More Thoughts on Godzilla Minus One (Spoilers)

Since Godzilla Minus One released in the UK on the 15th of December, I've watched it five times, four years ago, that would have been normal for me as I would spend entire weekends at the cinema, binging films. Then all the cinemas shut for a year and when they finally reopened, I'd lost interest and no films were coming out that got me back into the habit, but Minus One has me that excited that I will happily watch it again and again and again. Part of this excitement is what I explain as being the change you want to see; I want more Godzilla to be released and to that end, I will support Godzilla in every way I can. This is made a lot easier for me by the film's quality, as Minus One is a genuinely amazing masterpiece of a film and I think people who don't take this chance to see it are robbing themselves of easily the best film of the year. You might dismiss this as the ramblings of a guy with a massive amount of bias, and that's true, I do have bias, but the people I went to see Minus One with on its opening weekend didn't, in fact if anything, they had an anti-Godzilla bias, they weren't expecting to take the film seriously or enjoy it, and yet they all did. And though I wrote a full review of the film in which I called it a masterpiece and a must watch, there is still so much I want to discuss about Minus One that I couldn't before for fear of spoiling the film. Said spoilers will be the topic of today, so that's your warning, I'm going to be talking about the film's story here, and I can't urge you enough to just go and see it and not let me spoil it for you, with that said, let's end this war. 

It does help to know things about the history of the Pacific War when you enter Minus One. The film opens on Odo Island, the same fictional Island where Godzilla first appeared in the original film, in the final days of World War II in 1945. Koichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot lands at a repair base on the island. The film expects you to know what a Kamikaze is already, but does make it clear to the audience just what the duty of a Kamikaze is. Tachibana, the lead mechanic on the base suspects Koichi's lying about the mechanical problems on his plane, but another mechanic later approaches Koichi and sides with him, questioning the reasoning of dying with honour when defeat is inevitable. In 1944, the Americans captured Saipan and were now using it to launch bombing raids on Japanese cities. The Tokyo Air Raids were the deadliest of the War, killing over one-hundred-thousand people and leaving over a million people homeless. In April 1945, the Americans invaded the island of Okinawa, three-hundred miles south of the Japanese Home Islands, and were planning to use the island to launch an invasion of the Home Islands later in the year. It was in these final months of the War, after Japan had lost most of its best pilots and as the Americans were closing in on Japan, that the Kamikaze was unleashed, with the goal of slowing down and demoralising the Americans with devastating airborne suicide attacks. Koichi's mission would have been to crash his plane into an American ship, killing himself, but hopefully crippling or sinking the ship, and being a Kamikaze was seen as a great honour, an honour which Koichi abandons for the very human reason of not wanting to die. 

As the mechanic says to him on the island; the outcome is clear, so what's the point in dying for a doomed cause, what difference will it make, and is it worth the cost. Koichi doesn't have long to ponder this before he notices strange fish floating up along the water's edge, which becomes a unique and ominous calling card of Godzilla throughout the film. Very unceremoniously, we cut to that night, as the sirens begin to blare and the mechanics on the base mobilise to repel an American attack. Except when a guard tower shines a spotlight on the nearby beach, rather than illuminating a squad of American Marines, it illuminates a massive dinosaur that immediately attacks the guard tower and smashes it to pieces. Godzilla Minus One really doesn't waste any time getting to the monster, as not even five minutes in, the Odo Island mechanics are facing down an enormous, snarling beast. Tachibana, the lead mechanic, tells Koichi to get in his fighter plane and fire at the monster with his 20mm guns. Koichi agrees to the plan and gets into his plane, but as the monster passes, Koichi is frozen with fear, and can't bring himself to fire on the creature. As the other mechanics begin to panic, one of them fires at the monster, sending it into a frenzy. The next thirty seconds are among the most violent in the Godzilla series as the dinosaur mauls everyone; biting them and throwing them around, slamming them with its tail and crushing them underfoot. 

Tachibana watches on in despair as his men are slaughtered, while Koichi freaks out and runs, being knocked out when the monster blows up his plane. When Koichi comes to, he finds only himself and Tachibana alive, and Tachibana blames Koichi for the massacre, later giving him a wallet full of family photos taken from the dead mechanics, put a pin in that wallet because it comes up again. Upon returning to Tokyo and finding it in ruins, he meets and is scalded by his neighbour, Sumiko, who blames him for the deaths of her children, compounding his guilt. He soon runs into Noriko and Akiko, who he agrees to help and ends up forming a family unit with, eventually getting a well paying job as a Minesweeper to provide for them. Something I didn't go into a lot of detail on in my review was the film's positive portrayal of a traditional family. Despite not being related to Noriko or Akiko, Koichi finds himself in a fatherly role, and takes it upon himself to provide for and care for them. I really meant it in my review though when I said Koichi and Noriko were the sweetest part of this film, genuinely, I love them. Like Koichi, Noriko and Akiko are broken people, victims of the war who lost everything and have now found something in each other, a reason to keep going and to rebuild, a light in the darkness, and Noriko is that light in Koichi's life. When Koichi's co workers learn that Koichi and Noriko aren't married, we get a nice comedic moment as they try to get their heads around it, and it's so unbelievably sweet. But in among the sweetness is some darkness too, as Koichi tells Akiko that he's not her father in front of them, and tells them he doesn't want to marry Noriko. The scene ends on a wonderful shot of Noriko stood doing dishes as Koichi's co workers ask him why not in the background. 

We don't find out why he apparently doesn't want to marry her until much later, but the film leaves you on this depressing note of Koichi having his life back, but preventing himself from embracing it, we learn later that it's because he doesn't think he deserves it. Even with how good his life appears on the outside, Koichi's still suffering from the trauma of the war, at night he dreams of being back on Odo Island, watching as Godzilla slaughters the mechanics, when he wakes up, Noriko tries to comfort him, but Koichi breaks down, pleading with her to tell him that he is back in Japan with her, and isn't already dead, Noriko pushes Koichi away, looking on with pity as he sits in the corner and mutters to himself. For Koichi, the nightmares are very real, and we begin to understand why he refuses to embrace his newfound life. This is also the first time in the film that we see the contents of the wallet, and we see some of the pictures of the mechanics and their families. These photos are Koichi's ghosts; the men who he failed, and the reason he can't accept that he does deserve to live. We get another unbelievably cute moment with Noriko as Koichi comes home to find her in her work uniform, she's got a job in Ginza and Sumiko, the formerly antagonistic neighbour has agreed to look after Akiko while they're both gone. Koichi isn't just concerned about Akiko in this scene though, Noriko tells him that he'll never find a wife with her around, but the film makes no secret that these two have grown to love each other over their two years together. 

