Kind of crazy to think that it took over 60 years and nearly 40 films before we got an R-rated Godzilla movie…
“Godzilla Minus Zero” is the sequel to 2023’s “Minus One,” and follows the citizens of Japan as they work to rebuild from Godzilla’s attacks, only for a new threat to emerge. Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Miou Tanaka, Sakura Ando, and Hidetaka Yoshioka reprise their roles, with Jun Kunimura, Masami Nagasawa, and Min Tanaka joining the cast, and Takashi Yamazaki returning as writer/director.
2023’s “Godzilla Minus One” was a surprise hit, connecting with audiences outside Japan en route to grossing $116 million worldwide and a Best Visual Effects win at the Academy Awards. The sequel tries to hit the same emotional and visual beats with largely successful, if slightly less impactful, results.
As with many sequels, especially to films that were made without the intent of having a follow-up, many of the same plot and character plotlines are revisited in “Minus Zero” that were focused on in “Minus One.” Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe still have their chosen family and adoptive daughter together, while the government and military officials butt heads with each other. The film tries to add some new dynamics, but they are either end up feeling rinse/repeat after a while, or are simply annoying to feature in a monster movie (the young daughter, played by Sae Nagatani, screams when she doesn’t get her way, and let’s just say she doesn’t get her way several times throughout the film).
With a bigger budget than the original’s $10 million, the effects are still great. Godzilla looks terrifyingly detailed in all his scaley glory, and the destruction he causes can be felt. The sound design is especially commendable, with the opening scene setting the stage for how immersive and harrowing director Takashi Yamazaki wants the sequel to be. Some of the green screen can be a little wonky when it’s focusing on the human characters, but I really liked the boots-on-the-ground approach for treating a kaiju attack like a 9/11-esque scenario, and the fallout and mass confusion and panic that they would cause in hospitals and orphanages.
Sometimes the Godzilla sequences can feel a little repetitive, with each essentially playing out as “we stopped him, just kidding, oh no he’s more powerful, ok maybe this will work” for a large chunk of the runtime. For the diehard Godzilla fans I’m sure that doesn’t even sound like a complaint, but for fairweather audience members like myself I just felt the plot could have been streamlined a little bit. Also for what it’s worth, the actors they cast to portray the American military give comically bad performances, which maybe was the point, to poke fun at the growing ego of post-WWII America, but they were more distracting than amusing.
“Godzilla Minus Zero” will surely please fans of the original film, and with the benefit of a larger budget and being shot with IMAX and Dolby cameras the film is a visual and vocal feast (at least whenever the big lizard is on-screen). While the Hiroshima analogy will always be relevant, it does feel like there were several missed opportunities to really comment on the Cold War climate, nuclear arms race, or post-Empire Japan’s failure of its citizens, all of which get glazed over for big action or revisited themes. Still, “Minus Zero” is a fun time and it’s cool to get to see some true carnage in a Godzilla movie; my audience was cheering like it was opening night of an Avengers film.
Critics Rating: 7/10
