W.B. at the Movies: Godzilla Minus Zero

The Godfather, Part II. The Empire Strikes Back. Aliens. That’s all I can think of right now.

As a rule, the sequel to an outstanding motion picture is not as good as the first film. Those three are among the handful of exceptions where the second chapter is as great or arguably greater. And that, I’m a little disappointed to say, was my first thought Thursday evening as the end credits began to roll after Godzilla Minus Zero.

Godzilla Minus One remains not only my favorite Godzilla movie but one of my favorite films of all time. I should have known that the thrill I felt at the end of that movie was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Let me try to set that disappointment aside.

Takashi Yamazaki’s new offering is an outstanding achievement in motion picture making. His last film earned the Academy Award for its special effects wizardry, and the special effects in this one are three times as powerful. I love movie music, and the musical score of this film is as brilliant as I’ve ever heard. I attended my first viewing in a Dolby Atmos theater surrounded by the sound system, which may be an undue influence, but I would nominate this film for the award in sound achievement as well.

I would also nominate Yamazaki for his direction and his screenplay, but he should have earned those recognitions last time, so I will not hold out hope.

It was delightful to see the characters from Minus One again, having a chance to enjoy their happily-ever-after in the days before a new menace rises. It was compelling to see them meet new challenges and new complications. My heart was appropriately rended at the heart-rending scene at the end of the movie, involving a little girl and her adoptive parents, and my heart soared at the final resolution. I loved those characters. I still love them.

The film also has echoes of the very first movie in the series way back in 1954, when the scientist who has developed a technology to conquer the monster wrestles with the horror that could result if the weapon is ever placed in less scrupulous hands. I adore when this franchise leans into its anti-war themes.

This is one of the greatest Godzilla movies ever made, and the folks at Toho Co. Ltd. once again proved that they make the best films in this 72-year-old franchise. The American movies of the last decade are pretty darn good, but the Japanese best understand the heart and soul of the Godzilla saga.

And in that last paragraph lies the answer to why I began this little essay with a sense of disappointment: This is one of the greatest Godzilla movies ever made. I consider Godzilla Minus One one of the greatest movies, of any stripe, ever made.

Without reservation, I recommend Godzilla Minus Zero to my friends who enjoy kaiju and other monster movies. Without reservation, I recommend Godzilla Minus One to my friends who enjoy movies, period. That’s the whole difference.

Great anticipations

I am just a little bit older than Godzilla. I was a year and a half old when Gojira was released Nov. 3, 1954. Late this afternoon, I plan to sit down in a comfortable chair and watch the first local showing of the latest film in the series, Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to Godzilla Minus One, the first in the 72-year franchise that moved me to tears.

Three years ago I was electrified by the story as I watched it up on the big screen. I walked out of the theater dazed, struck by lightning. It was the most important Godzilla movie since the first one as director Takashi Yamazaki dragged the franchise back to its serious and horrific roots.

The early spoiler-free reviews suggest that the new film may be even better, continuing the big themes that separated Minus One from almost everything that came before.

That 2023 film wasn’t only about a giant monster stomping on buildings, although it did win an Oscar for those special effects. The film was about recovering from war, overcoming shame and devastation, everyday humans rallying against a daunting adversary, building family, building friendships, and of course, “Those of us who survived the war are meant to live.”

Yamazaki leaned into the idea of Godzilla as a metaphor for the nuclear bomb and made a profoundly anti-war film, and that theme above all lifted his movie above the rest of the Godzilla canon, standing beside only the original 1954 entry.

Humanity will advance when it overcomes its monsters and beats its swords into plowshares once and for all. It could be that the monsters will plague us to the end of time with countless sequels, but we do have hope. The ghosts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have kept that monster at bay for 81 years, and may it always be simply a metaphor played out with CGI effects and not actual blood and gore, never unleashed into reality again.

We have a responsibility to live, to overcome the challenges and make a difference. Godzilla Minus One made a difference; I’m hoping that Yamazaki’s lightning has struck a second time.

Could Zero be greater than One?

The sequel to Godzilla Minus One was given a preview over the weekend, and the initial reviews are of the raving variety.

You may recall my rhapsodizing over Takashi Yamazaki’s brilliant 2023 anti-war film and human drama masquerading as a monster movie. I told everyone I knew, and his or her brother, that you would not regret taking a couple hours out of your life to see that movie. Between the theater, streaming and BluRay, I have personally experienced the film at least a dozen times.

Now the people who saw the preview of Godzilla Minus Zero are talking as crazy as I did after seeing the first film.

The Variety article I first saw quoted first reviewers as calling it things like “jaw-dropping spectacle,” “glorious continuation of the first film,” “A truly epic cinematic feat,” and “overwhelming achievement.”

I saw one comment that compared the two movies to The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II, which won the Academy Awards for Best Picture in 1972 and 1974. Could Yamazaki’s sequel be as good as, or arguably better than, his first masterpiece?

The review that sent my expectations into the stratosphere was from a reviewer named Jacob Fisher, who said, “Such a brilliant deep dive into the facets of trauma & never-ending cycles of war/hatred.”

Yes, Godzilla is a guilty pleasure for me, but the reason I obsessed over Godzilla Minus One was that it told a story with themes deeper than any Godzilla film had ever explored — the aftermath of a devastating war, survivor’s guilt, and redemption from shame. Fisher suggests that once again Yamazaki tells a human story more important than the amazing special effects that bring a giant monster to life.

Now the challenge is to avoid spoilers for six weeks so that I can walk into a theater on Nov. 6 not knowing precisely what is about to unfold on screen. Three years ago I had heard the film supposedly was really good but I didn’t know much else. Now I’ve heard that the sequel to one of my favorite movies might be even better. That’s all I really want to know in the meantime.