I thought it was a great movie.

I watched it in a theater and thought it was by far the best Godzilla movie ever made.  Like comparing Star Wars to Star Crash

What made the movie for me was the attention to the subtle details that most of the audience would never notice.  My mother was there living in post-war Japan, and everything she described matched what was seen on screen - well except for the big radioactive monster.

The Shinden was gorgeous; I caught my eyes fondling the aircraft when it was revealed.  They even kept the cockpit roll cage, which would have interfered with the Heinkel ejector seat.  Most of the audience probably thought the Shinden was some Marvel MCU multiverse BS, but it and the ejector seat actually existed.

Although I am no ship modeler, one of my friends is a near-fanatical 1/700 IJN ship builder, and the ships in the movie passed his inspection.  He had photographic evidence of the English ship names painted on the sides, although we noted the font and spacing of the letters were slightly off.

And finally, the story and characters.  The way the narravive played out made me geniuinely care about what happened to the people.  When the main chararacter was bearing down on Godzilla, the tension felt like watching Luke on his bombing run back in 1977.

Godzilla Minus One is NOT your grand dad's kaiju flick.

I missed this when it was in theaters, but finally watched it last night at home. Damn good movie!

SPOILERish: scroll down to see

for those that have watched google godzilla neck theory

Yeah, it's a fantastic movie! Probably my favorite Gojira/Godzilla movie at this point. 

The original Godzilla 1956 was pretty serious as well. There Godzilla is a physical represantion of the A-bomb and the terror and ruin it brought. I like Minus-One better though, Godzilla here represents the pain, suffering, and ruin brought by the war in general. 

I've heard a lot of good word for Shin Godzilla as a great film. But I've got it on Blu-Ray and well, I was kinda unimpressed. It's another serious film about Godzilla invading Japan in modern times but to me it's too much 'hot bureaucratic wrangling' as one guy put it. Minus One I loved for it's ground level view of the little people hit by the crisis unlike Shin's view of a bunch of politicians and government people arguing about what to do. 

Gamera

...

Minus One I loved for it's ground level view of the little people hit by the crisis unlike Shin's view of a bunch of politicians and government people arguing about what to do. 

 

Totally agree, the movie was more character centered less Godzilla centered.

Also - keavdog
Very Interesting, seems the theory has been confirmed. I knew a sequel was planned so it will likely play into it. Though I’m not sure I'll like any sequel anywhere near as much as G -1. As Real G said, G -1 has so many cool historical details right and were woven  into the story so well, that it really resonated with me where other Godzilla films hadn't. (I too was very happy to see the Shinden!) I do feel invested enough in this iteration of the franchise and characters, that I'll at least watch the next installment.

Glad I’m not the only one who really enjoyed this movie and apparently for much the same reasons.

Nope, your not the only one...

  Best Gozilla film yet. 

     They sure tried to keep to Histrical accuracy, in as much as it's a Godzilla film.  Loved their choice of ships.  ( Yeah, those 4 DD's and 1 CA were the last of the old IJN surface Navy.)

It's a Monster movie, a war movie, a love story, and a bit of WW2 History thrown in. Gotta love it. in. 

Watched it twice! 

( Was that a real Shindin?)

      Nino

That was not a real Shinden, but a damned good reproduction.  I wonder if the folks at Zoukei Mura provided the data they collected from the actual aircraft stored at Silver Hill?  It didn't have the "training wheels" fitted to the real Shinden though.  But they seemed to have gotten everything else perfect!  I wonder where the movie prop is now?  Hopefully it wil be preserved in a museum.

And to think they did it all for 12-15 milllion bucks.  Lotsa comments asking why US movies regularly cost 200 million.

Hell yes, Godzilla-1.0 was a fantastic surprise. I loved the blend of sci-fi elements with the historical backdrop of WWII. It felt like watching a completely different kind of Godzilla movie, even grittier and more emotional.

I'm a life-long Godzilla fan.  Godzilla versus the Smog Monster may very well have been the first movie I ever saw in a theater (might have been Disney's Robin Hood, but 55 years have passed, my memory isn't that great).

These movies started as serious allegory but pretty quickly devolved into campy low-budget sci-fi.  Godzilla Minus One is literally the best Japanese Godzilla production ever made.  It did something that no other Godzilla movie has ever done:  it made one feel some level of actual concern for its human characters.  Most of the time you just want Godzilla to stomp all those annoying people.  But setting this in the immediate post-war years, where we got to see what I think is a great representation of what the Japanese people had to live in after all the Allied bombing they endured, gave the movie a reality that no movie featuring a giant, radioactive monster should ever be allowed to have.

This Godzilla is actually scary (well, I mean, to a point).  I got some Jaws vibes when Godzilla chases the boat.

I love that the movie starts with an A6M5 and ends with a J7W Shinden.

Aggieman,

Godzilla vs the Smog Monster was also my first Godzilla movie.  I was really young and did not remember the disjointed editing (go-go dance party anybody?), but the fight scenes had that scary monster movie feel that was pretty thrilling.  Well at least to a 7 year old kid!

But yeah,  Godzilla Minus One is THE king of Godzilla movies.

Thanks,I'm good.