GODZILLA MINUS ONE
GODZILLA
MINUS ONE
Major
Spoilers
Spoilers
Originally,
hearing this was set in the 1940s, I had no desire at all of seeing this. Then,
an invite to see it and being treated to it, I decided to see it.
First, the
acting was fantastic, the characters and depth wonderful but also it’s a very
downbeat movie, just like the very first GODZILLA movie (both versions). Yes,
there’s the atomic/nuclear warning in this but it’s also…Godzilla’s specter
haunts a kamikaze pilot named Koichi who refused to kill himself and then was afraid
to fire on Godzilla when Godzilla attacked mechanics on Odo Island during the
war. Not that his firing from a plane Godzilla was going to destroy would have
got him anything but killed.
Godzilla
here is again, a force of nature, though this is less stressed than in the very
first 1954/1956 movie. Thus, it is harder to feel that sorry for this murdering
monster. There’s little to recommend feeling sorry for him and there’s little
to connect him solely to the atomic bomb blasting, as it seems to me that he
appears BEFORE the blasts? The US tests seem to mutate Godzilla into an even
more unstoppable beast.
The first
half of the movie sets up Koichi’s encounters with Godzilla but also feels
somewhat Godzilla Lite as Godzilla does not appear a lot until Koichi’s relationship
with two surviving women and a found surviving little girl develop. Noriko
wants him to marry her. She found the little girl they name Akiko. Helping them
both is Sakura. They also get involved with three main fishermen who are now
minesweepers. These relationships among all of them really work, especially how
they interact with Koichi but even with each other. It does however take a lot
of screen time. Which is fine but slow.
The first
attack on the city is awe inspiring and it seems Noriko is killed which pissed
me off no end as it felt as if she and Koichi could have ducked into that safe
stone alley at any time. Lots of other people stop and look at Godzilla instead
of just running away really fast. Lots of people die on screen. Though, it’s
not really gory but large scale.
Later, she’s found alive, which made me happy but also sort of pissed me off. That part was not predictable but the entire climax, well made, too and exciting anyway, was predictable. Sure, the plan by unlikely smart guy (a number of odd coincidences in this film…and just WHY do the authorities expect four men in a wooden boat to distract Godzilla?), does slow Godzilla down and maybe even wound him but it was reasonable to guess that it would never kill Godzilla, who has the mutant ability to heal himself…slowly.
He also needs time to recover the ability to shoot his heat ray (remember when he just fired flames?).
In the past, planes
could hardly get near Godzilla but the entire THIRD plan to stop Godzilla is
predictable, too, even the cutaway from the mechanic that blames Koichi for the
death of all the men on Odo Island as he explains the plane to Koichi is
predictable. I predicted he was talking about an ejector seat.
When the plane crashed, though others saw it, I did not: Koichi ejects. I also missed a dog escaping a house with a family that big mean Godzilla destroys.
Oddly, to
me, though Godzilla looks massive and okay, he’s still to puffy chested and his
face looks like a canine. Yes, his eyes remind me of a dog and a Boxer to boot.
I almost can’t take him seriously at times, but do thanks to a strong script.
Frankly, I
like my Godzilla as hero better. I’ve seen the scary. I’ve seen him to the
villain. I’ve seen him do the force of nature and like all of that. I just feel
I like Godzilla slightly better (maybe 51 percent better a hero to a 49 percent
villain?) as a hero. This works though.
Yes, what
was not predictable was that the girl survived. Again, though others saw
it---something was moving under his skin---I did not. All I saw was a nasty
mark on his neck that looked either stitches or a radiation burn. What the heck
could that be? That pissed me off. Is she turning into Godzilla? Is she
connected to him thanks to Radiation? Is she going to die anyway?
Godzilla,
after all of that, seems to be healing himself anyway under the ocean.
Sigh.
I’m glad
they all survived. I guess that was not predictable. I thought for sure the
three ally men were going to be killed but they are not.
The effects
are flawless.
A major theme here which I was not sure where they were going to end up with…was Japanese guilt and the results of trying to make up for it. Many here were as ashamed of Koichi as he was of himself. He seems to want to make up for losing his honor for not kamikaziing himself and dying by…dying when he kills Godzilla or tries to kill Godzilla. Everyone seems to agree that he should be dead and is without honor but in the end, at least one or two do not want him to die and he wants to live.
It’s time to put this Japanese
guilt theme to rest. The emperor was wrong to want young men, boys really, to
kill themselves this way. Yes, war is wrong and frankly, the Japanese have as
much to answer for as anyone else in their horrible behavior during war. This
uncomfortable theme runs throughout the movie and is what drives it. I’m not
sure at this point I want that in a Godzilla movie.
There is no
humor or almost no humor in this dark, yes, even depressing movie which spends
a bit of time on a little girl crying for her mother. Yes, it’s a punch in the
stomach a lot of the time.
And yet, while I wanted to dismiss this as just a sad movie, it’s hard to. While it does not point to as much hope as the original Godzilla and the American reedit in the 1950s (the entire world ends war after the sacrifice of Dr. Serizawa), there is some hope there.
Frankly, some of that feels less than it should as it
is overshadowed by the creepy mark on the girl’s neck and the bubbling
remerging Godzilla under the water. Both of these were added, presumable to set
up sequels. If not for those two things, the movie might even be better than it
was.
As it
stands, it’s a good movie but the subject matter makes it difficult to fully
enjoy it. It does make you think and feel though so there’s that.
Is it worth seeing?
Yes, I believe so.
The movie has one of the most exciting climaxes of a movie that is lacking in movies of the last ten years and during it we hear music from the original Godzilla (1964, 1965) and KING KONG VS GODZILLA from 1962.
During other times, such as Godzilla
first setting foot in the city, we seem to hear music from what might be
GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER. I’d probably give this movie a 9/10 and if it
weren’t some of the things I mentioned above, but somehow some things feel trite and almost tagged on in a WTF way but I want to give it a 10/10 but again, it’s not a movie with many, to me, any laughs. And some really hokey lines about how everyone should work together and get over themselves. Maybe an 8/10 or a 7/10. It's not bad but not as great as most seem to think.
The other
thing is that the awfulness of what’s happening to all the characters that we
DO get to know and really like, even love, downplays all the excitement of a
Godzilla on display. You really hate Godzilla during most of this movie. And
sadly, he still feels like a co star or guest star in his own movie.
I guess
there’s also a metaphor in there somewhere of Godzilla haunting Koichi over the
years, having encountered him at least three times and messing up his life all
three. He’s like the guilt of the man haunting him until he faces it…and at
first, I thought the message was, he had to kill himself to redeem himself.
They sort of reverse this at the last minute and I’m not sure I bought it but
it sort of works.
Pretty
ambivalent and unsure about it.
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