Godzilla Minus One (2023) Review
I'm a Godzilla fanboy. I love Godzilla. I read the Marvel comic Godzilla: King of the Monsters in the 70's. I watched the old movies. Those were my favorite. My Godzilla was a guy in a rubber suit. My Godzilla was feisty and cool. My Godzilla was a hero. I still think of Godzilla that way.
I really enjoyed the new series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV. It's wicked cool and highly recommended, but it's not really my Godzilla. Monarch is more Big Trouble In Little China meets Pacific Rim. I love it, but it's not the same. American made Godzilla isn't the same as Japanese made Godzilla, and modern Godzilla isn't the same as classic Godzilla.
That's okay. Things change. They evolve. The stuff that I loved from over 50 years ago were the products of their time. They can't exist today. I will enjoy them for the relics that they are, and bask in the nostalgic good feels that they give me. That's cool.
I will say that the films produced by American movie producers and those produced by Japanese movie producers feel very different. I have been very pleased with the last few Godzilla + Kong efforts. They have attempted to give my favorite monsters a bit of personality and I appreciate that. Those are awesome adventure movies. I haven't seen much from Japan. Maybe Godzilla Minus One is the first one in a long while? (I don't know. I'll have to do my research.)
Speaking of Godzilla Minus One, I just finished watching it.
It could arguably be the best movie that I have ever seen with the word, "Godzilla" in its title. Godzilla isn't in the movie a lot, and Godzilla isn't a hero. This is a story about the people left in the wake of inconceivable destruction. As a metaphor for war or for our current political climate it works just the same.
That's how Godzilla started, as a metaphor. The first Godzilla film was a cry out in protest of the destruction of the atomic bomb. The original film contained actual footage of the devastation and casualties left by the bomb. The film showed the world the horrors of war that were too terrible to conceive and hid them inside the pretense of a monster movie.
Godzilla Minus One brings the Godzilla franchise back to its roots. This time the movie focuses even more on the tragedy of loss. Where the first film focused on the enormous scope of the tragedy, Minus One looks closer. This Godzilla movie is personal, intimate in its look at the tragic effects of the devastation created by the King of the Monsters. Godzilla is no hero here.
The view isn't one sided. Japan takes a look at itself, at how it treated human life during World War II and it shoulders some of the blame. The story is layered and intelligent, and it's heartbreaking. In this movie, I didn't love Godzilla, but I did love this movie.
It's the story of a Kamikaze Pilot after World War II who is labeled a coward because he didn't die in the war. He is one of the first people from Japan to see Godzilla. He sees Godzilla when he was "just a dinosaur" before radiation transforms the creature into the enormous Kaiju that we know. The pilot fails to fire on Godzilla then, and this clouds his life with regret.
He denies himself a family. Although he takes in a woman and an orphaned child, he keeps them forever and tragically at arms length. War has broken him, and at the heart of this is his encounter with Godzilla. It's sad. It's personal. It's very Japanese, but still very relatable.
As the film neared its end, I was thinking that I might never want to watch it again. This is not because the movie isn't excellent. It's because the movie is too real. Yes, a Godzilla movie that's too real. This is because Godzilla itself is just a catalyst for the human story. This is something that I think the Japanese cinema does very well, but that American cinema generally fails at doing.
Stupid movie made me cry.
I've changed my mind. I will watch it again. I loved Godzilla Minus One. It's an excellent movie. It might be the best in the franchise, but comparing it to other films in the franchise might be unfair. As an homage to the original film, Godzilla Minus One might be the truest, purest Godzilla film that's been made since the original. As a modern Godzilla vehicle, it's different. It stands apart.
I'm giving Godzilla Minus One a 10 out of 10 as a movie movie and a 7 out of 10 as a Godzilla vehicle. Maybe that's not fair. Godzilla Minus One is true to the original film, and Godzilla as a franchise has proven itself to be one of the most versatile storytelling mediums out there. This movie continues the tradition of allowing a Godzilla movie to be greater than its titular character.
If you don't like Godzilla, you may want to watch this movie all the same. It's damned good. If you are a Godzilla fan like me, this movie is a must see. Sure I knocked it a few points as a Godzilla franchise "vehicle" but that's largely based on my own biases. Godzilla has been science fiction, and fantasy, and espionage adventure, even comedy. Here Godzilla is perhaps at it's most intimate, and that took me by surprise.
You have to watch this and decide for yourself where it lands. You won't regret it.
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