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A Review of “Godzilla Minus One (2023)”

 

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Godzilla Minus One is a standalone Godzilla movie from Japan. It brings the franchise back to its roots where Godzilla is a monstrous force of nature, an allegory of war. While I do love the Western Monsterverse franchise, it is mostly for seeing Godzilla or Kong fight another giant monster. The writing and characters have never been a highlight in that universe. Does Godzilla Minus One deliver more than the Monsterverse?

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Firstly, Godzilla’s design is spectacularly frightening, his roar is menacing and his heat rays are some of the best and most impactful blasts I’ve seen from Godzilla. Every Godzilla action set piece is terrifying and tense. I love how these sequences are filmed from a human perspective, so we get to truly see the scale and how dangerous Godzilla is. The music score by Naoki Sato is phenomenal! His subtle orchestral score compliments the scene and illustrates the pain and struggles that Japanese people in WW2 went through. He then uses a strong powerful orchestral score for Godzilla to show how he is bringing back the pain again. His use of the Godzilla theme is effective every time. The visuals and cinematography look great while the CGI can be a bit wonky sometimes, for the most part, it looks good. Especially for Godzilla who looks awesome. It is honestly astounding how good this film looks for a movie under a $15 million budget.

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What this film succeeds at in comparison to Western Godzilla movies, is having compelling human characters that you truly care about. The characters are all suffering in some way from World War 2, whether it is PTSD or loss. You’re watching these characters try to overcome and push through this dark period. The camaraderie and family dynamic is at the core of all the characters and it is extremely touching to watch. I was especially rooting for the main character to get development just because I wanted to see him be happy. That is why for the first time, I was rooting for Godzilla to lose as I didn’t want to see our characters get hurt. I also love how the story doesn’t shy away from the negative aspects of Japan’s government during WW2. The human drama is wonderfully engaging and can even tug at the emotional strings which is such an achievement in a Godzilla movie.

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Overall, Godzilla Minus One is not only a terrific Godzilla movie, it’s an amazing movie period. This movie shows that you can tell a great story with great characters and still have Godzilla as a major element. Not only that, you can still make a great looking movie with good CGI on a low budget. The CG in this movie looks better than a lot of these western movies with 200 or 300 million budgets. Godzilla Minus One is must watch and I highly recommend going to a theatre near you to experience it in all its glory!


 

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