Godzilla Minus Zero Review: An Underwhelming, Yet Entertaining Sequel

It’s common practice for a sequel to up the ante from its predecessor. They’re often try to be bigger and better. However, bigger isn’t always better.

Following the mammoth success of Godzilla Minus One was always going to be a major undertaking. The film went on to become the highest grossing Japanese Godzilla film and won an Academy Award. So, how do you outdo a mammoth movie centered on one of the biggest movie monsters in cinematic history?

You add a second monster, obviously.

Godzilla Minus Zero takes place in 1949, just two years after Godzilla’s initial attack. Postwar Japan attempts to rebuild from the aftermath of the war and the attack. However, their plans are halted by a new kaiju known as Ghidorah.

The arrival of Ghidorah kicks the film off with a high-octane jolt of energy. Writer-director Takashi Yamazaki wastes no time establishing this new threat. The thrilling opening creates an immediate sense of danger without revealing all its tricks.

We cut away before things get too out of control to reestablish the characters from Godzilla Minus One. While necessary, Yamazaki takes a while to ramp back up to the heights of the beginning of the film, signaling the uneven pacing to come.

Kōichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Noriko (Minami Hamabe) are now married and raising their adopted daughter Akiko (Sae Nagatani). Their neighbor, Sumiko (Sakura Ando) runs an orphanage. Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) is now director of the Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau.

All of them have moved forward in considerable ways. However, they’re still burdened by the trauma of the last few years. At one point, Akiko bursts into tears at the thought of something bad coming again after overhearing discussions of Ghidorah.

These characters are all traumatized deeply. Try as they might, there is no way to simply move on from their experiences so easily.

While Yamazaki certainly doesn’t shy away from the trauma of his characters, their exploration does get shortchanged due to the addition of some new faces with their own baggage to unpack. We meet Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa), a weather forecaster who uses their knowledge to track Ghidorah. Another prominent character is Kanji Murakami (Min Tanaka), a biologist still psychologically recovering from the war.

The ensemble is quite full but unfortunately there’s room for the depth that made Godzilla Minus One so special. They start to feel like archetypes rather than fleshed out people. Murakami, a character with a lot of interesting potential and commentary, suffers from one particular scene that completely flattens him.

The monsters themselves look great and continue the excellent work that won Godzilla Minus One the Oscar. The sequences are ambitious, intense, and wildly entertaining. Yamazaki seeks to outdo himself at every turn and, for the most part, he does.

However, in the overall grand scheme of the movie, they feel few and far between. Any life they inject into the film is undercut by lengthy stretches of time with our humans that drag on. The result is a very oddly paced experience that yanks you from one extreme to the other.

In its quest to up the ante, Godzilla Minus Zero loses the focus of its predecessor. It feels all over the place, trying to juggle myriad characters and themes amidst dazzling sequences. Its ambition almost works to its detriment.

The film crescendos to a commentary about escalation and the never-ending cycle of violence that permeates human history. While a bit heavy-handed, it feels timely and needed. Peace will never come if we constantly outdo one another with violence and retaliation.

Godzilla Minus Zero raises the stakes in just about every way, but slightly trembles underneath the weight of it all. That being said, it manages to squeeze out enough entertainment from its crowded confines.

Godzilla Minus Zero hits theaters November 6.

 

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