While Koichi can't let himself accept his love for her, he does a shit job of hiding his fear of losing her in this scene, it's no wonder that Noriko's scenes are among my favourites in the film, and Koichi's refusal to accept their love for each other becomes a driving force for him in the second half. Meanwhile, far away on Bikini Atoll, America detonates a fission bomb, and soon finds itself getting into skirmishes with a massive unidentified sea creature, no prizes for guessing who it is or what the fission bomb has to do with it. As the monster makes its way to Japan, Koichi and his co workers are sent out to intercept it and keep it busy while an Imperial Japanese Warship, the Takao, makes its way back to Japan to kill it. This is where we get our reintroduction to Godzilla, only now he is enormous and even more pissed off than he was before, we get a brief moment of dark comedy as the Captain of the Minesweeper, while in the middle of an impassioned speech about not wanting to see Tokyo in flames again, sees Godzilla for the first time and immediately decides to run. What follows is a tense chase as Koichi and his friends try to outrun Godzilla and blow him up with Mines. After discovering that Godzilla has regenerative abilities, the day briefly seems saved as the Takao arrives just in time, firing on Godzilla with it's 20cm deck guns. However, Godzilla, now even more pissed off than he already was, mauls the Takao, and when another barrage from its deck guns sends him tumbling back into the sea, the monster unleashes his atomic breath on the ship from below, completely obliterating it. He emerges from the smoke, his face and chest severely burned from the blast, he roars in triumph before vanishing beneath the waves again.

This scene rocks, but you already know I think that. I can't say I've ever seen Godzilla maul a ship before though, and while aspects of this sequence remind me of the Tasman Sea battle from Godzilla vs Kong, Minus One's first sea battle is intense and violent, and at no point in it do you feel our characters are safe, as much as you want them to be because by this point, you already want Koichi to live for Noriko and Akiko. After returning home from his reunion with Godzilla, we get what might be my favourite scene in the entire film, and one of about four throughout the film that makes me tear up. Noriko confronts Koichi about his past, and Koichi confesses to everything; he tells her that he was a Kamikaze, he tells her about the Odo Island attack and how he blames himself for everyone who died that day, and he tells her about Godzilla, and how terrified he is of him and how useless he is in stopping him. Noriko tries to comfort him but again, he breaks down, beginning to ramble about the value of his own life and question whether he even is alive, or whether Noriko and Akiko are just "the last dreams of a dead man." Noriko grabs Koichi and cradles his head, insisting to him that he is alive and that she is real, while they both cry. I love this scene, I love it so much. No moment in a film has made me feel this bad for a character since Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and like in that film, the scene doesn't come across as forced or contrived, it feels earned and genuine, like we really are seeing this traumatised former soldier crumble into despair. 

And Noriko's sadness in this moment is just as biting, as she tries desperately to pull him back to the light and remind him of what he has and that he deserves to live. It's in this moment that the love these two characters have for each other fully takes shape in the film, and the next morning, when Koichi sees Noriko cooking radishes for Akiko, he looks at the wallet and decides it's finally time to embrace what he has and live again. If at this point, you haven't figured out what's about to happen, you're in for a shock. While Koichi is having his breakdown, Noriko argues with him that those that survived the War deserve to live and that whatever happens, they need to carry on, so when Godzilla makes landfall in Ginza where she works, yeah, this film's about to rip your heart out. The Ginza attack is a shorter scene than you'd think it is, one that builds to the big reveal very nicely, as Godzilla breaks through the defensive line in the bay, and as we see crowds of people running and screaming as trams and buses fly across the street in the background. We cut to Noriko on a train, which is forced to stop when a tram car flies through the air and blocks the tracks, a brief panic on the train is silenced by the boom of a footstep, Noriko and the other passengers look out the window where they see Godzilla for the first time. Not only is this an amazing moment in the film, but it's a god tier example of how to use music in a film, as the view passes through the window of the train and into the street, the Akira Ifukube music booms as the camera pans up to reveal Godzilla in all his glory. 

In another moment reminiscent of past Godzilla films, Godzilla decides he doesn't like the train Noriko is on and goes for a walk with it in his mouth, while Noriko hangs on for dear life inside the dangling car. As luck would have it, she manages to fall into a river and live, but is left in shock and barely able to flee the coming danger. But it's ok, right? she's a main character and our protagonist's love interest, she won't die, and sure enough, Koichi arrives just in time to pull her to safety, the Japanese Army open fire on Godzilla with tanks at the same time, drawing his attention away from the fleeing crowd. And now comes not only the most awesome moment in the entire film, but also one of the most shocking and heart-breaking moments in any Godzilla film. In my review, I said there is a moment in the film that makes me hate Godzilla and want him to die, this is that moment. In response to the tanks, Godzilla begins to charge his atomic breath, his spines light up blue and violently jut out of his back while the confused and terrified crowd below begin to scatter. In an instant, Godzilla fires his atomic breath and causes a nuclear explosion that lights up the sky and sends out a blast wave powerful enough to blow away buildings. Seeing the blast wave coming, Noriko shoves Koichi into a nearby concrete alley before it reaches him, but she doesn't make it and is sent flying, disappearing into the chaos. 

When Koichi emerges from the alley, most of Ginza has been reduced to rubble and everyone, including Noriko, is gone. Confusion turns to despair as Koichi drops to his knees, unable to cope with the reality that the woman he loves has just died, in the distance, Godzilla looks up at the mushroom cloud he just created, quietly pondering his actions before roaring triumphantly again and leaving. Koichi watches him leave, his confusion and despair giving way to uncontrolled rage as he screams at the monster while a black rain begins to fall around him. On my first viewing of the film, I was shocked when I saw this, I honestly couldn't believe it had just happened, and as the realisation that Noriko had just died began to set in, I hated Godzilla, I wanted to see him punished for killing Noriko, I wanted him to die for it. Except this scene isn't done ripping your heart out because then we get Akiko learning of Noriko's death, in another moment that's very reminiscent of past Godzilla, we get a little girl crying over the death of her mother. In the original Godzilla, in the aftermath of his attack on Tokyo, we get a moment in a hospital where a woman dies, the woman's daughter is sat beside her and as the nurses come to take the body away, the daughter covers her face and begins to scream. Emiko picks the girl up and tries to comfort her, but is also overwhelmed with despair and struggles to hold back her tears as she cradles the screaming child. It is the most heart breaking moment in any film I've ever watched and I honestly can't watch it without crying, even in isolation. 

In Minus One, Koichi and his friends are at home after the attack, discussing what to do about Akiko now that Noriko is gone, Akiko asks where her mum is and Sumiko lies, telling her that Noriko is at work, then Akiko begins to cry and Koichi's friends, hardened survivors of the War, sit quietly and awkwardly, not knowing what to do. I said in my review that the film is rough at times, but that was underselling the kind of heartbreak Minus One packs. Koichi survived the War, he is haunted by his own failures and the horrors he witnessed, but made the mistake of starting to believe that he deserved to live, now his world has been torn apart again by the same monster that tore it apart two years prior, and now not only is he responsible for the deaths on Odo Island, he's responsible for the death of the woman he loves as well. This entire sequence effortlessly and brutally presents the cruelty of War in a way that no previous Godzilla film has, aside from the original. It's a rollercoaster of terror, fleeting hope and crushing sadness, like in real life, it isn't fair, and like in real life, it's all over in the blink of an eye. The looming mushroom cloud and black rain further sells what this entire sequence is clearly shooting for. The black rain was a phenomenon that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the Bombings, ash and vaporised particles from the nuclear inferno riding back down to earth in drops of rain. In my review, I said the film slows down in the second half, this is where it does so. 

