My favorite type of Godzilla movies are where he is alone, the creature they fear, his origin. I enjoy Godzilla VS Kaiju monster battles but there’s just something special. Godzilla 1954, 1984 and 1998 are definitely some of my favorite films because of that. I had high expectations for Goddzilla 2014 but was disappointed with what eventually came out, luckily Shin Gojira made everything right and upped the standard of what I wanted Godzilla to be. Despite changing so much of the status quo, it became my definitive version of the King of the Monsters. So having a new origin of Godzilla alone in his first attack after such a high bar made me weary. The positive reviews didn’t help since I tend to not agree with a lot of what they say, especially when it comes to Godzilla.
I loved shin because godzilla felt like a real threat and how humans would react to it. To me Shin did everything right that 2014 wasn’t able to do. I mean I went in not expecting minus one to be Shin, but the obvious comparisons are going to arise counting the last japanese movie was also a realistic/scary take on Godzilla. I really wanted to love it without comparing it but I find it it’s going to be difficult, especially with all the praise the movie is getting that Shin didn’t outside of hardcore fans. I wondered if it was just a more casual friendly version of Shin.
I had to get all the Shin Godzilla out of my system before I could begin sorry. With that said I find Shin to be the better movie. It made Godzilla Scary and feel like a true force of nature. The soundtrack just hit harder and the political subplot was simply better. But overall Minus one is still one of the best Godzilla movies to date. It completely trashes 2014 which is why it might be getting a lot of praise from the Monsterverse crowd.
The beginning of the movie feels a lot like something out of Jurassic Park. I do like the human characters and story, I thought they were all handled really well though I will say that most Godzilla scenes that involved Noriko Ōishi feel too fantastic. Godzilla himself at times looks too CG and other times looks great, I love how his skin actually looks. But I like the design overall a lot. I think his regeneration power should’ve been shown a bit slower working.
The World War II setting is great and in a way reminded me of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. This did feel like a tribute to the original movie even if it did things a bit different. I love the way they actually get rid of Godzilla and the teaser they give at the end, that’s one thing it did bettter than Shin. Seeing so much of Japan felt nostalgic.
A great take that I have to say I’d be happy to see Godzilla Minus Two or perhaps other franchises taking this route. Kamen Rider Minus One, Ultraman Minus One? Yes please. This continues my trend of loving Godzilla movies about his origins more than his fights against other Kaiju.