Time: 135 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Ryunosuke Kamiki as Kōichi Shikishima
Minami Hamabe as Noriko Shikishima
Min Tanaka as Kanji Murakami
Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji Noda
Masami Nagasawa as Makoto Aoyama
Yuki Yamada as Shirō Mizushima
Kuranosuke Sasaki as Seiji Akitsu
Jun Kunimura as Dr. Ogata
Sakura Ando as Sumiko Ōta
Miou Tanaka as Tatsuo Hotta
Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Godzilla Minus One was incredible, it wasn’t too surprising that it ended up getting a sequel. Overall, I’d say that Godzilla Minus Zero is about as good as the previous movie.  

While the movie does have some (more) larger than life elements, Godzilla Minus Zero feels comparatively heavier and darker than its predecessor, from the themes to the onscreen destruction. It’s also got more going on compared to the simplicity of Minus One, for better and for worse. Minus One primarily focussed on Koichi as the main character which kept things straightforward and built on his arc. Minus Zero also keeps the focus heavy on the human drama, following Koichi, Noriko and Akiko, and also dedicates some time to a couple of other character subplots (including returning character Kenji Noda and new character Kanji Murakami). All of it is intriguing and compelling, but Minus Zero seems to be juggling a bit too much and some threads and characters are left somewhat underdeveloped. Not that it’s terribly messy, it’s just a bit messy when compared to its more streamlined predecessor. Still, the emotional core is the main family trio and I think that succeeded at the very least. It carries over a lot of the ideas from the previous movie, while also being a thematically bleaker movie, including going deeper into areas like consequences of war. I’m now mentioning an element not highlighted in the trailer but it appears in the very first scene so it’s not that much of a spoiler: Ghidorah is in this movie and is absolutely threatening, a scene stealer and one of the highlights of the movie. In fact, despite the title, it does feel more like a Ghidorah movie than a Godzilla movie. Godzilla appears but much later on in the story, and has a reduced if still important role. However, Ghidorah is the main threat that the humans are facing, and I think that focus worked. Godzilla Minus Zero is overall a more expansive movie than the previous movie but I was just as engaged throughout.

Takashi Yamazaki returns to direct the sequel, and his work is amazing again. It’s visually striking and the action and monster sequences are outstanding and intense. The large scale and destruction is truly felt, and the set pieces are even more brutal than in Minus One. The visual effects are once again incredible, and the sound is fittingly overwhelming. The representation of the monsters are also fantastic, Godzilla is great once again, but I particularly loved this take on Ghidorah. Finally, Naoki Sato’s score is top notch and fittingly tense, with Ghidorah’s main theme particularly being memorable.

Godzilla Minus Zero is entertaining, thrilling, and a great follow up to Minus One. The human drama is again solid, and it’s amazingly directed with spectacular visuals and action.