New Godzilla film announced for 11/032023

[lhb412]

My faux-IMAX screening on Wednesday was full; good energy from the crowd and whatnot. Let's just say I wasn't the only one wearing a Godzilla t-shirt! My preference, however, is seeing movies at mostly empty, off-hours matinees. It's super chill. Problem is, because it's a smaller release with less showtimes but is doing so well even those are filling up! All the good seats are gone at the 9:00 am tomorrow! That's wild. Might wait 'till Monday, or maybe drive a bit to an out-of-the-way theater...

Thought the movie was great, felt like it would have a positive reaction, but these extraordinarily positive reactions have caught me off-guard! It seems to have hit the zeitgeist, you know? With everyone gushing on social media (to say nothing about YouTubers and other influencer types) I think this thing might have legs.

[Benjamin Haines]

Another theater just a 30-minute drive away ended up getting this, so we were able to go see it on Wednesday night.

Godzilla Minus One is a masterpiece. This is the Godzilla film that Toho has needed to make for a really long time. It's so good.

The bleakness and heartbreak of the postwar setting is crushingly palpable. It brings Godzilla back to his roots, it confronts the wartime disregard for human life by both the United States and Imperial Japan head-on, and it makes for a gripping and very personal story with characters whose struggles feel all too real.

I think this is the first time since the Gamera trilogy that a Godzilla movie has managed to top it. There have been a few Godzilla films in the intervening years that have come close (GMK, G'14, Shin) but Minus One raises the bar for post-Showa kaiju films.

The visual effects are shockingly well done. They did not just cherry-pick the best shots for the marketing! This movie absolutely earned its spot as one of the 20 finalists for Best Visual Effects nominations at the upcoming Oscars. Even if it doesn't win, it deserves to be nominated. I also have to commend this film's sound design. The sounds of chaos and destruction really ripped through the theater floor. Both visually and aurally, Minus One takes Godzilla movies to the next level. It's a completely immersive spectacle.

I've found a lot to appreciate in every Godzilla film and TV show that's come out in the past ten years. G'14 is still the best Hollywood adaptation, Shin Godzilla is fantastic, I'll go to bat for the woefully underrated anime film trilogy any day, I enjoy Legendary's big dumb sequels for the kaiju slugfests that they are, I'm digging Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Singular Point is one of my favorite productions in the entire franchise. Godzilla Minus One surpasses them all. It's a top-tier creature feature and it's one of the best Godzilla movies ever made. This is the modern masterwork that the Godzilla series has had lurking beneath the surface for a long time now. Takashi Yamazaki and the entire cast and crew made it happen.

I'll post more detailed thoughts in the spoiler thread later, or tomorrow.

[Dai]

Japanese cinemas are getting a black and white version, going by the amusingly on-the-nose title Godzilla Minus One/Minus Colour (G-1.0/C).

https://youtu.be/PShgB-ielBI?si=xM7trnfaXPkFTlmj

Meanwhile, the movie must be performing well in the UK. My local cinema has extended it until at least the end of next week. I don't recall them ever running a subtitled movie for this long.

[lhb412]

The extraordinary success of this movie in the US was a delightful surprise ending to a great year for the character (for the whole genre, really) . We close out 2023 with Minus One as the 3rd most successful Japanese feature in US box office history, and it's probably got a week or two left before it really begins phasing out of our theatres.

I've seen it three times already, and I think I'll squeeze in a fourth while I still can.

[Dai]

Godzilla Minus One Wins Best International Film at Georgia Film Critics Association Awards
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2024-01-08/godzilla-minus-one-wins-best-international-film-at-georgia-film-critics-association-awards/.206222

[lhb412]

A limited, one week run of the black and white version (Godzilla Minus One Minus Color) will apparently close out the US theatrical run! check your listings for the weekend after next (the 26th).

[Kailem]

Godzilla Minus One has been nominated for a "Best Visual Effects" Oscar, making it the first Godzilla movie in history to receive an Oscar nomination!

