Godzilla: Minus Zero Review: Have a Safe Trip!

As a longtime Godzilla fan, there were many, many different films to choose from when considering my favorite.
Despite this, after watching Godzilla Minus One for the first time, I knew I had watched something special.
Not only did it make Godzilla terrifying for the first time since Shin Godzilla, but it also had fantastic characters and themes, which tied together to create an emotional ending that had me tearing up.
The movie even won the Best Visual Effects Oscar because of how great the CGI was, despite a lower budget compared to other films.
With so many positives about this movie, I was naturally excited about the sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero.
That being said, I was also nervous because, even though Minus One did lay the groundwork for a follow-up, I was worried that the sequel, if done wrong, might tarnish the legacy of the original.
Thankfully, it turned out I had no reason to worry.

*Minus Zero* is a worthy follow-up to the 2023 film with great monster scenes, CGI and plenty of compelling characters.

Set two years after Godzilla’s “death,” Japan is under attack from a new monster (whose name I will not say because I do not want to ruin the surprise).
Now living a peaceful life, Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) returns to face this new threat, along with his old friend Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), renowned biologist Kanji Marukami (Min Tanaka), and brilliant meteorologist Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa).
However, the situation becomes more complicated with the return of Godzilla, and the revelation that Shikishima’s wife Noriko (Minami Hamabe) may be the key to defeating this new monster.
Notice how Godzilla feels pretty secondary to this plot synopsis?
Well, that is because he plays second fiddle to the monster he fights in this movie.
Godzilla does not appear until at least halfway through the film, and I would honestly be surprised if he had more than ten minutes of screen time.
I can see this being an issue for many viewers, even if the character drama is compelling enough to carry the film.

If the characters had not been great, the film would have failed, due to Godzilla’s lessened presence.

Another issue is the pacing, which does feel a little slow at times.
And then there are the English-speaking characters who feel quite stiff in their performances.
It is nowhere near as bad as the Squid Game English-speaking actors, so at least there is that.
Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Minus Zero.
Everyone in the cast does a great job with my favorites surprisingly being Sae Nagatani as the Shikishima’s daughter Akiko, and Min Tanaka as Murakami.
Murakami may be a newcomer to the Minus storyline, but his tragic backstory, haunting plans, and final choice tie into the themes of this movie probably better than any other character.

“It’s divine providence,” Murakami says of Godzilla’s return.

As for the action surrounding these characters and monsters, it is once again stellar.
Minus One was very impressive for how much it achieved with such a small budget and Minus Zero continues this tradition, with great effects on a 13-million-dollar budget.
It would not surprise me if it got nominated for best effects at the Academy Awards again, and maybe Best International Film if the studio actually submits it for that category this time.
The film has certainly earned a mention, what with its continuation of the themes from Minus One, showing the horrors of war through these giant monsters.

Godzilla once again makes for a great allegory.

The score accompanying the monsters is fantastic as well, with the theme for the new monster doing a great job at inspiring feelings of dread.
It is a dread you feel whenever this creature is on screen, and it makes for a great fight at the end when it finally faces off against Godzilla.
As for the ending, it is once again moving, and it will get the phrase “Have a safe trip” stuck in your head for the saddest of reasons.

The ending certainly delivers an emotional blow.

All in all, Godzilla Minus Zero is a great follow-up to the 2023 film.
I still prefer Minus One, due to the camaraderie between its characters, all leading to the tear inducing conclusion.
But Minus Zero is still a good time with excellent character drama, a solid continuation of the themes, and horrifying monster action, even if Godzilla is missing for a large part of the movie at first.
I look forward to seeing a third installment.
What would they even call it?
Minus Negative-One?
Yeah, it’s a good thing I’m not in charge of titles.

Godzilla Minus One Review: One of the Greatest Godzilla Movies Ever Made.

I have been a Godzilla fan since I was a kid.
So once I heard all the positive buzz surrounding the latest film, Godzilla Minus One, I knew I had to see it.
I expected Minus One to be a good film, perhaps even a great one.
What I was not expecting was it to be one of the greatest Godzilla movies ever made.
It is so good that it may even surpass the 1954 original.

*Godzilla Minus One is truly excellent.*

Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the film is set in post World War Two Japan, and follows former kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki).
Having lost everything during the war and stricken with survivors guilt, Shikishima eventually meets a young woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe), who has adopted a young orphan named Akiko.
The three form a makeshift family and, as the years pass, it seems like the horrors of their pasts may fade, until a monster from Shikishima’s past rises from the depths to plunge Japan into horror once more.

