I remember leaving the theater in 2023 after seeing Godzilla Minus One and thinking to myself: “I don’t think I need or want to watch another American kaiju movie.” That feeling is solidified with Godzilla Minus Zero.
It would not be an exaggeration to say the macabre yet epic set pieces in Godzilla Minus Zero put big-budget films to shame. It opens with a new monster causing chaos and quickly moves right along into figuring out how to deal with this new threat. Every shot, every sequence featuring these gargantuan threats, from start to finish, is perfect. The progression, the palm-sweating anticipation, and the sheer brutality made me think this is what a kaiju movie experience should be. It’s the understanding of not only what an audience would find stupendous, but the physics and gravity of such a being existing. Not to mention the movie has one of the most sublime monster transformations that I have seen in modern cinema. It’s almost like Japan understands the weight of an atomic-level event that the American attempts don’t.
On top of that, as with the original, Takashi Yamakazi is at the writing and directing helm and leads the VFX team. The amount of effort he put into this film is on full display and has me asking: How the hell did this movie only cost $15-19 million to make?
Narratively, Godzilla Minus Zero works for most levels. Its exploration of the aftermath of devastation not only makes it a good film but an even better sequel. There is a wave of overwhelming emotions when seeing what a colossal catastrophe can do to a people. The film juggles many different themes well and succeeds in the same way the first does in giving you a story about love and family. And while I do think all of the general points of the story land for me, the execution by some actors and some of the editing does not. Some will find no issue with the over-the-top Japanese style of emotion. And some will sit in the theater, like I did, wondering what the hell was going on with certain actors’ faces and why we spent so long watching a woman look at her weather charts.
While narratively fulfilling, I do believe that the 2-hour-and-15-minute runtime could have been either trimmed down or optimized to focus on other characters from Minus One who had a pretty large impact on the lead, Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki). I will say that the standout performance for me in the film is Masami Nagasawa as Makoto Aoyama. She absolutely nails the balance of being grounded while still feeling like she fits with the rhythm of the other actors.
One would be remiss if they overlooked both sound and music in a Godzilla movie. I’ve been a fan of Naoki Satô’s since he did the score for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Once again, he does not disappoint. His masterful mixing of Akira Ifukube’s classic Godzilla theme with the creation of a new, stringy, ghastly atmospheric score invokes feelings of fear and awe for a truly spine-chilling new creature. Natsuko Inoue and Hisafumi Takeuchi put massive speakers in front of a real-world dam to capture the raw echoes and reverberations of the kaiju. The opening sequence made me feel like I was right there in the film by how powerful the music and sound design is. If that alone isn’t enough to convince you to go watch this film in Dolby, I don’t know what could.
I truly believe that it’s films like these that bring the world together and make audiences want to engage more with foreign cinema. My only hope is that they continue to make more. If Japanese Godzilla movies continue to outshine American ones with less than a tenth of the budget, I am sure they will as long as it gets the attention it deserves. Which is why Godzilla Minus Zero is a must-watch in theaters.
The official ScreenAge Newsletter has arrived! Subscribe to receive a semi-regular round-up of all our exclusive content, including reviews, editorials, Top 100 lists, and more! C'mon, we know you want to venture further into the Wasteland with us!