Death Before Dishonor: "Godzilla Minus One" Review

the whole country is destroyed they just had a war everything's rubble and everybody's poor food is scarce the coffee was marginal you know what could be worse you you lose a gigantic War you have two cities that are nuclear blasted now you got Godzilla coming this is the 37th Godzilla movie in the go oh great oh look 39 movies I stand corrected do you believe that young people really young people high school students would even understand that concept of manhood and because of that I think we've made it an economy where you just can't as a man you cannot do it alone I I would like to talk to like a bunch of 18-year-olds I don't think you would [Laughter] [Music] but Welcome to the Real generation gap my name is Shane schme I'm Fred satii and today we are reviewing Godzilla minus one Godzilla minus one and you know what I thought thought you got a lot of monsters you killed this monster now you're minus one no that's right they got is not what it stands for so I actually had to look it up cuz I was like that's a really weird title maybe I mean they still got mothur they still got Rodan they're minus one no has nothing to do with that it has nothing to do with the monster verse one down how many to go so I looked it up it's the title well this is what the internet said minus one symbolizes Japan's lowest point after World War II and the emergence of Godzilla worsens the country's already dire State taking it below zero so I guess it's Godzilla negative one if you really want to be you know minus one is negative one yeah but I mean I don't like be worse what could be worse you you lose a gigantic War you have two cities that are nuclear blasted now you got Godzilla coming yeah there's look there's no good time for Godzilla to come let's let's let's say that but right after you lost a great big war wow that's a double bummer huh and that's exactly where the movie starts off you know um so before we get into that I just want to say I've not seen too many Godzilla movies I think my first Godzilla movie was Godzilla 2000 um which was pretty weird and had like to do with aliens and stuff but uh I liked this movie a lot well just on a technical note this is the 37th Godzilla movie in the go oh great oh look 39 movies I stand corrected 1954 to 2024 and look at all that look this has got to be the biggest star ever this is got to mean he doesn't have as many as John Wayne but how how phenomenal what a franchise huh that's crazy like maybe six Rocky movies but that's insane wow okay Godzilla I I really this so this is basically uh cuz you know you we have American Cinema and then we have the Japanese Cinema they're both kind of two different Godzilla franchises right but back in 1954 it was an American movie no no no was it I don't think so it's a Japanese film the original Godzilla the original Godzilla I'm pretty sure is a Japanese film it's directed by someone named ishiro Honda oh he the first one is in 1954 that's impressive yeah that's impressive and then 19 a good factoid yeah yeah I'm pretty sure they were originally Japanese movies I loved it as a kid I watched them you know when I was 10 years old okay you know I thought when they had King Kong versus Godzilla I thought that was like a bastardization really the most recent one the one back in the day yeah way way back they had I don't remember which one of those one of them was yeah but I I liked it that it was exclusively Japanese and Rodan was a Japanese monster that they combined those two you know to be it it would be kind of like you know King Kong versus Freddy Krueger or something no like it was not those two monsters were from different worlds I didn't dig that every kid loved Godzilla and I did I had a monster you know plastic you know model of that I had uh Godzilla is a classic and I love the monster verse but that that's not associated with this movie this movie is kind of a reboot to the original story of Godzilla which it takes place after World War II and I think what makes this movie so awesome is it doesn't just focus on the monster destroying the city it follows the life of this this pilot from World War II Japanese pilot he was a kamakazi pilot who returns home and he kind of has no respect from anyone cuz a kamakazi pilot that returned home exactly he has you got a problem he has no respect everyone's kind of mad at him and thinks he's a traitor and uh I don't yeah it's I think the fact that it follows the Pilot's life I think during this movie Godzilla is a physical monster throughout the you know throughout the the movie it's a problem but there's also the monster within this pilot of how he was a coward how he didn't commit suicide bombing and how he thinks he let down his country and his uh one of the opening scenes is he lands his failed kamakazi Mission at a base and that base gets attacked by Godzilla the first encounter and they all die he doesn't act again the mechanic looks over the plane he says go shoot it yeah he says you you your bomb is intact your plane is intact what you why didn't you do it so for the Japanese they have Bushido that's the way of the Warrior Way of the warrior and he he failed his whole family and his whole nation and his Emperor by not having the honorable death that he was programmed to do so he's going through life now with that kind of Shame and how do you make up for that how do you make up for that well there's only one way you got to kill Godzilla that's right yeah and you got to die doing it now one of the nuances and it's interesting the comicazi planes didn't have to they didn't train the pilots to land they just trained them to take off oh wow the fact that he landed the plane was a small miracle he must have been somewhat trained right but they also didn't have accoutrements in other words they didn't