I liked Minus One. Very traditional Godzilla movie. Had the Godzilla theme in just the right places. Personal drama is a backdrop to the action. Great use of CGI, doesn’t go over the top showing off CGI technology. Didn’t go very far away from the original story. Shin Godzilla was very good also. A little more creative in the story and the presentation. I’m confident I will prefer both to GXK.
I was wondering this as well. I googled it, and apparently it means:
The title “Minus One” symbolizes Japan’s lowest point after World War II and the emergence of Godzilla worsens the country’s already dire state, taking it below zero.
I must be insane about Shin Godzilla. It was about 90% figuring out what to do. I found it super dull.
Godzilla Minus One was amazing.
Absolutely the best non-Godzilla storyline in a Godzilla movie, and none of the other movies deserve to be called second place. Note that I haven’t seen Shin Godzilla or the new one. This could have been a really good movie without Godzilla at all.
The Godzilla parts were very good as well, even without another giant monster to fight. The update to his fire breath was impressive.
Almost, but it’d have been hella depressing without him. Without the monster, there’s nothing to defeat in the end, and so no way to get a happy ending. Koichi just continues to go through his life in a depressed, angst-ridden stupor, never able to accept his new family, and never able to move on, and so drags them into never being able to move on, either. Which, granted, was probably the truth for a lot of veterans, but I don’t think it’s something anyone wants to see a movie about.
Streamed it last night. It was … fine?
Noriko seemed to fall into submissive tradition roles pretty quickly from her initial plucky survivor personality. And her surviving that blast? Seemed cheap to give a happy ending.
While I agree it felt unneeded and unrealistic considering the total damage (for that matter, I don’t think the corner would have saved our pilot either), there is “confirmed” information about it from the director
Spoilers, of course:
Summary
Godzilla Minus One Director Confirms Key Piece of Lore Involving Space Godzilla and Biollante - IGN
Noriko mysteriously survived with minimal damage, save for an obfuscated black mark on her neck. During Godzilla Fest in Osaka, director Takashi Yamazaki confirmed that the black marks on Noriko’s neck were Godzilla cells or G-cells.
So, short version (read article if not a Godzilla fan to get significance), this ties to prior movies where such cells spawned other superhumans and kaiju.
Which to me, was actually a weaker fix than what I felt when I first saw it, I assumed it was a sign of cinematically fast cancer or other cellular failure, showing that while the family was getting it’s “happy ending” that it would be brief, followed by more inevitable tragedy. Kind of like the whole move to date, with it’s slow recovery from war and some sense of improvement only to be further reduced by Godzilla.
Meh.
One thing I liked, which took me a bit of time to figure out, is that nobody seemed to question the existence of the monster. After a few pieces of media I’ve seen recently that are allegories about climate change or COVID, where lots of people don’t believe the impending disaster is coming, this was a nice change. (I know, people not believing in the supernatural danger, space monsters, etc. is an old trope, but lately it has been too accurately reflecting reality.)
It was refreshing to have everyone accept that Godzilla was a problem that had to be dealt with, instead of the problem being convincing people to deal with it.
If you liked that, you really should watch Shin Godzilla. The atomic breath scene in that movie is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
I like how young Godzilla moved more like modern movie versions, but as soon as he got big he became like old school slow plodding arms at the sides Godzilla.
As I said in the movies you’ve seen thread
Just watched Godzilla minus one and I figured out why people say the English dub feels off
They wrote the dialogue like a anime…and even used several well-known anime voices even if you don’t know the names …great movie tho and I’m glad pilot and the woman survived …