Set in 1949, the Shikishima family confronts a fresh catastrophe two years after surviving their previous ordeal with the legendary monster.
I was a big fan of ‘Godzilla Minus One’, the 2023 Japanese blockbuster that managed to combine spectacular monster action with an engaging human story, putting many of its Hollywood counterparts to shame in the process. It was a huge success, even winning an Oscar for its visual effects, so it’s little surprise that director Takashi Yamazaki has returned for a sequel. Set in 1949, two years after the events of the first film, ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ finds Japan continuing to rebuild in the aftermath of the Second World War and Godzilla’s devastating attack on Tokyo. Former kamikaze pilot Kōichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Noriko (Minami Hamabe) are attempting to get on with their lives, but the emergence of another enormous creature threatens to bring further destruction to a country that has already suffered so much.
The new arrival is King Ghidorah, a three-headed dragon that will be familiar to long-standing fans of the ‘Godzilla’ series, and its introduction allows Yamazaki to considerably expand the scale of the action. The special effects were already remarkably good in the first film, particularly given its relatively modest budget, but they’re even better here, with both creatures brought to life brilliantly and some spectacular sequences of destruction. There’s a real sense of weight and scale to the monsters, and when they eventually come into conflict with one another, the results are impressive. It’s a bigger film in just about every respect, with more elaborate action sequences and a much wider threat than the comparatively contained story of its predecessor.
One of the things I particularly liked about ‘Godzilla Minus One’ was that the human characters were every bit as important as the spectacle, something that I think is essential for films like this to work. Thankfully that’s still the case here, with the returning characters given compelling stories of their own and some interesting new additions to the cast. The film continues to explore the scars left by the war, both on individuals and on Japanese society more broadly, while introducing further questions about how humanity responds to threats it can neither understand nor control. There’s plenty of human drama alongside the monster action, and I appreciated that Yamazaki hasn’t simply abandoned what made the first film so effective in favour of a succession of increasingly elaborate battles.
That said, while I enjoyed ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’, I didn’t find it quite as effective as its predecessor. The increased scale certainly makes for a more spectacular experience, but I think something is lost in the process, with the story feeling a little less focused and the emotional moments not always landing with quite the same impact. There’s still a lot to admire, particularly the extraordinary visual effects and the continued attention paid to the human characters, and it’s another reminder of how well the Japanese filmmakers understand this character. It’s a good sequel and certainly worth seeing on the biggest screen possible, even if for me it doesn’t quite reach the heights of ‘Godzilla Minus One’.
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Takashi Yamazaki
Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sakura Ando, Miou Tanaka, Min Tanaka, Masami Nagasawa and Jun Kunimura
