Thoughts on GODZILLA MINUS ZERO (2026) NYFF 2026

A quick note:

Even though this is one of my longer pieces of late, this is shorter than the piece that was in my head. I say that because the piece I was planning on writing and which I started to write was a detailed discussion of the film and its plot. I started and I stopped because I realized that even though my piece would be going up after the New York Film Festival screenings, most people who want to see the film haven't remotely had the chance to do so. I could not spoil the surprises for everyone, so I rethought what I was going to do. As I mention in the piece, I was partly guided by the requests from Toho and GKids, with the exception of mentioning Ghidorah (they did not want the name used) simply because they used his cry in the trailer and he is named about 15 minutes into the film.

What follows are my thoughts on the film as an adult. I say that because the inner 6-year-old thinks this is the greatest thing since the last film.

I needed to see this film. 

I needed to see this film as soon as humanly possible. I wanted to go to the World Premiere screening with my brother and my friend and resident Godzilla expert Kim Lacanilao but the suits would have none of it. I managed to get a public ticket for the second screening...

But my inner 6 year old, the same guy who wrote to WPIX Channel 11 in 1970 that they had to run DESTROY ALL MONSTERS on a weekend afternoon because I was too young and not allowed to see an 8PM movie on a week night, was demanding I see it NOW so I had to consider the press screening.

I had no say and my 6 year old self demanded I get up at 2:30 in the morning, and  go out in a Nor'easter to begin standing on line at 5am for a 9am press screening. I was the only one there until 6am when my friend Matt showed up so that he could be in a safe place from the rain.

Yea, clearly some part of me needed to see this film.

When the film started I was sitting in the front row of the theater, as center as I could, and I opened up my heart and let my inner 6 year old out. That little guy had me literally sobbing and hyperventilating during the monster scenes. I'm not kidding I just couldn't believe the wondrous monster mayhem that was happening right before me. The 6-year-old me wanted to yell and scream and run around shouting at the top of my lungs about how F-ing cool it all was.

It was one of the best experiences an inner 6 year old could have... EVER!

On the other hand the adult me was a bit more distant. Yes, the monster stuff f-ing rocks, but there are bumps in the narrative. As much as being there for what was essentially the first public screening of a new Godzilla movie, was cool the film wasn't perfect. 

When I got home from my day at the NYFF and I saw the social media reaction to the film I was floored. Who were these people and why the hell were they calling it one of the greatest films ever made? What Kool-Aid had they drunk, and what ledge had they crawled out on to?

Now don't get me wrong, as a visceral monster fan level of pure emotion this film is a wicked little thrill machine, but I would not, and I cannot say it is one of the greatest films ever. Yes, the monster stuff is some of the greatest things I have ever seen on screen, but as a whole it's a great film, not quite among the greatest.

Nit picking, but it has to be said.

Okay I need to say that when we went in we were given a sheet with things on both side. The front was a list of information about the film and the embargoes. It was about half the page. On the other side was a list of things were "requested" not to mention. I will try to honor the request but quite honestly there is no way I am going to honor their requesting we not mention the name of the second kaiju in reviews when they put Ghidorah's roar in the trailer. It's not a secret since they let it out of the bag. Other than that, I will be trying to be as spoiler free as possible, despite word getting out from the three public screenings.

The film begins several years after the death of Godzilla, when a new kaiju has arrived, possibly from space. It is a dragon like beast called Ghidorah.  With conventional weapons seemingly unable to stop the beast the Japanese government tries to figure out a means of killing the monster. The rest of the film is an effort to stop Ghidorah.

I'll leave the plot there. That's all you should know.

At the same time I will be discussing bits of what happens because a lot of what I want to discuss are things the narrative does. If you don't want any chance of something being spoiled don't read any farther.

Thematically the film has a lot going on. The film is dealing with the notions of dealing with out pasts, how that affects the future, notions of guilt and how the defeated and conqueror interact. That last bit results in a great deal of tension as the Japanese have to dance around the American occupiers.

At this point I need to mention that one of the things that the film does badly is handle the Americans. I am not saying what we see them do is bad, but rather when they first show up it's the first indication director Takashi Yamazaki is very often an incredibly lazy  director. There is a half assed nature to the American sequences. The Americans are badly acted, cartoonish and there merely as a deus ex machina. It's clear that he has zero use for them, so he dresses them in bad Spirit Halloween costumes, with plastic helmets. Where every Japanese person we see has a sense of character, all of the Americans are cardboard. They are jokes to be laughed at.  That they are a joke  in a film that is essentially a thriller or a horror film, hurt the film. I say this not because I am or offended, or because I think their is a problem with their inclusion. I say it because it's clear Yamazaki simply didn't care, or hated the characters and had the actors behave in such a way that breaks the spell every time they are on screen. Its not once but every time they are on screen.