Doc, who's real name is Noda, has a plan that he thinks will be enough to kill Godzilla, and ex-Imperial Navy personnel have been summoned to hear it, Koichi, Captain and the Kid are among them and along with the rest of the men, meet Hota, an ex-Imperial Navy captain who gets them access to four decommissioned Destroyers. The plan is as insane as you'd expect for a plan to kill Godzilla; they're going to plunge him to the bottom of an ocean trench with Freon gas and crush him. If that fails, they're going to pull him back up and hope the decompression kills him. Koichi is willing to take part in the plan, but doesn't believe it will work, suggesting he use a fighter plane as bait to lure Godzilla into Noda's trap, but he has other intentions with the plane. He manages to lure Tachibana out of hiding, and convinces him to help them restore the plane, an experimental Shinden fighter, and load it with explosives so he can fly it into Godzilla's mouth, realising what Koichi is intending to do, Tachibana agrees to help, but Koichi keeps his true intentions with the fighter a secret, knowing his friends will stop him, he intends to fulfil his duty as a Kamikaze, though this time, not for the honour of his Nation, but for revenge for the death of Noriko, and to protect Akiko's future. Compounding the notion of protecting the future, the Kid, the only one of Koichi's Minesweeper friends who isn't a War veteran, is forbidden from taking part in the mission. Being told that not going to War is something for him to be proud of.

When the crew have drinks together after all agreeing to the plan, Koichi is confronted by Captain, who drunkenly berates him for wanting to throw his life away by avenging Noriko, telling him he should have married her when he had the chance, Koichi finally admits that he wanted to marry her, and admits that he never did because "[his] war isn't over yet." When their Godzilla early warning system alerts them to Godzilla's approach, the team makes their final preparations and Noda gives a fantastic speech that is very on the nose, but gets the job done. He criticises his country for how cheaply it treated human life in the war, and promises the team that this time, not a single life will be lost, telling them that it's not a battle to the death, but a battle for the future. It's not quite as epic as Marshal Pentecost vowing to Cancel the Apocalypse, but it's not trying to be, like everything else about Minus One, it's more subdued, more subtle, and more personal. At home, Koichi thanks Sumiko for taking care of Akiko and comforts Akiko, promising her that he won't leave her too before putting her to bed and leaving her with an envelope full of cash to give to Sumiko. The next morning, Sumiko finds Akiko outside, holding the envelope, realising what it means, she embraces Akiko, promising her that everything will be ok. When Godzilla re-emerges, Noda's plan goes into action, as Koichi successfully lures Godzilla away from the mainland and into the target area, where two unmanned Destroyers are sacrificed to deplete Godzilla's atomic breath. 

When the men on the other two destroyers see the atomic breath though, it looks like the plan is about to fall apart, until the Akira Ifukube music kicks on again and the remaining two ships charge at Godzilla, dragging a cable behind them with Freon gas tanks and inflatable life preservers attached to it, the two ships ensnare Godzilla in the cable, and when the Freon gas is released, Godzilla instantly plunges into the sea. The massive increase in pressure severely injures Godzilla but doesn't kill him, triggering phase two of the plan, the life preservers are inflated and Godzilla rapidly ascends, taking further damage from decompression, I especially like the grizzly detail of one of his eyes bulging out suddenly during his ascent. But when Godzilla manages to get free of the life preserver, it seems that the plan has failed, until the Kid arrives with a small fleet of tugboats, further emphasising the message of people coming together to make a difference, and with the tugboats' help, the two Destroyers are able to pull Godzilla back up to the surface, where he is now even more pissed off and visibly in a lot of pain. His body looks like it's about to fall apart; his eyes are puffy and wild, his skin is cracked and gnarled, his hands are trembling, the plan worked perfectly but it still wasn't enough, and the men on the Destroyers prepare for their deaths as Godzilla charges up one final, probably suicidal atomic blast. The use of silence in this scene is incredibly effective as the War veterans, driven by a hope that this time, they can finally make a difference, accept that they have failed. 

Then out of the silence comes the roar of the propeller on Koichi's Shinden fighter, Captain and Noda watch in horror as they realise what Koichi is about to do, and as Koichi arms the bomb, he takes one final look at a photo of Noriko before impact. The plane slams into Godzilla's open mouth and explodes, blowing off the top of his head, as the energy from his atomic breath begins to escape, his body crumbles and sinks back into the sea, and Noda is overwhelmed with joy to see Koichi in the sky above. Tachibana let Koichi know that the Shinden had an ejector seat and orders him to live. Back at the airfield, Tachibana begins to tear up after hearing that Koichi survived, and back at the port, the men, now having finally fulfilled their duty and saved their country, are given a hero's welcome. Among the crowd are Akiko and Sumiko who received a telegram before the battle and shows it to Koichi. Koichi takes Akiko and rushes to the hospital where he is reunited with Noriko. Yes, Noriko, who took the pressure wave from an atomic blast across her entire body and got thrown hundreds of feet by it, isn't dead. As Koichi begins to break down again, a tearful Noriko asks him if his war is finally over, Koichi isn't able to respond though, only sob as he falls to his knees and lets her pull him into an embrace. And had the film ended there, it would have been perfect, a happy ending to this two hour rollercoaster of emotions, but no, Yamazaki has to give us one final twist of the knife, as a black, wriggling bruise begins to appear on Noriko's neck. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the trench, a chunk of Godzilla suddenly begins to grow, as the Ifukube music kicks on one final time before credits. 

The regenerating chunk of Godzilla is not very ambiguous, how long will Godzilla stay dead, and how long does Koichi have to enjoy the life he finally believes he deserves. Will he even be able to enjoy it though, because what's more ambiguous is that black mark on Noriko's neck. In the film itself, it's simply there as a final gut punch for the audience, an implication that the tragedy of the film's events is still not over. Like how Koichi was punished for believing he deserved to live, now we, the audience are being punished for believing he had the chance to. But the film gives us nothing in the way of what the mark actually is, which has led to some wild ideas. The simplest explanation is that it's radiation poisoning, an explanation that is thematically consistent with the rest of the film, but is lacking the necessary groundwork for me to be completely sure that's the answer. It would be consistent with the film's anti-war messaging however as just like with the real War, it didn't stop for the people who lived through it once they'd gone home. Now Koichi has finally won his war and defeated the monster, he can get on with his life, marry the woman he loves, but now it's her war that isn't over, her fallout, if you will. Another reason I'm not sold on that explanation is that I don't like it. I'm not saying it's bad, just that I don't want Noriko and Koichi to have to suffer any more than they have, and having Noriko miraculously survive, only to slowly rot away from radiation sickness is a bit too nihilistic for me, and like I said in my review, I just want them to be ok. 

