‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Stomps Over Familiar Ground

There comes a time when a writer-director who is coming off a major success must decide what kind of sequel to make. Will it be one that follows the pattern established in the earlier picture with a few tweaks or one that goes deeper, surprises, and even subverts the original? The new movie “Godzilla Minus Zero” certainly intensifies a couple of themes explored in 2023’s fantastic “Godzilla Minus One,” while also offering a few jaw-dropping sequences. Even so, the follow-up essentially hews closely to its predecessor by mirroring its unique combination of intimate drama and monster movie setpieces. That it does so competently but without the spark of the original is to be expected, yet the lack of outright revelations and its overall glumness still disappoints, given the high expectations raised by filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki’s previous Godzilla blockbuster.The director’s first installment in the venerable Japanese IP was greeted with Godzilla-like roars of acclaim not just from franchise fans and filmgoers but respected auteurs such as Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan. Intriguingly, it was a conversation with the latter director that led to segments in the sequel. During a 2024 conversation in which Mr. Nolan praised “Minus One,” Mr. Yamazaki spoke about creating a cinematic response to “Oppenheimer,” the former’s Academy Award Best Picture winner about the American physicist who helped develop the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (“Minus One” also won an Oscar, for Best Visual Effects.) That dialogue inspired Mr. Yamazaki to directly incorporate elements of the bombing in “Minus Zero,” taking what was metaphorical before — Godzilla as the symbol of Japan’s destruction and trauma— and making it more obvious.One of the problems with the new film is that the director had already embedded post-war trauma and psychology so profoundly in the previous incarnation that to blatantly evoke the atom bomb this time feels literalizing, redundant, and unsubtle. Some might protest that there’s nothing “subtle” about war, mass slaughter, and destruction, and therefore an artistic response should be just as plain and forceful. To that end, a scene depicting the aftermath of Hiroshima undeniably contains great pathos and unforgettable imagery. Still, Mr. Yamazaki’s most inventive narrative thread sees the U.S. bombing of Japan leveraged not just as another opportunity to explore anguish and shock, but vengeance as well.While references to the historic bombing are somewhat novel, the story introduces another new element in the shape of a non-human adversary for Godzilla. Unfortunately, that opponent is King Ghidorah, the three-headed (initially one-headed) dragon seen in multiple other Godzilla movies. Ghidorah is a formidable foe, but one wishes Mr. Yamazaki had imagined an entirely new creature. A mention of the hydra of Greek folklore situates Ghidorah in a wider mythological context, and yet, like most of the dialogue addressing the central plot to destroy the flying kaiju (monster in Japanese), it comes across as expository and stilted.Returning characters from “Minus One” include Kōichi Shikishima (the compelling Ryunosuke Kamiki), the failed kamikaze pilot-turned-hero; Noriko (Minami Hamabe), Kōichi’s former lodger-now-wife; and Akiko (Sae Nagatani), the former orphan-now-adopted daughter of Kōichi and Noriko. As before, the director skillfully grafts an intimate drama about a chosen family and an individual’s responsibility to his fellow citizens onto the larger beast of a period action adventure film. One particularly perceptive sequence in the second act finds Kōichi, his wife, and daughter running away from joining in the effort to stop Ghidorah only to discover that they cannot escape either humanity’s suffering or their own destiny. Still, for all the personal-vs-public tensions, the themes of sacrifice and duty were already effectively explored in the prior picture. Additionally, it seems Mr. Yamazaki heeded the audience’s reaction to Ms. Nagatani too keenly for in the latest film, he has the little actress crying and pulling on our heartstrings multiple times.One returning character who almost takes center stage is Kenji Noda, who now runs the government agency focused on large-scale disasters. Sadly, the slightly eccentric edge to actor Hidetaka Yoshioka’s portrayal of Kenji is now gone, replaced with solemnity. Upping the seriousness is Masami Nagasawa’s new meteorologist character, Makoto, as well as Min Tanaka’s portrayal of Kanji Murakami, a biologist whose family perished in Hiroshima. Without a doubt, Mr. Tanaka’s supporting character merits the grave tone, and the august actor and dancer gives a haunting performance of survivor’s guilt and agonizing memories. All the same, one misses the first film’s flippant side characters Seiji and Shirō, who are largely absent in “Minus Zero.”Of course, most moviegoers, myself included, go to a Godzilla flick for the one-two punch of special effects and fight scenes, and the latest does not disappoint on the whole, despite a banal final confrontation between the two kaiju. Several setpieces prove as cool as they are disturbing, such as the nightmarish scene in which Kōichi flies through a blue storm of suspended houses—complete with people still inside—pulled up from the ground by King Ghidorah’s powers. (Nods to classic movies abound, such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Titanic,” and “The Birds.”) For the most part, the depictions of destruction hit hard, with the sound design and score augmenting the impact, and the creature-centric CGI, especially Godzilla’s charred log-like, flaming flesh, astonishes.Skepticism of the U.S. lies openly in the narrative, with American military forces portrayed as duplicitous and callous in their support of Japan’s efforts to rid itself of the colossi. When combined with what Murakami went through and a dream sequence in which the character envisions an attack on New York City, this distrust becomes a pointed critique of American foreign policy. Tellingly, in the third act, one character implores another to “break the cycle,” of violence. After seeing the generally trite plotting, politics, and dynamics on display, though, one can’t help but hope that next time around the filmmakers can “break the cycle” of convention, creating a Godzilla film that not only gives audiences not only what they want but also what they don’t expect.

‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Stomps Over Familiar Ground

‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Stomps Over Familiar Ground

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