{"id":76841,"date":"2023-12-08T14:30:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=76841"},"modified":"2023-12-08T15:04:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T21:04:26","slug":"monster-movie-mayhem-godzilla-minus-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=76841","title":{"rendered":"Monster Movie Mayhem: ‘Godzilla Minus One’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By CONNOR KEATING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d is the newest Godzilla film from the folks over at Toho. The film was originally released in Japan on November 3 for Godzilla\u2019s anniversary, and recently made it over the Pacific and got a fairly wide US release. This is kind of a big deal because normally, these types of films get a one-night showing at maybe one theater in the entire state. This was the case with the Shin films (\u201cShin Godzilla,\u201d \u201cShin Ultraman,\u201d and \u201cShin Kamen Rider\u201d). The last time a Japanese Godzilla movie got a wide release like this was over 20 years ago with \u201cGodzilla 2000\u201d,<\/a> and that didn\u2019t go so well. This time, though, \u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d is doing much better than expected.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have seen a lot of confusion around this movie, so as a hardcore Godzilla fan allow me to explain. One of the biggest things people are probably wondering is, \u201cIs this connected to the Monsterverse?\u201d The Monsterverse is the recent Hollywood Godzilla and Kong movies. The answer to that is, no. Right now, we are in an interesting time where we have two different Godzilla series running alongside each other. Toho has what is referred to as the Reiwa Series, which consists of \u201cShin Godzilla,\u201d the Godzilla anime trilogy, and now \u201cMinus One,\u201d there\u2019s also a pair of anime shows, \u201cGodzilla Singular Point\u201d and the pinnacle of the franchise: \u201cChibi Godzilla Raids Again.\u201d Meanwhile, Legendary has the Monsterverse, which has \u201cGodzilla\u201d from 2014, \u201cKong Skull Island,\u201d \u201cGodzilla King of the Monsters,\u201d \u201cGodzilla vs. Kong,\u201d and just recently got the Apple+ show \u201cMonarch: Legacy of Monsters.\u201d I\u2019ve also seen people asking if \u201cMinus One\u201d is replacing the Monsterverse; that\u2019s also a no. In fact, the next film for that series, \u201cGodzilla X Kong: The New Empire,\u201d just got its first trailer and it doesn\u2019t look good, but we will see. You may also wonder if \u201cMinus One\u201d is connected to any of the other Reiwa Godzilla films and that\u2019s another no. Pretty much, this film is its own thing. Nothing else connects to it, so if you\u2019ve never seen a Godzilla film, then this is a great place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let’s look at the film. The plot follows Koichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot during WWII who flees from his duty, pretending that his plane has issues. He lands on the nearby Odo Island, and after an attack on the island later that night, only he and a mechanic named Tachibana survive. Tachibana blames Shikishima for the deaths of the others. Shikishima returns home to a family that was wiped out by a bombing run, and neighbors who see him as a disgrace for not doing his duty. One day, he runs into a mysterious woman named Noriko Oishi, who has an orphaned baby named Akiko. Together, they end up forming an odd little family, and while they both want to get married, Shikishima is suffering from PTSD and survivor\u2019s guilt, and doesn\u2019t see himself as worthy. He eventually gets a job disarming sea mines on a crappy wooden boat where he makes some friends, but everything takes a turn when Godzilla appears. Now, the people of Japan have to come together in a daring plan to defeat Godzilla.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Shikishima and Noriko gaze up at Godzilla. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

One of the big talking points around this film is just how good the story and characters are. Monster movies have always been plagued by the stigma that they don\u2019t have good characters, and that that\u2019s fine because they don\u2019t matter anyways. However, the best of the best monster movies are the ones with great characters. They may not always be the most dynamic characters that have some big arc over the course of the film, but a fun cast of characters are always in the best monster movies. \u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d however, has those dynamic characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shikishima is a great protagonist. He has a pretty strong character arc that, honestly, I wasn\u2019t sure they\u2019d go all the way through, creating some great suspense. He has his edgy moments, but it works well for the film and it\u2019s understandable why. He feels guilty for the deaths of the Odo Island attack and for not doing his duty as a kamikaze pilot, however he manages to find a new family and friends and gradually gets out of this stoop, but he sees Godzilla as his final obstacle to overcome. The other characters are all great as well. Akitsu, Noda, and Mizushima, the boat boys, are a fun trio that play off of each other and Shikishima well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noriko and Akiko are fantastic as well, and it\u2019s because of these two that I legitimately had a river coming out of each eye by the end. Then there\u2019s the mechanic, Tachibana, who I at first didn\u2019t like all that much, but he gets some nice redemption at the end of the film. \u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d succeeds in having one of the strongest casts of any Godzilla movie, and who could have predicted that having characters you actually care about would improve the film drastically?