Godzilla Minus One review: The monster roars louder than ever
This postwar melodrama with a dusting of kaiju is as thrilling and enthralling as Godzillas get
Film Reviews Godzilla
Nearly 70 years and more than 35 films into the series, it’s a testament to the enduring appeal of a skyscraper-sized lizard that Godzilla movies can still surprise you. He may not be the most flexible nuclear-powered dinosaur, but the concept is undeniably malleable. In this century alone, we’ve seen Big G square up against an alien race of Xilians in Godzilla: Final Wars and inspire the Kafaka-esque satire of Shin Godzilla. Whatever genre perches itself on Godzilla’s spiky spine will be well cared for, which helps explain the veritable Godzilla renaissance we find ourselves in.
Godzilla Minus One, the latest in Toho Studio’s “Reiwa” era, returns Godzilla to his origins and provides a fresh take on a kaiju assaulting Tokyo. Amid a host of American “Monsterverse” films and streaming shows and the three anime Godzilla features preceding it, the quadragenarian King of the Monsters stands tall in his latest, a postwar melodrama punctuated by the series’ most thrilling monster attacks yet.
Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One is simultaneously classical and experimental. Set between the tail-end and immediate aftermath of World War II, the film finds common threads between the past and present, harnessing Godzilla’s allegorical might for a story about survivor guilt, COVID-era political disillusionment, and, ultimately, human triumph. It’s also the rare Godzilla film where the humans are as compelling as its star.
Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot experiencing second thoughts, first meets Godzilla after failing his one suicidal mission. His guilt drives the film as he attempts to rebuild his life as a sea-based minesweeper living in the slums of Tokyo while his neighbors label him a deserter and a coward. Due to his shame, Shikishima further alienates himself by rejecting the love of his female companion, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), and her unspeakably adorable daughter, Akiko (Saki Nagatani). Making a beeline from the narrow government focus of Shin Godzilla, Shikishima joins a citizen-led effort to quell the beast and heal his trauma.
Yamazaki’s austere postwar melodrama plays surprisingly well with the monster. Godzilla has rarely looked or sounded better than he does here against the striking 1940s aesthetic. Generally defined by bulky rubber suits, it is often difficult to see the monster’s genuine threat. Yet, Godzilla’s power has never felt so immediate than in this approximation of postwar Tokyo.
One could pull Godzilla out of the movie and still be left with a solid World War II drama, but you wouldn’t want to. Taking cues from American blockbusters like Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Dunkirk, Yamazaki’s varied action sequences, encompassing planes, trains, and tugboats, capture the tremendous power of Godzilla’s size and strength and the absolute terror on the ground. The monster’s deafening roars and jagged teeth tear through the film with a fury more terrifying than the 70-year-old beast has ever been. Equally effective are the close-ups of the hordes of people rushing away from his nuclear beams, providing a solid rebuttal to the horror Oppenheimer teased earlier this year.
The humans carry Godzilla Minus One toward a finale that’s a hair too crowd-pleasing by half. Star Ryunosuke Kamiki invests fully in Shikishima’s trauma in a story arc more reminiscent of Hal Ashby’s Coming Home than All Monsters Attack. Yamazaki’s script finds a surprising number of ways to play off Shikshima’s guilt, transferring his conflicting feelings of militaristic failure to his inability to kill Godzilla when he had the chance. Meanwhile, a Godzilla is ruining Noriko’s first day at work in a runaway railcar sequence that makes 2014’s Godzilla look like Nintendo 64’s Gex: Enter The Gecko. When Godzilla tears through Tokyo in the film’s most relentlessly terrifying, most showstopping sequence, the two plots fuse into a unified whole, grafting Shikishima’s political woes to Yamazaki’s feelings of government abandonment during the pandemic.
Godzilla Minus One does what all the best Godzillas strive for, successfully using Godzilla as a foundation for robust storytelling. With drama as compelling as the action, the film proudly breathes its nuclear breath so the audience can feel the heat. The old tropes, now the stuff of tired parody, return with renewed power here as Yamazaki finds the humanist message amid the rubble of a destroyed Tokyo. Godzilla Minus One might be as good as Godzilla films can be, which is to say, there’s still a lot of life left in this lizard.
62 Comments
I’m insanely excited for this but I still love the 2014 film. The Gex the Gecko comparison seems a touch cruel.
I think the Gex:Enter the Gecko slam seems a touch cruel. There were far worse 3D mascot platformers. It’s no Bubsy 3D or Blasto, after all.
