Set two years after Godzilla was defeated, Japan still hasn’t escaped dealing with monsters as a new dragon-like creature devastates Matsumoto City, putting the Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau led by director Kenji Noda (played again by Hidetaka Yoshioka) on high alert. With the help of skilled meteorologist, Makoto Aoyama (played by Masami Nagasawa) and after obtaining footage from professor Kanji Murakami (played by Min Tanaka), the team plan to eliminate this new threat (which they call Ghidorah) and enlist the help of former kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (played again by Ryunosuke Kamiki), but he hesitates since he has to look after his daughter Akiko (played again by Sae Nagatani) and his still-recovering wife, Noriko (played again by Minami Hamabe) who has suffered permanent bodily mutations after miraculously surviving Godzilla’s attack. Their attacks only prove to mutate Ghidorah into a more dangerous form, and to make matters worse, Godzilla has also returned, forcing the team to take a massive gamble and try to pit them against each other in the hopes that they take themselves out. With American forces coming to assist (albeit with their own ulterior motives), and Noriko being roped in due to her mutated cells acting as a trigger for Godzilla, Japan will need to see if they can survive two deadly kaiju after only narrowly surviving one.
Off to a great start commercially and critically by earning $63 million worldwide (making it the highest opening for a live-action Japanese film of all time), GODZILLA MINUS ZERO has the same fantastic pros as its predecessor and offers enough new qualities to feel like an enjoyable, emotionally-gripping, cinema-worthy thrill ride, but its very nature as a not-necessary sequel holds it back from exceeding the first, with the narrative direction and character arcs not feeling as tightly woven or fulfilling as they were previously.
Plans to conceptualize a sequel to the Academy Award-winning Godzilla Minus One started in 2023 and were officially announced after the film’s monstrous success, but despite the door being open to take this series in a lot of different directions, it wasn’t a movie that screamed a follow-up. Considering Godzilla as a brand has lasted several decades and readaptations, Godzilla Minus One existed quite comfortably as a concise package that had a clear beginning-middle-and-end and ticked every box it needed to be a thorough, gripping, action-packed, memorably timeless film.
It’d be crazy not to keep going with this team and story direction, and GODZILLA MINUS ZERO does contain all the same positives with even some smart new additions, but you can never shake the fact that it’s a sequel that’s run on what they can add that’d be cool rather than because it needed to keep going. Takashi Yamazaki remains the film’s director and sole screenwriter, so this sequel holds onto its emotionally raw and surprisingly grounded atmosphere and tone, the very engaging characters and performances, and awe-inspiring set pieces and visuals, but whether things have been elevated is another story.
The movie does make an effort to push the story forward, present a new threat that requires a grander assault, and even expand the main roster with new characters that are equally as likeable and interesting, but it’s missing the emotional heaviness and spontaneous quality Godzilla Minus One was gifted with and therefore, has a noticeable ingredient missing.
The final act can feel a little hard to follow with different sub plots becoming entangled and not necessarily capping off in as satisfying a way as they could’ve been, but since the heart and soul of the picture remains intact, it does very little to diminish the talent of those who helped bring another kaiju juggernaut to life.
Godzilla Minus One deserves praise for providing human characters that people enjoyed being around and picking really good actors who can be as charming and compelling as they were emotionally devastating. It’s nice to see that GODZILLA MINUS ZERO not only held onto that element but manages to introduce enough new faces to expand the roster in a believable fashion and do so while making them very distinct.
The two highlights are Masami Nagasawa as Makoto Aoyama (nicely evening out the gender imbalance of the first film by including a woman in a more prominent role) and Min Tanaka as the mentally broken Kanji Murakami who survived disaster after disaster and plans to use Godzilla for his own personal revenge. Both could’ve used a tad more exploration, but their strong performances and relevance to the plot keep them as memorable favorites.
All the returning faces are equally as good, and while people like Kuranosuke Sakaki, Sakura Ando, and Yuki Yamada don’t have as much to do this time, no one does a bad job or feels poorly used. Hidetaka Yoshioka is pushed more to the forefront and does a decent job semi-commanding the film as its secondary lead, Minami Hamabe is also given more screentime and agency and has a lot of great scenes because of it, and Ryunosuke Kamiki is still just as intense as he was previously, helping to mitigate the fact that his character really lacks any sense of new progression or development (as he fully fulfilled his arc last movie) by sharing some really strong scenes with the other actors (particularly Hamabe and Sae Nagatani)
The visual effects are so important to the legacy of this series that the three supervisors responsible for the VFX in both films; Kiyoko Shibuya, Takayuki Ueki and Eishin Okubo, were credited on the poster for MINUS ZERO, which is a huge feat. With the company, Shirogumi, once again being in charge of the effects with Yamazaki overseeing, the film’s increased budget of $15 million (against the first film’s $10 million) allowed them to go even further with some of the set pieces, leading to a lot of loud and chaotic, yet still grizzly action sequences.
Watching the devastation these monsters inflict on Japan is still grand and horrifying, and the stellar VFX work make these otherwise goofy designs feel genuingly terrifying. Ghidorah with his three heads could look silly, but the weight behind his movements and chillingly brutal method of attacking and killing his targets makes him just as imposing as the titular kaiju, who isn’t the main focus this time around, but still gets his chance to destroy and cause chaos.
The cinematography by returning director of photography, Kōzō Shibasaki, doesn’t get as many iconic shots and occasionally some of the sequences involving Ghidorah in the beginning can feel a bit cramped, but this is fixed very quickly, as there are still several visually pleasing moments that showcase both creatures wonderfully, and the close-quarter terror scenes are still very frightening.
The musical score by Naoki Satō is still very theatrical yet chilling (the psycho-strings whenever Ghidorah appears is notably intimidating yet epic) and even the sound design by Natsuko Inoue and Hisafumi Takeuchi feels extra guttural and hefty this time, making the theatre boom and crash with every attack, destructive blow and roar, it’s still a very big feature that deserves to be seen on the big screen, and with it being the first Japanese film to be shot in Imax, clearly the filmmakers agree.
GODZILLA MINUS ZERO is a very good movie, and that ironically makes it lesser than Godzilla Minus One which is viewed as fantastic, but it’s pulling hairs when comparing them as both are very well done, containing rich performances and likeable characters, amazing visuals, and intense direction and storytelling, fully deserving all the praise and success it has brought the brand and to Japan’s handling of it specifically. Largely feeling lesser due to focusing more on exploring fun new concepts and directions rather than existing as a complete singular feature that nails down its themes and executes them in a smooth fashion, but in an era where pointless sequels barely explain their purpose, GODZILLA MINUS ZERO managing to only barely miss the quality of its former is a sign of true talent and even if they decide to not make another movie (which probably won’t happen given the early success of this sequel), they’ve left behind one kaiju of a legacy.
