I love Godzilla. So I was very excited when I saw the trailer for this new Japanese film. Godzilla Minus One is potentially the best Godzilla movie that I have seen.

Godzilla comes from the oceans and attack as a force of nature. This Godzilla is not the “protector” Godzilla as we have been used to over the last few years. This Godzilla is out there as a motiveless devastation.

One of the reasons why this is one of the best Godzilla movies ever is because this film was able to do something that very few (if any) Godzilla films have been able to do: create human characters that are compelling and who I wanted to see.

Fact is many times when the human characters are on the screen in a Godzilla movie, my thought has been, “Get them off the screen, bring up Godzilla.” However, in Godzilla Minus One, the human character are just fantastic. These are characters that I loved and found engaged with every second they were on. Koichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is amazing and he fills the screen of this film.

Godzilla looked tremendous. The beast looked like a true monster and he was frightening. Watching Godzilla walk his way through the Japanese cities was unbelievable. It also had the feel of old school Godzilla films.

Yes, this is in Japanese, but, as with all really great foreign films, you forget that you are reading the captions and it just becomes part of the story. The score is utterly exceptional and works to enhance the scenes, especially with Godzilla.

The finale of the film is tense and anxious. It has an extremely emotional ending that had some tears forming in my eyes. The story was more than just Godzilla on a rampage and I loved it.

4.8 stars