Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018) User Reviews

It's Moby Dick, with Godzilla

[xamtaro · 7/10 · 29 August 2018]

This second part of the Netflix GODZILLA anime trilogy improved on many aspects of the first film while still keeping the elements of that film which appealed to me. Haruo is given some great character growth particularly in his budding relationship with childhood friend Yuko. What started as a typical cold angry guy and wide eyed innocent girl gets some much needed development. We see new aspects to their personality, all shaped around the deconstruction of dedication.

GODZILLA CITY ON THE EDGE OF BATTLE is a more traditional "Moby Dick" story of how dedication to their mission slowly but surely turns the protagonists into something worse than the creature they are hunting. The callback is rather blatant, right down to the survivors wanting to use a sort of "harpoon" to take down Godzilla (it makes sense in context).

Like captain Ahab of the classic tale, we are presented with the fine line between dedication and obsession. When does one become another? Does one truly have to become a monster to kill a monster? How far will someone go to uphold their dedication to a fleeting ideal? In typical anime style, this theme is fleshed out in both a symbolic and literal level, with parallel thematic developments for our protagonist Haruo, Yuko, and humanity's allies from the stars, the Bilusaludo.

With all these great elements, the anime only suffers if the audience does not accept it's often deconstructive execution of the plot. Expectations are cleverly subverted, underlying themes switch between literal and symbolic, even the monsters are referred to in both an actual and a figurative sense. This might come across as a little confusing for those who do not take the time to think through the story and read between the lines.

Visuals-wise, GODZILLA: CITY ON THE EDGE OF BATTLE retains the cel shaded CGI look of the first film and many of Polygon Studio's work. The animation, which beautifully mimics that of traditional 2D animation right down to the reduced frame rate, is really an acquired taste that may not be for everyone. It is calling back to something old, using something new. Small improvements have been made particularly in the drab mono coloured creatures that populate far future earth. Godzilla himself gets a harsher shading and contrast in lighting which makes him distinct from the already dull grey background.

These little improvements make me hopeful for the upcoming finale to this trilogy. It is not perfect and the improvements may come too slowly for more cynical viewers. Like the animation style, the movies so far are truly an acquired taste that boils down to personal preference. Complex or confusing? Subverting expectations or failing to deliver on its publicity? Perhaps the greater battle is not within Haruo himself, or between monsters, or even between the various factions and Godzilla. Perhaps it is between the fans.

A Ponderous But Relevant Take on the Revenge Story

[wisemantonofski · 7/10 · 13 September 2019]

Slower and more considered than its predecessor, the second act of this trilogy weilds its allegory as a finely tuned blade to explore the ways in which revenge can consume and overwhelm its victims. The colour palette contrasts vividly against other entries in the series, casting everything in a disorienting filter of hate that drives home the message of the trilogy; and this truly exceptional visual style builds on the already impressive artistry of the world it has created, taking it to a new level of immersiveness.

Kaiju Wars: Godzilla Strikes Back.

[kevinxirau · 7/10 · 19 July 2018]

The 2nd chapter of the Godzilla anime trilogy, "City on the Edge of Battle", has finally arrived. Last time on "Monster Planet", humanity lost against the kaiju and escaped into space with 2 alien races. Failing to colonize another world, they return to reclaim Earth only to find that it has changed in their absence and Godzilla is still king. Picking up where Part 1 left off, our heroes hide with a surviving human remnant, the Houtua tribe, after suffering a crushing defeat. After more exploration, they soon stumble upon a mechanized city, created by what's left of Mechagodzilla via advanced alien nanometal. The human-alien forces plan to use it to kill Big G once and for all, but things are not as clear cut they seem.

