Movie Review - Godzilla Minus Zero

My wife and I rewatched Godzilla Minus One this week to prepare for the sequel. I don’t think I enjoyed Godzilla Minus Zero as much, but that’s only because my expectations were so much higher going in. It’s every bit as good as the first.

I’m impressed by Takashi Yamazaki’s ability to capture that je ne sais quoi of 1950s movies. While watching the first movie again, I was thinking about what is it that is different about this type of movie today compared to movies in the 1950s? Then, near the end, after they kill Godzilla the soldiers salute, to honor their advisary. And it struck me that this seems entirely unrealistic. I can’t imagine a movie today pulling off the same thing. But then it occured to me: Today we expect characters to act realistically, or at least somewhat realistically; but I don’t think that was the case back then; it seems that there was more of an effort to portray people as we wished they were instead of how they are.

7:42●●● 95%

RunPee · now 🔔

⏩

‹

‹

GET IT ONGoogle PlayDownload on theApp Store

I’m probably just reading too much into it, but that’s the shape of it to me.

Godzilla Minus Zero recaptures the magic of the original and feels like a perfect continuation of the story. Something I enjoyed about the first movie was their attempt to use physics as a weapon, by sinking Godzilla and then resurfacing him right away. Godzilla Minus Zero keeps the theme going in a similar, but different, way.

Heroes by choice

Both movies emphasize the real tension of choosing to be a hero. It’s never anything glamerous. None of the characters want to be a hero. But their call to duty and determination to protect the ones they love force them to make the difficult choices. In today’s movies, it feels like being a hero is its own reward. But in these Godzilla movies, no one is rewarded for their heroism the way they would be today.

R-Rating

Godzilla Minus One was PG-13, so it’s a little strange that this one gets an R, but I think I know the reason. There are a few short scenes that are graphically harder to watch and could be a little disturbing. I even made one of them an Alert Peetime and I’m going to add two others. The scenes are important for the motivation of one of the characters, so I can see why they are added, but those few short scenes come at a cost.

Acting

I’m curious how hard it is for the actors to perform these characters. The actors not only have to perform as characters, they have to act like overly dramatic actors from a movie filmed 70 years ago. I can’t imagine that it’s easy to do. I would love to know how many bad 1950s science fiction movies the actors watched as research. I’ll just say it: all of the actors are brilliant at acting like bad actors from the 1950s.

Question

This is maybe a tiny spoiler, I’m not sure, so stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie.

I’m curious, did anyone else interpret that Aoyama—the meteorologyst—was controlling the weather? I feel like there was a very subtle hint of that. I guess we’ll have to wait for Godzilla Minus -1 to find out.

Grade: A

Plot
War reduced Japan to zero, and Godzilla plunged it into minus. Two years have passed since then, and the country has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim its daily life. Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant.