ZakZilla

I just got back from seeing “Godzilla Minus Zero” and I’m here to share my thoughts. First things first, I am a big Godzilla fan. No, I’m not the biggest fan in the world and I haven’t seen every movie, but I’ve seen more than I’d wager the vast majority of people have and I distinctly remember as a kid going to the video store and renting every old Godzilla movie I could find. “Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla” is the one I probably remember most vividly. In addition, I adored “Godzilla Minus One”. I thought it was a brilliant piece of filmmaking and I think it would have been a powerful study on survivor’s guilt, family, and the will to live even if Godzilla wasn’t in it. So now onto my verdict for “Godzilla Minus Zero”… I liked it. I did, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as Minus One and I think there’s a few reasons for that, but I’ll get into those in a moment. To begin with the positives, though, the VFX is yet again extraordinary. In particular there was one scene in the first act of the film involving some planes and King Ghidorah that legitimately took my breath away. Honestly, these movies put American studios to shame when it comes to what they accomplish on such a competitively limited budget. The score, once again composed by Naomi Sato, is spectacular. The reprises of the previous film’s score are evocative and pair strongly with the movie, and Ghidorah’s theme is going to stick with me for a long time, even if it is just the first note of “Flight of the Valkyries” played over and over lol. The acting is very strong and the kaiju action is astounding. But now we have to get into the negatives and this mostly has to do with the writing. One issue I have with the film is that it seems overstuffed. Minus One was so remarkably effective because it had one emotional through line. It was a character arc centered on Shikishima. In Minus Zero, however, we have Shikishima and Noriko trying to protect Akiko, Dr. Noda and newcomer Aoyama trying to atone for past sins, along with the brilliant Professor Murakami who’s characterization in the film was by far the strongest and most interesting. A part of me wishes that some of these plotlines were cut so that we could focus more on Murakami. His is the strongest character arc in the film and I really wish he was allowed to be the main character here. I also feel that the pacing was off. The second act was a bit of a slog and the ending seemed to drag on just a hair too long. But my biggest issue I think is that there were too many moments where the film allowed itself to get carried away by the melodrama. Minus One was a very, very emotional film, and so is this one, but unfortunately there’s a sense here that the movie is almost nudging you, going, “see? This is the sad scene. You should cry now.” Some of it felt too contrived. The most hard hitting scenes were the ones involving Murakami but those were not too common. Now look, I know this might sound like a negative review, but it isn’t. “Godzilla Minus Zero” is not as good as its predecessor, but it is still a fine piece of filmmaking and I recommend it. My packed theater in South Jordan, Utah applauded at the end, so take that for what it’s worth. #GodzillaMinusZero