Given a small budget, the creators of “Godzilla Minus One” had to think differently than all other Godzilla movie-makers to create an Oscar-winning film that fans enjoyed.
With an estimated $10-15 million budget for visual effects, “Godzilla Minus One” took the Oscar home for best visual effects. Making it the lowest budget movie to ever win that category.
Along with this Oscar, the movie has also received praise from fans and critics around the world for the new approach to Godzilla.
Unlike the recent Godzilla movies, “Godzilla Minus One” kept it simple while also keeping it interesting.
The movie takes place in Japan, post World War II. The plot follows a Japanese soldier who suffers from survivors’ guilt after being blamed for not saving people from a Godzilla attack.
Throughout the film we see this soldier fight through his grief and emotional pain to redeem himself, and in the end he comes home the hero.
The creators of the movie made a different version of Godzilla that lacks some of the features we see with the “Monsterverse” Godzilla, but they make up for it with some added and improved features.
Godzilla in this movie was as realistic as Godzilla could possibly get. He was more jagged, and exactly how you would expect a massive dinosaur that was exposed to radiation to look.
Although this Godzilla was damaged by human weapons, it had self-healing abilities that looked awesome on screen. While this Godzilla was half the size of the Monsterverse Godzilla it was just as strong.
The atomic heat beam that Godzilla emits was probably the strongest we have yet to see in any movie. Not only did it burn or disintegrate everything it touched but it also came with massive explosions that wiped out everything.
This new approach at Godzilla was a risky move by the creators but it paid off. It gave us new content that didn’t feel repetitive but instilled the same fear and awe of the monster.
The movie isn’t just humans trying to survive and understand Godzilla and all the other monsters, it is just Godzilla, which makes it more engaging.
In the end humans didn’t try to kill Godzilla with bigger weapons, but instead used their brains and thought of a way no one has tried before. They set a trap that would suck Godzilla to the bottom of the ocean, then release him back to the surface, where the quick change in pressure (in theory) would kill him.
Although this plan did not work, it was amazing to watch such a unique way of thinking come into play.
This plan’s failure paved the way for the main character to sacrifice himself and his plane by flying into Godzilla’s mouth with a bomb. Even though the pilot survived, the part of him that felt guilt died with Godzilla.
The final scene of the movie features the corpse of Godzilla sinking to the ocean floor, where we see his heart begin beating again.
“Godzilla Minus One” approached the movie with new ideas that came to life beautifully on the screen. Fans loved it, critics loved it and this movie was much deserving of the Oscar it received.
