It might not surpass Godzilla Minus One, but it’s still essential viewing.

By Michael BoylePublished: 27 September 2026

From the moment Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla: Minus Zero begins, it’s clear viewers are in good hands. Whereas his 2023 movie Godzilla: Minus One functions as a Jaws-esque slow-burn thriller, its sequel starts off with one of the coolest, loudest, most terrifying action sequences in the entire franchise, and it doesn’t let up much from there. Minus Zero has a larger budget than its predecessor, and it’s showing it off in every scene.

Rest assured that the monsters look incredible here, and the new one’s even accompanied by his own recurring boss soundtrack. Composer Naoki Satō gives the villain a theme song that’s nearly as catchy and memorable as Akira Ifukube’s original Godzilla theme. Minus Zero’s villain has appeared in countless Godzilla movies already, but it feels inevitable that this is the one all future versions of him will be compared to first.

In the wave of glowing reviews from the world premiere at the New York Film Festival on Saturday, the movie’s seen favourable comparisons to The Dark Knight. The comparison is apt: Godzilla Minus Zero is more intense and ambitious than its predecessor. It expands on the first film’s musings on post-war Japan in a fresh, compelling manner, and it ups the ante with its new R-rating. It dives even deeper into the atomic bomb metaphor at the centre of the Godzilla franchise, and it makes for a thrilling (if deeply upsetting) watch.

Godzilla Minus Zero also widens its scope; whereas the first movie hyper-focused on Kôichi Shikishima (Ryûnosuke Kamiki), a kamikaze pilot struggling to make piece with his failures in World War II, here Kôichi is but one of many protagonists in the fight to save Japan.

The big winners in this cast are Kôichi’s returning love interest Noriko (Minami Hamabe), who was miraculously revealed to have survived in the previous movie, and Dr Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), who must once again wrestle with how to defeat a kaiju without sacrificing his morals. Both characters are far more prominent (and far more interesting) in this movie, to the point where it sometimes feels like Minus One was merely the set-up for their true stories here.

The Dark Knight comparisons cut both ways, however, as the movie shares a heightened version of that sequel’s biggest flaw: its returning main character, the guy who drove the narrative of the first film, is now the least interesting person in his own movie.

Just as Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne was overshadowed by the Joker and Harvey Dent, Kôichi Shikishima is the only major character here who doesn’t have a coherent, compelling arc. He’s given a few emotional scenes, sure – there’s one at the end that had NYFF audiences audibly crying – but his storyline feels like a mishmash of his journey from the first movie. Whereas Noriko and Dr Noda feel like they’re in the middle of the most important period of their lives, Kôichi feels extraneous.

There’s a lack of cohesion to Godzilla Minus Zero that drags down the second half, which must resolve its ensemble cast’s journeys in ways that don’t often tie neatly together. New character Kanji Murakami (Min Tanaka) is another frustrating example of this; he’s a scientist with a heavy storyline exploring Japan’s post-war trauma from a new angle, but his arc ends up feeling disconnected to the actual plot. Minus Zero raises a ton of interesting ideas with Murakami, but seems disinterested in fully exploring them.

The first movie was this focused hero’s journey where the character arcs, themes, and the literal plot were all intrinsically linked together; the sequel resolves most of these elements separately, one after another, in a way that starts to feel longwinded as the runtime ticks on. Godzilla Minus One started slow but expertly built up into an explosive finale; Godzilla Minus Zero comes in guns blazing but doesn’t keep up the same momentum.

Of course, not quite matching up to Godzilla Minus One hardly means this is a bad movie. The mature writing and the heightened emotional stakes are still very much present here, and the sequel succeeds in being the rare modern Godzilla story where most of the human characters are just as compelling as the monsters around them, where the tragedy of each person harmed by these monsters consistently hits home.

Godzilla Minus Zero does not quite surpass its predecessor, but it’s still an essential, captivating Godzilla movie.

Godzilla Minus Zero is released in IMAX from 3 November and in UK and Irish cinemas from 6 November.

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