Why show this movie with No Links?
It's absolutely staggering that this movie was made for less than $15 million. Eat your heart out, Hollywood.
Also, I would 100% watch this if Godzilla wasn't in it. He was cool and all, but everything from the post-war drama to the character writing was so interesting.
That's a nice movie.
Just looking at the planning and coordination from Japan, makes me wonder if the West could survive something like this today.
This Godzilla ain't no joke! Forget that cheesy American stuff where he breathes fire and fights other monsters. This Godzilla is pure mean and scary, like a giant lizard from the bad dreams you don't wanna wake up from.
Here's the good part: No more waiting for Godzilla to save the day. This time, it's all about people just trying to survive. It's like a monster truck rally gone wrong, only the monster truck is the size of a city and way angrier. The movie really puts you right in the middle of the mess, shaking the ground and knocking down buildings like bowling pins. You can practically feel the roar in your chest!
This ain't a happy movie. It's more like "Godzilla: Destroyer of Stuff" and it'll leave you thinking twice about giant lizard neighbors. But hey, if you like your movies with a kick and a whole lotta "wow, that's big!".
Visuals were absolutely great and the music just added to it. The background story was a bit long for me but all I really want is more Godzilla. I do find it interesting looking at the differences between Toho and the Americanized versions of Godzilla.
Long live japanese movie...
Best experience
This movie is not about Godzilla, although it's a very good Godzilla. It's about people and while it's mostly about the people in the movie, it's trying to say something about people everywhere and what their potential is. I loved it!
shame its not in English I cant be dealing with subs
Yes i was disappointed withi this one, i was hoping for much better and lived up the hyped and all the glory reviews. Visually it was perfect of course but the story was slow and build up in two parts. The first part was boring and did not do justice to all the hype the drama was over the top and tried to build a story that was not needed for a godzilla movie. Yhe second part had of course all the action and some good moments but i expected a lot more from this type of a foreign movie. Probably an 8 but you can definitely remove one point due to the ending, why to be Hollywood happy ? it deserved a more extravaganza ending.
Overall, it's one of the better godzilla films.
For me, there are too many emotional bs bits, but other who like that, probably a great movie.
Loved the cgi monster.
Great soundtrack, mind-blowing visual effects, heart warming stories, fantastic storytelling, amazing acting. this has it all. I'm just mad I didn't get to watch it in one go but I definitely will the next time.
Great movie! Liked every minute of it. The monster design is something a bit to weird and cartoony that didnt fit the movie vibe imo.
Boring af. This not a Godzilla movie. We barely see it.
This Movie is better than most Hollywood films
Such a great movie. Regret not able to watch in theatre
The portrayal of Godzilla in this film is so well done with great action sequences and a very emotional central narrative. Considering the budget, the CGI is really good too.
Well, this a huge let down. Over-hyped, and especially OVER-RATED (yeah, you lot with your 10/10 fake reviews, as if this was even close to perfect). It's just a Japanese soap opera mixed in with a little Godzilla.
After reading about how the special effects were so good, I was very disappointed. And the soap opera-acting... so terrible... with all the actors with their shocked faces and eyes coming out of their sockets, in nearly every scene. Just terrible.
The first time that I actually liked a Godzilla movie. It looks and sounds amazing. The whole thing is very well balanced. Overall story is really enjoyable, but the scenes where Godzilla goes absolutely berserk are the absolute highlight for me.
2023; The year Japan took Godzilla back from Hollywood!
This movie was exceptional. Because it's set in 1945, the whole vibe of the movie is very authentic. I don't want to compare this to any of the Hollywood movies. I like those too. I would treat this movie as the origin story. This movie is written differently. It has depth, explores the human characters and their condition in great detail, rather the being all about action and CGI.
It's a Godzilla movie, with some serious depth! Set in the last days of world war II, it's themes of grief, shame and redemption hit deep. The special effects are unreal given the budget they had. Easily the best Godzilla movie since the original! This movie will be analyzed in film schools and psych classes for years to come!
