#Goji is so spooky in this but I still love him

[clonedchaos]

Godzilla: Minus One Short Rant

AHHHHH I FINALLY WATCHED GODZILLA: MINUS ONE ON NETFLIX AND IT WAS GREAT!!!!! I’ve been wanting to watch it for a good while now. Some spoilers below btw, just gonna do a short rant so I can go back to my crochet practice—

The found family dynamic between Koichi, Noriko, and Aikiko was so wholesome and adorable. I love how Noriko just finds him on the streets, says “Here, take this kid” and runs off with the police after her. Then she comes back and crashes at Koichi’s place and he’s just like “What the heck, this is MY house??” And then they end up becoming an unlikely family throughout the film and it’s just ✨chef’s kiss.✨ Found family is my favorite dynamic, I loved it in this film. Well, it’s more of “these two end up falling for each other + an adopted daughter they both raised” but same thing kinda.

And Goji looks super spooky this movie. Like, he’s genuinely kinda creepy to me. Still find him adorable, but I find 99% of monsters cute in general, so that’s just a me problem and not a design problem. I do love the contrast between the Japanese Godzilla which focuses on him being a horrific force of nature that is supposed to show humans the results of tampering with what they shouldn’t, vs. Americas/Legendary’s Godzilla who is more of an action hero who helps protect the world.

And in my personal opinion:

I love both versions of Godzilla. Either it’s a heart-wrenching story centered around survivor’s guilt or “big lizard fights big monke” and I’m here for it.

Also, Koichi’s survivor’s guilt in general is such a big gut-punch. He carries that guilt with him for years and doesn’t believe he should ever be happy. I’m definitely glad he got a happy ending though, he’s been through a LOT. It’s also been a bit since I’ve watched a more serious film (I watch a lot of kid’s movies okay).

I feel like this movie was written well too, it’s got plenty of action points to break up the story to hold audience’s attention. It focuses more on the story and characters than the action or monsters, which is fine. It just takes some getting used to given I’m more used to faster paced action films. A slower pace doesn’t make it bad though, as I said.

And that opening scene was an AMAZING hook. It definitely pulls you into the horror aspect of the film. I really enjoyed the first shot of Zilla specifically from a cinematography and lighting standpoint. It just makes me happy for some reason. In fact, so many of the action scenes in this film are so goood. Specifically when flaming ships or trains are yeeted through the air and crash into buildings.

Goji’s design took some getting used to as well, mostly because I was introduced to the Godzilla franchise through Legendary’s Godzilla. I love how angry and somewhat grotesque he looks. I think he’s still the twisted result of radiation if I remember correctly? I don’t know if his backstory in this was different or not.

And for the fans who have seen the older Japanese films, has Godzilla always been able to regenerate? He literally takes a bomb to the face and goes:

And I love love LOVE the way Godzilla powers up his atomic breath. The way his spines slowly extend and begin to glow was eye candy.

So yeah, I really really enjoyed this movie. It’s a more serious, horror-esque film than what I’m used to in this franchise, but it was great. Now I should watch Shin Godzilla and Godzilla ‘54 because those are also a more serious take on it, and I’m working on seeing all of the films after all. :)

Also I was going to riot if Koichi or Noriko had died at the end… At least Goji isn’t dead though, he’s just taking a snooze at the bottom of the ocean. Wonder what he’ll do when he wakes up. 🤷‍♀️

Probably be cranky again.