I just watched Shin Godzilla for the first time the other day. It’s a slow burn of a movie, but boy, what a burn it is! It is almost an hour in before Godzilla’s final form is revealed (the early forms are pretty menacing but also a little goofy-looking). It almost hearkens back to the disaster-movie vogue of the ‘70s, where government officials either don’t that a looming threat seriously or act too slowly to avert disaster. It probably has the most scenes of political conferences and meetings than any other Godzilla movie; that might sound like an insult, but those scenes are fraught with such weird,grave import, with a very clinical framing, that they were oddly compelling.
You can very much tell it’s the Neon Genesis Evangelion guy through all that.
The music seemed straight out of Evangelion. The plot was essentially Evangelion without the giant robots/pilots.
Shiro Sagisu, who composed Evangelion, did a version of Decisive Battle for Shin Godzilla.
Nobody gives a shit.
He used the exact same music, but man it works.
I have described it to people as “you know in Evangelion when Gendo or Misato will hang up a phone and say ‘The Tolyo-2 Government has authorised NERV to destroy the Angel’? Shin Godzilla is the story of that phone call”
I liked Shin Godzilla, but at times, it seemed like a documentary on Japanese cabinet officials and procedures.
Does this old bastard turn up and monologue for ninety-eight solid seconds about how you can sidestep the Diet in order garner funding for the anti-Godzilla project while still ensuring you’re within the bounds of the constitution, keep the opposition off-side, and, at the same time, kneecap the growing pro-Godzilla faction that’s threatening to derail the whole project, without having to call an early snap election and winning more votes at the same time?
Commentary!
Shin Godzilla is almost satire like in it’s increasing levels of alphabet soup agencies trying to respond to the monster. I really liked it’s evolutions, I found the googly eyed blood sweating 1st version really unsettling.
Shin Godzilla aka Dr. Gojira or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Nuclear Lizard
Several years ago I took one of my kids to a Minecraft convention here in LA. One of the attractions was the author of the tie-in novel Minecraft: The Island… Max Brooks. Yes, that Max Brooks, signing copies of the book.There was basically no line when we got to that part of the Convention Center, so we went up and got a copy of the book and had him sign it. My kid was very precocious so he said some clever thing and Max laughed. Then as he’s signing the book, he turns to me and says, “Hey, did you see Shin Godzilla? It’s pretty great.” And he spends a minute describing it. I was familiar with it but hadn’t seen it (and still haven’t gotten around to it). So I was thinking, wait, did Max Brooks write that movie, or something? But I kind of nodded and smiled and said that it looked interesting and I might check it out.Several hours later we got home, and I went into the bathroom and glanced in the mirror, only to realize that I was wearing this shirt:
That is a great shirt. Seriously.
I also have this one:
Most importantly, the destruction he wreaks is never cool or awesome – it’s absolutely bloody terrifying.And the movie is proof of what can be accomplished when you bother with a good script for your giant-lizard flick.
Kafaka!
Who is Kafaka!?!? Tell me!!!
too bad the CGI is shite.
I genuinely couldn’t decide how much was CGI and if they were trying to purposely replicate the miniature look. Indeed the effects aren’t great, but they’re almost beside the point in this film. They really don’t detract from it.
Still better compositing than The Marvels, or Black Panther 2 – which look like they were rushed through at 4 o’clock on the day everyone was getting drinks after work. Imagine if Toho had Disney’s $200M movie budgets instead of just $15M.Godzilla Minus One looked and sounded great on IMAX.
this movie has some of the best cgi i’ve seen in a decade what are you talking about lmao
i take it your primary viewing choices involve Tommy Wiseau and Neil Breen movies?
no, that would be incorrect. have never seen “the room” and have never heard of neil breem
Can anyone explain to me the “Minus One?” Is it like a reverse-sequel?
I might be wrong but – defeat in WW2 set Japan back to zero. Now along comes Godzilla and he’s taking them below zero, to minus one.
Godzilla is minus one! All others are minus two, or lower.
Thank you for explaining this. I couldn’t figure it out and everytime it occurred to me to google it I was unable to.
That’s what is said about the title in the press material.
From NY Times: “Godzilla Minus One” is set even before the first “Godzilla” was released — hence the title — and Yamazaki said in an interview he wanted “audiences to gain an understanding of how Japanese survivors felt after WWII.”
I think it’s a colloquialism, but the idea is that Japan, immediately post-WWII, is so broken and unmoored from its own historical trajectory that as a society it’s at a terrible disadvantage to deal with any more tragedy. IOW, they’re not starting from zero, but from -1.
