Godzilla Minus One

La lamentación repetitiva sobre el trauma y el remordimiento del protagonista se vuelve aburrida con el tiempo, pero el tono sombrío de la posición desmoronada de Japón en la guerra ayuda muy bien al monstruo gigantesco. Godzilla está aquí, con los siniestros tonos de la música oscura, un símbolo de los horrores de la guerra, incluida la devastadora amenaza nuclear. Las escenas del océano con él son excelentes, tienen gradaciones e ideas sobre cómo aprovechar al máximo sus capacidades fisiológicas. Él es amenazante, enfadado e indestructible. Las escenas con él en la ciudad son sólo complementarias, como si los cineastas no quisieran repetir lo que se ha visto cientos de veces (incluso en las películas de monstruos estadounidenses) y quisieran mantener el carácter específico de la trama del barco y el agua. Un presupuesto de 15 millones de dólares para tal CGI mayhem de calidad es increíble, y el éxito en los cines estadounidenses podría significar un cambio en la forma de pensar de los presupuestos de Hollywood sobre lo que una buena película de acción necesita y no necesita. En este sentido, Godzilla Minus One es un "fenómeno transformador" de este año comparable al de Barbenheimer. (13.12.2023)

Gojira as a serious war drama? Yes, a return to the classic roots of the first two episodes. It's a terrible shame that most people associate the brand with Hollywood's Monsterverse, or that goofy Emmerich flick with Jean Reno that had nothing to do with Godzilla. They have no idea about the Godzilla phenomenon in the country of its origin, Japan, where TOHO has made a total of 29 feature films starring the overgrown lizard across six decades. Sure, the SHOWA era in the 50s and 60s in particular was very cringe, with Godzilla facing aliens and a monkey and making friends with a little Japanese boy. But this latest installment, essentially an homage, is a return to the rawness of the first two films from 1954 and 1955. Gojira is no pet this time, but a fierce creature happy to bite people in half and throw trains through the air. I was surprised by the screenwriting focus on human characters. Basically the entire first half doesn't leave the setting of the slums on the outskirts of Tokyo, dealing with a sort of small family micro-story, with a momentary detour to the sea, where the mines left behind are being fished out at the cost of their lives, only to have Godzilla start destroying the city after an hour or so, with a familiar musical theme from the TOHO films that brought a smile to my face. There are four action sequences in the film with each one getting better and better. It's unbelievable that this film cost less than Jákl’s Jan Žižka, yet it has the parameters of a big budget film, and by alternating the closed micro environments of one room with lavish CGI scenes, it very cleverly masks its budgetary constraints. Also, fans of the franchise will find references to old standbys, with Gojira's luminous shell playing a major role in this regard. There's also a noticeable sense of the lingering post-war and Hiroshima trauma of the Japanese in the film, just as you'd sense in the old films. It's a great homage, and if it is a reboot, I love it to. (04.12.2023)

This year, it seems to me that perhaps all the films around which there is general hype seem to be slightly above average at best, and Japan's Godzilla -1.0 is another one of those. As long as it deals with the intimate fates of individuals in post-war Japan and the lizard is only seen in waves, it's fine. Once the lizard makes landfall, the Japanese get a chance to use their over-the-top acting, and the characters start hatching crazy plans, but it in the end it turns that the lizard is enough (... well, you'll see), so it goes down the tubes, at least for me. I can appreciate how it looks given its budget, but I can't enjoy it authentically. (23.12.2023)

World War II is over, but Japan is far from finished, for a gigantic monster is approaching its shores. Will it be stopped, or will it make the decimated country fall to the bottom? Godzilla -1.0 is a showcase of great-looking destruction, functional pathos and slightly over-the-top Japanese acting. All in all, though, it's an easily watchable film even for a European, the makers of which have enough enthusiasm, ideas and respect for the original films to make those two hours in the cinema a great time. (02.12.2023)

A return to the roots of a monster that grew out of traumatic guilt, a feeling of failure and the rise of the atomic age, which Japan felt on its body like no other nation. Yamazaki and co. have filmed an organic blend of post-war family drama and Jaws on steroids, making clever and aesthetically economical use of their limited budget. Even though those limits are perceptible, they are always in service of the whole, which is both intimate and epic at the same time. Godzilla Minus One is the kind of blockbuster that Gareth Edwards tried to make, i.e. unencumbered by compromises and pressure from the studio. It is depressing and uplifting, naïve and touching. Everything that I require from a blockbuster! (07.12.2023)

On the occasion of his almost seventieth birthday, Gojira got a film that goes down well with the majority of the audience. That isn't a bad thing, but if you're expecting a procedural social critique like Shin Godzilla or over the top giant kaiju like in later Japanese works, you'll come away disappointed. A more fitting title would have been "how my post-war life was repeatedly affected by a monster" (the inspiration in the concept from the Godzilla comics: “Half Century War” is evident), because this time around it's stingy on Godzilla, he sort of plays third fiddle. When he does arrive, it's worth it (traditional design, origin and abilities, scale and action), but for most of its running time it's a tear-jerking melodrama about a kamikaze who failed in his duty and suffers from post-traumatic syndrome. He struggles to piece together a life in the ruins of Tokyo and a decimated post-war Japanese society that is also undergoing a fundamental transformation. Only that occasionally they (he and Japan) are shaken by Gojira's claw. Ironically, it's closer to the Pohlywood-ized kaiju variant on Jaws mixed with Pearl Harbor than to the previous Japanese Godzilla films (but the serious ones and the B-movie ones). Another installment is on the cards, but I'd personally prefer a sequel to Shin Godzilla. Perhaps as a satire on the Japanese government's bureaucratic mishandling of covid and the Olympics. (25.11.2023)