World War 2 is ending. The Japanese are desperate to turn the tide of war. Shikishima, a Japanese Kamikaze pilot, does not have the will to ram his plane into an American ship in a suicide run. Instead, he chooses to live by diverting his Mitsubishi Zero to a nearby Japanese airbase on Odo Island. There, he runs into Godzilla, who destroys the base, leaving Shikishima as one of the few survivors. He returns home to a Tokyo that was firebombed by American bombers, leaving his family dead. He runs into an orphan baby and a lady, Noriko, who is caring for the baby, and he takes them in. A year later, Godzilla reenters the picture once again. With America at odds with the Soviets over the Cold War and the Japanese fleet disbanded, the Japanese public has to stop Godzilla with what they have at their disposal before he continues his rampage.
This film delves into the human aspect, which is deep. Other Godzilla films before this had no feel over tons of remakes. In all those decades of remakes, they somehow missed one of the most crucial things to a good story: character development. The characters were shallow, lifeless, underdeveloped, and present to only prop up Godzilla. This film took a different, fresh approach. In this one, the human aspect is central to the film, at least concerning the main characters and as crucial to the story as Godzilla himself, which is refreshing. The acting, story, special effects, cinematography, and pacing are very well done. There are questionable moments you can nitpick about, but overall, nothing is worth complaining about. I will add the film is in Japanese, but with English subtitles. You get used to it without feeling like you are missing details.
Would I recommend this? Yes. I have not seen most of the Godzilla films, but the few I have seen were disappointing. I can’t recommend any other Godzilla film or TV show until ‘Godzilla Minus One’ came along. This is perhaps the first Godzilla film to date that I would consider a quality film.
8/10
For a $15 million budget, this is insane. For most of the movie, the vfx/sfx is beautiful, but I can't get over the Godzilla eyes. They break the whole character. The score wasn't nessarily tense, more so military. The drama and acting, especially by Ryunosuke, was very unexpected. It carved itself first, making it almost more important than godzilla, unlike in the Warner Bros versions. Honestly, I'm impressed by the passion and improvements Yamazaki and his team put in. Lost me in afew parts, and underwhelmed me in others, but I can't wait for what they do next.
Gojira (ゴジラ) himself serves as a metaphor to the nuclear bomb. But it also serves as a reinvention of the Japanese past.
Post-war Japan is at its lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster, baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb.
The movie has everything you'd expect in the MONSTERVERSE: It's a very good blend of action and human drama, exploring themes such as war, peace, guilt, and resilience. It puts disastrously stunning visuals and music on the table.
Just stop whatever you're doing and watch this.
Perfection, everything here is magnificent, starting with the visual effects, they're stunning, it was an Oscar more than deserved. The story is very good, the characters are so well developed that you become attached to them. The script is very well done, nothing is forgotten, as is the direction, which dared to create something really different. This movie is a true experience of how amazing cinema is, Godzilla is amazing.
The first fully subtitled movie I brought my daughter to. She was absolutely hooked from the start even with the large portions of dialogue filled dramatic scenes. She can’t wait to see more Godzilla and Monster flicks.
This movie really shows you what it would be like living in terror barely making it through a an unstoppable Godzilla attack. You can barely survive and they’re trying to save their land with everything they have. A real emotional rollercoaster filled with absolutely stunning visuals.
This is one of those movies that stands the test of time. it's the perfect amount of new mixed with homage to the original 1954 gojira movie. the love that was put into this film is astounding. the attention to detail, the crafting, the aesthetic are all picture perfect.
I even love that for the design they decided to base the look entirely off of the stiff rigid motion of the original suit actor. the face of Godzilla almost looks mildly comical because it's just so cute, and then you see that giant face poking out of the water chasing you and it's no longer cute just downright terrifying. the suspense they are able to Garner out of this film is fantastic.
it also pays homage to all the other great Kaiju movies that Godzilla spawned so it doesn't discount the camp that itself created. and thankfully it also doesn't lean too much into it.
I also find it hilarious that when the director of the 2014 movie saw Godzilla - 1 he was filled with rage and jealousy and said "this is what a Godzilla movie should be"
He's right you know
damn good film
I know it was partially reused for the newer MonsterVerse movies, but hearing Ifukube's Godzilla theme near the end took me right back to being obsessed with Godzilla Raids Again when I was 10.
God, this was the perfect combination of a worthy inclusion to the franchise and fan service, which is such a rarity nowadays.
