#GODZILLA PLANET EATER MIANA MOVIE#
#GODZILLA PLANET EATER MIANA SERIES#

Being so impenetrable had made Haruo a difficult character to relate to, but thankfully there’s an emotional satisfaction to be found by the end of this film. Even heading into The Planet Eater, his compulsion to defeat Godzilla does not make him seem heroic – he behaves like an automaton, just another cog in the machine.

As a result of his actions, a great many of his comrades are dead. The damaged, tragic Haruo is a character driven by mindless obsession, thrashing around in vain. The saga’s endless bleakness, and its distrust of humanity in general, made the characters of the previous two films feel unrelatable. But Haruo is an even more wretched character than Dr Serizawa because his cause is based on selfish reasons.

#GODZILLA PLANET EATER MIANA MOVIE#

Haruo certainly resembles Dr Daisuke Serizawa, the character in the original movie who comes to fear the weapon of mass destruction that he himself had created. In this animated Godzilla trilogy, the echoes of this message can be heard. Released in 1954, the king of monsters was unleashed on postwar Japan to prevent us from forgetting the atrocities we tried to put behind us, from atomic bombings to those lost in battle. It’s important to remember that the original Godzilla was not concerned with the future but with the past. It’s a long trek through three films to reach this payoff, but when it does arrive it is gripping. In this third film, the weary survivors turn to religion and form a death cult, which leads to a thrilling thread of human drama that could not have worked without the costly strategic failures that played out in the previous two films. The second film portrays a totalitarian state where the machine and the self are integrated. In the first film, Haruo commits to military action and his people follow without question. When taken as a whole, the trilogy also poses an interesting commentary on doctrines of mind control. It asks: What is the point in fighting a creature such as Godzilla, rather than simply accepting it and living alongside it? What is survival really worth? What is the meaning of civilization, and the damage it can cause? I hadn't expected this kind of philosophical thinking from a Godzilla anime movie series, but with this final film the saga’s overall thematic aims came into sharper focus.

The Planet Eater boils down the essence of Godzilla movies to a metaphysical dialogue on monsters as it explores its themes of humanity and survival.

For all this seemingly boundless pessimism, though, The Planet Eater does at least propose the value in appreciating what we already have.

#GODZILLA PLANET EATER MIANA SERIES#

While the lack of monster-on-monster action in this series remains a disappointment, the despair that pervades The Planet Eater is another important element in the best Godzilla movies. The previous two installments omitted the kinds of scenes that fans of kaiju movies and Godzilla movies would expect – the wrestling bouts between gigantic monsters. While there’s still not a lot of kaiju action in this final chapter, Godzilla thankfully gets a little more screen time here in what’s been a largely talky series.

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