Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One is so good it made me cry. Ok, that’s not all that hard so let’s try this. 

It’s so good that it redeems the idea of Godzilla movies for me. Most Godzilla movies are silly and cheap and dumb … but they don’t have to be. 

Anyway, I am not the biggest fan of the franchise. The first one is a classic, and it is impossible to argue with a movie that so completely nails the national identity of a country in the aftermath of a lost war and the invention of the nuclear bomb. It was as perfect metaphor for the atomic age as Frankenstein was for science replacing God in Mary Shelley’s era. 

But mostly, when I turned on Godzilla movies on television I didn’t last long. They were slow, silly and just not something I could sit through. 

I will watch nearly every episode of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, most any superhero thing right now regardless of production values and quality because we all have our things. 

But Godzilla is not mine. 

And then we get a flick like Godzilla Minus Zero and it just upends everything. Here’s what it does:

1) It makes you care about a collection of WW2 veterans who are trying to rebuild their lives and their country. 

2) It gives them realistic motivations and behaviors and makes them so compelling that you actually care if they live or die when Godzilla comes around. 

3) It also looks right (not great or immaculate or movie perfect) but it looks like a Godzilla movie should look. Hard to explain but it’s true. 

4) And every time Godzilla shows up it’s scary and fun. 

There is not one human being I have ever cared about in a Godzilla movie until this one. 

There were moments in Kong Skull Island (part of the American Monsterverse series that includes Godzilla) that landed well but it never completely overcame its video game like structure.

Godzilla himself and the disaster special FX are all believable even if none of it looks exactly real.

And the sound guys on this deserve giant bonuses. The old girl sounds great. 

IMDB says: Instead of creating a new roar, the crew simply played the original Godzilla roar over loud speakers and recorded the audio.

Seriously, give those guys and girls giant bonuses. 

I’m already tired of the trope of making a film look like the era of films it is emulating. But this looks like it came out of the 1950s and also looks amazing. 

Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki with astonishing heart and scary power. 

I’m still in shock, I think. How did this guy make a movie this good?