As World War II draws to a close, kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) lands his plane on the island of Odo citing his plane was malfunctioning and needed repairs.  Later that night, the crew is awakened by an attack, though not by the Allied Powers, but rather by Godzilla.  The ancient monster destroys the island base and the only two survivors are Kōichi and Sōsaku (Munetaka Aoki), the chief mechanic who knows the pilot’s secret: he is a deserter.  Returning to Japan wracked with survivor’s guilt, he joins a crew tasked with cleaning up old mines from the ocean, but out on the open water he comes face to face once more with the massive threat that destroyed Odo and is now heading straight for Tokyo. 

Takashi Yamazaki writes and directs Godzilla Minus One for Toho Studios, a 124-minute period piece featuring one of the Studio’s most iconic mascots.  The film premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival to great acclaim before embarking on its international rollout where it continued to receive accolades from critics and audiences alike.  While it draws heavily on the history of the character, Godzilla Minus One is a standalone work that celebrates the 70th anniversary of the iconic kaiju creature, returning to its roots as a metaphor for the fallout effects of nuclear war and the dangers that such attacks pose to the environment. 

Yamazaki’s script strikes a very good balance between action and drama so that the stakes of the battles are deeply felt.  Godzilla is not just razing villages full of faceless, nameless people, but rather the attack feels much more personal.  Do not be mistaken, though, the film has no moral quandary about showcasing such a meteoric death toll and the financial burden that this destruction will levy on the survivors. The heart comes from a relationship that rises from the ashes of leveled Tokyo in the wake of the war.  Kōichi meets Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) as she is running through the town square and hands the man a baby.  As the commotion subsides, he reunites with Noriko and the two move into what is left of Kōichi’s home to begin making repairs.  The baby, an orphan of war, they name Akiko (Sae Nagatani) and begin to raise together, yet Kōichi refuses to propose to Noriko stating that his war is not yet over.  With this approach, the film begins to tackle themes of PTSD, and as the plot unfolds the civilian and veteran team that is determined to take down Godzilla begins to show, not cracks in allegiance, but a frustration with how cavalier the Japanese government was in regards to the lives of its citizens during the war. 

When the film is not pulling on heartstrings, Yamazaki proves his skill as a big-budget action director with awesome shots of total destruction.  Godzilla has always been an effects-heavy franchise given the nature of the beast, and while the man-in-a-suit approach of the early 1950s may have fallen out of style briefly as the King of the Monsters made his trek across the Pacific for his first Hollywood-mounted feature right as the industry was experimenting with new CGI technology available to them at the turn of the century, this latest Reiwa era iteration of the monster seems to be heavily molded on the endearingly cross-eyed suit.  That being said, this post-war behemoth is still massive in size and a frightening foe by any means, but what is so exciting is that his scale does not seem to fluctuate.  He is a creature, like any animal, with certain field advantages and disadvantages to contend with, and any amateur crypto-zoologists in the audience will be delighted that he operates with certain parameters and patterns of existence.  Effects were led by Takashi Yamazaki, and working in tandem with the rest of the crew, the film is able to show Godzilla in a variety of different locations and scenarios, so that each of the action scenes have a unique identity to them without sacrificing the integrity of the creature design. 

Admittedly, the pacing does drag the film down a little, and the balance between character and action teeters a little heavier on the side of the dramatic.  It is not that the story is overworked, rather it spends a lot of time spelling things out which has a secondary unfortunate effect: there are few surprises in the finale because it has all been heavily alluded to.  Thankfully, it is still a spectacular sequence, and Ryûji Miyajima’s editing really rachets up the tension of each moment.  Cutting between the ships, Godzilla, and Kōichi during his redemption flight, the three-pronged sequence has a lot of threads to weave, and there are multiple micro-payoffs throughout for all three parties involved.  Ultimately, the humans will prevail, and while the film wears its heart on its sleeve which can be frustrating in the moment, when Godzilla’s dorsal scales begin to charge in preparation for his heat ray, the anticipation is undeniable as we give ourselves over to the power of cinema. 

Godzilla Minus One is a surprise and a delight of the film that will scratch the itch for fans of the franchise who had grown bored from the hollowed-out approach taken by Legendary post-Gareth Edwards; though praise does need to be extended towards Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Vietnam War era Kong: Skull Island (2017).  It is such a smart script in that sense as it is able to get audiences dually invested in both the drama of the film and caught up in the excitement of the action.  It is welcoming to fans new and old, with a nuanced story that is still easy to follow thanks to dedicated performances from the cast.  Notably, Godzilla always feels like he is in the frame with the actors which really helps sell the effect and add to the immersion.  It is a finely tuned action machine that pays great homage to one of cinema’s most recognizable figures while also capitalizing on the effects technology of the modern age.