The other explanation for the mark is rather weird, Noriko has inherited regenerative abilities from a piece of Godzilla that's now inside her body. It would explain how she survived taking an Atomic blast wave to her entire body, but the implications of this explanation are at once disturbing and absurd. There would be a nice irony to Godzilla being the thing that saves her life, but earlier in the film, it's said that the shards of Godzilla that were left behind after Ginza are dangerously radioactive. You could say that the specific mentioning of pieces of Godzilla being left behind after the attack lends credence to this theory, but in a film that plays its story as straight and serious as Minus One, to have a main character seemingly die, only to be 'saved' by a piece of the radioactive mutant dinosaur that has granted her the ability to regenerate, that sounds a bit odd, don't you think. And what happens now, does Noriko start to die as the shard poisons her and attacks her body, or does the shard continue to mess with her genetics, slowly turning her into a nightmarish mutant akin to the Brundlefly. It's also possible that the black mark has no intended meaning at all, apart from messing with the audience and inviting theory and speculation, which it has definitely succeeded in doing. Ultimately, it's something I'm not putting much thought into right now; when the film comes out on Blu Ray and I can take my time to dig through all of its layers, I'll probably come back to this mark and what it could possibly mean, but in the meantime, like Koichi in the moment, it's not a concern, I'm just happy Noriko is alive. 

The Last Dreams of a Dead Man

Godzilla Minus One is a one-of-a-kind Godzilla film that, in my opinion, has finally broken through the wall of camp and cheese that has kept general audiences out of this fantastic franchise. And while the moments of Godzilla wrecking shit are every bit as glorious as you'd expect, Minus One's greatest strength is its fantastic story and characters. It's a film that could have been grim and depressing, or overly political, or just been a chance to let Godzilla loose in Showa era Japan for the sake of doing so, instead, it's a perfect storm of potent human drama, gripping war story, and thrilling and terrifying monster movie that fires on all cylinders and flawlessly sticks the landing. It succeeds where Shin Godzilla fails; telling a story that is as powerful as it is universal, and setting that story against an enthralling backdrop of post-war guilt and trauma, but I'll be comparing the two films, as well as the Monsterverse, later. Like I said in my review, the short of it is that Godzilla Minus One is unbelievably good, and unlike Shin Godzilla, it genuinely deserves all the reverence and success. I can see why Gareth Edwards was jealous of this film, because Minus One is the pinnacle of Godzilla and the first true equal to the original film, and again, it's an absolute must watch. 

Godzilla Minus One Movie Review

Here's what you need to know; having come home to find his entire life wiped out in the Tokyo Air Raids, Kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima is trying to rebuild his life and leave the nightmares of the War in his past, now living with his partner, Noriko and raising an orphaned baby with her. But while Koichi and his newfound family try to survive in post-war Japan, a demon from his past, baptised in the fire of the Atomic Bomb has returned, and now not only threatens a wounded and crippled Japan, but threatens to destroy Koichi's life just as it did in the War, but is this the apocalypse it seems, or Koichi's only chance to redeem himself and be free from the torture of the past.

Godzilla Minus One has finally been released in the UK, and three weeks ago when tickets became available for my local Vue cinema, you know I booked mine immediately. To say I've been excited about this film is putting it lightly; I haven't been this excited for a film since 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and as I said in my What is Godzilla series, this is the first time I'll be watching a Japanese Godzilla film in a cinema. Except on its opening night, things got even better as the screening was packed, and two hours later when the credits were rolling, all everyone was talking about was how good it was; one woman in my row said "that was ace." Now, maybe they were all Godzilla freaks like me, no doubt some of them were, but it's one thing to see the internet going wild for a film, it's another thing entirely to actually see and hear it on the ground, and for a Japanese Godzilla film to get that kind of reaction, if nothing else, is a vindication of my obsession with this franchise. The short of it is that Godzilla Minus One is unbelievably good, unironically one of the best films I've seen in years, and you should believe the hype, because this is not your dad's Godzilla movie, this is a beast all its own. 

Godzilla Minus One wastes no time getting its story going. In the final days of the War, we meet Koichi, a Kamikaze pilot who lands on Odo Island and claims he's having mechanical problems with his plane, then the base comes under attack from a massive reptilian creature that one of the soldiers identifies as Godzilla, Koichi is given an opportunity to kill the creature but freezes, allowing it to continue its rampage and kill a lot of people. This happens in the first five minutes of the film, giving us a glimpse of the carnage and the suffering to come. Right from the start, Godzilla Minus One is a strange Godzilla film, whereas other Godzilla films tell grand stories with ensemble casts, Minus One is the exact opposite; it is an intensely personal film that focuses entirely on Koichi and his family. The film really takes its time to establish its characters and conflict, but while other Godzilla films use this time to pad themselves out and provide some complimentary human action, in Minus One, the human action is the point, and Godzilla is very much in the back seat. In other Godzilla films, that would be a massive problem, but Minus One's human action is its greatest strength, even the Monsterverse, for as much as I love it, and for as much as it tries, is totally eclipsed by the storytelling and character drama on display in Minus One. 

There isn't a single character in this film I don't remember, there isn't a single one I don't love either, and the relationships these characters have with each other are so well realised and so well presented that when Godzilla reappears in the story, you're not rooting for him, you're rooting for them. Koichi joins an eccentric crew of Minesweepers, and while Captain, Doc and the Kid as they're nicknamed, provide the film with moments of levity, they accompany Koichi through every step of his journey and when shit hits the fan, far from getting lost in the shuffle, it's them, with Koichi, leading the charge. While Koichi's neighbour starts out antagonistic towards him, she too is brought into this strange family; helping him and Noriko take care of the baby. Even a character like Tachibana, who also survives the Odo Island attack, is not wasted or left behind, not only playing his part in the film's climax, but being a vital step on Koichi's redemption ark. But where this film goes it's absolute hardest is with its central trio, Koichi, Noriko and Akiko, the baby. At its heart, Godzilla Minus One is a film about trauma; about a broken man finding forgiveness and redemption. Koichi is a coward who is now suffering with survivor's guilt and struggling with constant nightmares. 

At several points in the film, he begins to break; wondering if he ever deserved to live or even made it off Odo Island alive and isn't simply trapped in a nightmare created by the men who died because of his cowardice. In these moments, it's Noriko who pulls Koichi back from the darkness. And despite being a Godzilla film, the scenes that stuck with me the most are these ones, as Koichi crumbles into despair and Noriko tries to comfort him. Contrast that with all the adorable moments they have together, like when Noriko tells Koichi that he'll never find a wife with her around, or when Koichi's co-workers are completely perplexed upon learning that the pair aren't married. Their relationship is the sweetest part of this film by far and there were several moments with these two where I teared up. Then there's Akiko; in the original Godzilla, there is a scene that makes me cry every time, in Minus One, Akiko has a very similar scene that brought me very close to crying, and I have no shame admitting that because Jesus Christ, this film is rough at times. But it's Koichi's journey that makes this film what it is, his ark is a thing of beauty, going from a coward cursed with the shame and guilt of surviving the war, to a desperately determined man who will stop at nothing to redeem himself and protect the people he loves. His past as a Kamikaze that deserted his duty hangs over him for the entire film and comes full circle in the film's finale.

