Godzilla Minus Zero review: Badass monster sequel is sensational

Running time: 135 minutes.Rated R (some violent content and bloody images).

In Japanese with subtitles.In theaters Nov.

6.The awesome “Godzilla Minus Zero,” which had its world premiere Saturday night at the New York Film Festival, embraces the principle that has guided this franchise for seven decades: The ‘zilla you know beats the Ghidora you don’t.In the latest thrilling addition to the “Minus” saga, as has long been the case, Godzilla goes from deadly destroyer to humanity’s last best hope to defeat an even worse foe — King Ghidora.Yet “Zero” is not the typical “vs.” venture we’ve seen so many, many times before.The Japanese film delves into places both familiar and previously unexplored in this series.

Instead of one long, CGI-heavy death match, the plotting is twisty, smart and unpredictable.And, as in “Godzilla Minus One,” the human beings are somehow as engaging as the skyscraper-sized angry dinosaurs.

What a thought! It’s been more than 20 years since Japan’s Toho pitted two giant beasts against each other onscreen.American studio Legendary Entertainment, which licenses characters from Toho for their IQ-lowering “Monsterverse,” delivered one more recently in 2024 with the dumb-as-rocks “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” “Zero” has come to wipe that sorry schlock from your memory.   The truth is, Japan just does Godzilla better.

Especially this series’ director, writer and special effects designer Takashi Yamazaki. His sequel picks up close to where the last one left off.In 1949, two years after Godzilla laid waste to Japan, kamikaze pilot Koichi (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and his wife Noriko (Minami Hamabe) are pretty, pretty sure he’s extinct.But you know the old saying: When one door closes, a three-headed dragon awakens.

Something like that.A frightening winged creature with a possible connection to outer space arrives, and scientists call the flapping menace Ghidora. Back from the last flick, Disast...