While the first film had lots of set-up time and had both a dull color scheme and a static cast, here the drama is more engaging and a greater variety of color is used. Characters have greater emotional range and are a bit fleshed out more, especially protagonist Haruo who is just starting to undergo a change beyond his "We must kill Godzilla" mentality that frankly made him stale first time around. More world-building is brought in and it's pretty interesting, particularly the Houtua culture and the further look into the aliens' views and backstories. There's also a conflict that happens between the characters that shifts the dynamic of their campaign, which I found engaging. There are fascinating themes at play with elements of evolution, religion, individualism, nature vs technology, and what truly separates man from monster. As for Godzilla, whenever he's on-screen, he is still both powerful and intimidating, not to mention pulls a couple of unexpected moves.

Sadly, weighty flaws hurt Part 2. First off, the film repeats the same basic story beats of Part 1 down to a similar climax. Like before, Godzilla doesn't come around until the climax, so waiting is in order. There's also misleading marketing in that Mechagodzilla, despite all the advertising, plays no active role; in fact, he's barely seen (the prequel novels seem to have more going on in them). This is due to the low budget and strict limitations Toho gave the staff. Characters tend to repeat things over and over and most (Haruo aside) don't change much from their starting roles and personalities. Moreover, there's a romantic subplot that I felt could've been done better.

"Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle" is something of an improvement over the past entry. The new stuff is mostly good, the action is entertaining enough, and there's more going on thematically and drama-wise, but the film's reluctance to go further and instead repeat what was done before, coupled with the absence of substantial side character progression, held it back. The after-credit scene promises the arrival of a classic Godzilla foe, putting pressure in the final entry of this trilogy to really deliver, which I hope it does.

This is worth watching it. By far the best Godzilla series.

[youngs82 · 7/10 · 29 July 2018]

Well, I think as a stand alone film, this has more dosappointing factors for sure. But like Superman in DC Comics, in modern time of cinematography, Godzilla is a hard one to make everyone pleased since its ultimate supremacy over other beings. I personally loved this series because it portrays Godzilla as the ultimate horror and the hope-breaker. Yet it mentions the another threat at the end. Also the question of what it means to beat this uptimate horror as a human being. Human cannot abondon its home, the Earth, even though the home has chose Godzilla, not the humanity. Still human wants to come home and fight back its due course. When you start focusing on actions, the movie becomes cheap predictable plots. But I can see they really try throwing difficult choices and trials for human. I think the director is trying to ask the audience what it means to be human. Besides other races of the universe, evolved or not, we as human struggle but get through in the end. I want more desparate situations and more desparity from this series. Others may not agree, but I think this is by far the most intersting and intense Godzilla series that were ever made.

Decent, but ultimately lacking.

[CrabJuice83 · 6/10 · 19 July 2018]

(First ever review so bear with me)

I decided to write this review as I felt the 2 user reviews up at the moment were either a bit lacking, or just downright pointless.

I personally enjoyed it enough to give it a 6, but it's a soft 6 for me as there are plenty of "down" periods that felt a bit dragged out for me. I also think that the story was a bit lacking in places as well as some characters that felt underutilized. (The pacing may be redeemed once I've seen all 3 and then be able to judge it as a whole, but for now, it's a gripe I have with it as a stand-alone film)

The animation is still stellar and I really enjoy the whole mythos of man/humanoid vs giant world ending monster(s), I just wish this particular movie had either some more action to it, or that we got to explore the Houtua (the aboriginals Haruo met in the first film) a lot more, but maybe that's saved for the 3rd film.

At the end of the day, I feel like it's worth seeing if you like monster movies, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion in the 3rd film.

I hope I succeeded in giving people a bit more nuance to determine if they should give it a go, as I do feel there are redeemable qualities to the contained story of this trilogy.

More of the same...

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 9 August 2018]

I dislike stories that revolve around some miraculous but vaguely defined product or technology (in this case the 'nano-metal') that does whatever the plot requires, and as the first film left me with little interest in the characters (whom I found to be trite and flat), the sequel did nothing for me. Much of the movie consists of pretentious expositional pseudoscience, especially with respect to evolution, the limited action sequences differed little from the first film, and again Godzilla appears as a static, ill-defined craggy grey mass. My interest picked up slightly when the small twin girls started talking about their God who had been killed by Godzilla but had left an egg behind but that went nowhere (presumably being a set up for the third film). Ultimately I found this, the 33rd Godzilla movie, slow-moving and uninteresting.