I still think it's a pretty big snub that it wasn't nominated for anything else, especially Best International Feature, but at least it was nominated for *something*.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/the-2024-oscar-nominations/

[lhb412]

What an incredible thing! Who would've imagined this a few months ago?!

As for snubs, well I think Joe Hisiashi's score for The Boy and the Heron not being nominated is pretty egregious. I try not to get too worked up about these things: when people I like get awards or nominations I dig it and they they sometimes put movies I missed back into theaters... beyond that? Not too important.

It's kind if a banner year for Japanese pop culture, with three high profile Japanese films in the oscar race. I read a few articles that pointed out that Japanese dramas and reality shows are doing rather well on streaming, a J-pop band apparently broke through into the US charts, and anime is a continual moneymaker. It's funny; a few years ago I read similar pieces about how Japanese pop culture had become stagnant and Korean culture abroad had so eclipsed it. Just shows how cyclical things are.

[Benjamin Haines]

It's a very well-deserved nomination! Whether it wins or not, this is a historic milestone. It has been decades since Toho's Godzilla movies were genuinely on par with contemporary Hollywood films in terms of modern effects work. Heck, it was only 20 years ago that Toho was still producing man-in-suit Godzilla movies! I love the old effects techniques as much as the next fan but Japanese cinema really stopped keeping up with the times by the 1990s as Hollywood movies broke new ground with CGI, a far cry from the days of Eiji Tsuburaya when Japanese effects were cutting edge, and then the Gamera trilogy made it evident that Godzilla movies were no longer even making the most of traditional techniques. Shin Godzilla was a huge leap forward for Toho in that regard but Minus One finally restored the Godzilla series to the forefront of modern effects work, and this historic Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects is recognition of that.

Apparently the Best International Feature category has special rules that the movies needed to be released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023, so Minus One couldn't qualify for that category this year because it opened in Japan on November 3.

Check out this video of the Minus One crew reacting to the nomination announcement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD_BmcNqoro

[lhb412]

Thought I was all Godzilla'd out after my last screening, but was enticed by the novelty of Minus Color so I went for round #5. They put it back on the premium screen, a kind if faux-IMAX! Best part was at the beginning; after the modern, color, Toho logo we cut to the old, black and white logo!

[Kailem]

It sounds so obvious now that you say it, but I'd never considered that they might do something like that for the black and white version. That's such a cool detail. I've always been a fan of the logos from various eras for all the big, classic movie studios, with Toho being no exception, so that must have been really cool to see.

As far as I'm aware the Minus Colour version isn't screening in the UK, but hopefully when the inevitable Blu-ray release is announced we'll end up getting both versions included on that, as it's certainly something I'd be interested in seeing.

[lhb412]

Well, folks in America are seeing Godzilla Minus One for its last scheduled screenings before it leaves theaters. It has been a wild two months!

[Dai]

So now the question is how long we have to wait for the home release. I presume the Japanese BD will be around July, but that almost certainly won't have English subtitles. Hong Kong had an English subbed BD of Shin Godzilla a month after the Japanese release, but the HK BD of Shin Ultraman took longer than the US one.

As for who will licence it in the US or UK, it's anyone's guess. The companies who released Shin Godzilla in those territories no longer exist (Funimation and Manga Entertainment), having both been swallowed up by Crunchyroll, who have yet to release a non-anime movie AFAIK. I hope Cleopatra don't licence it, considering how badly they messed up the release and subsequent lack of customer service for Shin Ultraman.

Anime Limited did the UK cinema release, and have occasionally dipped their toes into live-action Japanese BDs, so they're a possibility. They're notorious for delays and being slow in general though, so I wouldn't expect it before the latter half of 2025 if they pick up the home rights.

Then there's the risk of such a successful movie catching the eye of one of the big streaming platforms. If it ends up in Netflix jail we might never see a western home release.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Netflix jail seems to happen only to titles that debut exclusively on Netflix in particular territories. Then they're considered "A Netflix Original" in those territories and it's up to Netflix to decide whether to release them on physical media or license them to any distributors who might be interested in releasing them, which Netflix usually doesn't do. In Japan, Toho released each of the Godzilla anime films in theaters before they went to Netflix, and each episode of Singular Point likewise aired on television first, and Toho went on to release all of those on Japanese disc, whereas they debuted on Netflix outside of Japan and they still haven't been released on disc anywhere else in the world.

