TOHO GOES SPEILBERGIAN FOR 'GODZILLA MINUS ONE'

 

Ryunosuke Kamiki in GODZILLA MINUS ONE (doing a JAWS imitation) Year: 2023 Grade: C

Japanese cinema (Toho Studios in particular) have made a popular Godzilla vehicle in GODZILLA MINUS ONE, which makes sense since the creature was literally born there: only it pays more homage to American auteur Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK... as the roaring T-Rex-style monster first appears where a failed (hence living) kamikaze pilot takes a military-island breather... and JAWS, after the same central character gets a job on a tattered yet dependable fishing boat, where they drop and shoot floating land-mines instead of barrels (and the approaching dorsal fin's replaced by the creatures' spiked-back resembling immense reindeer horns)...

And while attempting a searing human story in-between the monstrous ocean-to-city attacks... including our much too vulnerable hero meeting a pretty girl raising an orphaned baby in the ruins of their hometown... the action and downtime feels awkwardly imbalanced as the titular GODZILLA, looking fitfully menacing and formidably ferocious, seems like a special guest star crashing an otherwise slow-burn postwar-melodrama.

Godzilla in GODZILLA MINUS ONE aka Gojira -1.0

Godzilla in GODZILLA MINUS ONE aka Gojira -1.0

Godzilla in GODZILLA MINUS ONE doing a JURASSIC PARK imitation