Tomm Guycot
(he/him)
Minus One is impossibly good. The human story is compelling, Goji inspires equal parts awe and fear.
If you're on the fence get your ass to the theater.
If you're on the fence get your ass to the theater.
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Godzilla Threads Again!
- Thread starter Daikaiju
- Start date
It's an indictment of the Hollywood establishment that Toho can make a movie like this for 15M dollars, and Hollywood puts out... *waves with disgust*
I won't say that there's no bloat in US movie budgets, but there's no way you can make a movie on this scale with that budget without underpaying people.
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
I was interested in seeing this until i found out the premise. Not really keen on seeing barely post-Imperial era Japanese soldiers and war machines being portrayed as heroic when a lot of Japanese media still has unsettling nationalist undertones.
Tomm Guycot
(he/him)
Can't spoil the movie but that's 100% not what it's saying.
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
That’s reassuring.
Yeah, your assumptions/worries could not be farther off the mark, RRB. To the degree it'll be fun to read your reaction when you get around to seeing it.
I know some of y'all like this guy's reviews, he has pretty glowing things to say about the movie:
Though if possible, go into the movie as blind as you can.
Cost of living in Japan is like half of that in the US on average. Studios like Toho can and do recycle props/setpieces frequently. The $15M mark is almost certainly understated/misrepresentation of what the true cost of the movie is. The film is incredible in scale and scope, but when you really start to think about the actual physical setpieces, they really aren't all that complicated. Talent and workers are undoubtedly underpaid in the Japanese film industry, but that entire industry has spent the last several decades learning how to operate on shoestring budgets. Meanwhile, US films operate by ruthlessly underpaying everyone possible besides headline talent, CEOs, investors, and ad execs. Imo it's still a searing indictment.
I know some of y'all like this guy's reviews, he has pretty glowing things to say about the movie:
Tomm Guycot
(he/him)
In college, I'd regularly see films I loved two, three, four times in theaters.
This tapered off once I got married because my wife doesn't like rewatching (IN THEATERS) but the BIG ones, I'd still go off and rewatch on my own or with friends.
Once we had a special needs child, this dropped to seeing maybe 4-5 movies in theater a year. So we really had to pick and choose.
And then with Covid (our son is immunocompromised)... well, the two movies I saw in theater prior to Godzilla Minus One were Sonic the Hedgehog (part 1) and Super Mario Bros. What I did with SMB and now Godzilla is take a half day off of work so I can see a morning show on a weekday - near empty theaters, much safer. I'm doing the same thing with Heron Do You Live? next week.
Point is, I'm a grownup and have not felt the need to double-dip in a theater for years. At least a decade.
Godzilla Minus One HURTS. I want to find the biggest IMAX screen I can and just camp out between showings. Damn.
This tapered off once I got married because my wife doesn't like rewatching (IN THEATERS) but the BIG ones, I'd still go off and rewatch on my own or with friends.
Once we had a special needs child, this dropped to seeing maybe 4-5 movies in theater a year. So we really had to pick and choose.
And then with Covid (our son is immunocompromised)... well, the two movies I saw in theater prior to Godzilla Minus One were Sonic the Hedgehog (part 1) and Super Mario Bros. What I did with SMB and now Godzilla is take a half day off of work so I can see a morning show on a weekday - near empty theaters, much safer. I'm doing the same thing with Heron Do You Live? next week.
Point is, I'm a grownup and have not felt the need to double-dip in a theater for years. At least a decade.
Godzilla Minus One HURTS. I want to find the biggest IMAX screen I can and just camp out between showings. Damn.
I feel that. First thing I did after seeing Pacific Rim at the UK’s biggest IMAX screen was go buy another ticket to it haha.
In this case I’m just hoping that Minus One gets an extension in the UK as it has elsewhere, once it releases there on the 15th. As of now it’ll leave cinemas on the 21st, and I only get back on the 23rd, bah.
In this case I’m just hoping that Minus One gets an extension in the UK as it has elsewhere, once it releases there on the 15th. As of now it’ll leave cinemas on the 21st, and I only get back on the 23rd, bah.
Godzilla Minus One is great. Maybe my favorite Godzilla movie.
Now I’ve seen the movie and can also confirm; not a real danger there
‘Godzilla’s point of view is unknowable’: How VFX artists gave the King of Monsters new kaiju friends
"You get on a Zoom call with Matt Fraction and Chris Black, and you’re like, ‘What the heck are you talking about here?’"
www.polygon.com
Ooooh man, Godzilla Minus One is the first toho movie I’ve seen in theaters (and the second Godzilla movie I’ve seen besides Shin Godizilla) and it fucken ruled and my first thought was to immediately come here and finally say I understand all the hype at last.
