Godzilla Minus Zero, 2026.
Written and Directed by Takashi Yamazaki.
Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Jun Kunimura, Miou Tanaka, Sakura Ando, Masami Nagasawa, Min Tanaka, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Munetaka Aoki, and Sae Nagatani.
SYNOPSIS:
Set in 1949, the Shikishima family confronts a fresh catastrophe two years after surviving their previous ordeal with the legendary monster.
Godzilla Minus Zero once again shows that writer/director Takashi Yamazaki knows how to build suspenseful tension and cleanly craft special-effects-heavy spectacle sequences. Similar to Hollywood blockbuster sequels, this time he is also working with a larger narrative canvas, a bigger budget, and more epic-scale ambition, not only bringing back the eponymous breath-ray-shooting enormous lizard, but also a new foe from the decades-long lore with the three-headed, flying, dinosaur-like creature King Ghidorah, who can emit a blue gravity beam that can lift up anything it traps, whether it be people or buildings. It’s a tall order, considering what the filmmakers and visual effects team accomplished last time around with only a small fraction of the funding that goes into other blockbusters (winning a well-deserved Oscar).
Regardless of the exact budget increase, it still leaves room to worry that the filmmakers might go too far in the often misguided direction of cramming in more. Godzilla Minus One was both one hell of a technical accomplishment and a thrilling kaiju flick that surprisingly had emotional heft and thematic weight, with human characters who didn’t bring about eye-rolls whenever they took up valuable screen time over everyone’s favorite wrecking-machine lizard.
The point is that this sequel packs in a bit too much story, eventually reaching a point that feels like playing a video game and sitting through 30 minutes of cutscenes you can’t skip before the final boss begins. This is also not to say the story is bad, but that the screenplay frequently repeats itself and elongates certain dialogue scenes longer than necessary; it’s almost as if they were expecting a large streaming deal and adopted some of the trademarks of those movies in the making of it, such as characters regurgitating the same plot points.
For as much as there is to admire about what goes into the strategizing scenes over how to deal with these monsters, there is a lot of waiting, more so than last time, in between receiving the details and commencing with the action. The fact that the number of human characters and storylines being juggled has also increased greatly means not all of the threads have as much impact as they should, while also making these pacing issues more transparent.
That might seem like a significant flaw; however, it’s also the only negative aspect here, as this film delivers on the spectacle front almost as pulse-pounding as its predecessor. Again, part of that is because these filmmakers know how to communicate a plan for dealing with these monsters, and put that on screen not only with breathtaking visual effects, whether it be dogfighting in the sky or in the ruins of Japan left over from both World War II and these creatures, but with striking clarity of what’s actually happening.
It’s no spoiler to say the monsters do battle (as they have in both Japanese and American productions), and when they do, there is no second-guessing what they are doing to one another or behemoths crowded into the frame and obscured by other environmental objects. Adding to the excitement is the brutality of it all, with severed limbs and blood. Similarly unflinching is a depiction of the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb, driving home the pain of other characters as the country continues to rebuild physically and emotionally.
As for the story itself, it takes place two years after the events of the first film in this series, now centering on the emergence of a new threat in King Ghidorah. Torn between not taking the miracle of being reunited with his family for granted and feeling obligated to bring forth his piloting expertise for another battle, Kôichi Shikishima (Ryûnosuke Kamiki), thought to have successfully killed Godzilla in the incredibly tense, heart-racing finale of that film, is once again considered the only hope. As his peers exclaim, he is worth 100 pilots. Nevertheless, he also didn’t want to jeopardize living a happy family life with his now-wife, Noriko Ôishi (Minami Hamabe), still with one eye severely damaged and bandaged up, and their adopted daughter, Akiko (Sae Nagatani). He may have no choice if he wants to protect that family, with his wife also taking on a much more important role in the grand scheme of things.
Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) now has the title of Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau director, working alongside guilt-ridden weather specialist Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa) to find corroborating patterns in King Ghidorah’s behavior. Also joining the team is Dr. Ogata (Jun Kunimura), still grieving the loss of his family from the Hiroshima bomb with survivor’s guilt. He also conducts his own research into Godzilla cells and theorizes that one possible solution (once the lizard reveals it’s still alive) could be to pit the monsters against one another and pick off the winner.
They are all solid characters with humanity and something to do, but the balancing act proves a bit too much. Aside from the ending scene, the emotional impact is a bit lacking, and much of Dr. Ogata’s pain and ulterior motives come across somewhat clunkily, most notably in a dream sequence. With Godzilla not appearing until roughly an hour in, and King Ghidorah lying dormant for a decent chunk of the movie, the amount of action also seems slightly reduced, which is a questionable decision, to say the least.
What’s here is epically satisfying, but the film also could desperately use at least one more of those action set pieces. Godzilla Minus Zero is a step down from its predecessor, but it still delivers a hell of a lot of satisfying carnage backed by heavy, if overstuffed, storytelling.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