LOVED this movie and so did the entire motley crew of young, old, male, female etc I watched it with. I particularly loved the Godzilla creature and the Japanese retro style. It’s absolutely amazing that they pulled it off for less than $15M. Hollywood would need $250M to make the exact same movie. The human story was also pretty compelling but I often wished they would have cut it short and gotten back to dear ol’ “Gozzilla” - love how they pronounce his name in Japanese. My only real problem with the film was the main character whose wussieness was pushed to far IMO. I’m all for being in tune with your emotions and not keeping them bottled up but this guy is a sobbing whimpering self pittying mess during the whole movie. Instead of “manning up” and accepting his failures he compounds them and has the balls to try to get other people to feel sorry for him. Had he been a touch more honorable and less pathetic I would have rated this movie a 9. So instead it only get’s an 8. I know they’ll be crushed but so be it.
Wondering if the people rating this 9 or 10 even watched the same movie as me. Did not live up to the hype. I'm gonna go watch Shin Godzilla again.
I dragged my whole family to this on Christmas, and even though they're not the most adventurous film goers (probably the first foreign film most of them have seen in theaters), they all had a good time. This is an old-school crowd pleaser that deserves all the love it's receiving. You might be able to tell where the story is going well in advance, but that's exactly where you want it to go and you can't help but smile as it takes you there. I don't know if the budget numbers floating around are accurate, but if this was made for $20 million, Hollywood needs to get their head out of their ass, because this would have cost them five times that and it probably would have looked worse. Talking about the film with my brother afterwards, we started to realize that there are plenty of potential nitpicks and extreme gloss overs, but the movie swept me up enough that they didn't bother me in the moment. Watching my sister in the seat next to me get pumped as the soundtrack kicked in during the final confrontation is what the movie going experience is all about. In fact, I just pulled up that song while I'm writing this review because we could all use that level of hype in our lives.
Amazing!! The human story is actually as good or better than the Godzilla parts! And finally the mainstream is appreciating a Godzilla movie for once!
Rated a Connor 5, normal 7.7
The coming of a age story of a WWII Japanese kamikaze pilot or the best on screen presentation ever of Godzilla.
Godzilla put me right to sleep. The moment the monsters' blown-off face magically began to regenerate was when I knew this movie wasn't for me.
Godzilla: Minus One is probably the only Godzilla movie to get to me emotionally. With human characters you actually care about.
I usually complain when a Godzilla movie has too many human scenes and not enough Godzilla. The story is so engaging and occasionally heartbreaking even. That I didn’t always wonder where Godzilla was.
Since I actually felt like I was watching a masterpiece unfold. Which you never feel while watching the American movies.
Saw this on Xmas Day like baby Jesus intended. Godzilla Minus One was pretty great. Overall story & action was simple, straightforward giving you a bit of Jaws, Moby Dick and ID4, etc. But then there are the layers of WWII guilt, regret, grief, helplessness, nihilism, redemption. So much Japanese angst that I identified with so much. I tend to stay away from war movies cuz they hit a bit too close to home, but this one sneaked in. I cried at the end
Much better than any of the recent Godzilla movies that I have seen. Great destruction scenes, interesting plot, good sfx. Some of the blatant foreshadowing was unnecessary and predictable but it was a great choice for a theater viewing.
Godzilla vs Kong was a fun, mindless time, but this movie showed me the power Godzilla has as an allegory and terror. Godzilla here is a force of nature and tragedy, a representation of a war and atrocities that took so many lives for no good reason at best and a litany of horrific ones at worst. This movie is about the human nature to not just survive but live in the face of it. It’s about moving forward. It’s about loving when you’ve lost so much and about not just defending your home but refusing some ideal of sacrifice and choosing to live in it after it all.
The cast all deliver. Kamiki shines as the lead, selling his guilt and anguish and making the soul soar when he’s finally overwhelmed not by despair but by euphoria and love. With him Yamada, Yoshioka, and Sasaki all share an engaging and warm bond, with Yoshioka having an especially charming and human presence. And Hamabe gives a performance that immediately makes you root for her and love her, and represents the emotional core and ideal of the theme of love and moving forward. Even smaller parts like Aoki’s I couldn’t look away from. In the modern Godzilla movies I’ve seen, the humans felt passable at best and boring, lifeless distractions at worst. Godzilla Minus One proves it doesn’t have to be this way. The human cast can shine as much if not more than the monster himself if you put the work in to truly synergize them so they strengthen each other rather than distract or detract from each other. It’s the unity of the human and monster element that leads to such emotional catharsis.
