Pretty impressive that this cost $15m apparantly. Hopefully people were paid fairly. But with that, the film doesn't look cheap!

Pretty entertaining and the drama with the characters is well done as opposed to usually being apathetic to the main story of a monster movie.

A+++++++++
THE BEST GODZILLA MOVIE EVER!

Godzilla 10/10
story 10/10
human 10/10
action 10/10
cinematography 10/10
score 10/10
production design 10/10

Japanese films don't receive high budgets because 1. Theaters get 50% of earnings and 2. They rarely perform well outside Japan, so profit relies heavily on domestic performance (although we've seen this change in more recent years as many (mostly anime) have found huge success in South Korea, China, and the U.S, among some other countries).

But... animators and special effects artists are also not paid much (think of it as more of a job that pays the bills well-enough but not a whole lot more than a career), at least by Western standards.

So... I haven't seen what the budget is in Yen, but if $15m is accurate in USD, then that means this film cost a little over ¥2 billion. That's a hefty budget for Japanese standards. Not crazy high, but it's a a bit rare to have a film with a ¥2 billion+ budget because in order to turn a profit domestically, it needs to reach ¥4.5/5 billion (blockbuster status, roughly the equivalent of film grossing $250m in the US) which is reasonable for this project and justifies the budget, and is where it's actually aiming for.

This was so much fun! It's such a simple movie but it really works. The cheesiness, the homage to the series, all around a great time.

A

Wow! That's the only word that can be used to describe Godzilla Minus One. One of the biggest surprises of my movie-going lifetime. Wasn't even on my radar and yet has become a top five (if you exclude Eras) film of the year for me.

From the terrifying opening sequence to the epic battle at the end, Minus One never lets up tension, even during the slower dramatic scenes. This would be a good film about how war follows soldiers home even without any Godzilla attacks in it. There's no waiting around for the stupid human drama to end so we can get back to the monster fighting. You want these people to be able to live peacefully. You them to fall in love and get good jobs. You don't want them to be obliterated by an atomic breath attack. When Godzilla shows up you are in awe of its raw physical presence where every step has an impact, sending chills down your spine.

So I gotta agree with Rev and say it is indeed the best Godzilla film ever, completely capturing the essence of the original with modern effects (this $12M looks better than alot of $200M+ films) and themes. 9.7/10ish