Godzilla Minus Zero Destroys Any American-Made Godzilla Movie
Godzilla Minus Zero was directed by Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki and stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, and Hidetaka Yoshioka, along with Min Tanaka and Masami Nagasawa. A couple of years after the events of Minus One, Japan is still trying to rebuild from both World War II and Godzilla’s attack. Kōichi Shikishima and Noriko Ōishi are married and raising their adopted daughter, Akiko. The rebuilding and peace are short-lived when a new monster, Ghidorah, arrives and proves to be even deadlier than Godzilla. When Godzilla returns during Ghidorah’s attacks, the humans try to force these two monsters to fight one another in order to defeat both of them. Like Minus One, Minus Zero was produced by Toho.
Godzilla Minus One was and remains the best Godzilla movie. It had amazing Godzilla action and destruction, human characters the audience cares about, great stakes, a great score, great visuals, and lacked the negatives of an American-made Godzilla movie (dumb humor, lack of action, pointless human characters and subplots). It took place in an interesting time period of post-WW II Japan. Godzilla Minus Zero, with the same cast and crew, does all the things we loved about Minus One once again while remaining fresh and unique. The human characters remain a strong point when they are on screen. New conflicts for Kōichi and Noriko are presented, this time with the fear of losing what they gained and Noriko dealing with some physical mutations from being exposed to Godzilla’s cells in his attack and hiding them from everyone. The action and destruction are still done well, but this time Ghidorah is in the action. In fact, the majority of the movie is Ghidorah causing all the destruction. This is the best Ghidorah has looked and been portrayed in any Godzilla movie.
The returning cast does well, but it’s the two new cast members who carry the best performances of the movie. Min Tanaka plays a scientist named Kanji Murakami who was a Hiroshima bombing survivor that lost his family that day and resents America for dropping the bomb and is traumatized from that day and is now involved in trying to stop Ghidorah. He delivers the most powerful performance of the movie. Masami Nagasawa plays a meteorologist named Makoto Aoyama who connects Ghidorah’s movements and attacks to the weather. She delivers a strong performance as well. The best emotional moments among the human characters are still between Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe as Kōichi and Noriko. Their chemistry is even better than in Minus One. The flashbacks to both WW II and Godzilla’s attack are done well.
Godzilla appears halfway through the movie, so don’t expect as much Godzilla as we got in Godzilla Minus One, but when he returns, it is glorious, and the fight between him and Ghidorah is worth the wait. This is forgivable since Ghidorah carries the kaiju action for the first half of the movie. The visuals and special effects are top-notch, and Godzilla looks excellent, as does Ghidorah. This is the first R-rated Godzilla movie, and most people will say it didn’t have to be rated R, but it’s most likely due to the flashbacks showing citizens’ dead bodies from the atomic bomb. The score done by Naoki Satō is excellent, and when that Godzilla theme kicks in, the tension is felt. Godzilla Minus Zero is longer than Minus One and has extra plot points like Noriko’s mutation and Kanji’s trauma, but none of these arcs slow down the movie. The ending is where the pace slows down a bit, and it’s the ending where people may feel torn about how it was done. It comes down to mind vs. heart in how you feel about the emotional ending. It also ends with the door open for more movies in this series, but if this is the last one, it works as an ending to the series.
Overall, Godzilla Minus Zero is a reminder that Godzilla is done best when Toho produces and not when a Hollywood studio is producing the movies. The actors do well in making us emotionally invested in them. The action and destruction are done well. Godzilla and Ghidorah are terrifyingly awesome to watch. This is the second-best Godzilla movie for me after Minus One. If you love Godzilla movies, you will love this one, and it’s worth seeing in theaters.
My final grade for Godzilla Minus Zero is an A. Go see this movie. You will not be disappointed. What are your thoughts on Godzilla Minus Zero? Let us know in the comments below.
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