Just got back from watching Minus 0.
Dear god was it fucking amazing. Despite almost 99% of reality sucking the fattest off ass right, I do think I'm in the best timeline to be able to live to see great new American and Japanese Godzilla films in theaters, this being my first Toho experience (Missed Shin).
Holy shit.
I'm just going to have to sperg for a second because FUCK.
First off,
This is easily the best looking Godzilla film in the series. The cinematic value is insane. I love the franchise, but a lot of the films have a very similar look and direction style. The fact that this is a period piece and has all seemingly accurate dress-styles and costumes ontop of that muted but still colorful direction style does wonders. The shots especially towards the end out at sea are really damn arresting.
I really love this Godzilla. They incorporated the best of the Heisei and Millenium designs for a really great look. He's still a little too "spikey" for me at times but I really like this return to form. Also, I don't mind Godzilla being an asshole on occasion. It makes him a lot more terrifying and it works overall for the theme of the story.Also his beam is fucking amazing. I love the fact that they made it less of an atomic ray and more a projectile atomic bomb. That to me works so well with the WWII pathos they're going for. I still love the "cutting through butter with a hot knife" ray they've done with recent Godzilla, but this one has a very unique feel that works better for the movie. Also like that they give him some nerf by making the blast so strong it technically fucks him up a bit, kind of really driving the point home that "this guy IS LITERALLY the atom bomb".
We're in an era where Japanese cgi is finally around the same level as American stuff and it's great. It's fantastic to finally see a movie I can show normies to to get interested in Godzilla where they won't bitch about the "goofy effects" or man in a suit.
I loved the characters. So many Godzilla films try to have interesting characters but for the most part, a lot of the film is padding. This one Godzilla shows up probably less than even the 2014 Legendary, but I didn't mind so much because the characters are really captivating. Thank fucking God we only had one fucking conference meeting.
I love that despite Anno directing Shin, this film straight up feels way more like the type of film Anno would make.
This film is really just about survivor's guilt. And oh boy does our boy suffer. This is some anime, Shinji/Guts-level trauma and conflict going on in this dudes' life. Also his surrogate daughter was downright the most adorable kid I've seen in any film. By the time we make it to end, you're just happy the dude's made it to the other side.
Also, this film unironically has one of the best messages for the time we're in, and is very much a Japanese post-WWII idea:
No government is going to help us because they don't give a shit about us so it's up to us to save our own damn country.
The fact that this is very much a film about how communities help eachother survive catastrophe and unrest way more than their elected powers is kind of something way more people need to take heed to.
I know this is a fucking Godzilla movie I'm talking about, but I legitimately think it worked as a human story about overcoming trauma and building ties to your neighbor.
Only things I "slightly" didn't like:
I wish we just got a little more of Godzilla in action. His screentime is VERY minimal. But I also think if they gave this nigga 10 more minutes Japan would be fucking gone, so I think it works.
The GMK/"THE END??!!11!!" sequel bait ending just didn't work, because 1) I don't think this film is going to get any sequels and 2) I was actually happy with them just killing off this Godzilla for once and would have been fine with a completely happy "humanity wins" ending. It feels a bit cheap but it's a Godzilla movie, they'd have to keep him around. Still the overall conflict in the movie is resolved and I honestly hope they just end things here.
Overall, I am so happy with the way this turned out. Hearing that demonic roar and the musical suite on the big screen was downright beautiful. Surprisingly our theater had a lot of people show up and I think everyone really enjoyed it.
I think this is one of the best in the series.
EDIT: You can tell I loved this film so much that I forgot it's fucking title. I keep thinking it's Godzilla Minus 0, which makes no fucking sense.