Additional Posters Part 2:

A reboot of the original story and a fantastic one.
10/10

Godzilla Minus One is not merely a mesmerizing cinematic spectacle (seriously, if you didn't see this in the theater, you missed out), it's also a profound examination of survivor's guilt and Japan's collective trauma of loss and occupation after their defeat in World War II.

I put this on my list of Subset suggestions because I hadn't seen it and really wanted to - and it did not disappoint. It's an amazing combination of large spectacle and private personal fight. The use of sound and silence was so moving in itself, and yes, I do wish I'd watched it in the theater.

My last three films were 28 Days Later, 28 Years Later, and this one. Kind of an accident, but I'm struck with these horror films that foreground loss, and how much more powerful they are because of that. Yes, most horror involves the loss of something, but often it's a smaller background detail in a big violent picture. Godzilla Minus One managed to tie together large disasters and personal trauma in the most effective way I've seen in a while.

This is, by far, my favorite film of 2023. I found it hard to believe that I could get all verklempt over a Godzilla movie, but I did.

I love the first Legendary Godzilla and even its sequel. I was super disappointed when Kong took over the franchise though.
Since Minus One came out I totally stopped caring. As long as Toho keeps up with the quality of this, fuck the WB ones.
Really bummed I missed the B&W version in theaters though.

This is an extremely effective iteration of the Godzilla story. I think it is the best version of Godzilla yet. The adjustments to the heat ray was quite good. The attacks by Godzilla were deliberate and advanced the story, they were not just random attacks like were seen in the past. The death (?) of Godzilla at the end was impressive and unique. Everything about this story advanced the mythology and lore of Godzilla. A terrific suggestion by Shack!

I think we can all agree to never speak of the Warner Brother 'Monsterverse' Kong junk films around here (and from the hands of the ince promising Adam Wingard). I've always been more into Kong than Godzilla but it's dead to me now (at least Godzilla still has Toho; who will save Kong?). Kong Minus One or bust.

The aquatic scenes here give me chills with ocean ambience. The layered use of time passage is effective at balancing nostalgia and wartime trauma injecting moments of normal in a chaotic topsy turvy time through different timescapes. Godzilla is sparse for a while often showing up in near psychological feeling dreamstates or moments of distress (consistent with his traditional personification of the bomb and it's aftermath). In the beginning Godzilla just sort of shows up with a 'the villagers call it Godzilla' backstory and a message seems to be strike forcefully and early of you'll have to deal with this monster for carnage enough for two hours by movie scale. Even though the effects (and especially sound design) are good here I'm personally still not willing to give obvious computer generated imagery a pass as 'good enough' (but the regeneration stuff was cool and could only be done cgi). Minami Hamabe is effective at presenting barely a man rattled with anxiety and guilt but still being likeable. The sound design is top notch, you can feel Godzilla's stomps rattle your skull. The studied impactful aura of physical and emotional devastation surround Godzilla is beautiful here. I feel like there is justified on brand subtext of Japan being beaten by the atomic bomb and struggling to reclaim it's identity; this seems like an antiquated of it's time commentary but knowingly so giving a slight comedic edge of mimicking the sort of smart film themes that hit in the 1954 original now recycled in a spirit of fun. Still I feel like some of the people's cynicism about government feels more modern. The plot to defeat Godzilla is nicely awkward and the optimism surround it seems infectious - it balances hope well. The kamikazee subplot is a clever revision to some of the themes from history. Bring on Godzilla Minus Two!

God damn, this was good.

Stick n the mud checking in! Hey everybody! We’ve got ANOTHER movie where the giant lizard is attacking a city. Yawn! Sorry, but I’ve grown tired of all these reboots. Visually stunning, but this was a long 2 hours.

Aww, that's kind of reductive. It's not a movie about a giant lizard attacking stuff, it's a movie about survivor guilt. Obviously this franchise has a lot of cheesy nonsense but the original is a metaphor for the horrors of nuclear warfare. That type of metaphor helps audiences remove politics from the equation and hopefully have empathy for people that are killed while trying to live their lives, thanks to the machinations of sociopaths and/or narcissists that engulf us in war. There's probably 15-20 minutes of giant lizard action in Godzilla Minus One, but the rest of it is a very engaging drama about someone who is struggling with existential guilt due to the sociopolitical environment he didn't ask to be thrust into.

I watched it on Netlix with the English dub. There's something about this dub, because I really felt it just killed the sympathy toward that tortured guy. It just came off as whiny and grating. I still had not finished watching when I wrote the review,and I felt I was a bit hard overall.

Not trying to be reductive, but I got much more from Honda's original.

I can see why that would negatively impact your viewing experience. I always go for subtitles over dubs except for rare exceptions(Cowboy Bebop). I think it's always better to hear the actors' voices to match their performances.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend watching this film with the "Minus Color" version if you have not seen it. And as DaveyJoe said, other than Cowboy Bebop, it is almost always better to go with the original soundtrack. My son and I saw this in the theater when it was first released but only saw the color version. Gave this film a rewatch and watched the Black & White "Minus Color" version this time and I liked it even more. Actually, I loved it.

This movie works so much better in B&W. It still has a couple of minor problems, but they seemed easier to overlook this time around.

The effects look even better in B&W, and the whole production just feels more natural. I still think that Noriko should have remained dead without question. I didn't like that Shikishima lived when we watched it the first time around, but I didn't mind it as much on the second go around. I still think his story would have been better and that he would have gotten absolution with his sacrifice. But for both him and Noriko to live, it gives me the slightly icky ending vibes of Spielberg's magnificent "War Of The Worlds" that was marred by his forced happy ending where the lead sees zero sacrifices that affect him.

Anyway, still a fantastic movie and a great rewatch. I will probably only revisit this in B&W in the future.

It blows my mind that Toho did not release the Minus Color version in 4K. I will buy this one they do that.