 Godzilla Minus One is very much a film about the value of life; not just of Koichi's life, but of life itself, or as one of Koichi's friends puts it, it's not about fighting to the death, but about fighting for the future, fighting for Akiko and Noriko, and yes, there are many moments in this film that are designed to pull on the heart strings, and if I were a cynical bastard, I'd call it manipulative. But Minus One made me forget that I was a cynical bastard for two hours, I was completely along for the ride with this film and it hit me in the feels more times than I can count. This is not what I was expecting from Godzilla Minus One at all. Being set in 1947, I was expecting the film to deal with the Politics of post-war Japan, I was even a bit worried that the film would be anti-American. But Godzilla Minus One has none of that. Sure, there is an aspect of Japan getting back on its feet and making up for the shame and trauma of the war, but it's presented entirely through the people, through Koichi and his friends. Far from a country looking to restore its past glory, this is a story of broken people learning to let go of the past and find peace with their trauma, it's a complete rejection of the fatalism of the Imperial Japanese, and proudly embraces classic values of friendship, bravery and fighting for who you love. For all the death and loss and pain there is in Minus One, and there is a lot, it's a shockingly uplifting and optimistic film where even in the deepest, blackest pit of despair, its characters continue to survive and search for the light.

In the end it's not the Government or Military that saves the day, but people, the men of Japan who have come home from a terrible war and finally have a chance to make a difference, not for the honour and glory of their Nation, but for love and a need to protect the future, which is a hell of a lot more potent and universal a message than Government Bureaucracy bad. Along with the period politics, another thing I was surprised by the absence of was the fear of fallout and radiation. Whereas the fallout left behind from Godzilla's rampage was as radioactive as it was personal in the first film, here it is entirely personal, with the aspect of Godzilla contaminating Tokyo only being briefly mentioned, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are never mentioned either. But Godzilla Minus One doesn't need any of that, which is the really surprising part. Godzilla Minus One doesn't need to provide commentary on the politics of the period, or reflect the fears and anxieties of the period, instead, it uses its setting as a springboard to tell an intensely personal story that, in a Godzilla first, fires on all cylinders from beginning to end. After watching Shin Godzilla, my appreciation for writer and director Hideaki Anno did not change, but with Minus One, I am in awe at what writer and director Takashi Yamazaki has achieved here, Godzilla Minus One genuinely is that good. 

We've made it this far without actually talking about Godzilla, which is a bit strange in a Godzilla review. But perhaps for the first time in the series' history, Godzilla is not the star of the show. That isn't to say that Godzilla doesn't deliver however, and oh boy does he deliver. As is typical for the series, Godzilla has limited screen-time; showing up for the big set-piece moments in between the human stuff, and in typical fashion, when Godzilla shows up for said moments, it is epic and glorious, but Minus One twists the King of the Monsters in a way that very few Godzilla films have. Godzilla is the villain of the film, and not only that, but Minus One's depiction of him might be the most evil depiction in the series, maybe even worse than GMK, where he was literally death incarnate. Very rarely in a Godzilla film is the human cost in such sharp focus, and even more rarely do we see Godzilla causing destruction intentionally, yet in Minus One, he's ripping buildings apart, he's throwing and kicking public transport around, and he's stomping down the street and crushing dozens of people with each step, he's mean, he's angry, and he's terrifying. I've felt many things about Godzilla as a character in my life; awe, fear, excitement, pity, admiration, but I can't say I've ever hated him in a film, as in hated the monster himself rather than just the film he's in, but in Minus One, Godzilla does something that makes me hate him, and from that point in the film, and for the first time in the series, I wanted Godzilla to die, I wanted nothing more than to see Koichi and his friends put that mutant fucker in the ground. 

To have a Godzilla film hook me so completely with its human drama that I come to hate Godzilla as much as they do is completely new to me, and has completely changed the way I look at the Monsterverse, which I've always insisted get too much flak for their storytelling. Minus One humiliates the Monsterverse in the storytelling department, but then again, it humiliates everything in the storytelling department. In all sincerity, I feel that Godzilla Minus One raises the bar for the kaiju genre in a way that no films I've seen have since the Heisei Gamera Trilogy in the 1990's, again, it's genuinely that good. And like all the best interpretations of Godzilla, Minus One's monster is more than just a big lizard, his existence and actions are symbolic of something larger and uglier than himself, but in keeping with Minus One's style, it gets personal. Godzilla is a representation of PTSD in Minus One; not just a literal monster from Koichi's past, come to ruin his life again, but a figurative monster, a manifestation of his trauma, and a chance for Koichi to right the wrongs of his past and avenge those he feels responsible for the deaths of. Koichi's redemption ark is directly tied with Godzilla's fate, as killing Godzilla is how Koichi will finally be able to forgive himself, and seeing the transition Koichi has from nervous wreck at the start to cool, driven and determined at the end is incredibly poignant and empowering, it rocks.

All that being said, I'd be dishonest if I said I had no issues at all with the film, though those issues are incredibly minor, nit-picks really. For starters, the film's effects; the film was made on a very small budget compared to Western films of a similar scope and scale, less than fifteen million dollars. Like Shin Godzilla before it, Minus One's Godzilla is also made completely with CGI, and while the film looks far, far more expensive than it is, there are times where you can see the corners that had to be cut to pull it off. That being said, fifteen million dollars is less than the cost of a single episode of a Disney Plus series; for the amount of money Marvel put into the Marvels, you could make a dozen Godzilla Minus Ones, which should put into perspective not just the devilish efficiency of Minus One, but the downright criminal inefficiency of Hollywood. But the quality of the effects is only a problem if the film fails in its characters and storytelling, and to have eight out of ten in effects really doesn't matter when in other areas, the film is a solid ten. And while Shin Godzilla reused music from previous Godzilla films for much of its soundtrack, Minus One's soundtrack is almost completely new, and it slaps. But when the Akira Ifukube music kicks in during the film's set-piece moments, it hits that much harder thanks to the god tier level of the film's sound design. 

The film uses music from the original Godzilla, King Kong vs Godzilla and Mothra vs Godzilla, all originally composed by Akira Ifukube, in addition to new music composed by Naoki Sato, and for as much as I love Alexandre Desplat and Bear McCreary's scores for Godzilla and King of the Monsters, respectively, Sato's score, like Yamazaki's writing puts them to shame. And as a testament to both of those things, near the end of the film, there is a moment where the film goes completely silent for a full twenty seconds, and in all four of the screenings I attended, two of which being packed, you could hear a pin drop. I haven't heard silence like it in such a crowded cinema since Thanos snapped away half the universe, which shows the kind of effect the film was having on the crowd, they were all just as invested as me. I'm supposed to be talking about negatives but even then, there's something good in there to talk about. Another niggle I have with the film is it's pacing in the second half. The film's got a lightning pace for the first half, but once Godzilla comes to Tokyo and does his thing, the film slows down a lot as the characters put together their plan to kill him. But again, the film's characters carry you through, until we finally reach the finale which, even with the Monsterverse in mind, might be the most epic and most satisfying finale of any film in the series. 

