'Made me cry four times': the first Godzilla Minus Zero viewers say it beats Minus One

Godzilla Minus Zero opened in Japan on November 3 and reaches US theaters November 6 through GKIDS, with Takashi Yamazaki back as director, writer and VFX supervisor. Set in 1949, two years after Minus One, it continues the story of Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Noriko (Minami Hamabe) as a new calamity arrives.

The reviews landed high: 95% on Rotten Tomatoes from the first 22 reviews, with Digg noting the score later climbing to 97. In any other franchise that's a coronation; in this one, it reads as a dip, because Minus One sits at 99. The review thread on r/boxoffice treated the gap accordingly:

"You know minus one was a banger when a 92% critic score is seen as a downgrade."

— a commenter on r/boxoffice, as the early score settled

Early viewers are pushing back on the downgrade framing. One in the same thread said the film made them cry four times; among the first public reactions, the sentiment repeats — "Never thought I'd cry to Godzilla," wrote one, while others called it a Terminator 2-tier sequel and "the Godfather Part 2" to Minus One. Polygon's review credits it with "a grander spectacle and more heart-wrenching drama."

The Oscar rematch

All of this sets up a rematch in March. Minus One won the visual effects Oscar with a budget under $15 million and Yamazaki's own small team at Shirogumi doing the work — the first Godzilla film ever to take an Academy Award. The sequel, reportedly just over $15 million, is aiming at the same category in a far richer field.

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One r/boxoffice commenter already drafted the shortlist:

"I'd say this movie, The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, DUNE part III, and Wildwood will make the shortlist for VFX at the Oscars"

— a commenter on r/boxoffice

Look at those budgets next to Toho's. Nolan's The Odyssey crossed a billion dollars this summer; Dune: Part Three opens December 18 with the full weight of a flagship franchise behind it. Toho is walking into that category for the second time with a film that costs less than a tentpole's marketing campaign, and on current reviews it belongs there.

The loudest complaint about Godzilla Minus Zero so far is that its Rotten Tomatoes score is merely in the mid-90s.

For US viewers the practical note: the film shares its November 6 weekend with The Cat in the Hat, and the early-reaction gap between those two could not be wider. The year's most argued-over spectacle may once again be a subtitled Japanese drama where the monster is the second most devastating thing on screen.

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