"Godzilla Minus Zero" (Review)
On November 1st, 2024, director Takashi Yamazaki announced the sequel to Godzilla Minus One was officially in development. This announcement was made months after Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and was critically acclaimed by critics and fans alike as the best Godzilla movie in the franchise.
In an interview, Yamazaki has stated if he were to make a sequel the only next step is to do a "versus" movie. However, it was only if he can find a way to keep the same emotional tone and focus on the characters of the first movie.
In October 2024, Yamazaki was asked by an attendee at New York Comic Con during a panel which movie he was interested in remaking. He replied he would like to remake Godzilla vs Hedorah with modern visuals making Hedorah a contender for the sequel. In October 2026, the director was asked by Den of Geek about the addition of King Ghidorah revealing it was his only choice due to Godzilla's and Ghidorah's shared history since the 1964 debut, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
Review:
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. There is no third time. Everything ends here.
In 2023, the world witnessed and bowed down to Godzilla Minus One, critically and emotionally. It was applauded as the best Godzilla movie in the franchise. Once a sequel was announced, I will admit I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I love the idea seeing this Godzilla again on the big screen going up against another monster. On the other hand, I had fears that a sequel could water down what Minus One had achieved on an emotional level. I would have preferred it to be a stand-alone film. Then, I saw the trailers and my hopes were raised and my fears dissipated from what I saw.
Now that I have seen Godzilla Minus Zero I really liked the movie as a Ghidorah movie, but as a Godzilla movie I wish there was more to be seen.
To start off, we get down to the nitty-gritty. The story of the movie takes place two years after Godzilla Minus One. Japan was just recovering from Godzilla's attack until a new threat arrives to disrupt the peaceful tranquility. Kenji Noda, now head of a new defense bureau, turn to Professor Murakami, Makoto Aoyama, and Koichi Shikishima to lead an offense against Ghidorah. America is also in collaboration to help with Operation Narukami only in covert to prevent raising red flags to the Soviets. However, the Americans have a plan B, in case Noda's plan fails.
The Shikishima family walking home together Kenji Noda in Ginza Professor Murakami
The last movie had themes of PTSD and how Japan's own government saw their soldiers as expendable sacrifices to fight a losing war. Minus Zero does not have any of those themes that are that heavy. We learn Noda is dealing with his own past and he has been trying to make amends for his sins he committed during the war. Murakami also has his own motivation. Ever since he lost his grandson in Hiroshima and witnessing Godzilla's power in Ginza, he has been wanting revenge towards America. He planned to unleash Godzilla on America. Then, there is Noriko. We learn she is the only survivor in Ginza which her body has accepted the Godzilla cells to help regenerate her body, yet it forced a mutation. Learning how others who also had this mutation have died, she feared her time may still be coming. I absolutely love these aspects as it does not retread the same themes from the last movie.
What I love most is the foundation of keeping the family together. After the last movie, the Shikishima family is now a real family. Before, Koichi, Noriko, and Akiko were living together in refuge to rebuild their lives. After some time, they grew to becoming like a family, but Koichi couldn't bring himself to marry Noriko because he was struggling with his up-close encounter with Godzilla on Oto Island. After defeating Godzilla in Operation Wata Sumi, his fight was finally over. He married Noriko and adopted Akiko as their daughter. Throughout Minus Zero, Koichi is always fighting to keep his family together. He did not want to get involved with fighting Ghidorah, but understood that this monster will affect them eventually. The movie always emphasizing "I will return" or "We will return."
The family aspect is something that Hollywood has lost over time because modern movies with a family always shows a family that is tearing apart, going through a divorce, or the family already has divorced and the father is a schmuck that does not receive a lot of character growth. So I really respect Godzilla Minus Zero for really showing you can have a family that sticks together and grows from one another. The father figure does not have to be a schmuck. You can have smart and emotionally driven characters without demeaning them.
I will say, however, the story does drag, at times. There were moments that had me wondering where certain scenes were going and made me want it to hurry it along a bit faster.