The ending left me a mess, obviously. But even beyond the seamless and heartfelt writing, I was completely taken aback by what also left me with chills and tears. Godzilla tearing through that first military ship and his rampage through Ginza was awesome in the purest sense. The weighty and believable special effects, the divinely and majestically chilling score, the scope of the directing and cinematography to make you really feel both Godzilla’s size and horrible capacity fir destruction and all the homes and lives crushed in his uncaring wake… all these elements and more were in such a perfect unison that I got choked up in a way I don’t know I ever have at a movie. In today’s cinema landscape cities are destroyed as a given, explosions commonplace, beams shooting into the sky a fixture of the skyline. Here it felt like it mattered. Here every movement and every piece of destruction felt weighted and real, never forgetting the lives that would be lost or irrevocably changed.
I feel like I understand Godzilla and his cultural weight and legacy so much more now. This film shows why he’s lasted almost 70 years now. It makes me want to check out the original Godzilla, Shin Godzilla, and more. The strength of Godzilla Minus One is that it conveys that Godzilla has an infinite amount of possibility, if you’re willing to go into the depths to experience it.
To be honest, I am not the biggest Godzilla fan. I am not the biggest fan of needing to read subtitles while I watch a film. Somehow, someway, this movie was incredible. Easily my favorite Godzilla movie I have ever seen (please spare me if I have not seen some great one, because there are a lot of them). The action is BRUTAL. The plot is surprisingly good, with plenty of character development. The monster scenes often left me in "awe". If you have not seen this and it is showing in a theater near you, please check it out!
Rating: 5/5 - 95% - Highly Recommend
Very good. Maybe sliiightly overhyped from all the "movie of the year" reviews I've seen, but it had a good story which is quite impressive for a Godzilla feature with characters you care for. Some overacting here and there took me out of the moment a little bit.
It also may have been our theatre's print but it was blurry in fast sequence and looked to be 480p in other stationary scenes. Still a very solid entry at a 7.6 for me.
The film, overall, succeeds in finding the right balance between the human and monstrous dimensions. I found both the post-war setting and the "maritime" dimension chosen for the battles interesting, and the underlying themes are relatively fresh for the genre. Unfortunately, the overall execution feels like a cheesy melodrama, especially in regard to the acting and exposition-heavy dialogue. This may be a somewhat imperceptible issue for overseas audiences, but at the same time it’s been widely recognized as a trademark of Yamazaki’s filmography in Japan.
When Godzilla takes center stage, everything remains electrifying, if not for the chain of three plot twists that killed the mood in the very last few minutes. The first was necessary, as any other kind of resolution would have undermined the film's overarching message, but the other two were truly avoidable both in terms of conception and execution.
Great! A study in survivor guilt, battle trauma and a generation trying to find meaning in a post war world. oh and when the big guy turns up it is properly terrifying.
War ruins lives drama with some great Godzilla scenes.. really great ones.
The kid's review: (8&10)
"the long talking bits were a bit boring ,and they talked too fast sometimes we couldn't read all the subtitles,
Godzilla was soo good, he kept changing too, and it made us cry at the end.,
there weren't any scary bits though, why do ppl say there were scary bits?"
I'm sorry I had high expectations for this movie but it was boring.
Godzilla minus one is probably the best movie I’ve seen this year. Not only is it an action packed and exciting experience, but it also tells a deeply human story of rebuilding and redemption. And the action scenes are some of the most frightening kaiju scenes I’ve ever watched. Miss it on the big screen at your own peril!
I've seen a variety of Godzilla films from every era and Minus One is hands down the best Godzilla movie I've seen yet. The visuals are spot on, they got the classic look of Godzilla but added all of the gravitas and feeling of weight that the guys in suits were always missing.
The music is on point and they make great use of the Godzilla main theme to punctuate certain scenes.
