Rent Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The Godzilla film you've been waiting for - Godzilla Minus One review by AER

Unlike the current Hollywood cycle of Godzilla movies, this film is lively with great action sequences. Some thought has gone into the make up of the plot and how the beleaguered Japanese took down the atomic monster, Godzilla / Gojira. Characters with convincing arcs lead the way (even though the story telling is very basic) and the script is written in broadstrokes (English subtitles). It's dramatic, the SFX are astounding at times (but not perfect), and the destruction has weight to it - so in other words, it's not as if you are watching a paper-light animation. I've seen the 90s Godzilla and the Gareth Edwards borefest. This was just right. A Godzilla film set during an interesting time and with some food for thought about post-war Japan and how it rebuilt after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

This is the Godzilla film, we've been waiting for. I'm glad the Japanese have finally wrestled Godzilla back from the Americans and done it right. Something similar happened when the French made their first movie about the Three Musketeers earlier this year (2023).

7 out of 10

Really Well Done - Godzilla Minus One review by KB

I saw this at the cinema after seeing good reviews & was glad i made the effort as it was very effective on the big screen .I'm generally not into these type of films if they're American but this Japanese film was really well done .The action scenes with Godzilla are brilliantly done & realistic & this is partly because they don't seem as if they have been made with C.G.I. & are all the better for it .There is also a credible storyline running through the film .

Cleverly Written & Entertaining Godzilla Film - Godzilla Minus One review by GI

With it's return to the look and feel of the 1954 original this is an entertaining 'Godzilla' film from director Takashi Yamazaki and it's interesting in it's allegorical look at the monster as the symbol of a Japan devastated by war and it's people faced with the new threats of domination and nuclear war. Set in the aftermath of the Second World War the plot follows a young kamikaze pilot who has survival guilt after he aborted his final mission and then faced the monster and froze in terror resulting in the deaths of some comrades. Later in a war destroyed Tokyo he sets up a pseudo family with a young woman and a baby rescued from the rubble. But a new and more deadly Godzilla returns from the ocean depths having been re-energised by US nuclear testing to attack Tokyo. A few citizens alone including the pilot have to come up with a plan to kill it. The use of the monster as a metaphor for the anguish, trauma and guilt of the Japanese is clever and makes this arguably the best Godzilla film since Gareth Edwards 2014 version. This is a well written and quite sentimental film that is very entertaining and I'm guessing may well be the first of a short series.