You’ve probably heard that Godzilla: Minus One is a fantastic movie already so my saying so isn’t adding anything new to the conversation, but I figured throwing out a quick review into the void that is the internet couldn’t hurt. Even though this is a monster film where a giant, radioactive lizard breaks cities, this is a surprisingly human and emotional story that achieves everything the Warner Bros’ Monsterverse films have not been able to, which have been CGI slugfests as of late. And while that’s fun in its own right, Minus One delivers both the action department and the story, giving us a complete package that serves as a reimagining of the original 1954 Godzilla film.

Godzilla Minus One is largely set in post-World War II Japan and focuses on Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a former Kamikaze pilot trying to get by. Overwhelmed by survivor guilt and the shame of being a coward (as being a Kamikaze pilot means he was supposed to die in the war), Shikishima inadvertently finds himself at the head of a family he didn’t ask for, when a woman named Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and a baby that isn’t hers stumbles into his life, resulting in an impromptu family that he didn’t see coming and may not even really appreciate. With Japan’s economy in the gutter, Shikishima finds himself in need of employment to pay the bills and bring in food for the people under his roof and ends up landing a job as a minesweeper, disarming the mines left by the Imperial and US Navies during the war.

Of course, lurking in those waters is none other than Godzilla himself, a creature Shikishima actually encountered once during the war. Back then, the creature was much smaller relative to his prime size, but as the Americans tested their nuclear weapons in the Pacific after the War, the creature grew in size. So Shikishima, haunted by his past and shame, finds himself trying to save Japan from Godzilla’s wrath while also looking to protect this family that he’s adopted into his life and figure out what his purpose in life actually is, believing he has no place on this Earth as a survivor of the War.

What struck me most about Godzilla Minus One was actually the story. Usually, in these epic disaster films, character and story are put on the back burner in favour of spectacle and sometimes, that’s okay if you want dumb escapism. But Minus One wanted to have its cake and eat it too and it stuck the landing with that mission statement. I was profoundly invested in the plight of Shikishima, to the point where I was deeply moved by his internal struggle. This is a man ashamed to be alive in a society that put little stock in life at that point in history. Death was seen as honourable, to be alive and to be the sole survivor of a unit that was designed to die in combat haunts this man to the core. Kamiki gives a poignant and sobering performance and the narrative angle he’s tasked with portraying could’ve honestly been the movie on its own without the Kaiju angle easily.

But Minus One is also a Godzilla movie and as a reimagining of the original film, this rendition of the titular monster is exactly that: a monster. His actions seem also vindictive and cruel and his heat breath, which gives off an atomic blast, is utterly terrifying. Lately, Godzilla’s breath has amounted to basically being a blue fireblast, but Minus One showcases the nuclear horror, with cities being erased under the massive mushroom cloud he creates. It works frighteningly well with Oppenheimer. He also rips through cities, boats and the army like butter, leaning heavily into the disaster angle that comes with these kinds of movies. The VFX may not be on par with the Hollywood versions at times, but when you bear in mind that this film was made with just 35 artists, you can forgive the film because that’s honestly an insane statistic in this day and age. For comparison, most big-budget Hollywood films hire multiple VFX studios for one movie.

If you’ve only seen American Godzilla movies over the years or maybe a sample of the Toho Japanese ones, I implore you to watch Godzilla Minus One. It’s the perfect blend of entertaining monster/disaster goodness but with a surprisingly deep and emotional story that puts the emphasis on character. If I had seen the movie before I made my best of 2023 list, it would be on it. It’s that good.