Kaiju films are rarely my speed, ranking among the bottom part of my genre lists. I don’t have anything particularly against them, merely that giant monsters attacking the city don’t often appeal to me. As with all genre, I’m sure fans could build me a semester’s worth of material to research to truly understand Godzilla and the genre. I’m not gonna do that, so know I’m approaching “Godzilla Minus One” without any prior knowledge of countless iterations and lore and mythology that come with the monster. I’ve got a few American iterations under my belt, and none those have done anything to sway me to fandom.
Enter “Godzilla Minus One,” a kaiju film done right and one that I can’t believe I actually loved. Yes, I said it. I loved a Godzilla film. I don’t know that it’s good enough to make me dig through the syllabus diehards will inevitably try to assign, but it is good enough to earn immense praise from someone who typically scoffs at these kinds of things. “Godzilla Minus One” is a thrilling action drama, packed with plenty of action, genuine emotion, characters you actually care about, and the meanest Godzilla you’ve ever seen.
Written, directed, and with VFX by Takashi Yamazaki, “Godzilla Minus One” is the 37th Godzilla film and the 33rd Godzilla film from Toho Studios. It draws most of its inspiration from the original 1954 “Godzilla” as well as 2001 “Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.” At the end of WWII, a Japanese kamikaze pilot named Kōichi Shikishima abandons his post and sets down on Odo Island, a plane repair station. As the mechanics learn that his plane is fine and he simply didn’t go through with his mission, the island is attacked by Godzilla. He kills almost all of the mechanics, and Shikishima manages to survive and return home. Upon returning to Tokyo however, he finds his country in ruin, devastated by air strikes. He takes in a young woman and her baby, and together they try to survive and rebuild their lives in the wake of war. While the country is still reeling from the effects of the war, Godzilla reappears in the ocean and sets his sights on Japan to claim as his territory. With many of the governments worried about taking action for fear it would be seen as an act of aggression, it’s up to Shikishma and a ragtag group of veterans to take up arms against the monster and defend their country once and for all. “Godzilla Minus One” stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Hidetaka Yoshioka, and Munetaka Aoki.
Before we deep dive into everything else in the film, let’s talk about Godzilla himself. “Godzilla Minus One” is probably one of the best version of the titular monster I’ve ever seen. Not just visually (which is stunning) but returning him to his roots as a destructor instead of a defender. His new look is meant to embody fear itself, and Yamazaki absolutely achieves this. Godzilla is downright terrifying and unforgiving, hellbent absolute devastation as a predator claiming his territory. This is probably the meanest Godzilla we’ve seen, equipped with horrifying spikes that light up with atomic energy and unleashing his terror on the city with literal atom bomb breath. He stomps and destroys and eats people indiscriminately, with “Godzilla Minus One” recognizing that monsters work best when they have no anthropomorphized humanity and aligning the disaster with the trauma already being experienced by the city under seige. You don’t root for Godzilla; he is not the friendly dinosaur just trying to save us. No, Godzilla is here to chew bubble gum and destroy the city, and he’s all out of bubble gum.
With the monster firmly established as such, “Godzilla Minus One” also succeeds where many other iterations have failed horribly: giving us characters and a human story we actually care about. The post WWII setting allows the characters to breath and unfold in an already tumultulous time, and rather than trying to cram a larger mythos and/or government conspiracy, Yamazaki opts to keep it simple and thematically rich. “Godzilla Minus One” is able to dig deeper into its characters struggling to find their place in the wreckage of their country, as well as try to reckon with their own humanity and what it means to survive. It is an emotional war story first, a Godzilla movie second, a balance that Yamazaki expertly nails. Sure, it has some melodrama that gets a little ahead of itself, but “Godzilla Minus One” feels largely grounded and tethered to its themes of war and its casualties even among its survivors. You really feel for Shikishima and his family, with all of their motivations crystal clear and meaningful. If Godzilla never showed up, you would be left with an engrossing, emotional war drama. That’s not to say you don’t need the monster in your monster movie, but it does highlight how effective the human story and human characters are in “Godzilla Minus One,” which it makes it shockingly effective and refreshing.
With characters that matter and a mean, nasty Godzilla, you have a recipe for some gripping action set pieces and an edge of your seat climax. “Godzilla Minus One” holds nothing back in both its destruction and face off, with a final 40 minutes that leave you holding your breath and unable to look away. Every attack is breathtaking and really well framed, delivering some intense clashes and narrow escapes as our heroes experience run ins with Godzilla. And for those like myself who would happily sit back and say that there’s nothing new that can be done with the creature, you haven’t seen anything like when Godzilla decides to charge up his atomic energy. It’s intensity and anticipatory destruction is palpable the first time it happens, as if you could feel the entire theater exclaim together in one gasping breath, “oh fuck…” and then exploding with carnage as it is unleashed in a blue stream of destruction. “Godzilla Minus One’s” setting also limits the technology, forcing innovative solutions for a seemingly unsolvable problem. This adds yet another unique layer to the action, stripping down the muddled exposition of lore and made up science to just be creative with what we have and hope it works.
There’s something to be said about letting people tell their own stories. Godzilla is very much a Japanese story, with its roots firmly planted in this era and themes of war and trauma and government ineptitude, and “Godzilla Minus One” feels at home in that original form. I have long been a proponent of foreign cinema exposure, and seeing a modern, wholly Japanese Godzilla film as it was meant to be seen by people with deep personal connections to its more nuanced text is as refreshing as it is vital. I’m not saying to abandon American cinema, but “Godzilla Minus One” is an example of how misunderstood the source material may have been in many of the recent outings. There’s no couple that split up because of their work and then reunite under the city rubble, no estranged father who spent his life studying the mysteries and a daughter/son who has to continue to the work, no evil scientist or tech bro or military buffoon who wants to control the monster, and no random child that has some kind of telekinetic relationship with the beast and discovers all he really needs is love and a hug. I’m sure after 37 films there’s bound to be some of this nonsense in Japanese versions, but “Godzilla Minus One” gets rid of it all and delivers a lean, mean, riveting action drama.
I really can’t compliment “Godzilla Minus One” enough, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. This is as good as these things can get, and it left me genuinely stunned. I don’t know that it’ll make me a fan of the genre as a whole, but if this is what Godzilla can be then sign me up for as many as Yamazaki wants to make.
Simply put, “Godzilla Minus One” absolutely rules.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
“Godzilla Minus One” is in theaters everywhere Dec 1st. You can watch the trailer below.