The last 10 min are very cool

[DanteRiggs · 7/10 · 7 April 2021]

It's not a great movie, but it's worth a watch just for the last 10 min.

The Awful Netflix Trilogy Continues

[coconutkungfu-30704 · 1/10 · 17 February 2020]

Still filled with awful human characters, dull story and fairly crummy character design. This is the continuation of the abysmal animated trilogy and it features the worst MechaGoji interpretation I have ever witnessed.

Good animation, lousy ending

[Snootz · 6/10 · 21 July 2018]

No spoilers here. Similar to the first movie, humans come up against overwhelming odds as they take on a Godzilla far more dangerous than they ever imagined. At 300 ft tall, this Godzilla has many times the power of its earlier state.

The animation was good, translation good, action excellent. The entire story made sense, didn't really jump the shark. It has everything going for it, right up to the end... where they leave it hanging in bound-to-be-a-sequel land.

Just giving fair warning; don't go into this film expecting any resolution. It makes a point (and a good one), resolves that point, but then just... ends.

That alone knocked it down 4 points in my rating system, from a very solid movie to "What were they thinking?" status. It's good enough to reach 6 points, but with that ending, no further. One can foresee they plan to stretch out this film franchise just as long as they possibly can, making it predictable they will *never* provide an actual conclusion to the story.

Other than that, great little movie.

Far far worse than the 1st movie...

[marc5477 · 2/10 · 20 July 2018]

Animation quality is the same, but the story elements take a turn for the worst. Instead of finding interesting ways to fight, they accidentally find something stronger than Godzilla and proceed from there only to be let down by the silliest of arguments. They also brought magic into the show which was a big negative for me, and a lot more emotional nonsense that made no sense.

For example, the soldiers had a choice to sacrifice themselves to stop godzilla and they would have probably accepted that responsibility if they had simply been asked to do so, but no... they were forced into it and of course, since they were forced into it, they no longer wanted to do it. So they resisted which led to godzilla winning. Really bad writing. There were other idiotic things too such as trying to slow godzilla by shooting it in the torso... think about it for a second. What is the easiest way to slow a big powerful thing? Obviously, you hit it in the legs or destroy the ground it stands on. But of course they didnt do that. The list goes on but lets just say that the writing in this one is terrible.

Skip it.

far better then being given credit for

[onthebounce-55555 · 8/10 · 20 July 2018]

I watched Godzilla 1985 when i was 5 years old, i have been a BIG G fan ever since, i am 36 now. i even forced myself through the 1998 american dung heap. and i am american. i have watched both animated Godzilla movies so far. both are far better then they should have been. in many ways, far better in story then any Godzilla movie ever made. i normally hate it when Godzilla is the bad guy. but not in these, it is done so well. i wonder what the people were expecting who have written the negative reviews... just a mash up of monsters? it has good stories, logical flow, drama, action, charter development. i cant wait for the third, excellent way to fill the gap for the new live action. i hope they do many more.

Great movie.

[jacobjohntaylor1 · 6/10 · 26 July 2019]

This is a great movie. See it. . But sill this a good movie. It has a good story line. It has great acting. It also great animation. Shan Godzilla is better. But still it a good movie.

useless and boring movie

[kaefab · 2/10 · 19 July 2018]

This movie was like the first one, boring and useless, endless dialogue no action up until the end, and so on.

They milked the cow with the Godzilla name for sure, the first one was bad enough they had to do another one which is even worst.

