The subject of this review is the 2023 period piece action/drama film Godzilla Minus One, a movie that received acclaim from critics and casual moviegoers alike for its gripping human drama, great acting, superb presentation, and of course all the destruction that’s expected from a Godzilla flick.

Plot:

The film takes place in immediate post-WWII Japan, and centres around a man named Kōichi Shikishima. Knowing the war effort was fruitless and wanting to avoid his fate as a kamikaze pilot, Kōichi fakes a technical issue with his plane and lands at the innocuous Odo Island to stall for time. Unfortunately an unmutated Godzilla just so happens to frequent the island as well, and then happens to stumble across the small camp Kōichi is staying at. The terror-stricken mechanics ready their guns and hunker down in a small trench hoping Godzilla will lose interest in their camp and return to the ocean from whence he came. For a moment it seems like he will…until someone opens fire.

My Opinions:

I love this film to bits, and it is honestly my favourite theatre-going experience I’ve had in my whole life. Unlike most Godzilla movies where the humans are annoying plot pieces that serve no other purpose than to provide context for the monster violence and give excuses for Godzilla to come ashore and throw hands with another kaiju, the humans in Minus One are exceptional. They’re realistic, fully fleshed out, and have fun and interesting dynamics with each other. Kōichi and his minesweeper-colleagues-turned-brothers-in-arms are especially fun to watch. The acting is also excellent, grounding the characters while also providing a fair amount of the bug-eyed screams of fear you want to see from a Godzilla attack.

Speaking of Godzilla… Even though the humans are the stars of this film no effort was spared when it comes to him.  Godzilla is at his most villainous, and even scariest, he’s ever been in this film. He goes out of his way to target civilians, level buildings, and does it all with a palpable amount of hate and bitterness. As a lifelong fan of the character I’ll be the first to admit that it’s pretty hard to make Godzilla scary; while charming, the older suits are still pretty goofy-looking, and a lot of the time uninteresting human characters make Godzilla the one the audience is rooting for, even if he’s meant to be the villain. Minus One has none of these problems; in this film you actually want the humans to succeed. Godzilla is shot like a horror character in this film; his arrival is always sufficiently built up and the scenes he’s in are tense.  One standout example is the boat chase scene near the start of the film. Kōichi and his friends are being pursued by Godzilla on a small wooden boat, with only a small turret and some harvested mines trailing behind them to defend themselves. No music is present - only the sounds of the small boat's rudder, the panicking crew, and the sounds of the waves Godzilla makes as he swims towards them. The atomic breath scene had me silenced in awe and horror.

The CGI in this film is excellent. Godzilla, as always, looks great. He has intricately detailed keloid scarring and dorsal spines, fluid movements that still convey his villainous personality while also preserving some of the charm from how the older Godzilla suits moved, and a very expressive face (albeit one almost always in a scowl or indignant roar of pure unadulterated rage). The water effects are genuinely beautiful, and there are a lot of very long water scenes. The CGI is especially impressive considering the film’s 12 million dollar budget and mere 35 VFX artists. 

On another note (see what I did there?) the soundtrack is very good, elevating every scene it's utilised in. The most standout track is Resolution, but Godzilla’s theme is as good as ever, even changing a bit every time he shows up by utilising snippets from his theme from 1962’s King Kong Vs. Godzilla and 1964’s Mothra Vs. Godzilla. 

To Conclude…

Godzilla: Minus One is an excellent film and will surely go down as one of the crown jewels of the Godzilla franchise. While it will be out of theatres by the time you read this review I suggest you watch this on the biggest screen you can find, with the sound way up.

While I judged the last review subject (The Amazing Digital Circus for those of you who forgot) by the standards of the pilot of an indie project I’m pitting Minus One against the standards of movies as a whole, and it still comes out with 9 - or even 10 - out of 10!