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Godzilla Minus Zero (🌟🌟🌟🌟) is an earthquake. The fact that this movie looks this breathtaking on a fraction of the budget you’d expect is nothing short of miraculous. In an age when Hollywood throws money bag after money bag at tentpole blockbusters only for them to still wind up looking like a green screen mess, this movie stands defiant. Every blow hits. Every fight is real. Every moment is absolutely believed. The scale of this film and the monstrous action depicted in it cannot be overstated, and while it may not reach the emotional highs of its predecessor, this film deserves its flowers. A delicate balance of larger than life action and truly moving human drama makes for another worthy installment in the decades old story of the king of the monsters.
Picking up a few years after Godzilla’s apparent death, the story finds former kamikaze pilot Koichi married to Norika, raising their adopted daughter. Norika still suffers from evolved side effects of exposure to Godzilla’s previous attacks. Meanwhile, Disaster Response Director Noda is made aware of a new monster wreaking havoc across Japan, whom observers have named Ghidorah. When their attempts to neutralize this new beast only serve to empower it further, the team drafts Koichi and Norika to assist, requiring them to put their family’s peace and safety on the line once again. As the team slowly realizes their best bet to defeat the monster they don’t know is to pin it against the monster they do know, the ethical dilemmas and conflicting world views of the individuals making these calls takes center stage.
I cannot stress enough how badly this movie demands to be seen on the biggest and loudest screen possible. The moments when Ghidorah attacks and the movie puts you right in the middle of the action with the helpless military and civilians alike are deafening and horrifying. Watching these larger than life monsters face off with one another will never get old, and what’s better is that everything feels like it has weight to it. If a monster falls over, that’s a few dozen city blocks destroyed. If a fire bolt or atomic blast misses its target, whatever it does hit won’t stand a chance. No action is without its proper consequence, and seeing it all play out in IMAX just elevates an already great experience.
Of course, as with any monster movie, the action isn’t worth anything if we’re not invested in the characters. The film has that handled, although not quite as effectively as the original film. The human characters are essentially divided between the family unit, which must decide whether to put their lives at risk to save the world, and the scientific community, which must determine the appropriate course of action and reckon with the consequences of getting it wrong. Every human character has the weight of the world on their shoulders. They take up a tad too much time, with a few too many subplots and arcs that don’t fully pay off, but for the most part it works. The script can be a bit heavy handed, but it all serves the message of responsibility to your fellow human, and how to break cycles of violence and revenge in an increasingly violent world.
This also ties Godzilla’s story to the political landscape, as the entire human cast is painted with a general sense of fear and unease in the traumatic aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan. As a character, Godzilla is intrinsically linked to the historical context of nuclear warfare and the fear of escalating global conflict and humanity’s capacity for destruction. The film addresses this head-on, as the characters reckon with their choice to continue the cycle by using a monster they believed to be dead as their weapon of choice against the world’s newest threat. Overall, it’s a film that focuses on ordinary people keeping their humanity amidst the most extraordinary situations, and it’s a marvel how effectively it tells this story on such a massive and monstrous scale. Long live the king of monsters.
Picking up a few years after Godzilla’s apparent death, the story finds former kamikaze pilot Koichi married to Norika, raising their adopted daughter. Norika still suffers from evolved side effects of exposure to Godzilla’s previous attacks. Meanwhile, Disaster Response Director Noda is made aware of a new monster wreaking havoc across Japan, whom observers have named Ghidorah. When their attempts to neutralize this new beast only serve to empower it further, the team drafts Koichi and Norika to assist, requiring them to put their family’s peace and safety on the line once again. As the team slowly realizes their best bet to defeat the monster they don’t know is to pin it against the monster they do know, the ethical dilemmas and conflicting world views of the individuals making these calls takes center stage.
I cannot stress enough how badly this movie demands to be seen on the biggest and loudest screen possible. The moments when Ghidorah attacks and the movie puts you right in the middle of the action with the helpless military and civilians alike are deafening and horrifying. Watching these larger than life monsters face off with one another will never get old, and what’s better is that everything feels like it has weight to it. If a monster falls over, that’s a few dozen city blocks destroyed. If a fire bolt or atomic blast misses its target, whatever it does hit won’t stand a chance. No action is without its proper consequence, and seeing it all play out in IMAX just elevates an already great experience.
Of course, as with any monster movie, the action isn’t worth anything if we’re not invested in the characters. The film has that handled, although not quite as effectively as the original film. The human characters are essentially divided between the family unit, which must decide whether to put their lives at risk to save the world, and the scientific community, which must determine the appropriate course of action and reckon with the consequences of getting it wrong. Every human character has the weight of the world on their shoulders. They take up a tad too much time, with a few too many subplots and arcs that don’t fully pay off, but for the most part it works. The script can be a bit heavy handed, but it all serves the message of responsibility to your fellow human, and how to break cycles of violence and revenge in an increasingly violent world.
This also ties Godzilla’s story to the political landscape, as the entire human cast is painted with a general sense of fear and unease in the traumatic aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan. As a character, Godzilla is intrinsically linked to the historical context of nuclear warfare and the fear of escalating global conflict and humanity’s capacity for destruction. The film addresses this head-on, as the characters reckon with their choice to continue the cycle by using a monster they believed to be dead as their weapon of choice against the world’s newest threat. Overall, it’s a film that focuses on ordinary people keeping their humanity amidst the most extraordinary situations, and it’s a marvel how effectively it tells this story on such a massive and monstrous scale. Long live the king of monsters.
