Elliot Kessler

This year has seen its share of some fun, entertaining movies. The new Puss in Boots was amazing. The third and final installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies was a lot of fun. The Creator was a nice change of pace from the run-of-the-mill, franchise-building, cookie-cutter movies we get from all major studios these days.

But despite all that, there was one film that released recently that surpassed them all. One, low-budget, foreign movie that surpassed my already high expectations and managed to beat most movies releasing in the west, quickly becoming one of my personal favorites.

Enter Godzilla: Minus One.

Godzilla started out as a Japanese movie franchise, beginning with a thought-provoking film in 1954 about a giant, ancient monster attacking Japan. The film served as commentary on the bombing of Japan at the end of World War 2, showing how the development of new technologies by humans can unleash horrors beyond our imagination.

The success of this film spawned a lot of less-interesting sequels, in which Godzilla saves humanity time and time again by fighting a billion other monsters in cheesy action scenes. None of the sequels invoked the same feelings as the original, and they didn’t provide nearly as much thought-provoking material as the original.

Eventually, Hollywood managed to get their hands on the rights to the giant lizard, and they created their own movies that still couldn’t quite match the quality of the first.

Japan finally created another Godzilla film in 2016, many years after the last one, with fairly positive reception, but nothing super special. I have yet to see the movie, so I am unable to comment on the quality of the movie.

Finally, Japanese studios released another Godzilla movie this year titled Godzilla: Minus One. This film went back to the roots of the original, opening in 1945, when the second world war was coming to a close. The U. S. is quickly converging on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Japan’s only hope to slowing them down is their kamikaze pilots, who fly suicide missions with the intent of dying with honor.

We meet Koichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot who decides he doesn’t want to die. During his mission, he turns around and lands on a small island, telling the mechanics at the airbase that his plane malfunctioned. The mechanics are less than satisfied with his answer. But before anyone can do anything about it, a massive, prehistoric, dinosaur-like monster the locals call Godzilla appears on the beach and starts destroying the airbase. Shikishima gets in his plane to shoot down the creature as he walks past, but the pilot freezes up. Everyone on the island aside from Shikishima and one mechanic are killed by the massive beast before it returns to the water.

Shikishima goes back home to find that his town has been destroyed by the Americans and his parents are dead. He is blamed for the destruction because of his failure to go through with his mission. Eventually, Shikishima runs into a girl who is taking care of a child entrusted to her. Shikishima, the girl, and the child live together, making ends meet with what little they have. Shikishima gets a job cleaning up old mines from the war on a boat to provide for the girl and the child, but he is plagued with survivor’s guilt and a feeling of shame and dishonor for not doing his duty.

Now, this might all sound like a soap opera at that point, but don’t worry. There is plenty of Godzilla to go around. Eventually, the monster reappears, wrecking every ship it finds as it wanders the sea. It becomes clear the monster is making its way towards the mainland, and it’s much bigger and more powerful than before.

I never expected a movie about a giant, nuclear dinosaur to be one of the most compelling and emotional movies I’ve ever seen, but here we are. I came for some fun monster action, and I got so much more. The themes of duty and honoring life are strong and expressed masterfully. The characters feel real, and I enjoyed watching their journeys throughout the film. They grew, changed, and were forced to make difficult decisions, which is something I unfortunately don’t see very often anymore.

The monster itself, Godzilla, is more than just a huge, lumbering lizard swatting down buildings and roaring at fleeing civilians. This rendition of the beast is a terrifying force to be reckoned with. He’s not just a big dinosaur. He’s a monster who relentlessly tries to kill the humans. The opening of the movie feels something straight out of Jurassic Park. In the scene, Godzilla is a terrifying, unstoppable menace. When we later discovered that he had grown and become more powerful, I dreaded the next meeting the characters would have with the monster.

But the best thing about this version of the iconic monster is that he was made to represent all of Shikishima’s fears. Having Shikishima freeze up during the opening sequence, causing the deaths of the mechanics, was a genius move. It takes Shikishima’s guilt and shame of not accomplishing his duty as a kamikaze pilot and puts it on Godzilla, making the monster represent his internal struggle.

Most recent movies tend to be soulless cash-grabs filled with boring CGI battles and underdeveloped plots and ideas, including several of the Warner Bros. Godzilla films. Heck, almost all of the Japanese Godzilla films were meant to be cash-grabs, coasting off the success of the first film. But this movie is a break from all that noise. It’s interesting, it’s smart, it’s deep, and it’s moving. This is currently my favorite movie of the year, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something a little more thought-provoking.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.