Godzilla Minus Zero

What am I missing?

As rave after rave pours in for the new GODZILLA MINUS ZERO, I settled into my IMAX seat, ready to be blown away.

For maybe 25 minutes of the film, the sound design and special effects team absolutely blew my doors off.

But I had to sit through two hours and 15 minutes of overacting, annoying onscreen kids and goofy dreck to get to the good parts.

Is that a ratio worth paying for? Debatable, but I'd lean toward a maybe, because two of the action scenes are absolutely stunning. You'll have plenty of time to visit the snack bar and buy the giant Godzilla popcorn buckets in between them.

Director Takashi Yamazaki is back from the previous film in the series, 2023's "Godzilla Minus One". That film also won rave after rave and I fell asleep in it, waking up to give it a C. It did make over $115 million on a $10 million budget, so I guess it was just me feeling underwhelmed.

This time, Yamazaki has about twice that budget at about $19 million, which I fully credit him here for making look like a couple hundred million. The film LOOKS and sounds spectacular.

He's got his lead actors back in their same roles from the last one, neither of which I remembered much about, a pure statement of my lack of engagement last time out.

There is no doubt they are the two best actors in the film from an American view. Minami Hamabe stars as Noriko, who survived Godzilla's attacks in the last film in a very unique style and Ryunosuke Kamiki stars as Shikishima, who's clearly the worst Kamikaze pilot on record, since he's survived two WW2 era films.

After a cool opening scene, the film drifts into longggggggggg sequences of exposition, scientists huddled in small rooms and way too much silly family drama around Noriko and Shikishima's young daughter, who spends most of the film crying for long periods. It's annoying on an IMAX scale.

The film is more effective during dramatic flashbacks to the atomic bomb in Nagasaki that a resident professor remembers vividly, providing occasional moments that pull you back in after a whole lot of talking...and talking...and planning..and more talking.

Godzilla has a worthy adversary this time out with Ghidorah, a massive winged dragon/serpent with multiple heads, a nasty ability to adapt & morph and lighting spitting from every mouth. The creature is beautifully designed and rendered and the sound design team rocks us every time it flies into the story. Which isn't often enough.

My favorite scene takes place in the middle of the film. Japanese scientists and one very clever weather savant have figure out that if they can drive a giant metal rod into Ghidorah (who loves storms) then this rod will "generate a heat stronger than the surface of the sun" or some such nonsense (it's a lot of subtitles) and they can defeat the winged baddie.

So a giant WW2 era fighter and accompanying fighters fly into a storm system, rile up Ghidorah and then try to fly directly above the creature and drop the rod into its back. Everything about this sequence is Yamazaki's finest moment. ROARING in IMAX, bombay door open, giant props whiz right past your seat, the creature screams as it spews lighting bolts at the fighter jets, it's fantastic. If you told me the creative teams for sound and special effects earned Oscars for their work, I would cheer them on. It's astounding, especially for the budget. If you're going to see this, definitely see it in IMAX.

Then take a nice long nap, go next door and grab a sandwich. Return about a half hour later for the grand finale, which sees a resurrected giant Godzilla, lured from the sea in a clever way I won't divulge here, battle Ghidorah in what's left of a war devastated city that stretches on for miles. When every deep breath from Godzilla pops those cool neon blue spikes out of his spine and atom bomb level explosions ensue, its a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

The difference between Japanese dramatic sensibilities and ours is apparent in the level of camp, playing to the back row and vaudeville style humor apparent in the non-action scenes. Perhaps Yamazaki is trying to evoke the comic sensibilities of the 50's B-movie Godzilla films here, but I think I'm probably overthinking it.

My favorite modern Godzilla movie by several giant lizards is Gareth Edwards brilliant, jaw dropping 2014 spectacle "Godzilla". Nothing in the dozen years and endless sequels since has ever come close to creating the serious legend building and visual drama of Edwards spectacle.

The select moments above come close for a flash, but are dragged under by Afterschool Special family dramatics and whiny brats.

Just like it's predecessor, GODZILLA MINUS ZERO gets a C.