In a direct sequel to Godzilla: Planet of Monsters, our human refugees who have just returned to earth find themselves facing an even bigger Godzilla than before, and on the run, they discover that humankind has survived, if seemingly regressed to an early stage of civilisation - basically they live in caves and most of our cultural and technological achievements are lost to them. But they have mastered the art of telepathy, and they carry spears of nanometal, some sort of living metal, which helps them ward off all kinds of monsters, including Godzilla. This leads our heroes, led by Haruo, to the conclusion that whatever became of Mechagodzilla back then earth was lost to us humans 20,000 years ago must still be around - as nanometal was developed to build Mechagodzilla. Especially two alien humanoids, the Bilusaludo, are very keen on finding what became of Mechagodzilla ... and they're all in for a big surprise, as in the last 20,000 years since Mechagodzilla has been destroyed, it has naturally evolved into a big industrial complex thanks to the nanometal and Mechagodzilla's still functioning brain, a complex that has developed all kinds of weaponry. So soon a plan is hatched to defeat Godzilla using what's at hand, led by Haruo and his love interest Yuko, who are to fly robotic "Vultures" to lure Godzilla into the complex to destroy him once and for all. Now that part of the plan actually goes pretty well, and in the finale Godzilla's bombarded with nanometal and dies ... but it's the Bilusaludo that are really the problem, as they want for all of humankind - and themselves - to become one with the Mechagodzilla complex, as a sort of evolutional step that ... not too many humans like. And while the Bilusaludo ultimately fail in their plans, supposedly dead Godzilla opens his eyes yet again ...

Building on the premise of the rather disappointing Godzilla: Planet of Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle actually manages to bring a lot more to the table than the earlier movie did: While the first in the trilogy wasted way too much time in telling a very basic plot (humans try to defeat Godzilla), this one with its robot city, its evolved humankind, and some interesting subplots actually manages to tell a highly original story. Far fetched maybe, but if you can suspend your disbelief enough you'll really get drawn into the narrative. Sure, the characters are still paper-thin (maybe even more so than in Godzilla: Planet of Monsters), and we get to see very little of the titular monster - in fact, the big G is hardly featured before the finale -, but what the film's really good at is world buidling, as it really manages to make its inherent logic palpable, no matter how ridiculous it might be objectively. All that said, this is by no means a perfect movie, as mentioned its characters are pale, and some of the situations they get in horribly generic, but it's oddly fascinating still.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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