The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C+
I’m pissed that critic Adam Ollinger used the line “Godzilla Minus Fun” because I had that line in my head since I saw this movie last week. Regardless, I’m joining him as one of very few people on the internet that don’t love this movie. I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it. Godzilla Minus One has received the widest U.S. theatrical release yet for a Japanese Godzilla movie and I was excited to see one of these movies in a theater for the first time (I saw a theatrical screening of Godzilla 2000 last month, but this is my first time seeing a new Japanese Godzilla movie in a theater). I was also exited to hear that this movie would be returning to the more serious tone of the original Godzilla, but I wasn’t expecting this. This movie takes itself very seriously. Very, very seriously. Too goddamn seriously.
Godzilla Minus One is the 33rd Japanese Godzilla movie and the first live-action one since Shin Godzilla in 2016. Despite the astonishing length of the series, this latest film isn’t a sequel but rather another reboot of the franchise. Beginning in the final days of World War II, our hero is a kamikaze pilot named Kōichi Shikishima that fakes a mechanical malfunction in his plane and lands at a repair base. That night, Godzilla emerges and attacks the base. Several years later, Kōichi is working as a mine sweeper in Tokyo and living with a woman named Noriko Ōishi, whose family was killed in the war, and a baby that he saved post-war. Naturally, Godzilla reemerges, now much larger, and begins to wreak havoc throughout Japan, while the military tries to come up with a way to destroy him. If you have seen any of these movies, you know the drill.
The movie’s title doesn’t translate well into English, but it is referring to a situation going into the negative. In other words, it is a situation where you think that things can’t possibly get any worse, but somehow they do. In the aftermath of World War II, that is what Godzilla represents to Japan and the movie is about as bleak as that would imply. I’ve seen every Godzilla movie and my favorite is still the original film from 1954. I love how that movie presents Godzilla as a serious threat and symbol of nuclear warfare while still being a fun ride of a film. I certainly don’t want a return to the pure silliness of the later Showa Era films like Godzilla vs. Megalon and Son of Godzilla. That being said, Godzilla Minus One takes itself as seriously as a heart attack and drains much of the fun from a movie about a giant monster destroying buildings. The original Godzilla is a serious horror movie, but this often goes more into the direction of a serious drama. If you watched Grave of the Fireflies and thought that it would be better with Godzilla, then here you go.
However, here is the frustrating thing about Godzilla Minus One: when Godzilla is actually on-screen, this movie is frigging amazing. With a budget of $15 million, this Godzilla puts the $200 million American version to shame. The creature design brings the classic look of Godzilla into the modern era and out of rubber suits while still looking like quintessential Godzilla. The city-destroying scenes are possibly the best ever in a kaiju (giant monster) movie. When the original Godzilla theme started playing and Godzilla was laying waste to city blocks with his atomic blast, I was fucking pumped and had a big smile on my face. An early sequence when the film basically becomes Jaws for ten minutes was also a really fun highlight.
Unfortunately, there are painfully long stretches of time when Godzilla wasn’t on screen and I spent much of these periods checking my watch. The pacing drags considerably and the Godzilla scenes can’t sustain interest during the rest of the film’s 2 hour and 5 minute running time. There is a solid 90-minute movie hidden in here, but that extra half hour saddles the audience with dry, uninteresting characters while we await the return of the monster. While the performances are all fine, tragic backstories don’t necessarily equate to interesting characters. None of these characters were of any particular interest to me and the main character’s redemption arc was painfully obvious from the opening scene, leaving me ungodly bored for much of the running time.
Godzilla is the best part of this Godzilla movie and that would ordinarily make it a slam dunk. However, the film’s plodding pace, uninteresting characters and excessively serious tone drain the film of the fun and excitement generated by Godzilla’s rampage. The film brings nothing new to the franchise other than an unwanted tonal shift and I prefer Shin Godzilla’s approach to bringing the series back to basics while still being a fun watch. Godzilla Minus One just went too far on the serious end of the spectrum for me to enjoy the experience.
Image by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_Minus_One#/media/File:Godzilla_Minus_One_Poster.jpeg
