During WWII, Skikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a cowardly, failed-kamikaze pilot, freezes in fear when given a chance to kill Godzilla, a monster that then kills most of the mechanics on Odo island. Returning to Tokyo, Skikishima meets a young woman, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), with a baby, and to support them, gets a dangerous job clearing mines in the ocean. This job leads him to once again face Godzilla, who has grown to supersize due to atomic radiation.
Godzilla Minus One is easily the second most skillfully made Godzilla film, after the first, and in terms of special effects and the look of the monster, it is easily the best. Did it deserve the Oscar for Best Visual Effects? No, not even close, but if I change the wording to Best Achievement in Visual Effects, then yes, because what they did on their budget is mind-boggling. It had 1/10th the budget and 1/10th the effects artists and somehow they did it. Amazing.
The film as a whole, however, is less amazing. It’s fine, but over-hyped. The problem is simple: it’s a very serious film filled with silly things. A dinosaur running around Pacific islands in the 1940s is goofy. But when they did it before, in 1991’s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, it wasn’t a problem because that was a goofy film. It wanted to be dumb fun. Godzilla Minus One does not. Skikishima coincidentally running directly into Noriko in the middle of a city is fine in a sitcom. Not in a drama screaming to be taken seriously. A pilot with no combat experience being an expert with an experimental aircraft he’s never even sat in before is the stuff of a comedy. And demanding that the only person to repair the plane is a mechanic who’s never seen it is… OK, that’s just stupid for any kind of film. Then there is the whole matter of lassoing Godzilla with slow-moving destroyers; fine for an animated kids show, but ridiculous in anything this po-faced.
Skikishima character is another problem, but of the same kind. He’s overdone. Yes, he’s a coward. I get it. Really. The acting is too broad and the script is too in your face for this level of solemnity. A bit of subtlety would have done wonders. Starting the film with his return to Tokyo, thus letting us imagine his behavior on Odo island would have been a better way to write it, and would have saved us from a scene where he tells Noriko what we’ve already seen. That would have been the way to go with such an earnest story. But this is also a giant monster pic, so they quite sensibly wanted to get some giant monster action in early. Great. Then maybe make your film a bit more fun and less grave.
Am I being a bit severe on a film that is passably good? Perhaps, but I’ve seen far too many people proclaiming this a masterpiece and it isn’t. It doesn’t help that, much more than previous reboots, it’s a remake of 1954’s Gojira, and it lags far behind that actual masterpiece in every way except FX.
At least its themes, while not being good, are better than the right-wing populism of Shin Godzilla.
The question is why watch this film, and I can’t think of a reason. Yes, it is much better made than a majority of Godzilla films, but those are fun and this isn’t. And it’s too stupid to be the prestige pic it seems to want to be. I suppose it is less embarrassing in some ways, so for someone still traumatized by being bullied in grammar school for liking Godzilla movies, this might act as a balm.
I’ll give it 3 Reels for the general quality of the filmmaking, but if you want an intense, meaningful Godzilla film, watch the original, and if you want something fun, try 1964’s Godzilla vs Mothra.