Godzilla has been known as a huge monster throughout its history on the big screen. The franchise has gone through several changes, such as different companies producing films and reboots of the character. There have been some dark times, such as the movie Godzilla produced by TriStar Productions in 1998, which had soured the franchise for some fans and was dubbed a failure.
Toho Co., the owner of the franchise, decided to make their own Godzilla film in 2016, Shin Godzilla. This was a very successful movie, with it netting $75 million in Japan, and $78 million worldwide. With this, they announced a new movie, Godzilla Minus One, which will be released on December 1st. At the time of writing this article, it isn’t out yet, so I will give my expectations of the movie and the buildup to creating it, but I will give a review on when I have watched it.
When watching the trailers, the first thing that I noticed was the design of Godzilla. The design is very well done, and it just oozes a menacing atmosphere. It incorporates certain aspects of other Godzilla designs, and it just synchronizes very beautifully. It has a similar texture in its skin to the one from Legendary pictures, and its overall design is similar to the original Toho Studios Godzilla – specifically the Hesei era Godzilla – but the new design adds taller and sharper dorsal fins, alongside with its teeth and whole body being spikier. Other than its appearance, this Godzilla was also shown to have a mighty roar. This was one of my favorite roars out of the whole Godzilla franchise, so it got me more excited for the movie.
The trailer doesn’t only show Godzilla, however, it actually shows the characters. The trailer gave us a bit of information, about what seems to be the main character and his desire to stop Godzilla. Usually, the Godzilla movies don’t typically feature much of a plot for the humans, or the plot doesn’t have much substance, but I have high hopes for this movie. The plot seems to revolve around the humans more than Godzilla, and I would like to see how this would turn out. The new movie was directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who also designed the Godzilla ride in 2021, which shows that he has experience with building suspense with this kind of character. Overall, I feel like this movie will be different from the other Godzilla movies in a very positive way.
I watched Godzilla Minus One on December 2nd, and I have a lot of good stuff to say about the movie, however, I will keep spoilers to a minimum. The movie depicted Godzilla as a natural disaster, bringing destruction along its path with no reason as to why. This is already different from Shin Godzilla, who was in constant pain and only caused destruction as he was confused and pained. The humans in the new movie also had a lot more substance to them than before. The main character, Koichi Shikishima, is shown to be a character that revolves around tragedy. The motives of his desire to kill Godzilla are divided into two. There’s the desire to protect those he cares about, and there’s a more tragic reason for his fight with Godzilla. He has a lot of character development throughout the movie, and I rooted for him the whole time.
Much like Shin Godzilla, the soundtrack was exceptional. The soundtrack was used to showcase the predicaments every time Godzilla showed up. Each track was clear in what it wanted to convey, such as grief, chaos, or even fear. One of my favorite tracks from this was Godzilla -1.0 Gozilla Suite I, which sounds similar to the 1954 Godzilla track. This little homage to the beginning of this franchise was something that was a welcome surprise.
Godzilla’s destruction was very, very, catastrophic, to say the least. With just swipes from its tail, it sends buildings flying, and just as the trailer showed, it is able to destroy warships very easily. Like most theaters, there were comments from the audience here and there, but every time Godzilla showed up, there was a sense of dread that silenced the theater. The atomic breath was one of the most destructive attacks that I have seen in the whole franchise. The slow charge up, the blue light particles that slowly emerged, and the sudden beam that destroyed everything in its path. If you thought that would be all from this beam, you’d be wrong. As soon as the beam disappeared, there was a disastrous explosion. With all this said, I would have to say it blew my expectations away, cementing itself as one of my favorite movies of all time.
Rating: 9/10