Having read the synopsis I gave of the film’s plot, you are probably assuming that Minus One centers more around the human characters than Godzilla, and you would be right.
This is, in fact, usually the case for a Godzilla films
However, what separates Minus One from the rest of these movies is that the human characters are all fantastic.
In most Godzilla films, we really do not care about the people.
At best, there is sometimes one character we can latch onto but, most of the time, we are just waiting for Godzilla to show up and wreck stuff.
This is not the case for Minus One, as I found myself caring for each and every one of the characters, which made the action sequences more intense, since I was scared for each of their lives.

This scene was made all the better because of the fact that I cared about the characters.

The last time I had this much investment in a character from a Godzilla movie, it was probably Brian Kranston’s one from the 2014 Godzilla movie, but every other character in that film was pretty bland.
Again, this is far from the case with Minus One.
I cared about the characters so much that the ending to the film actually had me tearing up, something I have never done in a Godzilla movie before.
What adds to the weight these characters have are the excellent themes of PTSD and survivors guilt, along with the scars war leaves on a nation.
Shikishima is the perfect encapsulation of these themes, making him my favourite Godzilla protaganist, with the exception of the big G himself.

Shikishima embodies the movie’s themes more than any other character.

Speaking of him, Godzilla is a terrifying presence whenever he is on screen.
He is no misunderstood hero like in the recent Legendary films.
No, the Godzilla here is more in the vein of the original 1954 version and the Shin Godzilla version.
He is a horrifying force of nature who crushes everything and everyone in his destructive wake.
His atomic breath is also on par with Shin Godzilla’s in terms of the fear it creates, as it is akin to a nuclear blast.

The atomic breath scene is one of the best in the series.

What helps increase the fear Godzilla generates in this movie is just how fantastic the CGI is for him.
Minus One was apparently made with a budget of $15 million dollars and that is absolutely incredible, given that many blockbuster movies have ten times that budget and look considerably worse.
The way Godzilla is shot is also great, along with the score throughout the film, which adds to the intensity.

This shot of Godzilla creates both awe and terror.

Considering every aspect of the film, I cannot think of a single flaw with it.
Godzilla is terrifying, the human characters are the best they have ever been, the CGI is excellent for the budget, and the themes, score and cinematography are all top notch.
I cannot recommend this film enough, especially if you are a Godzilla fan like me.
Godzilla Minus One is not only one of the best films of the year, but potentially the greatest Godzilla movie ever made.

Howl’s Moving Castle Review: Strong Beginning, Confusing Ending.

Hayao Miyazaki obviously has a strong liking for steampunk films, as shown by Castle in The Sky, and fantasy stories, as can be seen with his films My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
Well, with his 2004 anime Howl’s Moving Castle, he merges these two genres to create an interesting tale about a young woman named Sophie (Chieko Baisho) who, while living in a steampunk world, is cursed to look like an old woman by the Witch of the Waste (Akihiro Miwa) after encountering the mysterious wizard, Howl (Takuya Kimura).
Searching for a cure, she is reunited with Howl, his apprentice Markl (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a demon named Calcifer (Tatsuya Gashuin), and a living scarecrow, and goes on numerous adventures with them in Howl’s titular moving castle.

sophie and howl — On her journey, Sophie encounters many weird and magical things, with Howl at the center.

The beginning of Howl’s Moving Castle is strong, with the characters and world being introduced well, and the inciting incident of Sophie being turned into an old woman set up as being essential to the plot.
Not only this but the combination of fantasy and steampunk in this world is fascinating because of how it shows the magical and the technological interacting.
The animation that shows off these various technologies and magic spells is incredibly well done, as I was in awe at the first shot of Howl’s Castle.
Along with this, the characters are also likeable, although I will say that the romance between Sophie and Howl does not exactly feel right.
The setup for it is there with their first meeting but their following interactions never really gave me the feeling that they were falling in love.
Despite not really getting a romantic vibe though, I still did like Sophie and Howl’s interactions, along with a lot of the other character interactions, especially Sophie’s conversations with the silent, living scarecrow.

