"Godzilla Minus One": Still in a class of its own, but...
Takashi Yamazaki once again unleashes an apocalypse that gets under your skin. Because "Godzilla Minus One" is gripping, terrifying, and visually outstanding. Nevertheless, the film lacks something that its predecessor had three years ago.
Don't worry: The following film review contains no spoilers. I won't reveal anything more than what is already known and visible in the trailers. «Godzilla Minus Zero» hits theaters on November 5th.
Nine years. That was all the time that had passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when a gigantic monster first stomped across the Japanese cinema screen in 1954. The bombs had cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives, wiped out entire city districts, and left countless survivors scarred for life. Japan was still trying to heal the wounds of the Second World War. But the fear of the next nuclear catastrophe remained.
Then came Godzilla. A prehistoric monster awakened by nuclear tests, which laid Tokyo to waste and whose radioactive destructive power evoked memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the Japanese audience of that time, the horror must have felt terrifyingly familiar. After all, Godzilla gave shape to the fears of an entire nation: huge, unstoppable, and barely defeatable even with the most modern weapons.
A walking apocalypse.
Source: TOHO
Over the decades, however, Godzilla lost much of its original terror. The walking apocalypse increasingly became a protector of humanity, brawling with other giant creatures. Hollywood even turned it into an entire Monsterverse, which, by the time of «Godzilla vs. Kong», felt more like the Marvel Cinematic Universe than the 1954 Japanese classic.
In 2023, director, writer, and VFX chief Takashi Yamazaki returned to its origins with «Godzilla Minus One». He set the plot in immediate post-war Japan and once again unleashed Godzilla upon the country as an unstoppable force of nature. When its dorsal plates charged up with blue light, it wasn't followed by a cool laser beam, but an explosion of nuclear proportions. With a shockwave, a mushroom cloud, and images that immediately recalled Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That got under my skin back then. It still does. Especially since Yamazaki linked the catastrophe closely to the story of a former kamikaze pilot who was nearly broken by his survivor's guilt. Thus, «Minus One» became not only one of the best films of 2023 but also a harrowing story about guilt, loss, and the question of how one can even go on living after such a catastrophe.
Three years later, Yamazaki is back. With more money, more effects, and a predecessor that set the bar incredibly high.
People make the difference
Two years have passed since Godzilla's devastating attack in «Minus One». The year is 1949, and Japan is still trying to rise from the rubble. In fact, something like normalcy is slowly returning. This includes the life of Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), who has largely overcome his feelings of guilt and wants to finally build a future together with Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and his daughter Akiko.
Of course, this peace does not remain undisturbed for long. New signs of a monstrous threat bring the past back to life. What was painstakingly built is once again threatened with destruction.
If there is one thing I particularly like about Yamazaki's two Godzilla films, it is that he always takes time for his human characters. Because Yamazaki understands something that Hollywood's Monsterverse has increasingly forgotten over the years: for him, humans are not annoying extras who have to drive the plot forward between two monster fights. They are the emotional anchor point of his films.
Added to this is the way Yamazaki stages the destruction. When Godzilla descends upon Japan, it reminds me less of a monster movie than of images from a war zone. For example, when a mother runs desperately for her life with her crying child in her arms, before both are crushed under collapsing debris. Any wonder at the spectacle vanishes for me. What I see reminds me far too much of the horrors of real humanitarian catastrophes.
Source: TOHO
It is precisely this seriousness that makes Godzilla so terrifying in Yamazaki's films. It acts like an unstoppable force of nature whose destructive power leaves its mark far beyond the actual attack.
In the shadow of its predecessor
But as impressive and terrifying as Yamazaki stages Godzilla this time around – and he really does – «Minus Zero» didn't thrill me quite as much as it did three years ago. That is, of all things, due to the human story I just praised. Because the longer the film lasts, the stronger the feeling creeps in that I am watching something I have already seen in a similar form.
This is especially evident in Koichi Shikishima.
Source: TOHO
Let's remember: In «Minus One», the former kamikaze pilot was consumed by the guilt of having survived the war. His encounter with Godzilla forced him to literally face the past that had become a monster, from which he was running away. In the end, however, he found a way to live with his feelings of guilt. An immensely strong character arc, whose emotional power also stemmed from how closely Koichi's personal story was interwoven with the existential, collective trauma of Japan.
In «Minus Zero», however, Koichi is now a stable person. He has largely found his inner peace and wants to enable a future for his daughter in which she no longer has to be afraid. That is a relatable wish. But the story of a father who wants to protect his family from an overwhelming threat is also significantly more trivial.
Of course, Yamazaki tries to illuminate the war trauma from other perspectives. New characters bring new fates, old wounds are torn open again. That works well for long stretches. Nevertheless, I repeatedly have the feeling that «Minus Zero» is traveling on already familiar emotional terrain. The conflicts are similar, the themes repeat themselves. What caught me completely unprepared in 2023 has a bit of a déjà vu this time.
Source: TOHO
That doesn't make the film boring by any means. Especially at the beginning, it works excellently for me. Only later does the story begin to drag a bit. Also because the emotional conflicts, for my taste, offer too little that is new to maintain the tension throughout the entire runtime. Especially since Yamazaki continues to use his monsters surprisingly sparingly. A restraint that I generally appreciate. However, it also requires a story that captivates the audience until the very end.
Perhaps I am being a bit strict. After all, «Minus Zero» does many things right that I loved so much about its predecessor. But that is precisely where its biggest problem lies for me: «Minus One» already told a very similar story, and with an emotional force that its sequel, despite all its qualities, no longer quite reaches. Thus, the film lacks something that its predecessor had three years ago: innovation.
In a nutshell
In the shadow of a masterpiece
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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