Godzilla Minus Zero has the IMAX screens this weekend in theaters across the country, and if you’re going to this movie, that’s the ideal way to experience it.
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that → have → it
Note: I didn’t say “see it.”
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I → note → it
I said “experience it.”
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I → say → it
Because right from the very first moment, as King Ghidorah screams onto the screen, leveling city blocks with golden beams of fire, you realize you’ve entered into something terrifyingly immersive.
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you → scream → something
The image is big, obviously, but the sound is bigger, a terrifying cacophony of animal roars, screeching metal, and collapsing concrete.
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sound → screech → roars
The roaring din is something both Godzilla Minus Zero and its 2023 predecessor, Godzilla Minus One, have emphasized, particularly in the theatrical setting.
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Zero → roar → setting
These are not your friendly neighborhood kaiju from the Godzilla vs. Kong set of films put together by Warner Bros. and Legendary, a series that, among other things, has shown a giant lizard suplexing a giant monkey with pyramids as a backdrop.
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lizard → put → backdrop
From the first moments we see Godzilla in Minus One, on the Japanese island of Odo, he is big, mean, and loud.
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he → see → Odo
The sort of angry-loud that makes you involuntarily shrink back in your seat, clap your hands over your ears like Timmy in that jeep in Jurassic Park.
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you → make → Park
And that’s before he grows two extra heads—hence his name, which comes from “hydra”—with which to screech and breathe fire and, terrifyingly, lift whole towns via some sort of antigravity breath before dropping them thousands of feet straight down.
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which → ’ → feet
Minus Zero begins where Minus One left off: It’s two years after the attack by Godzilla, and the island nation is still just picking up the pieces when Ghidorah strikes.
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Ghidorah → begin → pieces
Mr. Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) leads the nation’s emergency response, and once again calls upon former kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) to aid in the defense of the people.
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Noda → lead → people
Helping them is Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa), a savant meteorologist who can feel when storms are coming like Roy Hobbs can feel when a fastball’s coming.
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fastball → help → them
And, of course, there’s Noriko (Minami Hamabe), whose surprising survival in the first film came with a terrible price.
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survival → ’ → price
Modern action films sometimes run into a problem of scale: The bigger the threat, the less terrifying the threat truly is.
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threat → run → scale
The Godzilla/Kong movies are just goofy; Galactus in last year’s Fantastic Four seemed relatively lightweight despite his city-sized presence; Superman fought his clone a few weeks before that and I struggled to remember what, precisely, was smashing around Metropolis.
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what → seem → Metropolis
One reason these movies, particularly the comic book movies, fail to land is that, oftentimes, it feels like no one is actually in any danger.
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one → fail → danger
New York, Metropolis: They’re always magically evacuated, free of civilians.1
Godzilla Minus Zero does not spare civilians.
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Zero → evacuate → civilians
Indeed, one of the main points of this film is the responsibility that comes with choosing to do the right thing in order to save civilians.
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that → come → civilians
But for that message to land, we have to see the aftermath of war.
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we → land → war
Never forget that the Godzilla franchise is one born of the scars the Japanese psyche incurred after the firebombing of Tokyo and the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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psyche → forget → Hiroshima
The Minus films add to that legacy by tossing in the wickedness of Japan’s own policy of fighting to the last man, of turning soldiers into suicide bombers and self-immolating pilots.
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films → add → bombers
As such, Godzilla Minus Zero really earns its R-rating: I did not go into this expecting to see multiple sequences of nuclear annihilation and the effect that has on the human body, but see them we do.
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we → earn → them
When Ghidorah isn’t eating people or burning them alive or stomping on them for fun, he’s levitating their houses and smashing them on the ground.
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he → eat → ground
All of this happens amid a soundscape that has been turned to 11.
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that → happen → 11
It’s an intense film, is what I’m saying, and maybe one you’ll want to leave the younger children home for.
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you → ’ → children
Particularly given the surprising emotional heft of the movie, which revolves around the Shikishimas and their daughter, Akiko (Sae Nagatani).
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which → give → Shikishimas
These are not triumphal films, precisely, but they are, ultimately, hopeful: movies about shared humanity and the necessity to keep living, no matter what.
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they → share → humanity
Because, hey: You never know when things are going to turn around.
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things → know → ?
I was at the vice president’s final stop in the state last week just days before the election; you can read my dispatch here.
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you → read → dispatch
Needless to say, his last-ditch swing through North Texas did not have the hoped-for effect on turnout.
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swing → say → turnout
And if you hit that paywall, I hope you’ll consider signing up for a Bulwark+ membership.
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you → hit → membership
We’re doing a post-election flash sale, so take advantage now while you can:
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you → do → advantage
Assigned Viewing: The Daniel Roher Filmography
Tuner (Paramount+)
Navalny (HBO Max)
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Netflix/Peacock)
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (HBO Max)
Blink (Disney+)
On this week’s episode of The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, I talked to Daniel Roher about his recent film, Tuner, and what goes into making your first narrative feature after a hugely successful career in documentaries.
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what → become → documentaries
Of particular interest in this interview: The importance of hiring Dustin Hoffman for a key supporting role, which helped attract Leo Woodall to the project.
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which → hire → project
And Woodall delivers what I can only describe as an “Oh man, that guy’s a star” performance here.
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guy → deliver → performance
If Denis Villeneuve wasn’t giving him serious consideration for James Bond after this film’s release, he and his casting director were making a mistake.
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he → give → mistake
Tuner had a run in theaters early this year but got a little swamped by coming out around the same time as Obsession and Backrooms.
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Tuner → have → Obsession
The directors of those films—Curry Barker, 27, and Kane Parsons, 21, respectively—got a ton of attention for being young filmmakers making exciting originals.
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directors → get → originals
But any list of exciting younger filmmakers that doesn’t include Roher, 33, is missing a key entry.
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that → include → entry
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
