Godzilla Minus One Dubbed Film Review

Godzilla fans we are now about a week away from the release of the latest Japanese Godzilla film with the film looking really good. With us just being a few days to a week away before Godzilla Minus Zero comes out it only made sense that i'd take a look at the Japanese Godzilla film that came out directly before it as it is a really good film that does deserve to be watched by every one and so then join me as I review the film is to date the only Japanese Godzilla film to not only be nominated but also win an OSCAR with the film in question being called simply just "Godzilla Minus One" enjoy.

The plot of this film is in the first few years after WWII disgraced kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima returns to Tokyo and attempts to build a life for himself something which is impossible to do when Godzilla starts appearing forcing Kōichi Shikishima to confront not only his past but also his future. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. To be frank here this films plot still holds up with really and given the fact that Godzilla films don't typically have good plots to them it is shocking to see one where the plot of the film is as good as the films action. With the thing that makes this films plot really good being the fact that the idea of someone struggling to recover from something as devastating as World War 2 or any way for that matter is a universal thing and it is something that alot of people can relate to with this films plot being one that while yes it could have been more stronger in places it is easily better then the plot of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire was as this film treats it's plot seriously and actually tries to be good with there being alot of care put into this films plot when there really didn't need to be as just having Godzilla stomping around Japan would have been enough to get butt in seats but the fact that there was alot of care put into this films does tell you that the people who worked on this film did care very deeply about weather or not the plot of this film was even good in the first place and it is something that comes through with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules star Darren Barnet as Kōichi Shikishima , Ell as Noriko Ōishi and Khoi Dao as Shirō Mizushima. Also starring in this film is Greg Chun as Sōsaku Tachibana , Keong Sim as Kenji Noda , Batman: Death In T he Family and Catwoman: Hunted star Zehra Fazal as Sumiko Ōta , James Kyson as Yōji Akitsu , Everdeen Angeles as Akiko and Kelvin Han Yee as Tatsuo Hotta.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The fact that we have good acting not only from the films dubbed actors who are all cast really well but also the original Japanese actors as well as nine times out of ten Japanese Godzilla while they will have decent acting from the original performers they will get not badly done dubs but dubs that are a little bit off or strange where as here the acting in both the dub and original version are really good with both sets of actors giving us some really good performance all throughout the film. With the best actor in this film being Darren Barnet as Kōichi Shikishima as he does get alot of the films more dramatic scenes and he acts the heck out of those scenes with him even having the perfect voice for Kōichi something which is also kind of true for the rest of the films actors as well but with Darren playing the films main character it is something that does stand out all the more and was all the more important that he have the right voice for this character as it would have been very easy for any actor to make him sound to paranoid or two depressed and yet with Darren you do get the sense of him yes being depressed and paranoid but you also get the feeling of him being hopeful with these things coming through in the performance with Darren even using his own natural charisma all throughout the film. With the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films acting is just so good that all this actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film really is the legends and the really greats that are currently over at Shirogumi. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. One of the many things that this film did get alot of praise for an even an OSCAR win for was it's CGI and it's not that hard to see why as with just a team of about thirty to eighty people the makers of this film managed to have better effects then alot of modern Hollywood blockbusters which cost twenty times what this film cost to make and hire hundreds if not thousand of effects artists across the world. With all of this films effects looking so good and while it will be easy to say that Godzilla is a really good effect which he is I want to take a moment to spotlight the water effects as alot of people will thing that any scene with Godzilla in the water is easy to do as you'd just have to add him to the scene and that's it but those people are wrong as you also not only add Godzilla to the scene but then due to the fact that he's interacting with water you then pretty much have to replace the entire body of water just to take that into account and while yes this films water effects aren't as good as the ones in Avatar: The Way Of Water and in Avatar: Fire And Ash they still look really good with the water being very convincing looking water and while yes there are some Godzilla effects in this film that do look a little big of those effects still look alot more better then alot of the modern Hollywood effects do because of the fact that the makers of this film had something to prove they were the underdogs making this film and therefor they have to deliver there best work and not only did they do exactly that they then showed Hollywood how to do good looking effects with alot less people involved.

Whilst this film is technically classed as being an action film it could also be considered a drama due to the fact that there are alot of more dramatic moments in the film. This is something that not only works really well but it also serves to help the human plot something which is very rarely if ever interesting in a Godzilla film be something that is worth watching with the makers of this film even going out of there way to make you feel something for this films characters as you do end up not only liking but also routing for both Noriko and Kōichi as she does everything that she can to help Kōichi move on and accept the fact that unlike so many others he got to return home and he got a chance to live a life which is something that sadly not only of soldiers get to do and those that don't alot of the time never really return as there always thinking about the horrors that they saw. The fact that this film even made both PTSD and survivors guilt a key part of the film is something that does show that this films writer and director Takashi Yamazaki really does understand what the people who do come back from a war truly go through as that subject is handled so well in this film, heck even Kōichi has a great line when Seiji Akitsu asks him why he never Noriko when he had the chance to with his response being the very hard hitting "Because... my war isn't over yet" which is not only a good line of dialog in it's own right but its also something that does perfectly capture where this character is at as to him the war hasn't ended and it won't end until Godzilla dies with even that quote letting us know how that character is mentally as he is still struggling to get over the fact that he came home when friends and comrades of his never got the chance to see there families and will never get that chance.

