So, this week I finally watched Shin Godzilla, then went to the theater and saw Godzilla Minus One, and what a world of difference there is in those two films. I’m not going to blur spoilers, so this is your warning that I’ll be spoiling things about both films.
Shin Godzilla is… dull. I get what they were going for in the movie, the themes are the inadequacies of government bureaus to act fast enough and competently enough to help the people they are supposed to be caring for. That message got across really well. But that’s pretty much the film’s only positive. Godzilla himself is hideous, slow, and ineffective at basically anything except walking forward. This was the response after Japanese audiences said that the Legendary Godzilla of the Monsterverse was too fat and plodding? This one’s worse! I do like how they get around some of the usual stuff about how a creature that size would be impossible by specifying that Godzilla is not made of flesh and bone as we understand it, but entirely new elements being created in his nuclear reactor of a body. His atomic ray is appropriately devastating in the extreme, although I did notice that after he blasts a huge portion of the city, later in the film in that exact same spot, he ends up destroying buildings that were already destroyed when he blasted them. Overall, a movie with a message, but a Godzilla so ineffectual, I could never see him taking on Ghidorah.
Godzilla Minus One, on the other hand, is a whole different animal. Essentially a remake of the original film, this movie had probably the best human story found in any Godzilla movie, ever. It truly paints a picture of the horror of war, the consequences of guilt and shell shock on those who survive it, and the desperation of a nation to rebuild itself after a war is over. You really feel for the main characters in their struggles. One commenter I’ve seen even pointed out that it’s also a genuine positive movie for men. It shows a realistic depiction of men who must live up to their responsibilities in a male-dominant society like 1940s Japan. These aren’t fearless action heroes, nor are they good ol’ boys belittling the women around them while they waste time drinking instead of doing what they need to do. These guys are afraid to face Godzilla and admit it, and their reasons are understandable because they all know what was already lost in the war and they don’t want to go through that again, some even admit they can’t do it and leave. Others gather their courage by working together and supporting each other, cooperating instead of competing, for the sake of their families and their country, and do what they can on their own, without relying on the government or scientific superweapons to save them from Godzilla and the common people save themselves for a change. The main hero must overcome his crippling fear and guilt while wrestling with the notion of whether it’s more cowardly to live when you’re expected to die, or die for a cause you know is lost. By far the most interesting humans of the franchise.
Godzilla himself in the film is an absolute beast, in every meaning of the word. Pre-mutation he’s already attacking humans, seeing them as intruders on his territory, making this one of the few versions of Godzilla who is actively aware of and hostile toward humans. After his mutation from the H-bomb tests, he gets even more pissed at humans and starts attacking viciously any humans he comes across, and the depths of his rage are easily felt. His atomic ray has never been more devastating over such a wide area on impact, and that it even damages him in firing it is testament to its power. His regenerative abilities have also never been so explicitly shown, demonstrating how indestructible he is. Indeed, the only things I didn’t like about this Godzilla was how far he seems to be leaning back as he walks, like his spines are too heavy, and how his spines pop out of his back before firing his atomic ray.
The movie is definitely worth all the buzz, and may even be seen as the best Godzilla movie of all time, if it can surpass the original. If it can’t, it’s a decent runner up.
