Godzilla: Minus One — Movie Review

Toho Studios has Revolutionized Godzilla and Monster Movies

Note: Spoilers ahead

As a Godzilla fan, I had high expectations for Godzilla: Minus One. I watched Shin Godzilla last year and was left confused and disappointed. Shin Godzilla reminded me of a relative who was down on his luck and needed a few dollars to get back on his feet. Instead, he’s sleeping on your couch, eating up all the food, and not pulling his weight. That was Shin Godzilla in a nutshell.

But Godzilla: Minus One was different. I mean, different. From the moment the film began to the very end, Godzilla: Minus One was a complete departure from any previous Godzilla movie. The tone was somber, yet hopeful. There was color in the bleakest of scenes. It was like Toho Studios had built a time machine and placed the audience right in 1945 post-war Japan.

But unlike the first Toho-Legendary collab Godzilla of 2014, the studio did an excellent job of balancing the human story with the monster. Our unlikely hero is Shikanisima, a kamikaze fighter pilot, who decides not to take one for the team and heads to a repair base on Odo Island. There he meets Tachibana, head of the repair crew who suspects that Shikanisima abandoned his duties.

As Shikanisima contemplates his decisions and next move, he and the repair crew are visited one evening by Godzilla. Despite its smaller stature, the monster still towers over the men who try to shoot it with their meager weapons. When Shikanisima has the…