Yesterday I went and saw Godzilla Minus One in IMAX. I am pleased to say that I loved the film. Since it is very new, I am going to do a spoiler free review before the page-break.
Godzilla Minus One returns the legendary King of Monsters to his classic role as the antagonist of the story. The setting is a post World War II Japan, and this is used to great effect. The narrative uses this to explore several interesting themes and is a much more thought provoking film than you might expect. Overall, the film also looks good, sounds great, and is well acted and paced. The protagonist of this film is probably the best human protagonist I have seen in a Godzilla film, and he and his costar have good chemistry. I would also like to note that the supporting cast is endearing and many of the characters are decently well characterized, established, and given good payoffs. There are multiple action scenes that worked very well. While the story has many bleak elements to it, I would argue it has many uplifting themes as well. For a story about a giant laser breathing monster, it does a fantastic job grappling with the value of a human life.
Overall, even if you are not a huge Godzilla fan, I would highly recommend checking this film out in theaters. It made me think, grieve, beam with joy, and rejoice in triumph.
From this point forward, there will be SPOILERS:
Categories:
- Impact/Personal History (6): This story is of course very new to me. However, I am sure it will be a great memory to look back on seeing this in a full theater in IMAX. When the Toho studio logo appeared, the theater clapped. When the film ended, there was thunderous applause. It is so fun to see a film with long time fans of a franchise and get to walk away excited and satisfied by the experience.
- Presentation (7): While I do not wish to be harsh, there were scenes with Godzilla (especially early on) where he looked kind of fake. Lots of the effects in the film did look really good, but I personally think Shin Godzilla looked better despite being an older film. However, overall the acting, music, and visuals were good. I was pleased to see Godzilla shot in daylight and still looking good. That is something Shin Godzilla handled very well. There is something very uncanny about seeing something that huge and monstrous walking in plain sight.
- World Building (6): Post War Japan was used very effectively as the setting for the story. However, I suppose the primary element of "World Building" was Godzilla himself. He worked well, and this film introduced a cool new and terrifying mechanic to announce the approach of the monster: dead deep see fish, presumably pulled up with him as he moves towards the surface. I really liked the plane used in the finale as it looked very unique. However, the fact that the US can't be involved due to the Soviet Union and the fact that Japan can't rearm both feel like a stretch when you consider how obvious of a threat Godzilla would pose to the world at large.
- Aesthetic (7): The overall look of the film was consistent and good.
- Protagonists (8): Koichi Shikishima shines in this film. He is a kamikaze pilot who claimed his plane needed repairs and avoided death in the final days of the war by doing this. However, when he and the mechanics servicing his plane are attacked by a much smaller Godzilla, he freezes and fails to use his plane to rescue them. Koichi is a man burdened by the lives that have been lost because he would not lose his own. Because of this his war is never over, he is trapped in a spiral of guilt throughout the story. His final flight and redemption is very impactful and he is the strongest element in this film. But he is not alone in a well rounded cast. Noriko Oishi is a selfless young woman who adopts an infant whose mother died in the fire bombings of Tokyo. Koichi takes her in and the two become close, clearly caring for one another...but Koichi cannot bring himself to marry her. He cannot accept the role of father or husband when he feels the guilt of surviving while so many men never returned to their own wives and children. Noriko and Koichi have good screen presence and are charming together. Other characters get good setups and payoffs. I particularly liked the head mechanic from the attack at the very start of the film, Sosaku Tachibana. He initial consoled Koichi when he realized the young pilot was shirking his duty of suicide by kamikaze, telling him there was no point to die so meaninglessly and for a lost cause. While the man despises Koichi for failing to fire on Godzilla, in the end he takes measures to save Koichi's life, bringing his belief on the value of life and aversion to unnecessary sacrifice back from his very first interactions in the story.
- Antagonists (7): Godzilla serves as a good antagonist for this film. He mostly comes across as an unfeeling force of nature, but does occasionally display emotions like rage. In this he seems more animalistic. His atomic breath looks utterly devastating and has a really interesting build-up to it. This is the role I much prefer Godzilla to be in: a monster that requires humanity to stand together and tactical, clever, and creative to defeat.