Ah thanks. Saw it tonight and genuinely loved it, but did not understand the title at all.
Godzilla Plus One: Godzilla brings Kong along as a date to Mothra’s wedding.
I like this explanation the best
You know Gamera will be there at the kid’s table, because Gamera is friend to all children.
Ha! I’m in
“Godzilla Minus One” is set even before the first “Godzilla” was released — hence the title — and Yamazaki said in an interview he wanted “audiences to gain an understanding of how Japanese survivors felt after WWII.”
Probably the best Godzilla has looked in a Japanese film, imo. Still prefer the Legendary look, but this is getting there.
His head’s too small.They keep making his head too small.
I’m a big fan of the head on Heisi Godzilla. If we could have the head from Heisi Godzilla and the lanky limbs of late-period Millennium Godzilla, that’d be my ideal take.
Honestly that was my biggest gripe with this film is he just looks goofy—his arms are weirdly short and just…don’t move so he was very stiff every time ohe was on screen. And his head is too small. Did not detract from my enjoyment of this movie in the slightest (spoiler maybe, but he’s not in it that much except for the pivotal points of the movie).
I’m a sucker for old Japanese monster and sci-fi movies. The Godzilla/Gamera movies, Prince of Space, Invasion of the Neptune Men…
What up my fellow MST3K fan
Prince of Space? We like it very much!
What I like about those movies is that there are no traffic accidents.
Just when Japan can’t lose any more hope, can’t feel any more despair or anguish… HE shows up to teach where rock bottom truly lies (probably under his foot). I’ve been looking forward to this movie since I saw the trailer on YT a few months ago. “History shows again and again how Nature points out the Folly of Man…”
I got a Three Times One Minus One notification for this!?
When Cloverfield came out it was my first time going to a theater in some time and I’m glad I saw it on the big screen because some movies are just meant to be enjoyed there. I really should try to see this one on the big screen too.Also, it’s nice to see dialogue in trailers for non-English movies. I’ve seen so many through the years that have avoided this like it might scare people off (and really, if they’re going to be scared off by other languages in trailers, how do you think they’ll react to having to read the dialogue in the theater).
Godzilla Minus One might be as good as Godzilla films can beSo… who decided on the B+ grade?
Yeah it’s an odd score. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.
Wow, I never thought about Godzilla from this perspective before! The review perfectly captures the essence of “Godzilla Minus One.” The analysis of the monster’s presence and impact on the story is spot on. Kudos to the writer for bringing out these nuances. https://www.teleparty.pro/spanish
Meanwhile, a Godzilla is ruining Noriko’s first day at workOh dang, there’s more than one in this movie?
Barry Kafaka’s satire has never been truly appreciated, I’m glad it’s finally getting some recognition. (I know, I know, but I couldn’t resist that one.)
I don’t think “quadragenarian” means what you think it does.
A “quadragenarian” is someone in their 40s… Godzilla has been around since 1954. Nearly 70 years.
Okay I want to edit any responses on that other Godzilla list, as I just got through watching this. My 13-year-old is a bonafied Godzilla nerd and really wanted to see it, so I figured I’d take him and go check emails or something if it was too dumb for me. It’s hands down without a doubt the best Godzilla film I’ve ever seen, and honestly one of the better films I’ve seen this year. I’m very impressed with it. I’m glad it ended the way it did, but there were a couple of ways it could have gone and I wouldn’t have been surprised, or really even disappointed with any of them.
I like pretty much everything about Minus One. I even liked that they floated the idea that all this is the main character’s dying fantasy. Like even MORE that it stayed a weird idea and nothing else.IMO the problem of scale that these movies usually have was solved with Minus one. Godzilla is both a symbol of nuclear destruction and post war trauma AND a symbol for Shikishima’s guilt and trauma. This “as above, so below” motif recurs in plot and character again and again. It’s a canny use of the situation and creates resonance a lot of the films just can’t achieve.
I saw it on Friday night.Grade AMaybe the best or 2nd best story involving the Human’s in Godzilla. I’m glad the lead actor is getting some Oscar love. I fucking was in pain with him.
Give Godzilla Minus One the Oscar for Best Foreign Film! It’s crazy that it was only in most theaters for a week.
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2023/12/08/godzilla-minus-one-hunger-games-ballad/
what dingleberry at Kinja gave this a B rating? this was probably the best movie of the year, arguably one of the best films of the last few decades, and can proudly stand among the classics of yore. -1 isn’t good for a Godzilla movie, its just a fantastic movie.