Godzilla Minus One Review Round-Up

IGN

"A rousing, spectacle-filled blockbuster, Godzilla: Minus One takes the king of the monsters back to his roots in post-WWII Japan. The story is character-driven, but the monster scenes are exciting and effective." – IGN

Japan Times​

"The best "Godzilla" films have always been about more than monster action. The first film was a polemic about the dangers of nuclear testing. 1971's "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" railed against the postwar industrial pollution that led to diseases in places like Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture. "Shin Godzilla" pilloried the Japanese government's lethargic response to the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters.

Visually, "Godzilla Minus One" evokes the original film more than any "Godzilla" film since the '50s. But by locating itself in the past, it avoids taking on contemporary issues, more content to be an entertaining ride than use Japan's most malleable monster as a metaphor for what ails us." – Japan Times

Variety

"As the dust settles on Godzilla's latest rampage we can marvel yet again at how a kaiju king who's flattened Tokyo umpteen times and threatened humankind's very existence is also able to enjoy the status of beloved cultural icon and official tourism ambassador for Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. Though usually causing destruction and collateral damage on a gargantuan scale, this most malleable of monsters has also played the hero a few times and saved the world from dreaded foes, such as the smog monster in "Godzilla vs Hedorah" (1972). Whether viewed as simply a mighty marauding movie monster or a metaphor for fears and traumas of the times in which it awakens, Godzilla's enduring appeal as hero or villain is a true wonder of the movies." – Variety

Collider

"Though not the only movie monster out there, there is perhaps no more iconic figure than Godzilla. Whether you've seen merely one of his many movies or all of them, the towering figure has long cast a shadow over the trajectory of cinema itself. A monster of epic scale with atomic breath that he unleashes on the world, he has had the longest reign of any being put to screen. His latest, Godzilla Minus One, sees director Takashi Yamazaki taking the King of the Monsters back to his roots and offering him the chance to smash his way to new heights. Though always a destructive force, this film is the one that sees him being unleashed in new ways. Nothing and no one is safe from his destructive force as he becomes his own all-consuming being in one of the most thrilling takes on the character in recent memory." – Collider

Slant Magazine

"For all the unbridled destruction, Godzilla Minus One remains perversely light and fun, a Roland Emmerich-like disaster flick helmed by an actual talent. Yamazaki's conception of Godzilla is especially inspired, most notably in full profile shots where the beast moves eerily between the man-in-suit herky-jerkiness of Honda Ishirô's 1954 classic Godzilla and a more modern motion-captured smoothness-a Brobdingnagian superstar cast from the molds of multiple eras. The human drama may pale in comparison to the titan roaring calamitously overhead, but the audience's collective lizard brain will still be more than satiated." – Slant Magazine

Inverse

"It is not hyperbole to say Godzilla Minus One is perhaps one of the finest movies of the kaiju genre ever put to screen since Ishiro Honda's Gojira kicked off the franchise in 1954. It's as bleak and zealous against the inhuman cost of war as Honda's movie but brims with verve over its affirmations of life as a gift to share with others. Drop any and all notions that kaiju films are empty-calorie disaster porn. In contrast to Toho's own camp sequels or the gaudy, Americanized MonsterVerse, Godzilla Minus One is beautiful in its mindfulness and honesty. It is a picture full of awful destruction yet cherishes the value of a single life by the totality of its complexities." – Inverse

Paste Magazine​

"With close to 40 films to Godzilla's name, stories about the gargantuan radioactive lizard have taken numerous forms: A steady procession of monster-of-the-week style battles, where Earth's guardian defends its turf against invading kaiju; reimaginings such as Shin Godzilla, which reframed these attacks through layers of governmental bureaucracy; or the up and down Hollywood spins on this material that tried to create a giant creature-themed cinematic universe. However, like many long-running series, it often gets lost in the shuffle that the original film is intriguingly singular, and thanks to its brilliant melding of camp and sharp social commentary, it sits among the best sci-fi flicks ever made." – Paste Magazine