My review of Godzilla Minus one

My review of Godzilla Minus One  

Intro: Just to let you know, I'm not reviewing the upcoming Godzilla vs Kong movie. The reason why is that crossovers are suppose to be a novel event, now Hollywood is milking it like everything else. Plus, I doubt the movie will be enjoyable. 

After I saw the movie: Show of Hands, who want to see what this director can do with Star Wars? 

Godzilla Minus One: This movie is centered on a pilot name Koichi Shikishima who is preparing for the tail end of WW2. The war becomes the least of his problems when Godzilla shows up and wreaks havoc. After seeing the collateral damage, he and the town's people have to figure out how to kill the creature. That becomes difficult because the town doesn't trust him because he failed to do his part in the war. So he has to win them over and find the courage to face Godzilla. 

I'm jumping on the bandwagon; this is the best Godzilla movie! (This is coming from a guy who's not a Kaiju fan.) This movie works as a remake of the first film and an underdog story. I say that because the town's people have to deal with Godzilla on their own, and the Government is not helping them. The movie fixed a problem I have with this franchise, which is the human characters. In the past, human characters were used to either advocate for Godzilla or give exposition. Due to that you don't care or don't mind if Godzilla kills them for the most part, that's not the case here. 

The movie gets you invested in what's going on with them to the point where this movie is more of a human drama than a Godzilla movie. You don't mind that Godzilla is barely in the movie when he does show up, you don't want the characters to die or suffer at his hands. This is a good example of less is more. (It's sad that it took Japan this long to do that, but I digress. If I'm wrong about that, then I stand corrected.) Redemptions, unity, making the best of your circumstances, and fighting for your future are the themes of this movie. The VFX is impressive considering the movie's low budget. 

Koichi Shikishima is haunted by survivor's guilt to the point where he doesn't believe he deserves to live. It doesn't help that his neighbor gives him a hard time about it. I wish this character were used to address the senselessness of war.

I don't have much to say about the supporting characters, that's a shame because the movie pulls a bait and switch on them. 

Godzilla is menacing in this movie. 

One of the problems I have with this movie is that our first scene of Godzilla is underwhelming. I wouldn't have minded that if the scene was scary. There is one editing issue I noticed in the last act. We see the limits of the VFX in the movie. Also, I'm getting tired of movies reintroducing Godzilla. All in all, this is a good example of how to make a simple story engaging. I would recommend this because this movie deserves more attention. 

Rating = Worth Seeing