Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters / YMMV

Awesome Music: XAI’s “White Out” featured in both the trailer and the end credits.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Haruo has divided viewers of the film, with most Western viewers decrying him as an immature and reckless hothead who endangered the lives of those under him for the sake of petty vengeance. Others have had a warmer reception, noting that he had a right to be angry — having grown up in hellish conditions and lost both his biological and foster family, didn't ask any of his soldiers to do anything that he wasn't willing to do himself, that his plan — which he'd throughly researched — ultimately succeeded, and that he gave the order to retreat when the original Godzilla woke up instead of ordering them to attack.
- Godzilla Earth himself, with some fans praising the "nature god" aspect of the character and how he represents an "ultimate evolution" of Godzilla. Others find the design awkward, too derivative of the Legendary version, or too goofy-looking with regards to his face, with his botanical nature very divisive among purists of the series.
Creepy Awesome: Metphies' constant religious speak and borderline worship of Godzilla is unsettling on its own, but combined with the darker setting, he becomes nightmarishly cool.
- Godzilla Earth himself. For such a hostile and omnicidal creature, he has a strangely calm and gentle appearance that is a disturbing counterpoint to his violent rage.
First Installment Wins: While opinions on the film are overall quite divisive, for many fans it’s usually seen as the most coherent, better animated and memorable entry in the trilogy, as City On the Edge of Battle is often seen as a step down by comparison and The Planet Eater is highly controversial amongst the fanbase.
Funny Moments: Even this movie has some funny moments of its own:
- In the beginning, they tried making a Mechagodzilla to combat the original, but they couldn't get it to turn on.
- Later on when they went to lure Godzilla:
Mulu Elu Galu Gu: This is why I hate working with stubborn species.
Adam: So who drew the short straw? (Godzilla looks at him, preparing atomic breath) GUESS IT'S ME!!!
He Really Can Act: Who expected Chris "Kirbopher" Niosi, the creator of TOME as the protagonist Haruo?
Hilarious in Hindsight: Godzilla's origin as the next stage of life on Earth, accelerated by nuclear radiation, is exactly the same retconned origin featured for Zilla in the unmade sequel to Tristar's Godzilla film from 1998.
Jerkass Woobie: Haruo, a vengeful protagonist and crew member of the Aratrum whose so keen on killing Godzilla for driving humanity out of earth and killing his family in a process which is understandable for him to be very vengeful and angry, but doesn't stop from him being a massive Jerkass towards anyone he comes across.
Memetic Mutation:
- The reveal that this Godzilla will be taller than the last incarnations in Shin Godzilla, whom in turn was taller than the previous incarnation in Godzilla (2014), whom in turn was taller than the previous incarnation in Godzilla: Final Wars; has lead to many jokes amongst G-Fans that the filmmakers are having a competition on who can make the biggest Godzilla.
- The reveal that Godzilla is plant-based has fans reducing it as "Godzilla is a plant". Many compare him to Groot, or make jokes about his dorsal spines being weed leaves.
- Due to Haruo's personality, fans occasionally joked the trilogy only focusing on a very angry, loud & vengeful main protagonist with monsters as guest stars/cameos.
- Many joke that any possible adaptations of Toku from Polygon Pictures will repeat the plots from the trilogy over and over again.
Misblamed: During the trilogy's production, fans blamed a lot of its problems on the creative team. A later interview would clarify they actually wanted to make a kaiju brawl series, but Toho shot it down, as they already had a plan laid out for what the trilogy would be and didn't give much creative control.
Moment of Awesome: The set up is one: Expies of the Xilians and Simians come to Earth and team up with humanity to try and stop Godzilla in exchange for taking over the Earth...and Godzilla kicked their tails so hard that all of them have to work together to run away.
Narm: Some fans find Godzilla Earth's somewhat goofy-looking face awkward, especially given that his the biggest and most powerful Godzilla in the history of the franchise.
Older Than They Think:
- The concept of a future on a planet ruled by kaiju had previously been used in the IDW Godzilla Cataclysm and Godzilla: Oblivion series as well as the popular fan film, Godzilla x Kaiju Killer.
- One of the human characters having an Ahab-like obsession with killing Godzilla is pretty common in the franchise, with one of the more recent examples of it (up until this film came out) being the IDW comic Godzilla: The Half-Century War.
Shocking Moments: Godzilla is not only massive, he so tall the humans have no choice but to retreat. And that's not all: He has a power breath and a tailwhip that can destroy a mountain. Truly a God Incarnate indeed.
Signature Scene: The reveal of Godzilla Earth, moments after Hauro and his men killed his son, and it decimating his remaining forces.
Spiritual Adaptation: Given the premise of the movie, this movie is most likely Planet of the Apes, Warhammer 40,000 or Cthulhu Mythos in anime format.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Some fans have accused Godzilla's new design of being a rip-off of Godzilla (2014).
- Haruo himself has also faced a considerable amount of criticism from some fans for getting perceived as little more than a poor man's Eren Yeager, who lacks the latter's nuanced and complex characterisation.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Tons of kaiju emerge and attack humanity in mass...but by the present when the film actually takes place, Godzilla killed all of them off screen.
- Yuko Tani. As stated by OmniViewer states, she has no personality or motivations to speak of and is only through plot convenience that she is pushed into a position of relevancy across the entire trilogy. Very sad for a character portrayed by veteran VAs Kana Hanazawa and Cristina Valenzuela.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- For a film called Planet of the Monsters, there sure aren't too many monsters. The Servum are eventually treated as a mostly minor threat, while we otherwise only see Godzilla Earth and Godzilla Filius. Imagine if the planet was inhabited by tons of other kaiju, new or original, with Godzilla as the top dog.
- Then theres the prequel novels, which detail mankind's decades-long war against practically every Toho kaiju (major or minor) in existence, chock full of mythology gags, Easter eggs, and continuity references. If only they had made a trilogy out of THAT.
Unexpected Character: While kaiju like Anguirus, Rodan, and Kamacuras aren't that unexpected due to being staples of the series, Dogora and Dagahra certainly weren't expected since Dogora only appeared in a standalone film, and Daghara is only loosely connected to Godzilla by way of the Rebirth of Mothra films. The prequel novel Monster Apocalypse features even more unexpected monsters, such as Zilla, Varan, Gorosaurus, Gabara, and the Griffon from Latitude Zero.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Godzilla himself. He's clearly supposed to be malevolent and dangerous, but we don't actually see him killing anybody before his Non-Malicious Monster son is killed. Given that Fillius was itself Non-malicious, it's not unreasonable for fans to extrapolate that the same may have been true of Godzilla before humans went to war with him. ^note Not helping is the fact that in both sequels he faces off against far worse evils who are more dangerous than he ever was, or that unlike them, Godzilla is satisfied with humans simply leaving Earth and never coming back.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Though it's really hard not to sympathize with Haruo throughout the film despite his parents death at the hands of Godzilla, but considering that it's entirely his fault that nearly everybody dies or in danger when he drag everyone along for his endeavors to take out the kaiju in the first place. In the end it wasn't Godzilla they've killed, it's his son which pissed off the awoken Big G himself.
Values Dissonance: Some have noted that Haruo — who is determined to kill Godzilla to avenge his parents' deaths and the 22 years of suffering and humiliation that humanity has endured — speaks to Japanese cultural values regarding dignity and honor. Most Western viewers instead see this as suicidal recklessness, incompetence, and Captain Ahab syndrome. However, the trilogy explores both points of view by its conclusion. Haruo's desire for revenge leads to an even bigger threat that is never resolved. But humanity is able to integrate and rebuild with the help of their allies as a result.

YMMV / Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters

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