Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019 film)
2019
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- While "Godzilla" is less of a satisfying human drama than a metaphorically and sociologically charged sound-and-light show, it's got a good heart. It's tough, but never glib or cruel. Even when Godzilla is rising from the sea to flood and crush cities, the film never becomes a mere display of special effects prowess.
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Dec 1, 2023 · A conventional and sobering Godzilla movie set in 1946, following a group of ex-military men who try to stop the nuclear lizard from destroying Tokyo. The review praises the movie's tone, action, and score, but criticizes its lack of originality and imagination.
Dec 1, 2023 · Godzilla Minus One is a 2024 Japanese kaiju movie directed by Takashi Yamazaki. It follows the human stories and the special effects of a giant monster that threatens Japan after the war.
- (1.9K)
- Takashi Yamazaki
- PG-13
- Ryûnosuke Kamiki
Dec 1, 2023 · ‘Godzilla Minus One’ Review: A Kaiju Feature as Emotionally Involving as It Is Scary. The legendary monster returns in this Japanese film in which he rampages through Tokyo yet again. By...
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May 31, 2019 · 42% Tomatometer 353 Reviews 83% Audience Score 25,000+ Verified Ratings Members of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty ...
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- Michael Dougherty
- PG-13
- Kyle Chandler
- The King of the Monsters goes back to his post-WWII roots in a grand, sweeping blockbuster.
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By Katie Rife
Updated: Dec 1, 2023 4:04 pm
Posted: Nov 14, 2023 10:53 pm
Godzilla Minus One is now playing in North American theaters.
Godzilla Minus One is a movie that’s even bigger than its title character. Director Takashi Yamazaki specializes in sweeping crowd-pleasers like this one, and Toho’s 33rd Godzilla picture (and the 37th in the series overall) is a blockbuster in every sense.
Although it was produced for a mere $15 million — less than 10% of the budget for Legendary’s last Monsterverse entry, Godzilla Vs. Kong — Godzilla Minus One looks expensive, making intelligent use of period sets and drone shots whooshing over wide stretches of ocean. Scenes of kaiju-fueled destruction similarly impress: A shot of a gigantic warship flying across the screen like a piece of kindling is worth seeing in IMAX all by itself.
Godzilla Minus One also has the stirring sentiment of an Independence Day movie, complete with rousing speeches. Here, however, the fervor is channeled away from any particular government (this is postwar Japan, after all – moral ambiguity abounds) and into rah-rah populism. The story revolves around an ex-kamikaze pilot, Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), whose encounter with Godzilla in the last days of World War II sets him on a path of vengeance and redemption.
We first meet Shikishima making an emergency landing on Odo Island in the summer of 1945. He claims his engine is malfunctioning, but mechanic Sōsaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) suspects the truth: That Shikishima is shirking his duty. Tachibana is sympathetic — why die for a lost cause? The war will be over soon anyway — but the two men have barely had time to commiserate when a T-Rex-like monster attacks the outpost, crushing makeshift buildings and swallowing soldiers whole.
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Fast-forward two years, and Shikishima is living amid the rubble of postwar Tokyo with Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a woman he met in the aftermath of a firebomb attack, and their adopted daughter Akiko, to whom neither are related by blood but for whom both would give their lives. The influence of another iconic summer blockbuster – Steven Spielberg’s Jaws – comes into play when Shikishima takes a job as a minesweeper aboard a rickety wooden boat with a familiar crew of eccentrics: Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a.k.a. Doc; Seiji Akitsu (Kuranosuke Sasaki), a.k.a. The Captain; and Shirō Mizushima (Yuki Yamada), a.k.a. The Kid.
This theme is also reflected in one of Yamazaki’s innovations for the character of Godzilla: Here, the creature’s atomic breath explodes like an H-bomb on impact, producing a mushroom cloud and an enormous blast radius. Godzilla’s regenerative powers are emphasized as well, using visual effects – supervised by the director himself – that give the creature tactile texture as well as solid, animalistic weight.
Ironically, the one thing that’s smaller than usual in Godzilla Minus One is the king of the kaiju himself. Toho’s last live-action Godzilla movie, Shin Godzilla, introduced the biggest incarnation of Godzilla yet, standing 118.5 meters at full height. (He’s since been dwarfed by his anime counterpart, but that’s another story.) The monster we see here tops out at 50 meters – the height of the 1954 original, the closest analog to this Godzilla in timeline, if not in looks. (The actual design combines elements from the Heisei era of the ‘80s and ‘90s and Legendary’s more recent version of the creature.)
Godzilla Minus One is a film designed to make audiences stand up and cheer.
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A rousing, spectacle-filled blockbuster, Godzilla: Minus One takes the king of the monsters back to his roots in post-WWII Japan. The story is character-driven, but the monster scenes are exciting and effective.
Review scoring
great
A grand, sweeping blockbuster, Godzilla Minus One is light on terror and heavy on spectacle
Katie Rife
A post-WWII Godzilla movie with a character-driven story and a rousing score. Read IGN's review of the 33rd Toho Godzilla picture, directed by Takashi Yamazaki and starring Ryunosuke Kamiki.
- Katie Rife
Nov 22, 2023 · Godzilla Minus One is a 2023 Japanese film that reboots the iconic kaiju franchise with a period piece set in a devastated post-war Japan. It features an emotionally engaging storyline, spectacular action sequences, and a powerful theme of survival and trauma.
Nov 30, 2023 · ‘Godzilla Minus One’ Review: Bigmouth Strikes Again. Japan’s famous monster franchise returns with an appetite for destruction but also a notably sober outlook. Share full article. A scene from...