The story is just so good, we really felt the emotion you were meant to feel in each scene. There were moments where my husband and I were both crying in the theater (he was trying to be so stoic but I saw the wiping of manly tears), and then other points where I could see him about bouncing around in his seat with childlike joy at seeing Godzilla being a bad ass on screen. We really appreciated the setting too, post WW2 Japan and seeing the scars and brokenness that left on the people and then to have them face Godzilla in that state of brokenness made the story and the actions of the humans feel even more heroic and meaningful.
This movie will definitely be a must buy for me when it comes to DVD.
It was alright, they didn't really do anything different from the Godzilla movies everyone disliked so I don't know why this one was reviewed so highly.
homegirl could've jumped AND pulled main dude down instead of just pushing him
This is one of the very best Godzilla movies ever made. There's a really good human story and every moment that Godzilla is on-screen is great. The post-WWII setting absolutely adds to the desperation of the main characters and the dread of having to once again survive an attacking force, this time in the form of a beast that isn't protecting the Earth or any such nonsense. Godzilla is a force of nature (or science) that doesn't care about anything or anyone.
The only drawbacks of this movie are an irritatingly manipulative moment (tugboats) and a couple of unbelievably coincidental reunions.
Wow, just wow. Tohoku truly surpassed my expectations and Godzilla is the real deal. You feel for the Japanese people in this movie and they lack trust in their government. When this monster shows up at their shores it falls on the bravery of Japanese citizens to defeat the beast.
For a movie with a 15 or 30 million dollar budget it feels like a 150 Million Dollar budget, especially when Godzilla stares directly at you through the screen. What a thrill and amazing movie.
A movie that creates fear thru the removal of hope. The instillment of despair.
And the spoon-feeding of hope again.
Amazing direction, brilliant sound design, bold acting
There were moments were I genuinely was scared of Godzilla, hopeless. And moments were I just wanted to hug the main character who was going through so much.
Never would I have thought a Godzilla movie would be so emotional and deep. Def a must see movie for the year
Like Thanksgiving dinner: I'm thankful there's enough meat and even if I don't like all the sides, they do make the meal more well-rounded.
This reboot of a reboot does a good job of resurrecting Godzilla with its hommage to the original and its practical effects (which were probably CGI, tbh). The whole family storyline worked to give the film some depth, though unnecessarily dragged out the first act so much they had to include a dream sequence.
Even though kaiju films can be entertaining when they focus entirely on absolute destruction, I usually prefer the genre representatives that have interesting human characters at the center. "Godzilla Minus One" is exactly that kind of movie. The eponymous monster does make a few memorable and destructive appearances, but the focus of the story is clearly on ex-Kamikaze pilot Shikishima, who survived World War II and has to come to terms with his survivor's guilt and post-traumatic stress in the aftermath of the war.
The setting is also one of the reasons why I like the movie. As a German, I am familiar with many aspects of post-war reconstruction, but the situation in Japan was undoubtedly very different, especially given the use of atomic bombs. The special circumstances of Shikishima's survival only make the story more interesting. I would definitely say that the era has been captured in an informative and interesting way. The monster effects are also good. Of course, the visual quality doesn't come close to big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, but the monster design is great, and the destruction is impressive despite some visual shortcomings.
I don't have many complaints. The only criticism I have is that some of the supporting characters aren't quite as well fleshed out. Furthermore, the "plan" by which Godzilla is to be defeated at the end is very far-fetched. However, these are minor flaws that do not detract from the fact that "Godzilla Minus One" is unquestionably one of the best films in the franchise.
Really enjoyed this one. The visuals look great, music was perfect including the sound effects. The story is good, and you will root for the characters (that even change and progress as the story goes). Godzilla is scary and menacing. I can't think of anything I did not like. Can't wait for a streaming release to see it again.
This movie reconfirms that Japanese cinema just gets Godzilla movies, this should not be overly surprising but with all the recent western movies it's easy to forget what a Godzilla movie can be.
This is a movie that somehow, where every western attempt has failed, makes you care about the protaganist/human story. I think the use of the flow of time genuinely gives the characters a chance to breathe and learn their stories which helps you care about what's happening.