Honest don't waste time with both those movies they are horrible

okay

[jacobjohntaylor1 · 6/10 · 24 February 2019]

Not to bad. The acting is good. The story line could have been better. But it was okay. It is a very scary movie. Far scarier then The silence of the lambs could ever be. The first movie of Godzilla monster planet is better. Still this is a good movie.

It could have benefited from more action and additional Godzilla scenes

[kevin_robbins · 6/10 · 19 October 2023]

I recently watched Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018) on Netflix. The story continues from where the previous film left off, featuring a futuristic society returning to Earth after 20,000 years, during which Godzilla has taken over. They encounter a human race that survived on Earth and begin exploring legacy technology in hopes of finding a way to stop Godzilla, possibly through the recreation of Mechagodzilla.

This movie is codirected by Hiroyuki Seshita (Ajin) and Kôbun Shizuno (The Journey) and contains the voices of Robbie Daymond (Spider-Man), Mamoru Miyano (Death Note), Lucien Dodge (Logan) and Takahiro Sakurai (Gamera Rebirth).

The storyline is well-conceived and intelligently written, but it gets somewhat entangled in the details, dialogue, and specific circumstances. More action would have been better, as the science fiction elements, Godzilla, and the action scenes are undeniably impressive. The portrayal of Earth, its native inhabitants, and the creatures other than Godzilla are fantastic. The final battle is excellent and makes the wait worthwhile, but it felt like it took too long to reach that point.

In conclusion, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle is a fitting sequel to the previous Netflix Godzilla animated film, although it could have benefited from more action and additional Godzilla scenes. I would rate this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

As disappointing as the first chapter

[spraydose · 4/10 · 18 July 2018]

In general I don't see this triology approach a good way to make movies. The feedback and reactions of the first chapter could have helped to make this 2nd one better. But as the other chapters were already written and maybe even in production when the first one was finished, nothing got improvement in parts of storytelling, action battle or emotions between the characters. You don't really have to watch the first chapter to understand what's going on in this one...

There are 2 new questions which are coming up in the movie which I bet will revealed in the 3rd chapter. It could be something which we already know from the original movies. Let's hope they don't make something crazy dumb out of it which they did here.

"M....City" mhm sure, next time please place they head on top of the building and stick some arms out of it too - so we can recognize it?

Freaking hipster killed Godzilla

[TheOneThatYouWanted · 1/10 · 15 September 2018]

This deserves a three out of ten so I'm going to give it a single star out of ten in hopes of balancing out the rating. This is worse than the first. This is just a boring and very lazy animated film. I am 90 percent sure they just took an unused science fiction script they had laying around and threw Godzilla in and called it a day.

Skip this one

[aryankujurplays · 3/10 · 18 July 2018]

So much bs drama let down this movie.visuals and Graphics are great in this movie .

Godzilla Fans: 8-9/10. Standard Viewers: 5-6/10

[zackplog · 8/10 · 18 July 2018]

What people need to remember walking into any Godzilla movie is that the first 45-60 minutes involves talking. The last 30+ are solely dedicated to utterly amazing, feet-flailing excitement. If you consider this, the movie is fantastic: Here's my breakdown.

The art of storytelling is not lost in Japan. They understand the need to lay sufficient groundwork to build your story on. They also understand that conflict drives a story. While it may seem like the story lags, even I had a moment where I had to be reminded of this, it serves a purpose. They could have easily have just presented things to you without offering explanations, but that's a half-hearted story. In Horizon: Zero Dawn, they give you explanations to everything you're witnessing despite its seemingly insane scenario.

The tensions within the first one bubble over now in the second iteration of this three part series. The ideals of each group now reach their critical mass as they begin to question what exactly it is they're willing to sacrifice in order to defeat Godzilla. Not only that, but what it is that they're fighting; the monster, or the idea of it. If it is conflict that drives stories then this truly is a story. Seemingly each scene grasps this concept and seeks to convey it to us.

