environments, color palette and lighting as well as the detail given to much of the futuristic technology, continue to give the world its dreary yet fascinating appeal. The music is good as well, with much of the foreboding score from “Planet of Monsters” being used again.

The only minor improvements made this time around are few, but worth mentioning. While Haruo is still a mostly cookie-cutter protagonist, the film does take more time to have us feel for him and expand on his relationship with the others. He feels much less irritating than the he was last time around.

Other than that, this is easily one of the most boring and tedious Godzilla films ever crafted ( I am a massive Godzilla fan and have watched all 33 Godzilla films, so trust me when I say this — it’s saying a lot). Almost nothing has changed from the previous animated entry. All the dull characters, drawn out pacing and predictable story beats are back and with no notable variation.

The worldbuilding here had a lot of potential. With the introduction of the indigenous tribe, a possible Mothra tease and ideas of evolving alongside Godzilla are all fascinating possibilities that all predictably go to waste.

Even the monster action feels disgustingly boring. Much of the film a mind-numbingly tedious experience featuring the uninteresting characters walking around and talking about defeating Godzilla. The titular monster doesn’t even show up until more than an hour in. When he does, there’s almost nothing for Godzilla to do, resulting in a climax almost exactly like the previous movie.

And then there’s Mechagodzilla. Without getting into spoilers, what they do with the character is dreadful and embodies everything wrong with this trilogy so far. It feels like the filmmakers were trying to do something new with him, but like any potentially compelling idea in the film, it amounts to nothing, having almost no bearing on the plot by the end. Let’s just say that “Ready Player One” did a better job at portraying the mechanical giant than its own creators in Japan.

“Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle” is by far one of the worst and easily the most disappointing of the nearly 65-year Godzilla franchise. Combining the wild world of the Godzilla franchise with the endless possibilities that animation provides should have given us something to remember, but this dull, underwhelming experience will only give you something to skip next time you’re scrolling through Netflix.