439: Godzilla Minus One

[00:00:00] 146, let's get to Godzilla Minus One which is now streaming on Netflix and it is directed by Takashi Yamazaki, stars Minami Hamabi, Ryosuke Kameki, and a few others not a lot of huge names and the synopsis is post-war Japan is at its

[00:00:24] lowest point when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster baptized in the horrific power of the atomic bomb. So this one I when it came out theatrically last year and I did win the Oscar for best visual effects I

[00:00:40] remember when it came out it was like this is the best Godzilla movie in years you have to see it and finally was released through Netflix and I know there is a black-and-white version which I'm very interested in seeing as well

[00:00:53] but was very excited to see this I like Godzilla in general and I was hopeful considering the new Godzilla from the American film Godzilla King Kong you know the new Empire film was like still remains I think my least favorite movie

[00:01:08] of the year I think it's terrible you can check out my review of that done about a month ago on the regular show and I am pretty much in agreement with the popular opinion I do think it's very solid it's not amazing at this

[00:01:23] point for me I thought it was just overall a very good entertaining Godzilla film definitely one of the best ones in a while the Gareth Edwards 2014 Godzilla is still by far my favorite and I would say I prefer maybe even King of the

[00:01:37] Monsters over this one as well but I would say it's better than all the other subsequent monster-verse films that have come after those two and really probably one of the best things I can say about it is it is just

[00:01:53] a very classic monster film it's not and actually what I thought was crazy is this movie had a 12 million dollar budget and you think about the effects that's pretty crazy and then also if you look at the new Empire film that had a

[00:02:08] budget of 150 million pretty insane what you can do with little money when you have the right storytellers the right studio you know the right script we're talking more than a hundred million dollar difference and the quality

[00:02:24] ironically is vastly different so that is a huge accomplishment in its own right and it does go back to the core idea of Godzilla really being a symbol an analogy for the threat of nuclear power you know the post-world war two

[00:02:39] era where the bombs were dropped now we are in an entirely new world and especially since Japan was the victim in that way so I like how they really bring back those original ideas and also to me

[00:02:56] what makes a good Godzilla movie or just a good monster movie in general in terms of it being impactful is setting it in some way or the other in a reality for example the 2014 Godzilla film that is set in a fairly normal

[00:03:13] place you know normal what we could expect if Godzilla existed and also what makes that movie work so much better than really all the other sense is it's shot really entirely from a human perspective so when you see Godzilla

[00:03:29] storming through the city or doing whatever he's doing with the other monsters it's all shot from how observers are seeing it it's like if I was a person on the ground those are the glimpses that's what I'd be seeing if

[00:03:43] Godzilla was right in front of me so I think that's to talk about that movie for a quick second that's one of the reasons why I really like that movie and in this one it pretty much does the same thing which you don't need to do that

[00:03:56] entirely or it's not like a go-or-no-go sort of creative choice that's just something I really appreciate and I like in minus one how they do follow this kamikaze pilot who as it was really to my knowledge being a World War two

[00:04:10] history not kamikaze pilots obviously were suicide pilots and then if you didn't complete your mission or other words die that was seen as sort of a disgrace you know why didn't you finish your mission why didn't you do all that

[00:04:28] you could to help save Japan protect Japan and then in this case he doesn't do that and so he has this aura of shame both within him and with other people and then the movie in some ways is him finding a better way to create value for

[00:04:48] himself and especially by the end so all that works I think the character work is strong and I think all the performances are good it's well written I mean it's subtitle but I thought the dialogue was well written

[00:05:02] and the look of Godzilla considering the budget pretty amazing I love the blue the dark gray I think just overall physicality of him is good I really do like the look of Godzilla in the 2014 film I don't know why exactly but I

[00:05:17] really do but in this it's not too showy but you do get your moments like the lighting up of the blue like fins on the back of him on his spine like that looks awesome when he's powering up the boat sequence is probably one of the

[00:05:34] more popular scenes in the film where he's following the boat and the guy in the the gunner start shooting at him like that is awesome and really so well directed it looks good the sequence where he's in the city and you see I

[00:05:51] think it's like a ship or a train or something being thrown across the screen that's crazy so there are some good holy crap epic Godzilla moments that you get for sure but also still some good character work and good emotion there I

[00:06:04] do find that by the end was sort of ready for it to be over you know the third acts are always tricky with this kind of film and not to say it was bad

[00:06:13] in any way but maybe a touch too long maybe that'll go away on rewatch or maybe that'll be better on the black-and-white version perhaps I don't know but overall a very very good movie I

[00:06:25] feel like I don't have a lot of specific things to say it's really just a good refreshingly simple monster blockbuster and probably will have a bit of a shelf life I think it seems to be getting generally audience wise pretty good

[00:06:41] reviews from lots of different types of people so that's good and I hope that the American Godzilla films take something from this because we definitely need a bit of a reimagining a new vision for these recent few Godzilla Kong

[00:06:57] movies but that's just me do check it out and at some point if I do get around seeing the black-and-white version the minus color version I will try and review that as well on the show so that one is a four out of five