have the ejection seat they only had enough fuel for going one way to fly out there hit that Destroyer explode and there's no no point in giving them return fuel so the planes were light they weren't dog fighters they didn't have machine gun bullets in them they were just a flying bomb one purpose a onep purpose weapon the war was over yeah so country was you're kind of a history buff explain cuz in the movie they kind of referen you know uh the American sees their ship and they weren't allowed to have big ships and weapons anymore to fight Godzilla because of what happened in the war so could you give some context of like I'm glad you brought that up disarmament is bad right that's why I always keep my guns loaded right I don't want big weird monsters the radioactive dinosaurs coming up and coming after me I live near the beach yeah but look at that oh my God how awesome how awesome he's really a tyrannosaurus isn't he got the little arms in the front you know great big carnivore teeth you got to love them yeah Japan wasn't ready to fight and it's only natural that the rest of the world was rebuilding Japan's industrial infrastructure we wanted them to build train cars and Roads and railroad tracks and cars that we didn't want them spending their money on attack aircraft and Destroyer boats and that kind of thing so the occupation which which lasted for decades at least one decade the occupation was to restore their economy and and all that kind of stuff and so yeah they weren't they weren't prepared for a major SE battle mhm which is how you know what what they would have to engage in for Godzilla right they didn't really explain why Godzilla was a psycho killer you know what I mean it just was his nature I guess you know in the original the concept was that he was a product of radiation yeah that somehow radiation from nuclear activity you know created this mutant monster or whatever I think they imply that in this one as well yeah I didn't see where that was really well stated but either way yeah he came up and and just started wiping out cities and eventually Godzilla kind of becomes the protector doesn't he when the other monsters start coming in it's kind of like this is my turf and Godzilla starts not in this movie obviously I'm talking about in the franchise he kind of becomes a protector of you know Japan well he does have to fight other monsters and other movies which is you know kind of cool but um certainly not in this one he's just bent on destruction and he's headed towards Tokyo just like in the Blue Oyster Cult song right they have to stop him and they don't know how to stop them and look at that he his tail is recharging he's getting ready to have his heat blast they called it the heat blast right in the in the originally you thought of that as a radioactive fire somehow yeah I like that special effect in this movie when he shot his laser it looked like a nuclear explosion because he's a nuclear yeah creature yeah it was capable of horrifying destruction but somebody figured out that it takes time for that to recharge so they had to get them to discharge once MH and then when he would be like in a semi vulnerable state they could go after him so what did what did you think about this you know following the story of the pilot his girlfriend the other guys on the boat the scientist did you like the story the character development cuz you were saying it's just a Godzilla movie but for me I was like oh this is there's more to this than just Godzilla and then a large part of the story was there was an abandoned child and there was a a woman who was equally abandoned and she finds the little girl and now she wants to protect the little girl mhm and she's doing that but she's it's the whole country is destroyed they just had a war everything's rubble and everybody's poor food is scarce the coffee was marginal you know so so he somewhat took on the role of protecting her and protecting the little girl there was a lot of dynamics that way MH she didn't want I feel like even when he did that he was still presenting himself self in a way where he was still fighting that internal monster he has this internal battle oh yeah where he doesn't feel like a man he doesn't feel like he's worthy of being in that position he was doing his duty as a man taking care of the woman and the child he was doing there's scenes where you can see he's like you know don't I'm not your dad he tells the kid I'm not your dad um and same with the woman he's like I'm not he was in such disgrace because of Bushido that he didn't want her to grow up and yeah and she would have a father that was in disgrace so yeah there were a lot of those psychological things um I had a real good friend that pointed out that the demon in the movie was his demon Godzilla was just an ancillary monster yeah exactly he had his own thing that superseded that he had to prove himself as a man as a guardian of his family as a guardian of his country and as a guardian of his Emperor exactly right he had all this weight on him all this weight and how could you ever do something so great and so enormous and so redeeming he was looking for Redemption yeah and there was something something presented himself but he needed special equipment just like a hot rod car in a Vin Diesel movie he needed a he needed special equipment and a special team so he's got the you know the college guy that everybody was dependent on him even the guy they told to stay home the kid right he shows up to save their butt at some point too right and that's always the classic you know that the guy who wouldn't show up who shows up at the end you know you're going to make the basketball shot and you see your father in the audience now you're you know you do it and so all that stuff was in here really good I was into the monster movie part okay