And then of course there is the film's ending, which is where the film breaks massively from its most obvious influence. While the original Godzilla's ending was sombre and tragic, and riddled with ominous and discomforting implications, Minus One's ending brings Koichi's journey full circle and completes the film's story in as complete and fulfilling a way as it needs to, even if aspects of it are a little contrived. That doesn't rob the ending of its emotional punch, and like the original film, the ending is dripping with sinister implications, wrapping the film up in a twisted little bow that leaves you satisfied while also wanting to know what happens next, and wanting more desperately than ever for everyone to just be ok. Is it a bit sequel baity, kind of, but then again, is the film a bit emotionally manipulative too, yes, do I care, no. Ultimately, it's not a story about a big lizard that destroys a city, it's about one man freeing himself from the horrors of his past and overcoming his own inner darkness for the love of his family and friends, it's a story that flawlessly translates across languages and cultures, and it opens up the Godzilla franchise to new audiences that might have never given it the chance, and yes, it's better than Shin Godzilla in every single way, eat me.

My War Isn't Over Yet

When I went into my third screening of Godzilla Minus One, the people I was with were all doubtful of the film, refusing to believe it was as good as I was telling them, I told them they would eat their words and guess what, they all did. Godzilla Minus One is, without exaggeration, a masterpiece, delivering the thrills and terror that only Godzilla can and then some, but hammering it home with the most wonderful and powerful story this series has ever told, yes, even better than the original, and while I still don't think it eclipses that first film, it comes pretty damn close, closer than I ever could have imagined was possible, and it's not only set a new standard for the series, but set a bar that I highly doubt any film I'll see will reach for years to come, unless Yamazaki makes another Godzilla film of course. Godzilla Minus One is a one-of-a-kind film that I can't insist enough you go and see right now, and it is absolutely, beyond any doubt, a must watch.

Godzilla Minus One: What is Godzilla Part Three

Godzilla, through his boundless adaptability, has remained a staple of cinema and pop culture from his inception, and whether he was a superhero or a walking Nuclear Bomb, there has always been something to love about him. Following the decade's hibernation after Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004, he would return yet again, this time getting the big budget Hollywood treatment he always deserved, and following its massive success, Toho would bring Godzilla back to Japan in a slightly less spectacular fashion. But this wasn't the first time Godzilla had been given a full western treatment. America's first attempt at making a Godzilla film was a miserable failure, one that lives in infamy among Godzilla fans as the film that took the God out of Godzilla.

Godzilla came to America several times before the 1990's. In 1956, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! was released, Gigantis, The Fire Monster released in 1959, King Kong vs Godzilla was Americanised and released in 1963, and in 1985, The Return of Godzilla was released in America under the title, Godzilla 1985, a film famous for the sombre return of Raymond Burr and Dr Pepper. In the late 1970's, American animation company Hanna-Barbera, the company behind Scooby Doo, produced an animated series based on Godzilla. In the show, Godzilla comes to the aid of the crew of a research ship called the Calico, and in typical Hanna-Barbera fashion, Godzilla is given a goofy nephew called Godzooky who hangs around with the Calico crew and gets himself and his friends into trouble that Godzilla then has to get them out of. Outside of film and TV, Godzilla also made several appearances in American comics, most notably his run in Marvel comics in the late 1970's, before then having separate runs in Dark Horse and IDW comics in the 1990's and 2010's respectively. But all throughout the 1990's, an American Godzilla film was on the cards. TriStar had been sold the rights to use the character and concepts were being drawn up for the first full-blooded American Godzilla. The film would go through several iterations, most famously one where Godzilla came from Atlantis, all under Toho's watchful eye, before director Roland Emmerich, who'd proven himself gifted in destroying American cities in his wildly successful 1996 film, Independence Day, joined the project. 

In the film, a giant lizard, mutated by Nuclear Testing in the Pacific, would come ashore in New York city and cause unparalleled destruction. When a teaser trailer was released showing Godzilla's foot coming through the roof of a Museum and crushing a Tyrannosaurus display, the hype was huge, and continued to be huge with a very expensive and very successful marketing campaign, one that promised epic spectacle while keeping its best card, Godzilla himself, close to the chest. It seemed that Godzilla was finally coming to America and that Roland Emmerich, the king of epic destruction, was going to do him justice. Then the film came out. The 1998 Godzilla was probably a lot of people's first real introduction to the monster, and what a poor first impression that would have been because to say the film did not live up to expectations would be an understatement. The 1998 film, when stripped of its relation to Godzilla, becomes a much more tolerable film; its a 90's action movie where a giant monster plays cat and mouse with the US Army in downtown Manhattan. It has many very entertaining scenes of the monster outsmarting and outmanoeuvring a clumsy and overly destructive Army, and some scenes, including the opening ship attack and the scene where Godzilla makes landfall are very impressive sequences. 

But where the film went so, so wrong was that the monster in it just wasn't Godzilla. The film may have stripped the character of much of his inherent, rubber suited cheese, but it also stripped the character of his inherent characteristics; gone was the indestructible, relentless, vengeful, fire breathing God and in his place was a big lizard that runs and hides from helicopters and just wants to be left alone with its babies. Fittingly, when the monster was featured in 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars, where the real Godzilla humiliated and destroyed it, it had been rebranded to just Zilla, because there was no God in it. The film never became as successful as TriStar or Toho had wanted, and has garnered a reputation as a black mark on the franchise, one that might be overstated, but isn't entirely undeserved. Of course, it never got a sequel, but an animated TV series that aired from 1998 to 2000 where Godzilla fights other giant monsters is more fondly remembered. The 1998 Godzilla may have been a complete misfire, but the damage it did to the brand has waned over time, to the point of being negligible. Throughout the 2000's, attempts were made to get a second American Godzilla film off the ground, this time with a better understanding of the character. Like the TriStar film, it went through several iterations, initially being an IMAX short film being produced by Godzilla vs Hedorah director Yoshimitsu Banno, before American film studio, Legendary Pictures acquired the rights and announced that they would be bringing Godzilla back to America with Warner Bros. co-financing and distributing. 

In 2013, Legendary Pictures would also release Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro. In Pacific Rim, Earth is being invaded by giant monsters called Kaiju and humanity builds giant mechs called Jaegers to fight them. A film with a deceptively simple premise, it was successful and popular upon release, being praised for its epic scale and imaginative and stunning monster battles, but what Pacific Rim definitively proved was that there was a strong demand for kaiju movies, and so the skids were greased for Legendary's reimagining of the King of the Monsters, which released the following year. Directed by the unknown at the time director, Gareth Edwards, Godzilla was released in 2014 and like Pacific Rim before it, was very successful upon release, raking in half a billion dollars worldwide. In the film, a radioactive insect monster, designated as a MUTO, a Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism, escapes its containment in the ruins of a failed Nuclear power plant in Japan, and while the US Army and a secretive scientific organisation called Monarch hunt it down, its presence awakens Godzilla, who joins the hunt and eventually fights a pair of MUTOs in San Francisco. I've talked about the 2014 Godzilla a lot in the past, but to summarise, I absolutely adore it. I've come to accept that it's not perfect in the decade since it came out, but I feel that the film is very misunderstood and underappreciated, and that might be the fault of Godzilla's own reputation. 

