Review: 'Godzilla Minus One' is great

Five out of Five Stars

Abby Cowels
Staff Writer

“Godzilla Minus One” (2023), written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, is the 37th kaiju sci-fi/thriller in the Godzilla franchise, and the most successful Japanese film in U.S. history.

The movie is now showing at local movie theaters.

In 1945, a military base on Odo Island is attacked by a mutated and terrible prehistoric monster, which emerged from the ocean.

Kōichi Shikashima, a kamikaze pilot, is tasked with stopping Godzilla with a surprise attack. After failing, Shikashima returns to Tokyo, only to find his home turned to rubble.

Godzilla has a long history in Japanese cinema, representing a greater analogy of the devastation caused by the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

This representation has often been undercut by American versions of the monster, creating a spectacle and taking away from the horror for which Godzilla speaks.

Yamazaki has done great work in preserving the history of Japan’s most famous kaiju. This movie is a horror story above any other genre.

With a running time of two hours and five minutes, the film is generously paced, with equal character development to scary action scenes.

“Godzilla Minus One” has done to the franchise what “Prey” (2022) did to the Predator series; this film is redemption, and is an absolute blast to see in the theater. It is just really good!