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Monday, December 18, 2023

‘Godzilla Minus One’ Is One of My Favorite Movies of 2023


 Me and Godzilla? We go way back.

Growing up in Westchester, NY, each summer I would eagerly look forward to WPIX 11’s annual “Godzillathon,” which promised a weeklong celebration of The King of the Monsters and his titanic assemblage of enemies and allies, including Mothra, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, King Ghidorah and a giant crustacean named Ebirah, to whom I can easily attribute my lifelong affinity for lobster. I would tape 4-hour stretches of the marathon on VHS and obsess over them … although if I’m being honest, I would mostly fast-forward to the monster fights and skip the human stuff.

Looking back, I wouldn’t say I’ve necessarily carried that immense love of Godzilla to my adult life. I have an immense appreciation for the classic and haunting 1954 original Gojira, I made the 1998 Roland Emerich film my personality for at least a month that summer – thanks in no small part to its incredible soundtrack and not much else – and I’ve had a complicated relationship with the current run of American Godzilla films. I’ve added some of the Bandai and Super 7 figures to my collection, sure, but if someone were to grill me on the ins and outs of The Heisei Era, I would be at a loss.

But something happened when I saw the trailer for the first time a few weeks ago. This looked FRESH. This looked INTENSE. This looked MUST SEE. So, I linked up with a fellow kaiju-curious buddy and ventured out on a cold December evening to absorb Godzilla Minus One and to see if it lived up to the monstrous hype. And … man. This Godzilla Minus One movie is SPECTACULAR. And it’s sad. And I also can’t stop thinking about it one week later.

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One is a new beginning for The King of the Monsters set in the wake of World War II as a survivor’s guilt-ridden kamikaze pilot named Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) struggles to rebuild his life in war-torn Japan. His internal conflict is magnified by external forces, as an unkillable creature known to locals as Godzilla emerges and begins destroying U.S. warships en route to Japan. Kōichi and his found family are pitted against this unspeakable horror as they fight to defend their homeland against further obliteration.

What immediately struck me about Godzilla Minus One is that it owes as much to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws as it does to the 70-year canon of Godzilla films. It’s hard not to compare Kōichi’s new friends on a minesweeping boat to the crew of the Orca, nor is it a stretch to think of Chief Brody when our heroes were trying to trick Godzilla into catching maritime mines in his mouth so they can shoot them and make them explode in his maw. There is also a satisfying emphasis on suspense, a touching human story, humor that doesn’t feel forced, and some heart-wrenching character moments that make Godzilla Minus One feel like classic Spielberg in the best way possible.

Let’s talk about The Big Guy. At a meager budget of just $15 million, Godzilla is stunningly rendered in CGI that looks better than most major U.S. studio films released this year. His immense scale is felt throughout, and each time he uses his heat ray is suitably terrifying, as it carries with it the force of an atomic bomb. If you can, see Godzilla Minus One on the biggest screen possible. Streaming on TV won’t do the raw ferocity of this new Godzilla justice.

Godzilla Minus One is the first Godzilla movie I have seen as an adult that has absolutely blown me away, and I hope Toho continues this story with more films and more monsters.

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