A year earlier, Pacific Rim wowed audiences with stunning, indulgent kaiju brawls, and with Godzilla being the King of the Monsters, there was a fair expectation that the film would also be full of indulgent kaiju brawls. Instead, Godzilla 2014 was a restrained, subdued thriller, one that teased the monster action far too much for some people's liking. When the film finally delivers in the finale, the action is not a Pacific Rim style wrestling match, it's a slow, heavy, brutal showdown with three impossibly large creatures. The core complaints about the film are the minimal use of Godzilla and the weak human drama. But when approached with an open mind, the film can be better appreciated as a masterfully directed and paced film with a solid creative vision and contemporary themes that, while distinctly western, are rooted firmly in a complete understanding of the titular Monster. While his Japanese counterpart is a cautionary tale of the cruelty and destructive power of the Atom, this new American Godzilla is a cautionary tale of humanity's arrogance and attempts to control and tame nature, he is an embodiment of nature's uncontrollability, a walking natural disaster, as opposed to a walking Nuclear one. The fact that he looks and sounds like classic Godzilla is just a bonus. Far from being a cheap American version, Legendary's Godzilla is a perfect companion to the original, and a more than worthy adaptation. Following the film's success at the box office, Legendary would carry on the series and expand it into a shared cinematic universe, something that had been popularised by Marvel Studios and their interconnected MCU. 

But while other attempts to ape the MCU formula fell flat, the Monsterverse would be sold on a promise that Godzilla and King Kong would be reunited. Legendary Pictures were also working on a reboot of King Kong with Universal Studios, but after the release of Godzilla, the film switched distributers to Warner Bros. It was then announced that the King Kong reboot, titled Kong: Skull Island, would become part of a shared universe with the 2014 Godzilla and that the two titans of cinema would finally do battle again. But while Kong would see similarly huge success to Godzilla in his solo outing, Godzilla would see diminished returns in his sequel, lovingly titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Released in 2019, it's notable for featuring three of Godzilla's oldest and most beloved foes; Ghidorah, Rodan and Mothra, unfortunately it's also notable for proving that these icons of the franchise are not box office draws in the west. On top of that, the film was criticised for its poor writing and nonsensical story. Though it was adored upon release by Godzilla fans, the film doesn't get looked back on as often or fondly as it deserves. Like its predecessor, it masterfully and respectfully adapts its Monsters, while infusing them with a layer of fantasy that the first film lacked. By the film's finale, Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and Ghidorah are elevated to not just giant monsters, but Gods and Demons in a vast pantheon of good and evil in which the human characters must find and accept their role. And what the film lacks in coherent story, it makes up for in monster sequences that are beyond breath taking. King of the Monsters, like the first film, has a complete understanding of Godzilla, and channels the ridiculousness of some of the series' history into an epic film, but one that ultimately failed to recapture the audience its predecessor had alienated. 

By this point though, Godzilla vs. Kong was already too far along for the studio to back out, and despite their Godzilla sequel being a financial dud, Godzilla vs. Kong still had clear potential, and was slated to release the following year. Then the Covid Lockdowns happened, and with the entire world on pause, cinemas were forced to close and dozens of releases were delayed and then delayed again as the Lockdowns were endlessly reimposed and extended. The film finally got released in 2021, and despite releasing in a significantly diminished market and simultaneously launching on Streaming, the film managed to out-gross King of the Monsters, though still failing to crack the half a billion the two monsters' solo outings had enjoyed, the film was successful enough for Legendary and Warner Bros. to go ahead with a sequel, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, which releases next year. Directed by Adam Wingard, who would return to direct Godzilla X Kong, the film pits cinema's two greatest monsters against one another in a bombastic, action packed adventure. The film also features Mechagodzilla, this time as a secret weapon developed by an evil cybernetics corporation. Godzilla vs. Kong managed to save the Monsterverse like the original King Kong vs. Godzilla managed to re-energise Godzilla in 1962, delivering a massive, non-stop action spectacle, but like its predecessors, it was criticised for its poor writing and weak story. 

Regardless of the film's faults though, it delivered on the promise made years prior when the Monsterverse was started that Godzilla and King Kong would meet again, and thanks to GVK, the pair look to have a bright future ahead of them in the west. The Monsterverse has also been expanded into television with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Skull Island, neither of which I've watched. During all of this time though, Toho was also releasing new Godzilla films, for the first time in the series' history, separate Godzilla series' were running on either side of the Pacific, and like The Return of Godzilla in 1984, Godzilla's return to Japan would also be a return to his anti-nuclear roots. On the 11th of March, 2011, a magnitude nine earthquake off the coast of Japan and forty foot high tsunami washed away entire towns and killed nearly twenty thousand people, then Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, called the tsunami "the toughest and most difficult crisis for Japan" since the Second World War. The crisis worsened however when three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, having been damaged by the earthquake and tsunami, exploded. After losing power to the reactors' cooling systems, three of the reactors would eventually melt down and explode, releasing radioactive fission products into the surrounding environment.  After the meltdowns, Japan's Nuclear crisis gave way to political scandal, panic was spreading about the release of radiation from the Plant, and the Japanese government were being blamed for the meltdowns and criticised for their response to them, Kan would resign from his office before the end of the year, and the clean up and decommissioning of the Plant still continues today, managed by Plant operator TEPCO, in partnership with the Japanese Government.

The event, understandably, had a massive societal and cultural impact on Japan, for the first time in nearly seventy years, Japan was dealing with a radioactive nightmare, the Fukushima meltdown caused wide scale panic and reignited the country's anti-nuclear movement. After the success of Legendary's Godzilla in 2014, Toho would announce that they were producing a Godzilla film of their own, to be released in 2016. Written and directed by Hideaki Anno, the mastermind behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, with Shinji Higuchi co-directing, the film would depict the political and military response to the emergence of a massive, radioactive creature in Japan, and would heavily satirise the Japanese Government and their response to Fukushima, while also depicting scenes of destruction reminiscent of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Shin Godzilla was a monstrous success in Japan upon release, and was hailed as one of, if not the best film in the franchise's history and swept the Japanese Academy; winning Best Director, Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Design and so on. The film's cultural impact on Japan was massive, Shin Godzilla was appearing in cartoons, TV adverts, being plastered on public transport, it was everywhere, for the first time since 1954, a Godzilla film had a complete stranglehold on the Japanese zeitgeist. However, the film was slow to release in the west, and despite it's massive success in Japan, the film's almost aggressively Japanese focused story and satire was off-putting to some. 

