Godzilla Minus Zero (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)

by Jack Martin | Nov 3, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 135 mins

UK Distributor: All the Anime

UK Release Date: 6 November 2026

WHO’S IN GODZILLA MINUS ZERO?

Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Jun Kunimura, Miou Tanaka, Sakura Andô, Masami Nagasawa, Min Tanaka, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sae Nagatani

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Takashi Yamazaki (director, writer), Kazuaki Kishida (producer), Naoki Satō (composer), Kōzō Shibasaki (cinematographer), Ryūji Miyajima (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Godzilla returns to cause more destruction in post-war Japan…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON GODZILLA MINUS ZERO?

Not since the 1954 original has a Godzilla movie been as much of a universal revelation as Godzilla Minus One. Director, writer and visual effects supervisor Takashi Yamazaki created a classic monster movie that not only provided plenty of the chillingly destructive kaiju chaos that defined the original sci-fi masterpiece, but by setting it amidst the devastation of post-war Japan with a group of extremely complex and empathetic human characters, it gave the long-running Toho franchise a fresh set of teeth to exhale its atomic breath. Critical and audience acclaim swiftly followed, as did its monumental Visual Effects Oscar win, and as soon as it was announced that Yamazaki would be following it up directly with Godzilla Minus Zero, anticipation was higher than it had ever been in the franchise’s seven-decade history.

But while this follow-up is certainly as much of an emotional action spectacle as its predecessor, often to a staggering degree, there is still something missing that prevents it from surpassing, or even matching, what came before. By no means is Godzilla Minus Zero in any way bad, it just lacks that freshness which made that first movie stand out so much.

Taking place a couple of years after the giant, mutated lizard known as Godzilla was seemingly vanquished, we find former kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryûnosuke Kamiki) now living a relatively peaceful family life with his wife Noriko (Minami Hamabe) and their adoptive daughter Akiko (Sae Nagatani), while scientist and Kōichi’s friend Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) is heading Japan’s Large-Scale Disaster Bureau to prepare for any new monster attacks. Sure enough, a new monster soon emerges to wreak havoc: a giant, three-headed dragon-like creature that comes to be known as “King Ghidorah”, and before you worry, that’s not a spoiler as it’s revealed who this familiar monster is within the first act. So, to combat not just this new threat but also the sudden reemergence of Godzilla himself, Noda is soon forced to rope in both Kōichi and Noriko – the latter of whom now bears signs of mutation herself after being exposed to Godzilla’s atomic blast in the previous film – to lure both monsters together and duke it out, before either one of them can cause even greater damage to the country, as well as other parts of the world.

Yamazaki seems to know that the formula he helped redefine in Godzilla Minus One is in no drastic need of being fixed, which can be both to this film’s credit and its detriment. It can certainly feel as though the film is retreading its own territory in terms of the action and wanton kaiju destruction, both of which have been given a significant upgrade thanks to a larger budget and slightly more fluid-looking effects, while the tone and overall structure is more or less on par with how it was before, with the plot here adding little that’s truly new or even that revelatory. Even the characters, as likeable and well-rounded as they remain, can buckle under their own weight as there’s perhaps too many of them to care about all at once, including some of the newer characters like Masami Nagasawa as a young meteorologist who joins Noda’s crew and Min Tanaka as a psychologically traumatised biologist who may or may not have some dastardly plans of his own, who sometimes wind up lost in the film’s perhaps too narratively ambitious plotting.

Luckily, there’s still plenty to really admire about Godzilla Minus Zero and how Yamazaki once again makes the well-worn format of this franchise feel exciting and gripping once more. There isn’t quite as much monster carnage this time round (Godzilla himself gets less than twenty minutes’ total screentime), but the filmmaker does well to make you feel the pure scope of it all, especially in IMAX for which this film has been specially formatted for selected sequences, with effects that are impressively detailed and make the classic designs for these monsters feel more sharply detailed than ever. There’s also the fact that both Godzilla and Ghidorah are very intimidating in this film, particularly when they’re either flying or swimming around blasting heaps of thermonuclear energy onto hordes of helpless civilians, with the carnage being much more apparent and explicit here as you get to see the charred remains of bodies (including children) in atomic aftermaths, in addition to watching characters whom we have come to really like be suddenly obliterated into tiny atoms.

It’s a very well-made monster movie, proving that Yamazaki has the vision and sense of scale to become one of our finest modern blockbuster filmmakers. However, it has the unfortunate disadvantage of always being compared to its predecessor, which really was this lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenon that surprised just about everyone with how deeply layered it was as a meditation on post-war Japan in addition to also being a great Godzilla movie. This one, for all its strengths, lacks that element of surprise as many of us are going in knowing what to expect, and although the movie delivers wholly on what it promises, it’s difficult to be as blown away by something we already have high expectations for.

Again, none of that makes Godzilla Minus Zero bad in any way shape or form; it’s simply a good sequel to a great movie. Even still, one can’t help feeling ever so slightly disappointed that it isn’t an even better sequel.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Godzilla Minus Zero is a strong follow-up that delivers an epic monster movie sequel with a greater sense of scale and emotional depth, though its close sticking to formula and an overabundance of characters does make it less satisfying and surprising than its predecessor.