I'll probably come back and edit this later but this is the best I can offer after just watching it today and without any spoilers. I can say with surety that the efforts of the writers to give us a well-rounded story were felt. If you rate this a 4, I can see that. Much below that and I might call it unfair, even if you don't like the genre. One thing that bothers me is when people toss up a 2* rating with a review that basically says they don't like Godzilla, monster movies, or action in general. If you accept that it is a Godzilla film when you walk into it, at the very least, it won't be a waste of your time.

Just as bad as the first one

[mangkaynor · 1/10 · 19 July 2018]

Like the title says. MechG is NOT IN THIS! Avoid like the plague. same crap as the first movie. all exposition no show.

Godzilla without Godzilla

[aarkaya · 3/10 · 19 July 2018]

No depth in lines, not interesting characters, unfocused story etc etc. You need to wait for 1 boring hour to see Godzilla, and when it appears...still boring

MechaGodzilla...without MechaGodzilla?!

[jorgito2001 · 5/10 · 11 March 2021]

That's right! MechaGodzilla is a City and also intelligent NanoMetal....OK, I get it, the filmmakers were going for something DIFFERENT, but a LOT of moral dilemmas, human drama and chatter and not much Godzilla...in a GODZILLA movie?! There's a reason many G-fans don't talk about this anime trilogy, and I'm seeing why now that I'm binging the entire Trilogy on Netflix in one sitting (slow day at work..lol). I WILL say, the animation is top notch, its beautiful and Godzilla, when on screen, is HUGE and downright scary (I bought the Japanese Bandai figure before watching these)! I'm hoping "Edge of Battle" is the weakest of the Trilogy as I'm about to start watching "Godzilla 3: The Planet Eater".

Interesting concept, disappointing outcome

[yodakya · 4/10 · 21 September 2019]

This series of movies is all about taking a different look at the Godzilla monsters. They do this with Mechagodzilla by making it a stationary city built from its still active remains. While this is a new take it is distinctly less entertaining than a giant robot fighting Godzilla. This coupled with a bland and annoying protagonist makes for a fairly disappointing film.

Great movie series

[godlovesufriend · 8/10 · 31 July 2018]

I am not sure about these negative reviews. The movie set has some great philosophical points. I have loved both on netflix so far. I referred a few friends to watch, they also felt the same. I don't usually watch anime, so maybe that is the difference. As a story, the writing is solid.

Sinking into mediocrity and boredom.

[swedzin · 4/10 · 15 January 2020]

The second part of trilogy does not offer anything new or exciting. So, after the discovery of this gigantic, 300 meters tall Godzilla. TRUE, super Godzilla, if you will, the entire human team and their alien allies are retreated to make a new strategy, since this new Godzilla is more than just unstoppable. Actually, that's the original Godzilla, which grew to the immense size. And he is still a big threat.

So, basically, the story is still generic, human looking for a solution on how to defeat this Godzilla. They also discover a tribe of humans... who speaks Japanese well. And, they only serve as observers in this story. Nothing more. And, again characters babbling, talking and bickering for hours on what to do, what kind of alternatives they have. The two twin sisters of that tribe are, in my opinion a tad bit reminiscent of two twin fairies who can summon Mothra. Only, of course, minus wings. And of course, these two twins don't do much. They are all useless. So, the humans discover a nanotechnology which is more than 20,000 years old! Huh? The same technology was used in creating a metal armor and weapons of Mechagodzilla.

OK, so, I was lost at this moment and just decided to turn off my brain and watch the rest of the film. And it went in this boring, non-interesting way. I swear, I fell asleep dozens of times trying to finish this film. But, it was so repelling. I don't hate this film, I really don't. It's not the worst film, but it is so dull and boring and stretched with the battle at the end without any climax or excitement. It is supposed to be a Godzilla film! Give me an exciting climax at the end! But, again since this is a trilogy, we have to watch the last film. I still think that this might have work better if it was a TV show. I really, really don't recommend this film to anyone. We'll see what the final film has in store for us.