It's storytelling, if you can call it that, is overwhelming and underwhelming simultaneously; in place of characters, it has talking heads, in place of a story, it has a criticism of government bureaucracy, in place of a monster, it has the most literal interpretation of a walking nuclear disaster in the series, as in all Godzilla does is move forward and spread radiation. This is just my opinion, of course, but it's like the film was so hyper-focused on satire and commentary that it forgot to be a film, and for all the strengths it does have; its effects, its imagery, the contemporary relevance of said commentary, and its strong nationalistic messaging, the film is just too dense for western audiences, while failing to deliver on the thrills or the terror of the original. 

Personally, I don't hate Shin Godzilla, I don't love it either, rather, I am largely apathetic to it, and for the triumphant return of my favourite movie monster and a film considered by many to be a masterpiece, equal to or even superior to the original, not to mention a film that tries to tackle such dark material, that makes me a bit sad. Unfortunately, Toho's next three Godzilla films are films I personally do hate. After the success of Shin Godzilla, Toho announced that Godzilla would be branching out into the genre of animation, and that a trilogy of animated films, co-produced by Polygon Pictures was on the way, with Netflix distributing internationally. 

This was largely due to the licensing deal Toho had with Legendary pictures, which prevented the two companies from releasing competing products and barred Toho from releasing live action Godzilla films until after the release of Godzilla vs. Kong. In 2017 and 2018, Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, City on the Edge of Battle and The Planet Eater would all be released in theatres in Japan, followed by an international release on Netflix. However, the films would prove very divisive and controversial on release, and one of them, City on the Edge of Battle, would go on to become the lowest grossing theatrical release in the series' history. There is no simple way to summarise what's so bad about this trilogy, but I'll try. Set in a distant future where humanity was brought to near extinction by Godzilla, it follows a group of humans who have returned to Earth to try and recolonise the planet, only to find that Godzilla is still alive and has conquered the entire world. So far, so good, but an intriguing set up gives way to slow, boring, pseudo-philosophical nonsense as the humans, led by the thoroughly unlikeable Haruo, wage war on Godzilla Earth, who does little more than stand there and soap up their attacks. The trilogy spends literal hours dwelling on the philosophical nature of Humanity, Godzilla and their relation to each other, which is further complicated by the competing philosophies of the Exif and the Bilusaludo, two alien races that help the humans fight Godzilla. 

It's a very nihilistic trilogy where the humans reject technology, religion, and finally themselves in the pursuit of a brighter future that they eventually accept is not possible, and it ends with the main hero, Haruo killing himself. While some of the ideas of the trilogy have potential to be interesting if explored in a good story, the Anime Trilogy is not a good story, and despite being sold as an Anime, it completely lacks the creativity, charm or visual flare of the genre, and to top it all off, they are truly abysmal as kaiju movies. Godzilla is alone and inanimate for most of the trilogy, Mechagodzilla, Mothra and Ghidorah make appearances, but are so wildly altered as to be completely unrecognisable, Mechagodzilla in particular who, rather than being a robot doppelganger of Godzilla, is a living nanometal city. My personal opinion again, but the Godzilla Anime Trilogy are the only three films in the entire Godzilla series that I would honestly call unwatchable, and that includes the 1998 film. After squandering their first shot at a Godzilla Anime, Toho would then squander their second shot with Godzilla: Singular Point, which was also released internationally on Netflix. This time produced by renowned Anime Studio Bones, the series would at least be a visually striking and appealing Anime, though despite a strong start, likable characters and an absolute banger of an intro song, the series slowly devolved into a nonsensical exercise in pseudo-science, bogged down by endless prattle about Archetypes, Orthogonal Diagonalizers and a nebulous, undefined interdimensional Armageddon. 

But unlike the Anime Trilogy, Singular Point does try to deliver on the monster action, and while it reimagines and homages many classic monsters, it does so in a faithful and respectful way, sometimes. Like Shin Godzilla, I'm mostly apathetic to Singular Point, but what makes it doubly disappointing is that for the second time in Godzilla's history, Gamera did it better. Earlier this year, Gamera: Rebirth, an animated series that also released on Netflix, did what the Anime Trilogy and Singular Point could not; tell a good story and on top of that, it featured kaiju battles that are leagues above anything in the Godzilla Anime Trilogy or Singular Point, and to add irony to this; Hiroyuki Seshita, who co-directed the Godzilla Anime Trilogy with Kobun Shizuno, wrote and directed Gamera: Rebirth. Gamera: Rebirth managed to blend the fantasy of the Heisei Trilogy with the childish whimsy of the Showa series, and tell a compelling coming of age story with likable characters, while Godzilla's two anime tried and failed to intellectualise a series built on camp and wanton mayhem, while falling far short of their potential. But while Gamera made a modest comeback and Legendary's Godzilla continues to chug along, Toho were preparing their dramatic resurgence. With the conditions of their deal with Legendary out of the way, work began on another live action Godzilla film, this new film would not be a sequel to Shin Godzilla however, but would instead be a stand alone film. 

Takashi Yamazaki, who had previously directed the monster sequences for Godzilla: The Ride, signed on to direct, he would also write the film and serve as its visual effects director. But when the film's development was delayed by Covid, Yamazaki would go back to the drawing board and spend the time tweaking and tinkering with his script, the film was filmed under a shroud of secrecy before finally being revealed to the world as Godzilla: Minus One, a film that would take the King of the Monsters back in time and set him loose in one of the darkest periods of Japanese history. The film released in November in Japan, where it naturally soared to the top spot in the box office, but what makes Godzilla: Minus One unique is how it's fairing outside of Japan. This news was coming in as I was writing this, but Godzilla: Minus One recently opened in the United States, being the first Godzilla film to get a theatrical release in the United States since Godzilla 2000. Released by Toho International, the film clawed its way to the top spot in the US box office as well, being the first Japanese Godzilla film to do so, and is receiving extremely positive word of mouth. The film's run has now been extended and rumour is that it's in contention for an Oscar, and it's being hailed by western audiences and critics alike as a modern marvel of filmmaking, and a humiliation of the bloated, preachy, creatively bankrupt and massively expensive failures Hollywood has been pumping out in recent years. It had to compete with a Marvel film, a Disney film, a Historical Epic directed by Ridley Scott, and a prequel to one of the biggest franchises of the 2010's, and it beat them all.

Sacred Beast of the Apocalypse

Godzilla has had a very long and very wild career in film; and be him a terrifying embodiment of Nuclear power, or a manifestation of Death, or a whacky and lovable superhero, there has always been something to love about the King of the Monsters. There are countless different ways to interpret him and what he represents and all of them, no matter how bonkers, can be something special when approached with an open mind. Through the ups and downs of his career, Godzilla has remained as a ruthlessly determined, unstoppable force of nature who's as quick to punish humanity as he will be to save it. He's a monster that has done it all; from terrifying the world and giving a face and a name to the worst of human suffering, to saving the day and defeating the bad guys, and whichever end of that spectrum he lands on, hero or villain, God or Demon, he has struck the hearts and minds of countless people all over the world, and will continue to do so for generations to come. Long Live the King.