Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Rewatched 12/11/24 (theater)

I love how much this movie loves the movies that came before it. Part Jaws, part War of the Worlds, part Bridge on the River Kwai… It’s really fun watching a filmmaker combine some of your favorite movies while not just updating the special effects but adding a personal touch to them that feels thrillingly unprocessed, pure, without comparison in modern-day blockbuster filmmaking. The detail not only on Godzilla but the period setting, costumes, ships, machinery. It feels so different than any movie I have seen in the last few years.

Let’s start with Jaws because the opening third of this movie sets the tone in exactly the same way Bruce did for Spielberg’s masterpiece almost 50 years ago. Half a century later, it’s still fucking scary to have a good monster come out of the dark in the opening scene, tearing innocent people limb from limb. If I had a criticism, it’s that we saw too much of Godzilla too early. But I’d argue against myself that the sheer shock of seeing him revealed so quickly and the genius of how differently he is used in his next appearance make up for that qualm.

The real Jaws-ness is brought on by what I knew from the introduction of Koichi’s new job was going to be something special. I have never in my life seen this story mechanic of dual-boat mine sweeping. I am sure that’s my ignorance, but my disbelief at this incredible concept locked me in more than almost any other scene this year. The meeting of the crew (all of whom I love in this), the job description, target practice! All set the stage for one of the most aggressive, suspenseful, perfectly calculated chases in recent memory.

It’s one of those great movie moments when someone gives a speech about something only to flip 180 degrees on a dime when they see the same “oh shit” thing that the audience done. The Captain’s realization that doom is upon them as their sister ship is decimated in one swift chomp is one of my favorite moments, further bolstered by the yelling over starting the engine and the full-throttle blast of the little wooden ship as it roars away from the evil, disgustingly textured head and yellow eyes of a truly menacing, grotesque Godzilla. The way and pace at which he swims through the water is so perfectly realized to maximize the squeamishness. You feel like you’re on the boat with them, which is when you know the director is in full command of his craft.

The animated emotions and sudden hysteria of this scene are on par with any of the reactions in Jaws. I love seeing great, expressive actors deal with their fears like this. if they’re good enough, you feel like you’re there with them. And the director understanding how to maximize the fear-factor of Godzilla through the creature effects as well as the movement of the boat and the bombastic yet ineffective mines all really works together well to make this probably my favorite single scene of the year. Woohoo!

Then there’s the War of the Worlds sequence. The destruction of Ginza is no joke. You get that Godzilla theme for the first time after a lot of good character work setting up Noriko as someone you’re really rooting for. When Koichi finally shows up only to watch helplessly as she’s shot out of a cannon by the atomic blast is as brutal as it is motivating. You want to see Godzilla die. As close to being funny as the rain scream is, you are 100% behind Koichi in wanting this dino dead.

War of the Worlds features what is probably my favorite destruction-of-a-city/escape-a-city scene. It may actually feature a few of them. The initial emergence of the tripods is the perfect mix of ominous, curiosity-breeding sound design (the horns of the aliens being burned into your memory as people are burned into oblivion by the heat rays), detailed, gargantuan visuals (the buildings exploding and seeing every brick in each wall!), and a sense of speed/whiplash that put you in the action with Tom Cruise. Running through fire, rubble, human dust… The more detail like that you compound, the more real and exciting it is.

Cut to Godzilla Minus One. Concrete shooting up into miniature earthquakes is overshadowed only by the kicking in of that classic theme for the first time. There’s the War of the Worlds building explosions, the tiny pieces of rubble all fully visible. The trains serve as great toys for both Godzilla and the director, sustaining their awkward movement and destruction through our holding our breath while watching Noriko barely escape with her life. And just when we see Koichi save her, there’s that emotional floor dropping out that does not happen in War of the Worlds. Brutal and sad, this retro sandbox of destruction ends with a gut punch that other movies don’t often pull off.

Finally, Bridge on the River Kwai. I’ve listened to lots of John Milius interviews musing not just on the movie’s essentialism as a men-on-a-mission adventure, but as a character piece of wartime honor, to boot. This is also something that I know interested the likes of Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas, etc. and I think that’s because they’re all smart. There’s something truly compelling about these soldiers being put in situations that make the average person queasy. It’s hard to judge someone for not making a sacrifice in their war, but it’s sickly, upsettingly gripping and thought-provoking to watch them deal with these decisions of infidelity. Koichi dealing with his failure as a kamikaze and getting to see it all onscreen rather than having it happen before the movie (i.e. long-ago trauma storyline, ugh) is a masterstroke. Every emotional beat in this movie is set up and earned onscreen, showing instead of telling always. You don’t need to know anything that happened before the movie really. It’s so perfectly self-contained.

And when you get to the River Kwai adventure movie of it all, it’s quite apparent in that third act. The hole-laden (swiss cheese) plan that Doc concocts is so excitingly juvenile that you can’t help but feel your heart rate rise as the music begins and they attempt to execute these seemingly hopeless, sciencey-as-hell maneuvers.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t do a little more on the characters. It has been since 2005’s King Kong that I cared about characters in one of these movies, and those characters don’t hold a candle to those in Minus One. They really plucked from decades past, adjusting the characters to the period in really winning fashion. The complicated, reluctant, at-times anti-hero whom starts off the movie as one of those unlucky ‘70s no-gooders before making the ultimate hero play of many men-on-a-mission movies at the very end. The Kid and The Captain, being so likeable with so little screentime, definitively ripped from the war movies and westerns of the ‘50s and ‘60s, like Rio Bravo’s John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, not at all similar but always with good, clever exchanges, the perfect balance of emotion and comic relief. The Doc being the odd duck of the ‘80s, his whacky demeanor and convoluted battle inventions putting him solidly among the BTTF’s Doc Browns and The Goonies’ Datas of the world. A really fun character that is a really well-chosen avatar to deliver a large amount of exposition, just quirky enough to be likable but not annoying. And let’s not forget the way they all interact with Koichi’s family; those scenes do some heavy lifting to make you emotionally attached to these people.

GMO is a movie for me that’s so impressive not just because it takes from great predecessors, but truly has new and brilliant twists on every one of those influences. It weaves so many different check marks into its surprisingly tight runtime that I remained blown away even a second time, forgetting just how well-conceived and executed some of these aspects are. This is a movie I cannot wait to watch again and again as it just has everything you’re looking for in this type of movie while simultaneously reinventing those elements. A rich text of a blockbuster horror movie full of great writing as well as directing.

10/10