Even though kaiju films can be entertaining when they focus entirely on absolute destruction, I usually prefer the genre representatives that have interesting human characters at the center. "Godzilla Minus One" is exactly that kind of movie. The eponymous monster does make a few memorable and destructive appearances, but the focus of the story is clearly on ex-Kamikaze pilot Shikishima, who survived World War II and has to come to terms with his survivor's guilt and post-traumatic stress in the aftermath of the war.

The setting is also one of the reasons why I like the movie. As a German, I am familiar with many aspects of post-war reconstruction, but the situation in Japan was undoubtedly very different, especially given the use of atomic bombs. The special circumstances of Shikishima's survival only make the story more interesting. I would definitely say that the era has been captured in an informative and interesting way. The monster effects are also good. Of course, the visual quality doesn't come close to big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, but the monster design is great, and the destruction is impressive despite some visual shortcomings.

I don't have many complaints. The only criticism I have is that some of the supporting characters aren't quite as well fleshed out. Furthermore, the "plan" by which Godzilla is to be defeated at the end is very far-fetched. However, these are minor flaws that do not detract from the fact that "Godzilla Minus One" is unquestionably one of the best films in the franchise.

This is somewhat reminiscent of the 2014 _Godzilla_ film in the sense that it's trying to be a drama first and a spectacle second. Don't worry, you'll get more of the titular monster here compared to that film, but those who are just looking for destruction are bound to walk out disappointed. In theory this should be right up my alley for that exact reason, but despite being a relatively small Japanese production, the end result I found oddly commercial. Take the character drama, which thankfully is handled more interestingly than the Gareth Edwards film. It puts in just enough work as an analysis of post-war trauma in Japan (I like that they play up the angle of Godzilla as a metaphor for this, wish they'd pushed that a little further) and they put more effort into making us engage with the characters than a movie like this usually would. However, there's still something very calculated and safe about it. In particular, the dynamic between our main 'family' is very obvious because it uses many predictable tropes that play out exactly as expected. For example, our tortured protagonist doesn't quite view the little kid he's living with as his daughter yet (I wonder where that'll go). Moreover, there are plenty of cheesy calls, which during its worst moments lead to scenes that are straight up manipulative. Without going into spoilers, this movie has one of the most annoying final scenes I've seen in a long time, completely backtracking on a major emotional beat of the movie. It honestly felt like the movie pulling a middle finger at its audience. What doesn't help either is that the dialogue, acting and filmmaking aren't the best. Subtleties are spelled out through exposition, every emotion is underscored with generic string sections, the actors are overdoing it at points (even for Japanese standards, trust me). Long story short, the choices all feels very ... Hollywood. I'm not expecting _Grave of the Fireflies_ here, but why focus half of your movie on this aspect when it isn't anything special. The action bits I found slightly better. This movie generally has decent direction, with some design/effects work I'd genuinely call excellent. The fact that they made this with less than 1/10th of the budget of _Godzilla vs Kong_ is really funny to me. Still, the sequences with Godzilla aren't visionary enough where they'll leave a mark on my brain, which is something you really need when you're working in the big monster/disaster genre. Going back to the 2014 film, that movie has a very distinct atmosphere with a very memorable finale. The camera placement and overall presentation here are much more on the functional side. Entertaining enough, but also very reliant on convenience and cheesy, ridiculous moments. For instance, I dare anyone not to laugh at the news crew standing on the roof when Godzilla attacks the city. It's so stupid, but played completely straight. Overall, while I expect a lot of people who think they're cultured for liking Hollywood movies that aren't made by Hollywood will like this, I thought it was the usual middle of the road same old, same old.

5/10

I've seen a variety of Godzilla films from every era and Minus One is hands down the best Godzilla movie I've seen yet. The visuals are spot on, they got the classic look of Godzilla but added all of the gravitas and feeling of weight that the guys in suits were always missing.
The music is on point and they make great use of the Godzilla main theme to punctuate certain scenes.
The story is just so good, we really felt the emotion you were meant to feel in each scene. There were moments where my husband and I were both crying in the theater (he was trying to be so stoic but I saw the wiping of manly tears), and then other points where I could see him about bouncing around in his seat with childlike joy at seeing Godzilla being a bad ass on screen. We really appreciated the setting too, post WW2 Japan and seeing the scars and brokenness that left on the people and then to have them face Godzilla in that state of brokenness made the story and the actions of the humans feel even more heroic and meaningful.
This movie will definitely be a must buy for me when it comes to DVD.

This movie reconfirms that Japanese cinema just gets Godzilla movies, this should not be overly surprising but with all the recent western movies it's easy to forget what a Godzilla movie can be.

This is a movie that somehow, where every western attempt has failed, makes you care about the protaganist/human story. I think the use of the flow of time genuinely gives the characters a chance to breathe and learn their stories which helps you care about what's happening.

And then the tension and dread and awesome score when they are building to the mighty Godzilla, you know the stakes and are somewhat invested in the characters survival. But there is still some great action sequences but they have a vastly different tone to the more recent western entries with almost feeling like less action is more, but also having more humans present and relevant increases the scope and magnitude.

Obviously it's one, if you can catch it on the big screen. I think if you love the western versions, you might not love this as much, but if you're in the same camp as I am where you enjoyed them fine enough but always thought they could be better, this is better.

If I counted correctly, the big guy shows up four times in this movie, and that is a-ok. The primary focus is on the human story here, with Godzilla being a driver for trauma and representative of the aftershocks of World War 2 on Japan (his atomic breath is more like an actual atomic bomb here). While I wish the writing was a bit more engaging, it’s still interesting enough that I never truly got bored - just excited for Godzilla to appear again. It asks what we really owe to our legacy, those we love, and even those that we don’t.

The action scenes are great; my favorite was a relatively pulse-pounding sequence reminiscent of Jaws, where Godzilla pursues a boat woefully unprepared to meet him as he dwarfs the vessel in frame. There are a few implausible things here (like some physics and survivability questions), but then again, we’re talking about a movie featuring a giant monster rising up out of the ocean. So I don’t judge too harshly.

One of my favorite things about Japanese Godzilla films is that they seem to treat the monster reverentially, portraying him almost as a sort of god or awesome, terrible divine power on Earth; and that makes him indescribably more scary. I say this in opposition of the American adaptations, which tend to commercialize and anthropomorphize the monster by grafting a sort of teammate-to-humans layer onto him. This is another great addition, and I highly recommend Shin Godzilla from 2016 as well if you’re in the monster mood!