And then the tension and dread and awesome score when they are building to the mighty Godzilla, you know the stakes and are somewhat invested in the characters survival. But there is still some great action sequences but they have a vastly different tone to the more recent western entries with almost feeling like less action is more, but also having more humans present and relevant increases the scope and magnitude.
Obviously it's one, if you can catch it on the big screen. I think if you love the western versions, you might not love this as much, but if you're in the same camp as I am where you enjoyed them fine enough but always thought they could be better, this is better.
Amazing!! See it on the biggest screen possible!!
If I counted correctly, the big guy shows up four times in this movie, and that is a-ok. The primary focus is on the human story here, with Godzilla being a driver for trauma and representative of the aftershocks of World War 2 on Japan (his atomic breath is more like an actual atomic bomb here). While I wish the writing was a bit more engaging, it’s still interesting enough that I never truly got bored - just excited for Godzilla to appear again. It asks what we really owe to our legacy, those we love, and even those that we don’t.
The action scenes are great; my favorite was a relatively pulse-pounding sequence reminiscent of Jaws, where Godzilla pursues a boat woefully unprepared to meet him as he dwarfs the vessel in frame. There are a few implausible things here (like some physics and survivability questions), but then again, we’re talking about a movie featuring a giant monster rising up out of the ocean. So I don’t judge too harshly.
One of my favorite things about Japanese Godzilla films is that they seem to treat the monster reverentially, portraying him almost as a sort of god or awesome, terrible divine power on Earth; and that makes him indescribably more scary. I say this in opposition of the American adaptations, which tend to commercialize and anthropomorphize the monster by grafting a sort of teammate-to-humans layer onto him. This is another great addition, and I highly recommend Shin Godzilla from 2016 as well if you’re in the monster mood!
Review by JordyVIP 8BlockedParent2023-12-01T18:56:05Z
This is somewhat reminiscent of the 2014 Godzilla film in the sense that it's trying to be a drama first and a spectacle second. Don't worry, you'll get more of the titular monster here compared to that film, but those who are just looking for destruction are bound to walk out disappointed. In theory this should be right up my alley for that exact reason, but despite being a relatively small Japanese production, the end result I found oddly commercial. Take the character drama, which thankfully is handled more interestingly than the Gareth Edwards film. It puts in just enough work as an analysis of post-war trauma in Japan (I like that they play up the angle of Godzilla as a metaphor for this, wish they'd pushed that a little further) and they put more effort into making us engage with the characters than a movie like this usually would. However, there's still something very calculated and safe about it. In particular, the dynamic between our main 'family' is very obvious because it uses many predictable tropes that play out exactly as expected. For example, our tortured protagonist doesn't quite view the little kid he's living with as his daughter yet (I wonder where that'll go). Moreover, there are plenty of cheesy calls, which during its worst moments lead to scenes that are straight up manipulative. Without going into spoilers, this movie has one of the most annoying final scenes I've seen in a long time, completely backtracking on a major emotional beat of the movie. It honestly felt like the movie pulling a middle finger at its audience. What doesn't help either is that the dialogue, acting and filmmaking aren't the best. Subtleties are spelled out through exposition, every emotion is underscored with generic string sections, the actors are overdoing it at points (even for Japanese standards, trust me). Long story short, the choices all feels very ... Hollywood. I'm not expecting Grave of the Fireflies here, but why focus half of your movie on this aspect when it isn't anything special. The action bits I found slightly better. This movie generally has decent direction, with some design/effects work I'd genuinely call excellent. The fact that they made this with less than 1/10th of the budget of Godzilla vs Kong is really funny to me. Still, the sequences with Godzilla aren't visionary enough where they'll leave a mark on my brain, which is something you really need when you're working in the big monster/disaster genre. Going back to the 2014 film, that movie has a very distinct atmosphere with a very memorable finale. The camera placement and overall presentation here are much more on the functional side. Entertaining enough, but also very reliant on convenience and cheesy, ridiculous moments. For instance, I dare anyone not to laugh at the news crew standing on the roof when Godzilla attacks the city. It's so stupid, but played completely straight. Overall, while I expect a lot of people who think they're cultured for liking Hollywood movies that aren't made by Hollywood will like this, I thought it was the usual middle of the road same old, same old.
5/10