Since Minus One has already had a theatrical release in the US, the UK and elsewhere, I think it would be spared the total exclusivity of being "A Netflix Original" if it were to end up streaming on Netflix in any of those territories. I personally hope that it does end up streaming on Netflix in the US after it gets released on disc, because Netflix still has by far the widest saturation of any streaming service among the American populace and that would give this movie a whole new level of exposure.

With the amount of prestige and audience buzz that Minus One has achieved, it shouldn't have any difficulty finding a home media distributor in North America. I wonder if Toho might actually distribute the movie on North American DVD, BRD and 4K on their own if they have the infrastructure for that, considering how this was the first Godzilla movie to be distributed by Toho theatrically in the US.

In any case, yeah, Toho's Japanese disc release will need to happen before it gets released on home media anywhere else in the world, and that Japanese release doesn't have an announced date yet so it's going to be a while before we hear news about anywhere else.

[lhb412]

It wouldn't surprise me if Criterion gets it. They've got the longest relationship with Toho and seem increasingly in bed with each other (it's an open secret that they're slowly corraling a majority of the US rights together). Criterion also has a new sublabel called Janus Contemporaries for new release movies that, well, maybe haven't earned the prestige of being in the collection proper - but Minus One is so lauded with critical praise I don't think there'd be any qualms with it going straight onto the main label!

... but with Toho releasing the film into theaters themselves it wouldn't surprise me if they became their own distributor to home video, streaming, VOD ... but if they did they'd likely be partnering with a major distributor like Janus for disc production. Like how GKIDS releases are done in cooperation with Shout.

[Benjamin Haines]

The Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 8, 2024:
‘Godzilla Minus One’ VFX Oscar Nom Seemed to Be an “Unreachable” Goal
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/godzilla-minus-one-director-interview-oscar-nomination-1235817354/

This article is short but it's a good read.

[Kailem]

The Japanese Blu-ray release date has been announced as May 1st, with a set containing both the regular and Minus Colour versions:

https://x.com/godzilla_jp/status/1764848313528987837?s=20

[lhb412]

Godzilla wins the Oscar! Godzilla wins!

[Benjamin Haines]

What an unbelievable milestone for the Godzilla series!

Eiji Tsuburaya would be the proudest!

[Kailem]

Who ever would have thought that there would come a time when Arnold Schwarzenegger would announce Godzilla as an Oscar-winning movie?! What great news to wake up to!

I still think it deserved even more than just an SFX nod, but either way, it's awesome that it got the win! It may have taken a few decades, but Godzilla truly is back on top on the special effects game once again!

[Dai]

A well-deserved win. Here's the clip for anyone who hasn't seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXMM0y7iVdc

The effects scenes in Minus One stood apart from the majority of the effects-heavy movies we've seen come out of Hollywood in the last decade. There was a dramatic heft and a real sense of dread and tension to them. You can usually tell when a director understands not only the technology and artistry of effects, but also how to use them as story-telling tools. When a director just leans on a pre-vis house like The Third Floor instead, you end up with skillfully rendered, but ultimately hollow, fireworks displays like so much of Hollywood's recent output.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ The video in that link has been set to private. Here's a video on the official Oscars channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3q7SaXhCPE

It's so cool that it was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito who presented the award and even handed them their trophies!

SciFi Japan also posted an article with photos and info provided by Toho and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, including the text of Takashi Yamazaki's acceptance speech and a backstage interview with him.

https://www.scifijapan.com/godzilla-toho/godzilla-minus-one-wins-academy-award-for-best-visual-effects-update

Part of that interview with Yamazaki is also quoted at the end of this article by The Hollywood Reporter in which he comments on Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/oscars-takashi-yamazaki-godzilla-minus-one-oppenheimer-1235849117/