Godzilla Minus One = Japanese Rambo II. Stallone’s all-American hero of his time nullified the historical wrongs of a lost war, admonished the illusory powerholders controlling a ruthless system and restored pride to veterans by enabling them to fight a winning battle for themselves, out of uniform. The Japanese just had to wait many more decades to do the same for themselves. In the hands of Yamazaki, the Japanese master of spectacular melodrama, the latest prequel/reboot/remake/whatever, simply another way to squeeze the last drop out of the brand, becomes such a crystal-clear resuscitation of classic formulas and kitschy emotions that even Top Gun: Maverick is green with envy. Whereas Tom Cruise successfully remained in the realm of functional pathos, Godzilla and its human fellow travellers spectacularly dive to the greatest depths of heavy-duty cringe. In the end, however, the supposed detached humour and derisive distance of the audience are purely illusory when you realise that you were royally entertained by this film, which by Hollywood standards is a low-budget showcase of embarrassingly exaggerated clichés and gaudy kitsch. ___ Nevertheless, the new film has a disturbing core that mirrors a basic principle of the rising conservatism in Japan and beyond, i.e. the need for an easy substitute lightning rod for negative emotions, as far removed as possible from the real pressing issues of the status quo. In Godzilla Minus One, we have a properly dehumanised and alien monster instead of the maximally humanised Godzilla/friend from the franchise’s cuddly era, which despite the would-be adult smartasses remains the franchise’s best, most entertaining and, mainly, most culturally mainstream phase. On the other hand, we can say that Godzilla shows itself to be a real timeless hero of Japan, because in the decades that it has spent at the top of Japanese pop culture, the lizard knows that hard times and wounded national pride sometimes don’t require the truth. Sometimes people deserve to be rewarded. And so, from time to time, the cute puppet has to put on some CGI armour and for a moment become the hero that the audience doesn’t deserve, but the one it needs. Because it can endure that. Because it’s not just a hero. It is a silent guardian and a watchful protector. Dark [insert Godzilla roar]. (11.01.2024)

Godzilla -1.0 is a film about the tragedy of inaction and fear and the motivation that drives individuals to action and the ultimate sacrifice. The opposite of the cheerful American fooling around, made for relaxing entertainment I saw a few days ago. The Japanese open old wounds here, using a metaphor derived from the two nuclear bombs that Oppenheimer served up to the US military for quick use. Broken people slowly getting back on their feet after a lost war, only to be trampled by another disaster. Stunning destruction, backed by a roaring musical score, vivid characters where you care who survives and who doesn't. Surprisingly, the main character, a coward, lives. (02.05.2024)

Gareth Edwards wanted to revive this dramatic concept back in 2014, but the mass success of his Godzilla seems to have been broken by Hollywood dictates. Godzilla -1.0 has it a lot easier in this regard, having been made for a few bucks and in a far more Godzilla-friendly environment than the US dream factory. And the result is something the filmmakers have nothing to be ashamed of. Of course it's not the bombastic heavyweight eye-candy spectacle that the West boasts, but it has a wonderfully gripping post-WWII post-apocalyptic atmosphere, a sinister lizard that manages to wring the absolute most out of it, and even if the limit of the production budget is occasionally apparent in some shots, it works brilliantly. However, I couldn't get into the characters at all and the wistful emotional charge completely missed the mark for me. One of the few films that IMHO would have benefited from a black and white version. (12.05.2024)

I felt like I was watching an "old" Japanese Godzilla movie made with new technology, so I think the purpose was served. A serious-minded story with interesting characters (which is probably the biggest difference from the current American MonsterVerse) that, like all of Japan, went from pre-war crisis to post-war crisis. All of that is naturally blended with wonderfully and deliberately dumbed-down ideas, such as the plan to destroy Godzilla, that I couldn't help but be excited. The digital Godzilla looks like a man in a rubber suit, and when he starts the demolition work and the Ifukube's theme music plays, it's really something. If I were 100% objective, I might give it one less star. But I don't want to. (08.12.2023)

After the original Godzilla from 1954, this is my second encounter with a purely Japanese production within the kaiju films, and it's incredible that the most famous movie monster has built on a tradition that spans seven decades. The current outing does not deny its predecessors, but at the same time it tries to technically elevate the film to the level of today's effects-hungry audience, and the final product is a solid example of how a decent spectacle can be made on a truly modest budget - the first contact with the monster was what got me the most, but the other action sequences had their charm as well. But Godzilla -1.0 is not only about the devastating natural destruction embodied by the gigantic monster, but also a solidly written social drama about the effects of war on individuals, about coping with (post-)war trauma, and about finding new hope and meaning in a society destroyed by war and now destroyed by Godzilla. The relationship between Koichi and Noriko, who together with the girl Akiko have formed a kind of "patchwork" family, created from the wreckage of the war, intrigued me – and even moved me at the end – and it's a bit of a pity that (not only) this social level was a bit brought down by the expressive Japanese acting and emotions. The actual plan to deal with Godzilla was crazy, but cute ... crazy, but cute – which I guess is the way of the genre. A strong four stars! (08.01.2024)