Film Review: Godzilla Minus One

I’m gonna start off swinging with my big take right off the bat, Godzilla Minus One is probably the best Godzilla film ever made. Now, don’t get me wrong, the original 1954 Godzilla is an untouchable classic that has deservedly earned its place in the canon of all-time great films, but Minus One makes quite the case for itself, especially compared to the vast array of Godzilla movies we have gotten over the past 69 (nice) years. Helming the 37th film featuring the titular monster is Takashi Yamazaki, who not only wrote and directed it, but also acted as the visual effects supervisor.

The story follows Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot who finds himself caught in the middle of a Godzilla attack on a small island toward the end of WWII. He survives by the skin of his teeth, but the same can’t be said for all but one of the mechanics on the island who he failed to assist in protecting. He finds out his parents have died during air raids, and his home town is an absolute wreck. He ends up taking in another woman, Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) who has been stuck taking care of an orphaned baby in the streets. While they form a sort of found family, Kōichi is still haunted by the war, his cowardice, and Godzilla.

Unfortunately, Godzilla makes his return. Kōichi is working on a small minesweeper with former naval engineer Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a trainee Shirō Mizushima (Yuki Yamada), and the captain of the boat Yōji Akitsu (Kuranosuke Sasaki), and the four end up encountering Godzilla, who is bigger and stronger than ever. He soon devastates a nearby city, resulting in a civilian committee being created to form a plan that can hopefully stop Godzilla once and for all before he can do even more damage to an already ravaged Japan.

Now, just to get this out of the way, all the Godzilla stuff is fantastic. The effects are really strong throughout, giving it a sense of physicality that allows his scale to really have impact. The destruction from Godzilla is especially ruthless compared to previous iterations. If you are nearby, chances are you are not going to leave the area in one piece, and the atomic breath managed to actually evoke a sense of terror. This is easily the scariest that Godzilla has ever been. It is bleak and brutal, and that sense of impending doom is something that lingers throughout the whole story, even when Godzilla is not on screen.

But the reason this film soars above so many others is that, for the first time in a long time, the human story here manages to engage just as strongly as the action. That’s not to say I was never invested in these movies, I thought there were some moving elements to the story in the American film, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, and I admire the satire of Shin Godzilla. However, with most of these movies, the story either feels like an afterthought at a certain point, or it gets lost in the spectacle, or it just gets boring and/or nonsensical, and you just want to get to the fireworks factory. Kōichi’s journey in this film is so strong and coherent and thoughtful that it could easily stand on its own as a strong character drama.

Leaving the film, I was actually thinking about a lot of the things that the film touches on. Things like Japan’s post-war trauma, the resilience of people living through absolute devastation, the failures of the Japaneses and US governments during the post-war occupation era, the collective grief of a population, and the effect of soldiers who returned home completely demoralized and lacking purpose and closure to the conflict they have taken part in, which goes double for Kōichi because he was expected to sacrifice his life for his country, something he becomes judged for by some characters in the film.

If there is anything that I could consider to be a flaw, there is one thing that is a bit of a spoiler. The best way I can describe it without giving anything away is that it does something similar to the ending of Steven Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds, so if there is something about that film’s ending that rubs you the wrong way, this film does the same thing. Personally, it did not bother me, and I found the way it concludes to be a nice payoff to the bleakness that we’ve been dealing with through the previous two hours.

I was thoroughly impressed with Godzilla Minus One. It manages to be an effective throwback to the dark, metaphorical origins of the original film while providing an engaging modern spectacle that feels informed by films of the past – ranging from entries in the Godzilla franchise to classics like Jaws – while still feeling like its own wholly cohesive thing that brings a fresh spin to such a long running series. The cast is uniformly terrific, each being able to have the breathing room to add personality and explore nuances with their character, allowing you to really invest yourself by the time is reaches the more rousing moments in the third act, giving each emotional beat the sincere punch it needs. Like I said, it’s in all likelihood the best Godzilla movie we’ve had, and by extension, one of the best monster movies ever. It’s nice that we can continue to have a schlocky take of this material on the American side with stuff like Godzilla Vs. Kong while Japan explores it from a more down-to-Earth perspective that showcases why this was so impactful in the first place. I can’t imagine anything this film could have done better, it is firing on all cylinders from beginning to end. Godzilla fans are certainly in for a treat, but any lover of cinema should also not miss this.

Godzilla Minus One is now out in theaters.