Godzilla Minus Zero Review: A Bigger, Weirder And More Ambitious Sequel

The original 1954 "Godzilla" from director Ishirō Honda was a powerful allegory for Japan's post-Hiroshima nuclear anxieties disguised as a monster movie, a commentary that the 37th movie in the Kaiju series – 2023's "Godzilla Minus One" — made overly literal. As it became a beloved blockbuster outside of Japan, critics in the country remained hesitant to heap praise on this breakout success, as this nostalgic throwback to the franchise's earliest days had an uncomfortable militaristic undercurrent overseas viewers could ignore.

Set in the immediate aftermath of WWII and the American occupation that led to the dismantling of the Japanese military, writer-and-director Takashi Yamazaki imagined a scenario in the aftermath where taking up arms again was a sign of true patriotism. "Godzilla Minus One" uncomfortably aligned itself with the country's right-wingers who dream of ending the nation's pacifist constitution; what played like a rousing "Top Gun" equivalent abroad felt a lot queasier at home. This is a context in which "Godzilla Minus Zero," Yamazaki's far superior sequel, is reckoning with directly, as it's set four years removed from the devastation of the war and two from the monster's attacks in the prior movie.

Even if it didn't introduce American characters who enforce strict de-militarization, this would still feel comparatively helpless next to its crowd-pleasing predecessor, where no amount of national unity or ingenious tactics can counter a force beyond human control. The improved visual effects and IMAX-scale action don't detract from this unusual strain of pessimism either, growing more introspective as the scale increases tenfold. 

After coming under fire for clichéd, soapy human plots last time, the biggest surprise with "Godzilla Minus Zero" might be the extent the human drama here reflects our bleak modern world, where the doomsday clock is seconds from reaching midnight. In that sense, it speaks to the current age just like Ishirō Honda spoke to postwar Japan.

In the two years since the events of "Godzilla Minus One," the survivor's-guilt-ridden former kamikaze pilot Kōichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) has married Noriko (Minami Hamabe), a survivor of Godzilla's Ginza attack, and the pair is adjusting to a more conventional family life with adopted daughter Akiko (Sae Nagatani). Elsewhere, scientist Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) has been promoted to head the government's Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau, and their outlook is firmly focused on preventative measures and rebuilding the country for future generations. 

In what could make a fascinating double feature with this year's D-Day weather report thriller "Pressure," Noda's team has hired meteorologist Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa) to help recognize these threats, which are necessary with the arrival of Ghidorah. This Kaiju weaponizes the elements to bring new devastation to Japan's densely populated cities, leaving the Bureau in the rare position of hoping Godzilla will return; he's the only being powerful enough to counter this new adversary.

If "Godzilla Minus One" felt little different from a Hollywood blockbuster, then "Godzilla Minus Zero" is where Takashi Yamazaki begins subverting expectations of what a Godzilla movie can be. He can stage one hell of an action sequence, but everything in-between is ever-so-slightly off kilter, often acting in direct opposition to the optimistic outlook of many a jingoistic action movie, not just his previous effort. This isn't so much about the death toll of his characters, but the willingness to show them repeatedly fail in their attempts to reign in these threats; even extended fight sequences between the monsters gradually cut back to the human protagonists, who this time are newly aware that no short-term win is a deterrent for all future devastation. 

The director's last film got audiences punching in the air; his latest is likely to cause more downbeat shuffling out of the auditorium, marrying the lizard-brain joys of big monster attacks with character drama that can't be easily resolved when the otherworldly threats still linger.

Takashi Yamazaki also introduces some of the franchise's biggest narrative swings to date, not least the justification for why Noriko has managed to return after being at the mercy of a seemingly deadly monster attack last time, which steers the story into headier science fiction territory. By the third act, however, I was wishing that there was more thematic meat to this beyond resolving an unanswered question and resetting the stakes, merely teasing out a richer Cronenbergian strain of body horror the director isn't as interested in exploring further. He's a lot more preoccupied with the most kitchen sink aspects of the relationship dramas and the administrative procedurals in the research labs than he is any higher concept, and the action never incorporates these bolder gambits to the extent it should.

Admittedly, this is because the director already knows he's playing with a sure hand when it comes to staging straightforward Kaiju attacks on this gargantuan scale, with grander aerial fights and destructive attacks at sea consistently resetting the stakes for the character drama. As with his Oscar-winning work in the last film, Yamazaki's less-is-more approach isn't a byproduct of lower Japanese movie budgets, but a keener understanding of what makes his monsters so visually imposing. 

Ghidorah needs little more than vivid lightning beams to make their impact known; Godzilla's bulky frame can be intimidating without even being fully shown, relying on clever reutilizations of the character's theme (arguably an even better monster movie motif than John Williams' "Jaws" score) to invoke his stature. The extensive final fight does eventually become exhausting, but that's the only time Yamazaki succumbs to Hollywood maximalism, after two hours of carefully deploying the tools in his arsenal.

"Godzilla Minus Zero" subverts expectations of Western action epics in other ways — the amount of time devoted to the New York attack teased in the trailers feels like a direct response to Hollywood disaster movies that only cover atrocities outside the States in rapid-fire montages. It all adds up to a movie much smarter than its predecessor in how it navigates a sincere love of genre spectacle and a more critical stance toward the movies that lose sight of humanity amid the bloated bombast. 

This is a movie with a more original perspective on the franchise than its predecessor, which might be why it falls short for some compared to the conventional thrills there. For me, that was enough to elevate it to becoming the best Godzilla movie of the century so far.

"Godzilla Minus Zero" crashes into theaters on November 6.