Godzilla Minus One

Alright. I knew nothing about this movie before I went into it. I'm a Godzilla fan but haven't really enjoyed the Western version of Godzilla movies beyond watching them as eye candy/cheap-thrill/forget-as-you-leave-cinema/switch-off-brain type movies.

Very rarely do we see GOOD movies that actually have a good plot and a storyline that sticks to quality script writing, screenplay and keeps you engaged for all the right reasons Vs Throwing a bunch of explosions, music and constant "something happening" to make up for lack of quality filmmaking.

Godzilla minus one... Is just a good movie. Japanese cinema slows things down and focuses on the quality of what's happening in the moment, in every moment. I was drawn to every part of the film and the story was about the humans with Godzilla in it, not about Godzilla.

I don't even know what to say. I don't want to say much. Don't go into it thinking "this is Godzilla a highly rated film".

Just go in, sit down and enjoy the ride.

I often watch low budget movies because the focus is on the story and not having a lot of pointless fillers to flesh out the movie.

This film does exactly that in a way that stays with you and leaves you thinking about the movie for days after you've watched it.

Highly recommended :)

From the opening to the ending, I was enthralled by the whole movie. It kept everything that I loved about Godzilla, and was able to make an extremely interesting backstory with the human characters. There was a lot of things that was addressed in this movie that I had never seen before.there was so many things that people will pick apart, but that's upon reflection. I had no criticisms or a reason to dislike this movie the whole time I watched it. So, in that respect, I will give it a perfect score. And I don't go slinging those out just every review. As a Godzilla fan, this was perfection to me.

I'm a huge fan of Godzilla, I think the original from 1954 is a genuine classic and a great film (not just a great "monster" movie). The Heisei era is my overall favorite, and I thought Shin Godzilla was weird in all the right ways. It was one of my favorite movies from that year.

This one might be even better. You actually care about the characters. It deals with some very serious topics, such as survivors guilt and the aftermath of war violence on civilians and conflicting emotions around national pride and feeling betrayed by your government. Yet the film is also exciting and optimistic and has some of the best Godzilla sequences ever put to screen. My favorite depiction of Godzilla is as a force of nature, representing the power of the atomic bomb or the fury of war itself. That's the Godzilla you get here. I think this film can very favorably be compared to American classics like Jaws and Jurassic Park, too.

I don't want to say too much, it's best to just experience the movie for yourself. The only part that felt a little false to me was the very end, but I understand why the director wanted to do it that way. The special effects look great for the most part, but there are a couple of shots here and there that aren't perfect when compared to some Hollywood movies. However, it hardly matters. This is an incredible film.

9/10 easily, probably closer to 9.5

My current Godzilla rankings:

1) Gojira (1954) 2) Godzilla Minus One (2023) 3) Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) 4) Shin Godzilla (2016) 5) Return of Godzilla (1984)

Special mentions to GMK, Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) and Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

This is an enjoyable film to watch, and if you're on the tail end of its theater run or considering if it's worth streaming, the short answer is it's worth seeing. I do feel like among certain fan circles the movie is slightly 'overhyped' but that doesn't make the movie bad, it is in fact quite good. I think the exploration of the main character's relationship with kamikaze piloting, and in turn both Japan's historical understanding of that phenomenon as well as the West's, is actually still more poignant and worth exploring than perhaps we might be inclined to give it credit for. It's hard to overstate how culturally significant the kamikaze pilots were during and in the immediate aftermath of World War 2; although we had Oppenheimer to remind us of the cultural impact of the bomb, for soldiers that lived during World War 2, it was the stories of the kamikaze pilots that left a huge impact, even for people not in the Pacific theater. Likewise, Japan has long struggled to articulate its historical relationship to kamikaze pilots, with the memorial there being a kind of hot-button issue for multiple decades now. This film perhaps doesn't offer a searing insight, but rather a kind of wishful alternate path to how Japan and the west feels about kamikaze pilots. I think what's particularly remarkable about this film, frankly, is the way it pushes against the grain--a lot of Japanese cinema, especially that designed for view by western audiences, tends toward a construction of victimhood due to the bomb. This film tries to grapple with the echoes of imperial desire both immediately after the war and, perhaps, now.

Honestly, come for the big cool depiction of Godzilla, but leave with a reflection of Japan's relationship to World War 2.

I just saw the advanced screening of Godzilla minus one and I have to say I was very pleased with the final product. If I had any complaints about this movie it is just that the CGI Godzilla often looked weird similar to a video game. However when Godzilla looked good, it was very impressive especially in the water scenes.

Unlike every other Godzilla movie I have ever seen this is the first Godzilla movie where I actually liked on the characters and the storyline actually made sense and touched the human heart. It showed what people were dealing with at that time which was directly after world war II and how people were suffering not only with the after effects of the war but also the trauma from being exposed to a huge monster destroying cities.

Godzilla may be a fictional character but loss and tragedy are real, and people are dealing with it everyday.

Overall I really like this movie and it is obviously a prequel to the original Godzilla movie that came out over 70 years ago. Once you see this movie at some point you will understand why.

What I would really like to see since it is clear that there have been multiple Godzilla's at some point in time is some type of legitimate crossover between toho and the American studios who are producing Godzilla monster verse in America. Last thing I or any fans want to see is a competition on who could spit out different and unique Godzilla's in two different countries.

Since this is a Toho and Japanese produced movie, it would have been nice to have some of the theater edition Godzilla toys for sale like they do in Japan on every release.