Is there a good movie to choose next? I like the design of Biollante, so I’m leaning towards that, but there are So. Many. Movies.
Is there a good movie to choose next? I like the design of Biollante, so I’m leaning towards that, but there are So. Many. Movies.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
If you like really trippy stuff, Godzilla Vs. Hedorah is a blast, a weird trippy film with a really memorable monster that goes surprisingly hard, even though the film series was more kid-friendly at the time.
If you want something more akin to Shin and Minus One, there’s the original, of course.
And the 2014 American one is a good bridge between that and the Giant Monster Slugfest you’d associate with the series.
If you’re looking for just Giant Monster Slugfests, Godzilla 2000, Final Wars and GMK are among my favorite of the franchise, and I’m a huge fan of the rest of the Monsterverse movies as well
The Heisei series (from ‘85-96) is pretty consistently fun and bonkers, and also the most narratively connected so you may want to watch them in order.
The Showa stuff is pretty uneven and frequently a slog
And the 2014 American one is a good bridge between that and the Giant Monster Slugfest you’d associate with the series.
If you’re looking for just Giant Monster Slugfests, Godzilla 2000, Final Wars and GMK are among my favorite of the franchise, and I’m a huge fan of the rest of the Monsterverse movies as well
The Heisei series (from ‘85-96) is pretty consistently fun and bonkers, and also the most narratively connected so you may want to watch them in order.
The Showa stuff is pretty uneven and frequently a slog
I just watched the original this year (just make sure to get the actual Japanese version and not the strange American recut) and it was pretty fun still. Still managed to be nicely ominous in moments despite its age and the occasional silliness of the suit.
Still haven't seen Shin, probably should. On the goofier end, I enjoyed Destroy All Monsters as a kid though I've been told Final Wars is just the same thing but better, in a few ways.
Still haven't seen Shin, probably should. On the goofier end, I enjoyed Destroy All Monsters as a kid though I've been told Final Wars is just the same thing but better, in a few ways.
I watched Shin the same night after watching Minus One, because I had Godzilla on the brain and needed a fix. Shin is fantastic, but the vfx for the monster itself admittedly looks pretty goofy at times. But IMO that's part of the charm/is very tokusatsu. The individual human characters lack personality, but the immense levels of ANNO all over the production are delightful. That guy sure does love watching huge bureaucracies carry out a detailed plans, and watching complicated modern machinery just move and perform their functions. I've heard some film critics call Shin subversive of the genre, but... I don't think those critics really understand the genre to begin with??? Like, Shin is literally just an Evangelion movie, without the Evas, but Godzilla instead of Angels. Like, when the scientists and bureaucrats are formulating/setting up their plans, they literally play
The essence of the movie is how the plan to kill Godzilla echoes the functioning of the minesweepers: two boats with a cable between them. Godzilla, it tells us, is like one of the mines: it's a danger left over from the war, an indiscriminate killer that fills the heart with terror. (To be precise, its mutation from a bogeyman menacing small islands to an existential threat to large nations was triggered by Operation Crossroads, after the war had ended for Japan - but the war continued for America, which was already gearing up to fight the Soviets). I noticed a certain correspondence with the 2014 Legendary Godzilla, whose protagonist had also been on a bomb squad.
I can't help but look at it from the perspective of American politics rather than Japanese. Shikishima returns home, wracked with guilt, to a grieving nation that hates him for surviving; but by the end, they all affirm that they're rejecting the idea of sacrificing lives, and they want him to live, and even he, too, has resolved to live rather than die. It's not a very subtle point that this is positioned as an exorcism of the imperial-era fascist death cult, and the American perspective I bring is that it made me hope my country won't be made to suffer similarly before exorcising its own fascist death cult.
Aside from having something to say, it says it really well. This is a movie that hits its emotional beats hard, but not clumsily: it's familiar, but it never feels obvious. The story of a failed kamikaze pilot finding something better than forgiveness would have worked even without Godzilla, but at the same time it's unabashedly a genre film. It is a kaiju movie that also has a really well-done historical drama in it, which, in hindsight, was always more likely to happen than a historical drama movie that also has a really well-done kaiju attack in it.
I can't help but look at it from the perspective of American politics rather than Japanese. Shikishima returns home, wracked with guilt, to a grieving nation that hates him for surviving; but by the end, they all affirm that they're rejecting the idea of sacrificing lives, and they want him to live, and even he, too, has resolved to live rather than die. It's not a very subtle point that this is positioned as an exorcism of the imperial-era fascist death cult, and the American perspective I bring is that it made me hope my country won't be made to suffer similarly before exorcising its own fascist death cult.
