Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One

Dec 5, 2023, 11:17 PM

Well, I was really hopeful this was going to be good movie. It’s subtitled, which was not a problem at all, and it got some really good reviews. Like 8+ good, by several sources. I’ve been a Godzilla fan since the Saturday Matinees of my youth when he was taking on The X Monster, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, and Mothra, so I was pulling really hard for this. But it was not to be.

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Without any spoilers, here’s what’s going on. First, this movie is not a campy romp, nor is it a fun-loving fantasy adventure. This is a heavy, heavy, drama. With the emphasis on heavy. This movie is as light and playful as the Deerhunter or Joker.

I mean, there is no humor whatsoever. I smiled twice I think, at unintentional moments, and beyond that it’s a sullen as a funeral. So don’t expect to be busting a gut, rolling in the aisles, or choking on your popcorn laughing at how silly and goofy things are. It’s a serious as a heart attack, or a Tokyo attack.

And it wants to be heavy drama. That is the plot. I won’t ruin anything, but Godzilla is almost completely secondary to the main story. He’s not exactly a MacGuffin, but he’s holding a MacGuffin in his tiny little hands.

Now, as a heavy-as-lead drama, it works fairly well. It just sucks to realize what the movie really is 1/3 of the way through it. I did like the structure of the movie, and it does have a nice “Ah ha!” moment at the third act. The writer has left puzzled pieces all through the story that set up where it is going, and when those puzzle pieces come together, that works really well and there is a nice payoff.

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The problem is that the individual pieces of the puzzle are so odd that they draw attention to themselves and detract from the story. For instance, a character will give a speech which elicits a “W T F was that all about? What a weird speech” moment. Then, an hour and a half later you go “ah, now I understand.”

Godzilla of course is at his finest when he’s tearing shid up, but there’s far too little of him. His appearances are not much more than cameos.

There’s no spitting high-tension wires being pulled down
Though there are Helpless people on subway trains
Screaming, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them..
But he never picks up a bus and throws it back down

There’s a Jaws homage, and a Scooby Doo homage, and enough plot holes to create a whole alternate reality for the year 1948, the movie’s setting.

Stuff like “Wow, it sure would be nice to have America help us deal with Godzilla, SINCE THEY ARE MILITARILY OCCUPYING OUR COUNTRY, but they are too busy in negotiations with the Russians so we Japanese will just have to deal with Godzilla ourselves. This monster is a Japanese-only affair. Thank God America left us enough of our WW2 navy afloat to deal with him. SMH.

The IJN Takao, surrendered to the British at Singapore in September, 1945, makes an appearance in 1948. Kudos to the writers for knowing she was still actually afloat in 1948. I liked that very much.

Elsewhere in the plot, there are more holes than in a cheese grater, but when you are fighting mutated, radioactive sea monsters who really cares, right?

So, I think I’d be doing an injustice to recommend it, unless someone likes really, really morose drama with their sea monsters. And I've got no idea what the title means. It was never referenced in the movie. Maybe it means prequel, since the original Godzilla was in 1954, and thi sis set in 1948. Idk. Oh well, better luck next time big guy.