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And its story is just as good. The film is a drama about Japan trying to recover after its defeat in WWII, just as much as it is a monster movie. You really get a sense of what it must be like to live in a city that has been destroyed by war. There\u2019s an overarching theme about coming together in times of difficulty throughout and this message is really hit home when the people of Japan come together to enact a crazy plan to stop Godzilla. They can\u2019t rely on the government and have to do something in the face of danger, and the plan they come up with is very interesting and unique. I also appreciate that it\u2019s foreshadowed throughout the film. The film also has strong themes of life and family. It\u2019s the sort of stuff that will have you tearing up by the end. These themes help \u201cMinus One\u201d stand out since, for once, it\u2019s not just \u201cnuclear weapons bad.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Godzilla pursues the crew’s rickety wooden boat through the sea. <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The characters and story are both phenomenal, but of course, you can\u2019t have Godzilla without the man himself. Godzilla in this is fantastic, and with time, he may easily become one of my favorite versions. This is one of the very few versions of Godzilla that is actually terrifying, and truthfully this is mostly due to the characters. This is not a Godzilla you cheer for. He\u2019s the villain, and you want to see the characters survive. There are lots of very suspenseful moments, and this is one of the few Godzillas that actively goes after people. This guy is mad. The time period also helps with this as these guys don\u2019t have modern weaponry. Heck, what they do have isn\u2019t even the best for the time, and this Godzilla is tough. There\u2019s one scene around the middle that made me go, \u201coh crap\u201d when the realization hits that this is a powerful Godzilla and that Japan is screwed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The destruction scenes in this are great as well, and I like that each of Godzilla\u2019s appearances has very different circumstances, allowing for a variety of action set pieces. Godzilla\u2019s attacks have a lot of power and weight behind them, buildings crumble in a terrifying yet also satisfying way, boats and trains get tossed around, and this film shows \u201cOppenheimer\u201d how you make a big explosion. The action scenes are accompanied by a beautiful score that has a mix of old remade tracks from \u201cGojira\u201d and \u201cKing Kong vs. Godzilla,\u201d along with some spectacular new music that works wonderfully with the film.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Godzilla stares down the ships trying to sink him, <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The effects are also very beautiful. I will always be a practical effects man at heart, but when a film looks this good, I have to appreciate it. There are some effects that don\u2019t look quite as good, particularly a few tanks and some of the tiny CGI people, but this is very minor stuff that\u2019s only in the film for a brief moment, but for only $15 million, this movie looks great. Especially when you start to compare it to a lot of the recent big-budget Hollywood films that cost around $200 million, and don\u2019t look nearly as good! This is a very pretty film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


So yeah, \u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d is fantastic. In fact, out of the 37 Godzilla movies, it is now my second favorite, just behind the original. It has great characters, a beautiful story, breathtaking music, and brutal action scenes. These days, it seems like there are two kinds of movies. Big dumb action movies that are fun, but don\u2019t have much substance, and then there are the artsy films that may be objectively better but can be terribly boring. \u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d manages to take the best of both kinds of films and seamlessly stitches them together to create what may be one of the best films of the decade. I give this film 10 \u201cKy\u016bsh\u016b J7W Shindens\u201d out of 10!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By CONNOR KEATING Tiger Media Network \u201cGodzilla Minus One\u201d is the newest Godzilla film from the folks over at Toho. The film was originally released… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":76845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3391,3505,55],"tags":[15389,15128,15388,12484,21,442],"class_list":["post-76841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-movie-reviews","category-local-movies","category-opinion","tag-connor-keating","tag-godzilla","tag-monster-movie-mayhem","tag-movie-reviews","tag-movies-2","tag-reviews-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/godzillaminusthumbnail.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76854,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76841\/revisions\/76854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}