Related to this is the mad scientist sequence. I don't mind the idea of a scientist who has ulterior motive, but I am completely at a loss as to why Yamazaki resorts to literal wide eyed teeth gnashing on a level that we've only seen portrayed seriously in films like Dwayne Esper's MANIAC. This sort of insane behavior is almost never put on screen as anything other than a joke, unless the director is a complete moron, and Yamazaki is not that.  In a film where the horror of science is on full display and something we feel physically, the giggling mad doctor just cuts the legs out of the character and the tension. There is no reason  to have it happen, especially since we've already seen him in the rubble of Hiroshima. We should absolutely not think of him as joke because his reasoning for doing what he is doing is serious. It is, frankly, completely understandable... its so understandable that we would  actually side with him... except he's nuts.

Both of these things are indicative of a weird ass split in the way Yamazaki structured the narrative. Yes, the action/ monster sequences are perfect, seriously just ask my inner 6-year-old. however, the narrative around them is often soapy and frequently drifting into being a polemic. This is especially true towards the end when the drama is paused or stopped for a speech about the greater good (I've changed my plans....), the love we feel (we do this together), or imperialism (Americans are not to be trusted). Yamazaki pauses the narrative for an emotional moment or to make a point. While it provokes a reaction and there is a certain amount of emotional correctness, it isn't quite as good for the narrative since it slows momentum and bends the narrative just enough as to feel artificial. Yamazaki did this fleetingly in his first film, but it is much more pronounced here, and it helps to lessen the film.

What Yamazaki does correctly, and something many films in the entire run of Godzilla films fail to do and that is keep the people front and center. If you look at the best films in 70 plus year run, the best films are always the ones with the people up front and the kaiju in the background. the original film, the 2014 American film, SHIN GODZILLA and MINUS ONE all are about the characters first. Godzilla is a force of nature and while he is there, the focus is on the people. We stay watching because of the people, not just because of the Monsters. 

Here in MINUS ZERO the film is all about the characters. Yes, we get monster scenes, but mostly we get human beings interacting with creatures. In the opening sequence we have the monitors trying to get the film back to base; in  the bombing run sequence is on the pilots trying to make it work and the people directing them. Even the final battle is not so much told from the monsters' perspective, but rather the scientists trying to stop the creatures which are laying waste to Japan. The film works because we never lose sight of the characters we are connected to.

Truth be told the one thing I have heard people say negatively about this film is the same thing I heard about the 2014 film and SHIN GODZILLA, which is there isn't enough of the kaijus. And while on some level that is true, just ask my inner 6-year-old, the fact is that having more monsters wouldn't work here. The more the other films focus on the monsters the less they worked. (The exception being GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS which somehow balances all the monsters and the human story. Though frankly the films that followed that don't work-- but that's another series)

As for the monster sequences they are all choice. As my brother said, the sequences are some of the greatest in the 70+ year history of the franchise. Brutal nasty and ugly. The film is actually rightly rated R in the US because of their brutality (along with the images of war dead and body horror). Like with the humans in the film, there is a cost. Blood flows. There is weight to what happens to them.

And weight is something the vast majority of Godzilla films don't have. More often than not its men in suits destroying things. Here, as in the best films in the series, there is a cost. People die... people we like die or are injured. When things happen there is a cost, more so when they go wrong. Actually, the fact that the characters are asked to pay a price is something that the vast majority of films never address. Sure, there is a "happy" ending, but at what cost? This isn't to give anything away, it is simply to say play out the story of what happens to the characters past the final fade out in your head and you realize they will only a degree of happy. 

God bless Takashi Yamazaki for understanding that the greatest satisfaction comes at high price. The result is a film that moves us in ways unexpected for a genre film.

I really like this film. I think its super because it tells a human story. At the same time, if you don't have an inner 6-year-old monster lover, when you see it go in with slightly lower expectations. Too many fans have been talking this way up and there is a good chance you may be disappointed. Yes, it is a great film, just maybe not the best Godzilla film ever made (Though its close)