The movie wastes no time introducing King Ghidorah. He appears in the first few seconds attacking a local village. His first appearance had a western dragon design before he turns into the devil with three heads. The movie takes the time to develop where the monster came from and how he gained this dragon-like appearance. When he does transform into the three-headed monster, everyone recognizes the Monsterverse influence is noticeable right away in the face and head design. As for the body and the wyvern wings, it was very much taken from Yamazaki's "ride" version of the character. Because this movie exposes Ghidorah so much on screen, I almost forgot this was supposed to be a Godzilla movie. That says a lot for a monster that is supposed to be the movie's main antagonist meaning Ghidorah can really stand alone with its own movie.
This is where I am most critical of the film. For a movie called Godzilla Minus Zero, Godzilla would have a similar amount of screen time as the previous. However, the king of the monsters is hardly in the movie. I enjoyed the movie as it is because Godzilla has already been established in the first movie. We already know what his destructive power looks like. But because Ghidorah dominates the movie, the movie itself almost forgets that this is supposed to be a Godzilla movie. Godzilla himself only has a cameo. He first appears I think around the hour and fifteen minute mark colliding with Captain Hotta's ship and tilting it over. But then, we don't see him again until the finale. It isn't the end of the world, but some more screen time for the G-Man would be appreciated. Give Godzilla more of a motivation than a plot device that is needed to stop the big bad.
The movie spends so much time to build up Ghidorah and slowly bringing Godzilla back for the climactic battle. The fight was not much a fight than it was a gore-fest. Tearing limbs, ripping off a head, gouging off dorsals. Godzilla really does get beat to a pulp and blood is just pouring out of him. I would not say this is the most brutal monster fight. The Monsterverse movies had a lot of graphic imagery despite them being PG-13. Even in the later Showa movies, Godzilla was seen spraying blood when Gigan uses his buzzsaw or MechaGodzilla fired missiles from the fingers. So I was not all that shocked to see Godzilla in such a heavily wounded state afterwards. Despite liking what I saw, the fight could have lasted a little longer and maybe another fight before the climax. I mentioned that Godzilla should have more of a motivation. So the first fight could be after he submerges from the depths he heads straight to Japan for revenge and he finds Ghidorah trespassing on his territory. They fight, but end in a draw. This way the weight of the blows in the final fight feels more impactful. It will feel visceral than what we actually got.
Yamazaki has expressed this many times that he is a big fan of the Monsterverse. It shows from Ghidorah's and Godzilla's designs and with some of the scenes. The relation between Ghidorah and thunderstorms, Godzilla being lifted up and dropped from the air, Ghidorah losing his left head and regrowing it. If you put them together with their Monsterverse counterparts, you will find a lot of similarities. Yamazaki just takes what is already there and amplifies it to make the monsters even more terrifying.
The R-rating is really most deserved in the body horror aspects and this movie does not shy away from it. You really do see a lot with dorsals looking like Godzilla's protruding from different areas on people's bodies, Murakami's flash back to Hiroshima, and his twisted vision of using Godzilla to get revenge on the Americans. The movie shows everything right to your face. I can see people who are squeamish to that kind of imagery may not enjoy this aspect of the movie as much.
What is not complete to bring that existential dread is the music. Naoki Sato composed the soundtrack for this movie as well as Godzilla Minus One. In both movies, Sato's music really brings out the mood and its loud. When the movie wants you to be afraid or excited, the music composition really brings that out as soon as the scene starts. It is not music that you can memorize and hum to. It sits with you to bring out a mood that you should be feeling in those moments. They're loud, yet affective.
Over time, I really came out enjoying Godzilla Minus Zero. It is a great sequel to Minus One, which is a really hard task to pull off. The lack of Godzilla in this movie is the only downside to it. King Ghidorah really is the star with more than enough screentime to make this movie more of a standalone Ghidorah movie that just happens to have Godzilla in it. Introducing Godzilla earlier and having another fight before the climax would help leverage that absence.
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