One of the things that was shocking to see was the fact that we do get to see the birth of Godzilla in this film. As there is a scene set in 1946 where we see a nuclear bomb being dropped on him and that was something that to me knowledge we haven't really seen before in the Japanese Godzilla while we did see something similar to this in the American 1998 Godzilla film when it comes to the Japanese films they instead shied away from showing us and while it is only a very brief shot as all we see is the bomb being dropped and who we now know is Godzilla waking up it was still something that the makers of this films never really had to show as the previous films never showed us the bomb being dropped on him and it still worked. Yet they still did it anyways and while it could yes be argued that it didn't need to be shown as we still would have worked that that's what happened it was something that does work in this film as it shows us that this version of Godzilla much like the 1954 film this version of the character is one that is born out of hate due to the fact that we've been dropping nuclear bombs on him and much like with Kōichi Godzilla is one that can't really escape the war as the Japanese people are destroying the mines that the Americans left in the ocean and therefor the two of them are drawn together as the only way that the other will have piece or there version of piece is if the other one dies and while that might be easy on Godzilla due to the fact that he does have all of these powers and is taller then a mountain he still has to charge up to use those powers which is where Kōichi is able to attack him and while there is alot more time given to the films human characters and there plot this oddly doesn't feel detrimental to Godzilla as he does still come across as being a major threat and while it would have been nice if he did get more screen time as we are after all to see him and he is the movies title character after all the film works just fine as it is. 

Another thing that this film does now taking Minus Zero into account is the fact it does set up very early on how Godzilla is going to survive this film. As while alot of the early Godzilla films would have him die at the end of one film and then have him appear at the start of the net film without telling us how he survived the previous film here they show us not once but twice that he can now regenerate his cells and essentially pull himself back together again something which we do see happen twice in the film once after Kōichi and his crew try bombing him in the ocean and then once again at the end of the film this was a pretty good way to show us that Godzilla will always be coming back but at the same time it did feel like over explaining something that we didn't need to see in the first place. As the Godzilla that we see not only in this film but also in the early Godzilla films is more like an eighties slasher villain where he's just this unstoppable killing machine and where the more you pull back the curtain as it were and reveal things abut him the less scary he becomes as we don't need to know all that much about why he's doing these things or how he can come back we just need to see him come back and while showing being able to regenerate his cells is a great way to add drama as then you do get that big "holy heck" moment what makes this version of the character is the fact that he is this unstoppable killing machine therefor we don't need to know let alone be shown twice how he can come back while that is a great scene to end the film one as it does get you ready for the next film it's also something that really wasn't needed in this film and thanks to the book Godzilla: The First 70 Years we know that Takashi Yamazaki only added the scene with Godzilla at the end as he didn't want the film to end on a straight up happy note preferring to have the threat of Godzilla which on paper is a good idea but in practice it something that wasn't needed in the film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and six minuets and twenty three seconds. Which to be fair to this film is a good amount of running time to have as this film does have alot of things to set up as outside of the films plot it does also have to set up several human characters, Godzilla and the world this film takes place and to do all of that in a shorter amount time would be a huge disservice to the film on the whole with this being a case where the film oddly works better due to he fact that it is more longer as then the film does have alot more time to spend on the things that do work and make them be as good as they possibly could have been with this film even having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. With the film even using it's running time wisely as the film does take the time to fully develop its plot with alot of the films running time not only being about advancing the plot of the film and moving it forward but also about adding things to the the plot be Kōichi and Noriko falling in love with each other something which does convince him to take on the mission to kill Godzilla and himself at the same time which is something that the makers of this film didn't really have to include and yet they did with there being more scenes like that that do make the films plot feel alot more developed. The same thing is also true for the films character development as well as while yes granted not all of the films characters get character development not all of them need it and yet those that get are the ones that are either key to the films plot or are key to one the human characters plot with Kōichi learning that its OK to live after going through such a terrible war and even his neighbour Sumiko learning to like Kōichi and that he is a decent human being these are just two examples of how well the films character development is in this film but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to su in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the films action being really fun to watch and while there isn't alot of action in the grand scheme of things it's oddly not something that you miss as you do end up being so engrossed in the huma story that you forget that Godzilla is mean to be in this film and yet when he does show up in the film it is really fun and entertaining seeing him just lay waste to everything and everyone around him. With the best action scene in the whole entire film being the attack on Ginza as that is where the film feels like a true Godzilla film with us even getting the classic Godzilla theme song as he stomps into view and just wrecks the entire town killing several thousand people injuring more and just wiping that district of the map and heck we even get a good long look at his hear ray as after getting bombarded with attacks from tanks Godzilla fires it causing nuclear destruction with even Noriko getting caught up in the after shock of that attack with this being something that does make this attack as this is a Godzilla that will kill without a second thought and it's something that he does do in this film during the Ginza scene as we even see him attack some journalists just because they were in his way with the rest of the films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall while Godzilla Minus Zero perhaps has the most to live up to when compared to other Godzilla film sequels there is denying the fact that even taking all of the Godzilla films into account including the America ones this is is easily the best one that does deserve all of the praise that it gets in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all o the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really des mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and a swell as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Wikizilla and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Wikizilla this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Wikizilla are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Wikizilla really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.