Godzilla Minus One

Set at the end of World War 2 and Japan is defeated and in ruins. Our protagonist is Koichi, a pilot who returns to his devastated hometown in Tokyo. He is unwelcome and guilt ridden for sneaking out of a kamikaze raid in the pacific. Japan is at its lowest point and then Godzilla arrives.

This is a brilliant setup for this period story that sees a country without the military might, technology and morale to face this new enemy. The film also leans into the drama and emotion that made the first film so iconic and sets it apart from the family fun films of the 70s and 80s as well as the recent American blockbuster treatments. My Japanese is not good enough to understand all of the film so there will be lots that I didn't get. However it manages to be a strong, emotional story with a scary and ferocious Godzilla. In my mind it is far superior to Shin Godzilla which I found dull and goofy. This is the best Godzilla film in many years and perhaps the best since the 1954 original.

Godzilla Minus One is an amazing spectacle on a retelling of a classic Kaiju movie from the prospective of a post-war Japanese veteran who leaves one horror for the next while making an arrangement of "friends and family" along the way. The story was so compelling that it didn't feel like two hours past and I was craving for more. The classic Godzilla sounds design, masterful cinematography, along with the original score from Akira Ifukube made this movie an absolute masterpiece on storytelling! The visuals of the Godzilla update made him more memorable and menacing for the citizens of a distraught Tokyo. Highly recommended!

I love monster movies. I enjoy big, dumb, fun action movies. So it shouldn't be difficult for me to like Godzilla-related movies. Let's look at what Hollywood has put out (with my rating):

Godzilla (2014) - 7 stars.

Kong: Skull Island - 5 stars.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - 3 stars.

Godzilla vs. Kong - 4 stars.

Aside from the 2014 version, all of my reviews mention decent action surrounded by a terrible movie. But I can't remember a single action scene from them. Comparatively, the action scenes in Godzilla Minus One are INCREDIBLE. They are fully memorable and had my jaw dropped as far as it would go.

BUT... this movie is 90% drama, only 10% Godzilla scenes. So you will fail unless you have a great story with fully developed characters and arcs, with full investment in those characters, with deep themes of trauma and remorse, and with emotionally powerful setups and payoffs.

Who in the world would have expected that to be the case.

This movie isn't just BEASTLY, it's sooooo good. Nearly every filmmaking aspect is well-done.

Hollywood, please learn from this. I'm begging you.

(1 viewing, 1/18/2024)

From the opening to the ending, I was enthralled by the whole movie. It kept everything that I loved about Godzilla, and was able to make an extremely interesting backstory with the human characters. There was a lot of things that was addressed in this movie that I had never seen before.there was so many things that people will pick apart, but that's upon reflection. I had no criticisms or a reason to dislike this movie the whole time I watched it. So, in that respect, I will give it a perfect score. And I don't go slinging those out just every review. As a Godzilla fan, this was perfection to me.

Without spoiling anything, this movie hit different from any other. It felt much more serious and quite a bit darker at times. The movie was amazing, the effects were great. I never thought I'd see a Godzilla movie where people were crying in the theater. It was quite the experience. Godzilla was truly an unstoppable force in this movie, whenever Godzilla would show up it was hard to feel anything but futility. Even in the rare event that Godzilla was injured he was only slowed down. This version of Godzilla might be more evil than Shin Godzilla though his motives are hard to understand where shin Godzilla it became apparent.