In Godzilla Almost Zero—sorry, Godzilla Minus Zero—big monsters cause mayhem and Japanese people overact and choose poor times to question their morality. What the movie lacks in subtlety it makes up for in noise, but the end result is much less satisfying than its predecessor.
I am a big fan of the low-budget, Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, even if it did get carried away with overly serious melodrama. In this direct sequel, returning writer/director Takashi Yamazaki doubles down on everything, for better or for worse.
Frankly, the acting isn’t great and the characters are obnoxious. They were frustrating in the last one but generally likable/tolerable, buoyed by a powerful character arc for kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryûnosuke Kamiki) and his ascent to not only overcoming the shame of being too cowardly to kill himself but saving all of Japan. Zero consists of a lot of strenuously long dialogue scenes in which characters argue and talk with each other with forced emotion, if not downright shouting. Had any of these characters died it’s doubtful I would bat an eye—unless it was young and adorable Akiko (young Sae Nagatani), who is saddled with two terrible parents we are supposed to empathize with. Most of the original cast is back but without the fresh thematic narrative that helped make Godzilla Minus One feel fresh and invigorating. Kōichi’s satisfying arc concluded in the last film; Yamazaki could have helped himself and the audience by introducing a new central set of characters rather than desperately trying to find something new for them to do.
If you found the “talking” scenes obnoxious like I did, it makes for a very long viewing experience, even if most of its predecessor’s elements are still in place and done much the same way. Some have said this movie is intentionally campy and over-the-top, but it doesn’t play like that. At all.. It has a self-serious tone that isn’t particularly fun to suffer through, except when Min Tanaka is going full Mad Scientist.
Godzilla Minus Zero looks great, with consistently sensational visual effects throughout. Coupled with a booming score that puts the lovemaking between Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer to shame, the movie lives and breathes on its action scenes—which are terrific.
There are just two problems with that:
- Much of the action is front loaded, with ridiculously long stretches of not-much-happening in between. That’s all fine and good, but at 135 minutes it’s a lot of setup for what is essentially an elevated kaiju flick and not nearly enough kaiju.
- Godzilla barely makes an appearance until 90 minutes in, and even then he doesn’t do as much as you’d expect. Hence the more apt name Godzilla Almost Zero.
There’s a lot to like with this new entry and I hesitate to be too harsh, but 30 minutes less and some better acting would have gone a long way. Yamazaki tries a little too hard to make this one feel as deep as its predecessor, and in the process he has made a Godzilla that looks and sounds the part–only with less bite.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.
