Brief Story Line
Two years after the events in Godzilla Minus One, former Kamikase pilot Koichi Shikisima (Ryunosuke Kamiki - Suzume, Samurai Sensei TV series etc) was living happily with Noriko (Minami Hamabe - Ajin: Demi-Human, Shin Kamen Rider etc) and their adopted young girl Akiko (Sae Nagatani). Meanwhile their old friend scientist Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka - The Hidden Blade, Kita no Kuni kara TV series etc) was appointed as the director of Large Scale Disaster Response Bureau leading team of scientists including very intelligent meterologist Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa - Masquarade Hotel, Before We Vanish etc).
As the Japanese people were still dealing with the aftermath of Godzilla's attacks, somehow a new threat appeared in the form of a giant creature who was referred as Ghidorah by biologist Murakami (Min Tanaka - 47 Ronin, The 19th Medical Chart TV series etc). Noda devised a plan to kill Ghidorah which required pilots to coordinate the attack. Despite Noda and Noriko's objections, Shikisima who felt responsible decided to assist in this dangerous plan. Things gotten even more dangerous when it was found out that Godzilla was still alive.
So what would happen to everyone and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Before we went to see this movie, I encouraged my wife to watch the first one that was available on Netflix cause I was absolutely sure that she need to do it to understand the story. As she watched it in the morning, I thought I would just catch glimpses of the movie and provide comments when necessary since I had seen it. However I ended up watching the whole movie together with her as I was caught up in the emotion and wanted to relive my experience. Turned out I was still in awe and in fact I appreciated it better second time I saw it, while my wife was really glad to have done it as it made the feeling of seeing this sequel even grander.
This movie immediately gave us an amazing beginning which set up the dark tone from the start. Subsequently the film provided us with quite a lot of things from the existence of new horrifying threat, the drama involving the lead characters plus the terror we felt when seeing those extremely colossal attacks that destroyed villages, cities and everything in its path. And seeing this in the large cinema screen of our favorite theater accompanied by the Dolby Atmos system that was put to the maximum effect, made this such a major entertaining feat for us. Although there were comments about the very loud noise in IMAX studio, I personally did not feel it as disturbing but enjoyable instead.
The story telling was excellent and even the drama that I would normally feel to be distracting was nicely done. I believe it was because we were already attached with them from the first film. It was wonderful to see almost all of the cast from the original movie reprised their roles here, including Kuranosuke Sasaki (Team Medical Dragon TV series etc) and Yuki Yamada (Song of the Samurai TV series, Tokyo Revengers etc) as Captain Akitsu and Mizushima respectively, Sakura Ando (Shoplifters TV series etc) as Shikisima & Noriko's neighbor Sumiko & even Miou Tanaka (Demon City, Kingdom movies etc) as former Yukikaze Destroyer ship captain Hotta. In addition to them and the above names, there were also support cast in minor roles such as Jun Kunimura (The Boy and the Heron, Dream Raider TV series etc) as Dr. Ogata and several others.
This movie was still written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki (Parasyte Part 1 and 2, Always Sunset on Third Street movies etc) who as I said before, won Academy Award in Best Visual Effects for Godzilla Minus One. In this film, his works was still as magnificent as the original if not grander with the additional appearance of Ghidorah which I believe made them had to work twice harder. And again seeing this in the cinema was really worth it. It is also the first Japanese filmed for IMAX so I am very sure that watching it in IMAX studio would give an even greater experience. From what I read, it seemed that critics and audience were trully impressed. In term of Box Office, it's not clear yet if this could be better than the first movie since it's still early days, though it does look promising.
The film itself has a pretty long duration of 135 minutes (ten minutes longer than the first), including closing credits. There was no mid or post end credit scene, but if you wait till the very end, you could experience something cool. The movie had a satisfying ending, however there is definitely room for another sequel if they chose to do it (which I truly hope they would, perhaps under the title of Gozilla Plus One?). In fact, I thought Yamazaki had already plan for at least a trilogy ever since the beginning with a subtle hint that I realized after seeing the original again yesterday.
Overall this was an awesome Kaiju epic movie that should be experienced in the large screen of a cinema with great sound effects. This is a different kind of Godzilla movie from the Hollywood type as the terrifying feeling was somehow felt greater and the characters were more grounded (although the US soldiers felt a bit out of place), plus the well created 1940s setting which was wonderful to see. The story was well told with plenty of emotional moments including that final scene that was truly heartwrenching though some might felt a bit too melodramatic. Oh despite rated R in the US, it is classified for 13+ in Indonesia and even suitable for General Audience in Japan. So if you have not seen this in the cinema, then I highly recommend to do it soon. And do not forget to watch the original first in case you have not done so or just rewatch it for better appreciation just like my wife and I did.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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