Godzilla Minus Zero Review

In "Godzilla Minus Zero," the fight between two giant monsters interrupts family drama. There is a lot of plot here, far too many characters and long stretches where the little kid in me began fidgeting in my seat wishing I had my little Godzilla toys to play with while I waited for some action.

Things begin rousingly enough though, with an attack on Matsumoto City, a single-headed Ghidorah, who has not yet become king. Researchers escaping the assault capture the event on camera, and later, in one of the film's best moments, play the grainy, black and white video to a stunned group of scientists. But I'm getting ahead of myself: where did this new behemoth come from? Why, from space, of course! Why are little extraterrestrial critters always so violent?

Ryunosuke Kamiki returns as the pilot Kōichi from the similarly titled "Godzilla Minus One," which I totally do not ever confuse with this sequel, at the pleading of Dr. Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) to serve as an advisor to other volunteer aviators. The plan is, with the help of Americans, to drop a cutting-edge bomb on the mystery creature. Ah yes, just what every Godzilla movie needs: ye olde Japan-United States military tensions. I'm sure us Yankees will be portrayed as nothing but upstanding citizens.

Also back is Kōichi's wife Noriko, again played by Minami Hamabe. Injured from the events of the previous film, she has a cut on her neck and wears an eye-patch, she is a selfless woman who volunteers time at the neighboring orphanage. It's explained later on that her and many other survivors ended up with Godzilla DNA in them, and while most of them perished, Noriko did not. She doesn't ever turn into Godzilla, an opportunity I'm sure wouldn't have been missed had this been the story of the American films. But I digress.

Ghidorah ends up surviving the blast, who was ambushed while sleeping. That ended up just ticking it off, so it's time to turn to plan B. A meteorologist (Masami Nagasawa) convinces Noda's team to track severe weather, and use lightning to bring the beast down. It's a silly idea in a movie unaware of how inherently silly it is, since all that ends up doing is super-charge Ghidorah, causing it to grow two more heads and finally take the crown.

Writer/director Takashi Yamazaki, who also crafted the immediate predecessor in the same capacity, continues to film these titans as the titans they are; big, beautiful and often times haunting metaphors for human conflict. However, he ends up learning a few of the wrong lessons, with the pacing often crawling slower than an actual animal of this size would. We're about halfway through the runtime, which is a series-longest at two hours and fifteen minutes, before the titular leviathan finally shows up. A better name would have been "Godzilla Minus Godzilla."

With the king of the monsters finally here, as if awakened from a deep-sleep from his famous nemesis, a new narrative comes to light. Professor Kanji (Min Tanaka) has been working on an amplifier thing that should allow them to lure the hero to come fight the villain. And here I was thinking "you know what this flick could really use? More plot!"

"Godzilla Minus Zero" is an epic creature feature that ends up overindulging on the dour and dreary. I hope you enjoy the sights of children being crushed in the kaiju carnage, because there is a lot of that here. Oh, you also love seeing the burnt bodies of Hiroshima? Wow, I mean, today is your lucky day then. What a dark, depressing monster movie.

Then there's the ending, which I will not spoil, features a switcheroo that feels exploitative of the emotions one would feel in that situation. Not sure what I mean? Just wait until you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about when your heartstrings are tugged then milked.