However, I will say that the way the scarecrows story ended felt extremely abrupt.
And this is really my big problem with Howl’s Moving Castle, the third act.
Many of the plot points in this act left me thoroughly confused.
For example, as I said, the inciting incident of the film is Sophie being turned into an old woman.
But, she seems to change between old and young across the film and this is strangely never addressed by the other characters or the plot.
By the end, I assumed it had something to do with love, or night, or a combination of the two but I don’t really know.
Not only this but the direction the story goes gets really confusing as well with, of all things, time travel being introduced and it is never explained how that happens.

I don’t know how time travel became a plot point in this story but it was very abrupt.

Howl’s Moving Castle also has a villain problem, what with the main threat being setup as the Witch of the Waste, before this is undermined and a seemingly new villain takes the stage, only for this new villain to be absent for the rest of the film.
From the midpoint to the end, the film slowly devolves to the point that I was dissatisfied with the ending.
This is not to say I disliked Howl’s Moving Castle, on the contrary I still think it is a very well done film what with the way it begins, the brilliant way it mixes steampunk with fantasy, and the animation.
But, the plot slowly begins to unravel as the film goes on, until it gets genuinely confusing to the point that I thought the story could have been handled better.
I would still recommend Howl’s Moving Castle though because of its numerous good qualities.

Your Name Review: The Most Gorgeous Animated Film I Have Ever Seen.

When I reviewed A Silent Voice a few weeks ago, I said that it was probably my favourite anime.
Well, after seeing Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, I can now say it has some serious competition for that title.
Like A Silent Voice, I had heard a lot about Your Name before I finally watched it.
I knew it was a body swap anime with romance but that is all I knew about it.
And you know what?
I am so glad that I did not know anything else about it because Your Name absolutely blew me away with its brilliant story twists.

The shocking twists and turns in *Your Name* goes beyond its simple sounding, body swap story, and I love that.

This was surprising to me because, from what I heard of the plot, I thought I would find the anime a little too sappy and cliche for my tastes.
Thankfully, this was far from the case.
The anime follows two high schoolers, Mitsuha Miyamizu (Mone Kamishiraishi) who lives in the small town of Itomori, and Taki Tachibana (Ryunosuke Kamiki) who loves in Tokyo.
Both lead normal lives until the two begin to mysteriously switch bodies every so often.
As they struggle to deal with this strange situation, they gradually learn more about one another and start to develop feelings for each other.
And that is all I will say about the film because, as I said, I love the direction the story takes and I do not want to spoil it for you.
The twists are engaging and add so much tension to the story, which is supported by the buildup of Mitsuha and Taki’s relationship.
I do not often enjoy romance films but this one was so moving I just could not help but get invested.
There were quite a few times towards the anime’s ending that I ended up crying.

You will probably find yourself shedding tears a lot in *Your Name*‘s third act.

I also laughed a lot too, and I do not think there is a single joke that does not land.
One of the things I find interesting about Your Name is the Japanese elements that I missed on the first viewing, like the Red String of Fate.
When I researched this it made the themes of the film even more engaging.
Along with this, and the engaging story and romance, one of the big things that stuck out about Your Name to me was its absolutely gorgeous animation.
My jaw dropped multiple times in the first few minutes because I was astonished at how beautiful it all looked.
From viewing this film, and looking up his prior works, it is clear that Shinkai is an artist when it comes to animating his films.
With its beautiful animation, great story telling, and investing romance, Your Name is another anime film that should have been nominated for an Oscar, however, (aggravatingly but predictably) it was denied this.

Comet — The fact that *Your Name* did not get nominated for its animation alone is a crime in my mind.

One interesting thing to note, though, is that Shinkai did not want Your Name to win an Oscar and actually advised people to stop watching it.
This is because the film is “incomplete” according to him since they ran out of money.
But, I think Shinkai is being too hard on himself.
From what I hear about what was supposed to be in the finished product, I actually think Your Name works better without these scenes, for the most part.
The one thing about the film that I think could have been done better is the relationship between Mitsuha and her father, which does not get a resolution.
However, the rest of the movie is so engaging and moving that it overshadows this one issue by a wide margin.
Want to know how much I loved Your Name?
I loved it so much that, after finishing it, I immediately bought a ticket to see Shinkai’s next film Weathering With You, which I will be seeing on August 22.
Your Name is a fantastic anime film.
It has jaw dropping animation, a thrilling story, and a romance that will make you tear up by the end.