Godzilla Minus One

[Butchers Blind]

A new Godzilla movie that might actually be good. The last few american made ones have left me cold especially the mess that was the last  one with Kong.

[Mobbd]

When I saw the title of this thread I genuinely thought it would be scenes from Godzilla films with the monster photoshopped out. Like Garfield Minus Garfield.

[madhair60]

godzilla vs kong was banging imo

[Mobbd]

By the way, remember that bit in Adam Curtis' Hypernormalisation where he shows clips from ID4 etc of American buildings blowing up? "These films were all released before 9/11" ran the caption. What was he getting at? Like, we wouldn't be comfortable with disaster porn post-9/11? There's been loads of it. Maybe it was more that we were bracing ourselves for precisely such a disaster? Or that we gave them slags the whole idea in the first place? What be Uncle Curtis on about?

[Butchers Blind]

godzilla vs kong was banging imo

There will always be apologists.

[madhair60]

careful mate, monkey that

[Papa Wheelie]

Good to see another Toho Godzilla movie. Hope it's up there with Shin Godzilla. The American ones are largely better than I expected but they are only spectacle.

[Shaky]

The title sounds like a hastily amended restaurant booking.

[Tarquin]

Nick Hayward considers...

Loved Shin Godzila. This looks even better.

[Pete23]

Coming to UK cinemas 15th December apparently (might only be a limited release though)

[Butchers Blind]

Coming to UK cinemas 15th December apparently (might only be a limited release though)

Kind of expected that. Doubt it will make it to my way.

[dissolute ocelot]

Clever name, but what are they going to call the inevitable sequel?

[idunnosomename]

Godzilla Regained

[Old Nehamkin]

Clever name, but what are they going to call the inevitable sequel?

Gorilla minus one minus (minus one)

[Blinder Data]

would love to watch this in the cinema. urban carnage and death, so christmassy ☃️

[Butchers Blind]

Coming to UK cinemas 15th December apparently (might only be a limited release though)

Playing at my local next week which I'm surprised by. Tickets bought.

[Mobbd]

[Mister Six]

Never seen a Godzilla movie before, so I don't know how this stacks up - whether it's business as usual, or more/less serious or funny, or whether the focus on a small group of people stopping the big lizardy lad is typical - but I really, really enjoyed it.

The FX were mostly great (a bit of dodgy green screen and some Command & Conquer-level tanks aside), the central characters well sketched, the performances grand and the script mostly bloat-free. Tonally, I thought they did a great job, selling the grimmer emotional aspects of PTSD and survivor's guilt without laying it on with a trowel (well, your man was a bit too whiny by the end, but hey ho), and injecting some comedy and lightness without undercutting any of the emotion. God forbid Japan ever learn about Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Taika Waititi.

As a result, I was more engaged in this film than I've been in an action blockbuster for I don't know how long. Turns out taking the time to get to know the protagonist and giving them a compelling motivation and flaws is pretty key to emotional investment. And I loved that we were given time to really process the horror of the violence:

Spoiler alert

the mechanic dragging the bodies of his men, the main lad crying in the black rain, that terrifying shot of the first heat ray explosion.

[close]

I have only a couple of little niggles -

Spoiler alert

the female characters' personalities evaporate after their introductions so they can become bland, subservient caregivers, and the ejector seat twist was so obvious that I thought the bomb-arming lever was a disguised switch for it, because the mechanic wanted to trick the lad into not killing himself

[close]

- and I found the city-smashing bit really horrible (but I suppose that's the point), but mostly this was a huge amount of fun.

Not earth-shattering - no pun intended - but well-crafted blockbusters are so few and far between these days in the West that I really appreciated this one.

[Norton Canes]

It's playing in the local arthouse in January, will probably give it a look

[C_Larence]

Everybody I follow on letterboxd that's seen it has given this no less than 4 stars so I'm beyond excited. No offence but watching this in an arthouse cinema and not on the biggest fuck off IMAX screen possible is STUPID

[Mister Six]

Yeah, it'd be fucking fantastic on IMAX. It's done well over here - it's the third biggest film behind The Boy and the Heron (#1) and Hunger Games prequel (#2) - so I'm really hoping for at least a limited IMAX re-release. Probably not worth the outlay though.

That said, I saw it in a multiplex, on a smaller screen and sat towards the back, and I still thought it was absolutely gripping and thrilling.

Who'd have thought that actually taking the time to establish an interesting protagonist would reap dividends as the film heats up?

[Papa Wheelie]

Anyone who likes this should check out Godzilla vs Megalon for a variation on similar themes.

[CptPorkDouglas]

Thought this was quite fun as a big action film and the Ginza attack was really well done but this was the most overtly nationalistic thing I've seen in a good while.

[Mister Six]

Eh? The film's about how shit the Japanese government is and how it refuses to protect its people from problems it and its newfound allies caused and exacerbated. The general message is "Your nation isn't going to do shit for you, so you and your neighbours should put your differences and disagreements aside and work together." There's nothing nationalistic about it from what I can tell.

[Pete23]

Apparently it's got a "Japanese govt's reaction to COVID" subtext. It was certainly massively damning of the war time government in the film.

I loved it, so great to see a well written, grim Godzilla film that doesn't end up as a CGI fest. Had a very Jaws feel at times with the characters on the boat. Budget of only $15m too.

Special shout out to the parents who sat behind us with 2 kids, roughly 6 and 8. When they weren't listening to their parents reading out the subtitles, the 6 year old was moaning about not liking it and the 8 year old was cheering and whooping every time Godzilla appeared. Cunts.

[Josef K]

Absolutely loved this, and the only Godzilla film since the original where I was actually invested in the human characters.

Not sure I understand that COVID subtext theory - wasn't the government's response meant to be fairly decent, other than the vaccine rollout?

[Pete23]

I saw a short clip on a youtube vid where the Director mentioned it, but he didn't go into any details.

[surreal]

Really enjoyed this - got a lot more invested in the story than I expected.  Makes a huge difference to actually care about your protagonists rather than it just being huge CGI monsters throwing cars at each other.  I'd not thought about it but I agree about the Jaws comparison above, it does have that kind of feeling to it.

[Butchers Blind]

Saw this last night and agree with the above. There was an interesting story with subtext and characters that weren't there just to move the action along. The big fella was used sparingly but this made his impact more devastating.

[Magnum Valentino]

There's a shot during his first attack at sea where his eyes are staring at them with total malice while his jaw is still underwater and it terrified me. Haven't seen CG that effective in an awful long time. Completely believed he was there.