Godzilla: Minus One was one of the biggest box office shocks of the year — and for good reason too! Let’s talk about what made the latest kaiju craze such a critical success. (Spoilers ahead!)

Godzilla: Minus One

I’ll start by saying that before Godzilla: Minus One, the only Godzilla movies I had ever seen were Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong. Aside from those two “monsterverse” movies, I was completely unfamiliar with what Godzilla was about.

I went into the theater just about as Godzilla-uncultured as you can get, but I left the theater with a tear in my eye and an appreciation for humanity that I never thought a giant lizard movie could bestow upon me.

The metaphorical struggles and conflicts that Godzilla: Minus One tackles are seamlessly blended with the literal conflict that the characters face while dealing with the physical threat of Godzilla itself, creating a beautiful and tragic story that handles the horrors of humanity just as easily as it takes on the terror of Godzilla.

Cinematography

Where do I even start with how Godzilla: Minus One was shot? The way cinematographer, Kōzō Shibasaki, shot each scene made the small moments feel just as impactful as the grandiose setpieces that one would expect to see in a Godzilla film.

The close-up shots in many of the scenes involving Koichi and Noriko are executed brilliantly and really drive the focus to the characters of the story.

Atomic Breath vs Trinity Test

In any movie, the sound design is crucial to its impact on audiences, and Godzilla: Minus One is no different. I didn’t think a movie with greater sound design than Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer could be released in 2023, but if there’s one that rivals the historical giant, it’s the other giant.

The single scene that’s seemed to stick with audiences after seeing Oppenheimer is the Trinity Test scene, in which the culmination of the thousands of man-hours poured into the invention of the nuclear bomb is finally put to the test. When I saw this in the theater, I was on the edge of my seat and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop — until that moment.

Godzilla: Minus One features a similarly iconic, tension-filled moment as Godzilla wreaks havoc throughout the streets of a major city. The theater filled with sounds of buildings crashing, people screaming, Godzilla roaring, the sections of Godzilla’s back clicking into place as it prepares to unleash his ultimate power move. Then suddenly…silence. And just as quickly as it fell silent, Godzilla unleashes a blast of atomic breath, completely obliterating everything in its path.

Both moments hold the audience in a state of anxiety and terror and the complete contrast in audio is done so perfectly, it results in an audience left with their jaws on the floor, speechless. It’s rare that a moment hits as hard as these two, but when it does it’s really something special.

Verdict

Godzilla: Minus One is a phenomenal mix of storytelling and spectacle that nobody saw coming, which makes it that much better.

A brilliant tale of learning just what it means to be a hero, and that being a hero may look differently to some.