I liked what God Godzilla Godzilla gave City walk a whole new Whole New Concept didn't he I loved watching Godzilla move through the city and step on things and Crush things these buildings disintegrating before your eyes the the special effects of that kind of thing look at that he picks up a bus and he throws it back down as he makes his way to the center of town right it must be crazy for you specifically Fred to have seen the first Godzilla where this guy in probably like a rubber suit and now we have these giant million dooll movies where that's Godzilla we have it looks so close to real look at his eyes that looks like my dog's eyes you know it looks like an animal's eyes it's wonderful yeah it's wonderful and the this is all through parts of society like a car that would have been a show car 50 years ago couldn't even be in the car show MH but now the stuff you know everything that's made the cars that are made now they're so fabulous compared to 50 years ago and it's the same thing here this is believable yeah I mean this really looks like this is really happening it's not like a cartoonish thing or a little bit special Effy or something that just looks as natural and real as can be and I love that yeah it's so cool you know one of the things that came to mind when this guy was the protector of the family he was the man he was the protector of the woman the child the country his everything he was all this thing yeah so he he felt he should be yeah yes he did yeah but in our society today do you believe that young people really young people high school students would even understand that concept of manhood um for high school students I don't I don't know high school students when I was in high school I knew my Destiny to be a husband a father a man I work and you know and Conquer I was a night in armor I was going to go out and conquer the world and everything I don't know about high school as a millennial you know I've been out of high school I've been out of college for a bit now but uh I think it's like 50/50 you know there's some of us who very much had that mindset I'm a man I need to find a woman I'm going to provide for this woman I'm going to have kids I'm going to take care of these kids I'm going to make you know my establish established little piece of the Earth is going to be mine whatever that is and then I think there's the other half who's just like I want to find a good partner who contributes and maybe she can work maybe she'll probably make more than me shoot half the woman I know make more than me um you know so I think it's a little 50/50 some of the dudes my age don't want kids but I think most women still want actually no a lot of women don't want kids anymore I don't know that young people can relate to his to his problem say Yeah in high school I think it's even more different cuz now we have kids who don't even know if they're a man or a woman so not let alone what does that mean to provide for a family that kind of context you know right of being a man you know so yeah in the movie his love interest who he denies as his love interest at some point she wants to get a job and he kind of he's kind of like well I don't provide like I got I'm making money you know I'm diffusing these bombs in the ocean what do you need a job for I'm going to take care of you even in the movie you know you could see women are starting to want jobs and to provide so I think it's a little bit of um more so a self-fulfilling thing you know that's the word I was going to use fulfillment yeah in other words women now they used to be fulfilled by their biological purpose right but now a great many of them they want to deny or postpone that and they want to be fulfilled with some other Pursuit an intellectual pursuit or a physical Pursuit maybe they want to be a champion athlete a golfer whatever tennis player right they don't have time for that and because of that that used to be a really tiny minority that used to be like one women and because of that I think we've made it an economy where you just can't as a man you cannot do it alone unless you're part of the you know top 5% or whatever culturally when I went to high school they had home economics class they actually had girls were baking they had like kitchens and they they taught them these skills I think now women are programmed to go to school and get some kind of desk job or something cuz God knows they don't do any dirty work yeah but but well you know dirty difficult dangerous you got to call a man right that's that's also PR want to be a bookkeeper or something your woman can do that and make more money my friend I have a friend who worked at Home Depot and he would always complain to me how he'd have co-workers which were women made the same exact amount as he did that they would say hey can you get this down for me hey can you grab this un the truck or hey yeah can you come they they were forklift certified too but they always made him do stuff and that's that's something's off somewhere in there but it is interesting so you're making a movie now it's a a monster movie that takes place you know post World War II I'm not sure that the younger generation can identify with the character I mean I'm really not sure I don't have a position on this I'm not sure yeah I I would like to talk to like a bunch of 18-year- olds I don't think you would but I'll give that some thought yeah I don't think you'd have much to talk about with them but I see what you're saying well I'd have to text them yeah I couldn't OB you know obviously I wouldn't talk to them because they would consider me a stalker you know it there would be all kind of problems yeah I really like the movie a lot I found it very entertaining I like the monster aspect more than the social aspect or the psychological aspect or whatever it may be it's