Godzilla Minus One
This was better than I could have hoped. Usually I feel that even my favourite Godzilla movies have at least one thing that could have been better, like how Akira Takarada's character in the 1954 original is less interesting than everyone around him, or the way the pacing in Shin Godzilla grinds to a halt after the mid-point. I can't think of a single thing that would have made Minus One a significantly better movie. It's a masterpiece.
In many ways Minus One is the antithesis of Shin Godzilla. Shin operates on an intellectual level, dissecting Japanese bureaucracy and presenting its characters with an ever-changing enemy that keeps evolving beyond their ability to counter it. Minus One aims for the heart instead of the head, and is the most emotionally resonant movie since the raw and personal original. This is the only Godzilla movie that made me cry. Watching people try to rebuild their lives in the burnt-out ruins of Japan is powerful enough, with 'failed' kamikaze pilot Shikishima's guilt anchoring it in the injustice of the time as he struggles to come to terms with having survived when so many didn't. Godzilla's appearance is then like the final insult that tears them apart again. The human drama is so powerful that those scenes could easily have made a compelling period piece even without the addition of the kaiju element.
When Godzilla does appear, the eerie music and his sheer ferocity and destructiveness sell the horror of the rampage in a way few others have managed. I usually long for more scenes of city destruction in kaiju movies, but the main city attack scene is so intense I'm not sure I could have stood the tension if it had gone on longer. Most kaiju movies revel in the destruction of buildings while keeping people at a sanitised distance, but Minus One focuses unflinchingly on the terror of the people caught in the middle. Seeing this at the cinema makes it clear how much is lost when I'm often only able to watch kaiju movies on a TV.
The eventual plan to deal with Godzilla was inventive, [ISPOILER]taking advantage of the limited resources available to turn nature against him in classic kaiju movie fashion. That it was left to civilians to spearhead the counterattack when the hollowed out Japanese military couldn't muster the will or materiel to resist Godzilla made it all the more powerful.[/ISPOILER]
I can see why Toho have pushed to give this a wider international release than Japanese Godzilla movies have seen in decades. Minus One will undoubtedly go down as one of the classics of the genre.
Minor notes:
The depiction of Godzilla's heat ray stands among the most memorable in the franchise, improving on the ratcheting build-up of Legendary Godzilla and exceeding the raw destructive power of Shin.
The use of Ifukube's Godzilla theme wasn't surprising, but the specific versions picked were: Mothra vs Godzilla was an unusual pick for the city rampage, while King Kong vs Godzilla worked surprisingly well for the climax.
It's interesting to see that Japanese movies are now able to go toe-to-toe with Hollywood on the quality and spectacle of CG effects. Shin managed it in places, but the effects there were inconsistent. Minus One's effects are polished from start to finish.
