Godzilla Minus Zero Lives Up to the Hype With Stunning Visuals, Phenomenal Performances and Tears

Godzilla Minus Zero lived up to all the hype I was hoping it would, and it's at the top of my list for movies this year. These are my early thoughts on Takashi Yamazaki's latest, straight out of the theater. The embargo doesn't drop for a little bit, since the movie doesn't come out until November.

Godzilla Minus One set a high bar for this follow up

Godzilla Minus One was my favorite movie of that year because it was such a surprise. I wasn't even going to see it. I figured I'd seen a million Godzilla movies, and if you've seen one, you've seen them all. That certainly wasn't the case. It was unique and different. It combined the feel of a war movie with a Godzilla film, and it was the characters and the emotion that made it so special. Well, they do it all over again with this one.

A new monster threatens Japan while the characters still deal with Godzilla

There's a brand new threat to the people of Japan, a new monster, and they're still trying to deal with everything that was going on with Godzilla. Now they have to figure out how to survive. What they do here is what they did in the first one: you care. You've already locked on to the characters from the first movie, you're following their journey, and the actors returning from the first one continue to make you care for them.

The professor is a character who stood out to me, along with what he's going through and the trauma all these characters have gone through. It's raw, it's gritty, it's emotional.

Yamazaki doesn't overuse the monsters, and it pays off

Yamazaki sets this up so well, and puts you in it, that he doesn't have to overuse the monsters. When he uses them, it counts, and it looks real. It has the feel of an old school wartime film, with characters you're so locked into that when these big monsters are out there, it feels real. That's what really makes a good movie.

The visuals are stunning. It's the same thing I said about the first one. I don't know what the budget necessarily was on this one, and I know it was a lot cheaper than you would expect, but "it feels like a $400 million movie when you look at the effects."

Godzilla Minus Zero earns its emotion

This is a great movie. The performances are phenomenal, the music is solid, and it's really emotional at the end. I definitely teared up. "It earns every emotion that it gets out of you." I was locked in from start to finish, and they throw you in it from the second it starts. I highly recommend it.

I want to see 10 more of these movies if Yamazaki is directing them. "He really has a hold on what makes these things special." Anyone who thinks this is like every other Godzilla movie, the way I once did, should know it's not. I hope people check this one out, and the first one too if they haven't seen it.

Have you seen Godzilla Minus One, and do you plan to see Godzilla Minus Zero when it opens in November?