interesting to me that that that that aspect is it really was a the whole first half of the movie was this guy it wasn't like Godzilla came on in the first five minutes I was say way in probably wasn't even I want say there wasn't that much Godzilla scenes but there was but it wasn't the whole movie Godzilla so great I me yeah but you're right the first half of the movie look at that picture that's so cool this is a guy having a bad day right you know looks so real like those eyes are like that's my dog when he's chasing the freaking ball like he's locked in so looks so real it really did it it really did and then some of those scenes when that when he just came up under a boat mhm like all a sudden the water was somewhat tranquil and then wh really fantastic work MH the to me movies are at at a quality now that I can't even imagine how it could improve I believe I'm at the bottom of the ocean I believe I'm in outer space I believe I'm inside the human brain I believe whatever they're showing me the effects the way they do it and everything now is so realistic looking and believable I believed Jaws mhm you know that it was really a real big fish you know yeah and this is like not one of the biggest budget movies either this is a $15 million movie right and it's grossing 58 million worldwide which is really good like congrats to them right so what did you think about the soundtrack didn't notice it it was uh there was there was some audio back there but it didn't it was certainly not some classic Masterpiece it just you didn't recognize the iconic like yeah they had some of those they had some of those punctuations they had dramatic moments yeah but like there's that iconic medley that's like the Godzilla yeah sound it wasn't special it was like it I thought it was cool all right but anyways so without giving spoilers what do you think about you know the story as a whole the ending you know I'm glad you asked me that because in the past we've reviewed movies that ended suddenly yeah and it was very unsatisfying but this movie is very complete mhm the the big issue in the movie right from the beginning is the the demon within this man MH and that has to be resolved and the story is very complete and because it's very complete it's very uplifting yeah I think I left the theater with a very content like I saw a story beginning middle end you know but I felt very whole it felt very whole right they did a really good job of that they did a really good job of resolution the story was very very well res olved and and for that reason you know way in the past the generation gap right movies were uplifting you know the hero one or whatever and you left the theater with that kind of a good feeling you didn't have these Slice of Life movies yeah where it just you know they just stopped filming yeah suddenly so I really liked it for that reason it was a heroic movie in the end and so that that's what made it a little extra great especially in this time we have a lot of angst mhm so something that's well thought through well explained very uplifting give the audience a good feeling it's a wonderful thing and I it was a wonderful movie so what do you what do you give this movie overall well I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles and I had a problem with that and the problem was the subtitles were too quick okay I'm a fast reader I'm a I'm a speed reader I'm train speed reader you know and I mean they would say something and Bam the sentence would come up and go down up and go down I actually missed I couldn't finish reading some of those sentences so much as i' love to give the movie a 10 I'm just going to give it a nine wow I'm surprised you're even going that high it deserved it in so many ways so many ways I'm glad I mean as a Godzilla movie which again I haven't seen that many I'm giving it like a 10 like that was that was as entertaining as I expect to be if I'm going to go see Godzilla you know yeah but uh as just a movie All Around movies we're comparing it to everything I've ever seen in my life uhhuh I'm giving it a seven Oh I thought you just said 10 no as a Godzilla movie like comparing to like going into the theater knowing I'm going to see a Godzilla movie it's a 10 comparing it to you know Oppenheimer everything else I've seen this year I don't think it stands up against that but uh you have a good point there but for sure but uh it it it's entertaining I would definitely watch this again you know if it was just on HBO one night and I'm chilling at every Thanksgiving yeah uh I loved it it was it was fun I expected it to be worse than it was and that's always pleasant when you know you see a movie and it's better than you expected it was very multi-dimensional mhm exactly exactly and uh typically I don't like um not that I don't like foreign films I don't like having to read while I'm trying to watch a movie but it didn't seem to bother me as as much as it bothered you so um yeah I'll give it a seven I liked it cool yeah that's been a review of Godzilla minus one my name is Shane schm I'm Fred satii and we'll catch you guys in the next one thanks again for watching make sure to like comment subscribe leave us a comment let us know what you think of Godzilla minus one is it the best Godzilla movie yet is there a better Godzilla movie what do you think minus one stands for let us know in the comments make sure to subscribe check us out on Spotify and we'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: The Reel Generation Gap

Views: 3,058

Keywords: The Reel Generation Gap, movie review, reel generation gap, gap reel generation, movie review channels, film review, hollywood movie review, hollywood movie, shin godzilla, blue oyster cult godzilla

Id: 0-M4oV_1UeQ

Length: 22min 44sec (1364 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 27 2023