- Themes/Depth (9): This film tackled the idea of survivor's guilt very well. It also really pushed the idea of the value of survival, the value of human life, and the beauty that can bloom out of even the hardest and worst of situations. Koichi in the end is willing to die in an act of Kamikaze, to atone for all his guilt, to protect the future or his adopted daughter, and to avenge the woman he would have married. But he is given a way out. A simple ejector seat allows this man who at one point was demanded to die for others a chance to live for them. The film has very impactful commentary on how lives can be treated as valueless. How governments can fail to care. I noted recently when discussing with a friend how much I have enjoyed recent media from Japan and how it handles ideas of suicide ideation or the value of human life. Whether it is Goodbye Eri (living on because you can remember those you have lost beautifully), Chainsaw Man (pulling a character back from a deathly fall by the idea of human connection), Demon Slayer (Discussing the beauty found in the ephemeral nature of human life), or Godzilla Minus One (Living through the guilt of survival, being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, but instead having a chance to continue to live with on), this theme has been very prevalent and appreciated. The story doesn't just have one theme, either. There is an interesting exploration of soldiers coping with having been part of a war they now see as having been horrific and worthless. There is a fascinating line about having not gone to war is an honor not a shame. There is also a fair bit of commentary by one likable ship captain condemning the government for its suppression of information. None of the themes come across as preachy and all fit the setting very well. I definitely appreciated the themes of this film.
- Uplifting (8): As my discussion of the themes section would imply... this film deals with a dark concept but has a gloriously uplifting ending. I will say, the reason this doesn't score higher is because of the last shots indicating that Noriko is infected with some sort of Godzilla disease/parasite as well as Godzilla himself not being dead sorta dampened the mood. However, these shots are very in the spirit of these films: the King of Monsters is never really gone.
- Tension (8): Good tension. The tension of whether or not Koichi will die in his deadly flight in the finale was great. Although I had guessed the ejector seat issue because it had been hinted at and set up. The scene where Godzilla pursues the small wooden boat was almost monstrously creepy! I loved the look of his massive, soulless head moving towards that boat. Having Koichi become attached to friends, neighbors, a daughter, and a potential wife made his fate much more of a concern!
- Pacing/Length (8): I was never bored sitting through this. Overall I feel it was well paced. It was generally patient enough to set up characters. I was a little off put by seeing Godzilla right at the start of the film.
- Emotional Resonance (9): Aside from seeing Godzilla surviving at the end... I would say this film did an exceptional job at commanding my emotions. The tragedies felt horrible. The triumph at the end felt hard-fought. Noriko not having died could've felt cheap, but since they had noted how many people had gone missing, I felt it had been set up well. It also worked so well to enforce the triumph of Koichi not throwing his life away. I am sure I cried multiple times, and I know I beamed in several others.
- Destination Clarity (8): As soon as Koichi was introduced as a Kamikaze pilot, I felt the terrifying foreboding of what the finale might hold. Overall the goal of the heroes was straightforward and I really loved seeing their ingenious and brave plans come to fruition in a nail biting victory.
- Consistency (8): The most inconsistent element of this was the visuals. The film also did have a fair amount of humor... which was sometimes odd in such a grim setting.
Quality Notes:
As usual, I will start with what didn't work for me.
The final arrival of the tugboats felt rather out-of-the-blue. While the guy who planned it had mentioned trying to tow Godzilla up and had had plenty of setup to lead that charge, it is kind of hard for me to like that event. Every other event was meticulously planned out and set up. This made such a wild operation feel believable.
I like Shin Godzilla more in terms of its monster design. He felt more detached and frightening. I will also note that, even though I have so much to praise in this film, it is yet another Godzilla film. A lot of the beats, especially in the clever planning stages, felt a lot like a film I had already seen. This is a good retelling of a story, its got tons of original elements, but it is not wholly original.
Noriko flying off in the debris looked sorta fake. Godzilla in the first scene and in the nightmare looked more CG than in the rest of the film.
The setup and reveal of the ejector seat was a little bit of a shame. I loved the setup, but after they revealed it the film then snaps back to explain itself in a flash back. This felt clunky...like the film thought the audience wouldn't be paying enough attention to have caught the more subtle setup from before.
To hit the highlights of what works for me.
Honestly I adored this film. It was so fun to see it in a theater full of other fans. The story was richly thematic without coming across as preachy. It had the best human characters I have seen in a Godzilla film. I feel like I have stated most all of my praises in the scoring section. This was just a genuinely great story and I am happy to have gotten to see it in such a fun setting. I will definitely be buying this on Blu-ray. The film has also inspired me to rewatch the only Godzilla film I think I might like more... that being Shin Godzilla. So look forward to a review of that!
Honestly, this film felt like a genuine triumph.
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