GODZILLA MINUS ONE REVIEW: THIS IS WHY GODZILLA IS FOREVER.

In a time of turmoil -- with war still raging  between Ukraine & Russia, inflation at home, & political & social structures being called into question -- we find ourselves at yet another quintessential moment in history where a fictional spectre that first thrilled & terrified masses in 1954 with its relevance & deep philosophy woven into spectacle, rises from the depths again. Gojira returns & he proves why his spirit will never fade.

To say Godzilla Minus One is a good film is the only way I can sum it up in one sentence. Not just a good Godzilla film, not just a good action or horror film. Godzilla Minus One IS a good film. Much like the original 1954 movie it stands alone as a work of art that almost feels blasphemous to compare to others in the franchise. In pure essence it's got the exact same dark rich atmosphere but it tells a story that is unlike any to come before it. Gritty, grounded in more reality, and a heart behind it that can reach out and tug hard at the strings of others; Minus One is a pure work of art in every sense of grand scale & poetic beauty that one can associate with the word. 

Set in a time of despair, we see the film follow a WWII Kamikaze pilot, Koichi Shikishima, who at the opening, feigns engine trouble to get out of doing his sacrificial duty; opting instead to live rather than give up his life. His peers mostly question & even shame him for his desire to live, especially the lead engineer on the base, Sosaku Tachibana. Unfortunately for the personnel stationed at this base, they discover that the island their base is on--Odo Island, a nice nod to the original film--has a dark secret in the form of a legendary monster the locals say rises from the deep from time to time; bringing with it a flood of dead deep-sea fish to signal its coming. The locals refer to it as, Godzilla.

That night, in a truly terrifying scene that puts the Jurassic World films to shame, Godzilla attacks their base. The monster slaughters the men until only a couple handfuls are left. Tachibana, seeing that normal bullets have no effect, orders Shikishima to hop in his plane to shoot the beast with its heavier firepower. Shikishima, afraid that even the plane's guns will not work, freezes up when he locks eyes with the monster. 

More carnage ensues until Shikishima & Tachibana are the only ones left. The latter shames and condemns the former for his cowardice. Even goes so far as to force a collection of letters and photos that belonged to their comrades, reminding him that every life lost was a life loved by family that were waiting for them back home.

Shikishima's shame does not end there sadly, as when he returns home, he finds his home in Tokyo destroyed by American Firebombing raids and his parents gone. Once more he his shamed by a grief stricken neighbor named Sumiko who proclaims that had he & others like him fulfilled their duty, then the civilian devastation could have been averted. Despite all this, fate intervenes when Noriko, another survivor appears with an orphaned baby named Akiko & he can't bring himself to ignore their plite. Instead he decides to take them in & support them to the best of his ability. In the following months he finds work & in a couple years, he & Noriko seem to be able to successfully begin building a new life from the ruins of his old home. The dark shadows of his ever-present survivors guilt, continue to weigh heavy & soon manifest in the form of the very demon he failed to save his comrades from.

Godzilla resurfaces. Having been irradiated & mutated by an A-bomb test in 1946, he's even bigger and more terrifying than that fateful night on Odo Island. As ships begin disappearing in the Pacific, Shikishima quickly realizes that his past is literally about to come back & destroy the life he's been setting up. Though he still carries the burden of his choices heavily on his shoulders, he slowly starts to understand the importance of living. He starts letting the good people in his life past some of his thick emotional barriers. When Godzilla returns it shakes those first baby-steps he's been making so badly that he starts to regress. When the kaiju makes landfall, the fear of losing those he's come to care for makes him snap & he in turn feels that he's being punished for thinking he could go back to living a normal life. Ultimately, it's the moment when he decides to face the monster & this burden he carries head on.

The whole movie is as much about recovering from tragedy as it is about Godzilla's representation about the dark spectre of the atomic age. Rest assured Long-Time-Fans, that message that was the very birth of this franchise is still very prevalent. For the first time ever on film, we actually get to see the very tragic moment that Godzilla went from being a prehistoric animal to a 50 meter tall nuclear nightmare. The film even goes so far as to suggest that even before being irradiated the character had an anger towards humanity because of the events of WWII. In his first appearance, the military personnel on the island mention that the locals talk of the monster in their legends, yet we never see or hear of him attacking the locals. Furthermore when the attack on the base occurs, the monster doesn't eat anyone. Though it chomps down on a few of the troops, it opts to instead launch them through the air & annihilate them via foot & tail. It makes it clear that he attacks them out of some higher motivation than simply a dinosaur looking for a quick meal.

When Godzilla does make his grand assault on the Ginza district it's done with the remorseless & hopeless feeling of impending doom that the original portrayed, but it's also done with a greater feeling of hatred as there are times when the monster appears to be purposefully targeting the masses as they flee. Its also the first time since 2001's GMK where the director goes out of his way to show the actual deaths of those caught in his wrath. Eventually it all culminates in a spectacular display of Godzilla's legendary Atomic-Breath which now packs the same level of devastating power as the blast that created him.

It's not just his rampage in the Ginza district, Godzilla is treated with the same level of unpredictable menace this time around as the shark in Jaws & ultimately delivers in every single scene. This new level of terror he is elevated to, & the deep compelling drama of the human characters, makes this one of the few films where you actually find yourself routing for the humans. And when they do begin their fight back its not only inspiring but actually has you on the edge of your seat. The audience even cheered and applauded at the showings I was present for. Furthermore, Director Takashi Yamazaki shoots the film with a level of intimacy that really puts you smack in the middle of the action & turmoil. You really feel it. You feel the fear and anguish of the characters to the point that when a Godzilla is shown chasing after our protagonists, we felt their horror & desperation. When a child is shown crying for her parents the audience was crying with her. 

All of this aided of course by the performances of a cast that I can honestly hope return for future installments. And it's not just the main three either. Every actor has something to bring to their role. No character ever feels wooden or bland in the film. My personal favorite was Kuranosuke Sasaki's portrayal of Captain Seiji Akitsu who brought a combination of energy & at the same time levity, to his role that was on par with Robert Shaw's Quint from Jaws. 

As I said before, the only way I can sum up Godzilla Minus One is that it is a Good Film. & if you want to see a not just a good Godzilla film, but a Good film in general I highly recommend you go see this one while it's still playing in theaters. It's a movie that I hope will let generations of movie goers both new & old, know why this franchise has stood the test of time. While the monsterverse has done well to showcase his heroic stance that he can have for us, Minus One is a showcase of why Godzilla exists in the first place. He is the essence of the horrors of war, a metaphor for the threat of nuclear power, natures retaliation for the sins of mankind, he is King of the Monsters.