Godzilla: Monster Planet (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Hiroyuki Seshita, Kôbun Shizuno
	Actors (voices): Chris Niosi, Martin Billany, Robbie Daymond
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 18.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After Earth is devastated by monsters including Godzilla, humanity is forced to escape from the planet and seek refuge in the stars. After more than 20 years of travel close to light-speed, one human in particular is strongly motivated to take back our mother planet which has meanwhile aged thousands of years.
Review: I have described my history with the famous Japanese atomic monster in my review of the 2014 American version Godzilla. Since then the emblematic Toho studio has produced a reboot in 2016 entitled Shin Godzilla, and Netflix has now entered the game by distributing this movie, first of a trilogy, also produced by the rights' owner Toho. Making it an animated film gives then the possibility to the movie-makers to extend the story beyond the classic attack against the Earth (well, usually mostly Japan). So you have to hold on for the first 20 minutes of the movie that explain the whole backstory filled with useless elements that are not of importance afterwards (what are two alien species doing in the mix?!?). This long introduction, like the rest of the movie, follows the Japanese cinematic tradition of over-explaining everything and doing so twice to make sure you got it. Paradoxically, the motivation of the characters and the military strategy stayed very confused to me, and the story stays full of loopholes. The designs are OK although not new, and there are plenty of displays everywhere but it is hard to enjoy them while watching the movie in original Japanese that forces you to read the constant flow of sub-titles, so much that I switch to English spoken language for the last half hour in the hope to try and enjoy the graphics if I couldn't the story. This didn't help much. Quite a disappointment. Japanese blockbusters are often like that, and one should rather travel to the Udine Far East Film Festival to enjoy the much better small popular productions the archipelago has to offer.
Rating: 3 /10