Aside from having something to say, it says it really well. This is a movie that hits its emotional beats hard, but not clumsily: it's familiar, but it never feels obvious. The story of a failed kamikaze pilot finding something better than forgiveness would have worked even without Godzilla, but at the same time it's unabashedly a genre film. It is a kaiju movie that also has a really well-done historical drama in it, which, in hindsight, was always more likely to happen than a historical drama movie that also has a really well-done kaiju attack in it.
Could be my favorite movie of the year.
Always enjoy reading your thoughts on things, Bongo
I forgot that Spiderverse was this year. But both movies are like 1A, 1B to me. Both had me grinning from ear-to-ear and very emotionally invested in the happenings of its characters. I try to evaluate my biases and I realize that recency bias is totally a thing. I still might give it to Minus One simply because of how fresh it felt versus Spiderverse that was more of that one thing I recently enjoyed.
Tomm Guycot
(he/him)
To its credit, Godzilla has a resolution.
Saw Minus One just before the new year, thought it was excellent. As has been said, having a solid human drama which doesn't just feel like filler between monster bits was done superbly for once. I had to catch it on a small screen, as it was leaving theatres the day after I saw it - but it finally got a second run on the BFI IMAX (the UK's biggest screen) showing once per day in the evenings, so am going to rewatch it there this weekend with a friend who's not seen it yet!
Right, this puts substantial distance between my opinions of each film.
Oh my gosh, since I posted last I’ve been binge watching these and it’s definitely a new hyper fixation 
I got sidetracked by the Heisei Gamera movies (they whip ass), and now I’m watching Gamera the Brave and it’s legit already got me misty eyed.
I also caught Godzilla vs Biollante and wow, every shot that establishes the scale of the monsters, especially Biollante’s rose form, are just the coolest ever. I was surprised but not disappointed to find that the human story in this one kinda feels like From Russia With Love, which was really hilarious.
Think I’m gonna watch Hedorah next as per recommendation. Thanks yall!
I got sidetracked by the Heisei Gamera movies (they whip ass), and now I’m watching Gamera the Brave and it’s legit already got me misty eyed.
I also caught Godzilla vs Biollante and wow, every shot that establishes the scale of the monsters, especially Biollante’s rose form, are just the coolest ever. I was surprised but not disappointed to find that the human story in this one kinda feels like From Russia With Love, which was really hilarious.
Think I’m gonna watch Hedorah next as per recommendation. Thanks yall!
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Hedorah surprised me with how weird it is, especially in the era were Godzilla is trying to become a kid-friendly franchise.
I remember reading a Toho exec was hospitalized during it's production and had a royal fit when he finally saw the film.
I can’t even tell you how happy it made me when Godzilla vs Gigan goes from an establishing shot of a miniature Godzilla theme park, then moves to a scene in the park where two guys look at ANOTHER miniature of the park.
That’s filmmaking.
Then the speech about how it will be a park that teaches absolute peace feels like Big Boss and Outer Heaven. It rules.
That’s filmmaking.
Then the speech about how it will be a park that teaches absolute peace feels like Big Boss and Outer Heaven. It rules.
Saw it on the huge screen and it was glorious, as was to be expected. The friend I saw it with had also seen the original, unlike the people I saw it with the first time, so we could talk more about the similarities and such which was nice!
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Godzilla eventually gets a problem where it tries to fill in a LOT of "humans running around doing things" between monster fights and Gigan's solution is to make the human stuff completely insane. I love the reveal at the end.
Nothing could have prepared me for Godzilla vs Megalon. If you’d told me just one plot element, I’d have thought, mm, that’s a bit too much. But it’s filled with wild stuff. A gay couple raises a son and builds a robot while Seatopians of the hollow earth have weird dance numbers and summon giant bugs that do their own happy dances.
There’s a whole bit where two of our heroes get hold of an RC airplane to fight a home invader and the whole time I’m like “Ooh they’re cooking something up here. Are they gonna trick him into thinking it’s a full size plane coming to get him from far away, as a winking nod to the audience about miniatures?”
No, the plan is to fly it full bore into the guys face, then kick the hell out of him while he’s bleeding profusely.
This is so so good. It’s like a bag of Halloween candy. Unfortunately there’s also a cockroach in it.
There’s a whole bit where two of our heroes get hold of an RC airplane to fight a home invader and the whole time I’m like “Ooh they’re cooking something up here. Are they gonna trick him into thinking it’s a full size plane coming to get him from far away, as a winking nod to the audience about miniatures?”
No, the plan is to fly it full bore into the guys face, then kick the hell out of him while he’s bleeding profusely.
This is so so good. It’s like a bag of Halloween candy. Unfortunately there’s also a cockroach in it.