Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle is the sequel to Godzilla: Monster Planet, which was released on Netflix back in January.
Just like Godzilla: Monster Planet had a book released at the same time, Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle had a book released alongside the movie called, Godzilla: Project MechaGodzilla.
When Haruo and Metphies were talking in private, Metphies whispered in Haruo's ear the name of the monster that destroyed Metphies's home planet, but wasn't revealed. In the end credits scene, that same scene appears, but reveals the name, Ghidorah, as a tease for the third and final movie, Godzilla: Planet Eater, set to release in Japan in November 2018.
Review:
After Godzilla destroyed half of the crew, Haruo Sakaki wakes up to discover a girl named, Miana, healing him. Miana and her twin sister, Maina, bring him and his crew to their underground village belonging to an indigenous tribe of sub-humans called the Houtua. They interrogate Haruo and tell them about how their god died from fighting Godzilla leaving behind an egg. In the meantime, the leader of the Bilusaludo race, Galu-Gu, discover that the tips of the Houtua arrows are covered in nano-metal meaning that MechaGodzilla is still alive. Upon discovering where MechaGodzilla is located, they find instead a city built from the same nano-metal used to build MechaGodzilla and they begin using this self-built city as their base of operations to kill Godzilla once and for all.
Continuing from where Godzilla: Monster Planet left off, Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle continues to have the same problem all around as the first movie. First off, the voice acting and animation are just as decent as the first movie, but the story was boring and the portrayal of the logic vs emotions argument was really dumb in this movie. The bilusaludo race were suppose to be the logical race and yet their argument sounds too illogical. The bilusaludo leader, Galu-Gu... No, you no what? I'm tired of these names that sound like baby noises. For now on, Galu-Gu will be called Gary. Anyways, GARY tries to force their logic on Haruo that evolution was to "become one" with MechaGodzilla and letting go of all emotions while Haruo and the others don't want that. They use the same plan like the Godzilla they killed in the first movie, but at a greater scale. The plan works, except Godzilla doesn't blow up yet instead takes a nap while he starts a meltdown. The plan falls apart when when Gary tries to force Haruo and Yuko to be taken over by the nano-metal to prepare for kamikaze, but because Haruo does not believe in Gary's logic he tries to save Yuko by destroying the city's command center. Yeah, not a very good day for Gary. In the end, the story is boring and mostly the same story as the first movie.
Godzilla is the same as in the last movie. He is as large as a mountain and very overpowered. There are some fans out there that have been wanting to see a Godzilla that is overpower, but to me this isn't interesting. A Godzilla that is basically almost invincible is really boring to watch as he always has something up his sleeve at the end of the movie that is just complete bull. Two abilities is fine, three is pushing it, but this version has... atomic breath, atomic roar, plasma cutter/tail swipe, and atomic meltdown/pulse. Oh wait, I almost forgot one! The forcefield shielding that he has covering his body! So FIVE FREAKING ABILITIES! That is some stupid over-powered bull crap! On top of it all, he used almost none of it until the very end of the movie! I wonder what other abilities this Godzilla can pull out of his nuclear shit spewing ass in the next movie?
The biggest problem that everyone has, including myself, is that this was advertised to have MechaGodzilla in the movie. While I am okay with the idea of MechaGodzilla being a giant city it shouldn't have been advertised the way it was. The first promo were "confidential" files that showed MechaGodzilla's design and telling how it can turn into different forms like a fighter jet and a tank. The promotional came with the book, Godzilla: Project MechaGodzilla, which is another prequel to Godzilla: Monster Planet and part 2 of the book, Godzilla: Monster Apocalypse. Again, if I had read the book then perhaps understood the movie perfectly. If you're not going to have MechaGodzilla in the movie, why advertise it at all? Ready Player One didn't even advertise MechaGodzilla in that movie (despite being in the book) and MechaGodzilla still made an appearance and kicked some asses and it's not even a Godzilla movie. It's ironic that a movie that isn't even a Godzilla movie does MechaGodzilla better than a Godzilla movie that only advertised it and not have it appear in the movie at all. Well, I take that back. MechaGodzilla did appear, but not what we were expecting it to be. Even though MechaGodzilla technically was in the movie as the giant city, the way it was advertised was all just bait with no pay off in the end.
I will be honest, as much as the movie is trying to get me to care for the characters I still can't care about them. Is it sad that they're struggling in fighting Godzilla to get reclaim their planet back? Yeah, it is sad, but everything feels so forced. Even the romance between Yuko and Haruo felt forced because I don't know much about these characters. The one character I feel I know most is the Exif priest, Metphies. He confesses that it was his planet that was destroyed by a monster far greater than Godzilla and that none of the Exifs would dare speak its name. Yet, since the two characters have something in common, Metphies shares the name to Haruo revealing that it was Ghidorah that destroyed his home planet. Even though that is barely anything, it's more than what you get with the rest of the characters. As for the twins, Miana and Maina, I like how they sort of have different personalities. Miana is shy, but yet has a curious nature even to Haruo, which she has taken a liking to. Maina is more stern and would always glare at the main characters like she's suspicious. If I were shot at and then they said, "Oops, sorry," I would be suspicious of them too. I even like how Haruo can tell who is who just from looking at the twin's faces. You don't usually see someone trying to figure that out in previous Godzilla movies, so I like how they made the twins seen as two separate characters rather than one character.
Final Thoughts:
Godzilla: City On The Edge Of Battle is just a rinse and repeat of Godzilla: Monster Planet. The graphics and voice acting were fine, but the story was boring, characters seems forced, and MechaGodzilla was a bait and switch. This movie is nothing, but false advertising.