Godzilla Minus Zero Is the First R-Rated Godzilla, and It Sits at 97 Percent. Critics Agree It Is Bigger Than Minus One. They Do Not Agree It Is Better.

On Saturday, September 26, the New York Film Festival did something its regulars did not see coming. It gave a Godzilla movie a world premiere at Alice Tully Hall. "I've attended this festival since 1991, and would never have imagined it would show a Godzilla movie," wrote the Boston Globe's Odie Henderson. Word from the public screening was that it brought the house down.

The movie was Godzilla Minus Zero, Takashi Yamazaki's sequel to Godzilla Minus One, which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2024 on a budget of about $15 million. Nine days later, the verdict is in: 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from its first 34 reviews, and a 77 on Metacritic, where 15 of 17 critics are positive and none are negative. It opens in US theaters on November 6. Here is what the reviews say, and where they disagree.

What Minus Zero is, and why it is rated R

It picks up in 1949, two years after Minus One. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe return as Koichi Shikishima and Noriko, now married and raising Akiko, along with most of the first film's survivors: Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sakura Ando, Hidetaka Yoshioka and Miou Tanaka. Godzilla regenerates, bigger and angrier than before, and a second monster arrives. The September 8 IMAX trailer ended on its name: King Ghidorah.

Yamazaki again writes, directs and supervises the effects. He and Stanley Kubrick remain the only directors ever to win the visual effects Oscar. The sequel runs 135 minutes, ten longer than Minus One, and it is the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX.

It is also the first Godzilla film the MPA has rated R, for violent content and bloody images. Minus One was PG-13. Henderson put the difference plainly: "People bleed in Godzilla Minus Zero."

For context, Minus One sits second on our Godzilla movies ranked list, behind only the 1954 original. Whether the sequel belongs anywhere near it is the whole argument.

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Where critics agree: the series has never looked like this

On scale, the reviews are close to unanimous. Slant's Eli Friedberg says its "multiple sequences of mass destruction thoroughly eclipse those of Minus One." IndieWire's David Ehrlich says it "features some of the most thrilling kaiju fights ever," and the Guardian's Jesse Hassenger singles out an extended climax with "some of the most majestic CG monster action put to film."

The effects talk has already turned to awards. GamesRadar+'s Molly Edwards writes that "the Best Visual Effects Oscar is surely locked in." Even the most negative review from a major outlet, Nick Schager's in the Daily Beast, concedes that Yamazaki's effects "remain top-notch" and that the film is "as deliriously deafening as any in franchise history."

A devastating and heartbreaking kaiju movie, Godzilla Minus Zero is a towering epic of destructive proportions.Robert Daniels, Screen International

Where they split: the wait, and the tone

The complaints cluster around two things. The first is patience. "The movie may keep you waiting on its monsters, but when they show up, it delivers," writes Vulture's Alison Willmore, and that is the friendly version. Schager is blunter: "Those hoping for more than a fleeting glimpse of Godzilla will have to wait, and wait, and wait." Inverse's Katie Rife agrees it is light on Godzilla, "but to be fair, a lot of Godzilla movies have this problem."

The second is tone. Minus One was a grief story with a monster in it, and several critics find the sequel stranger and louder. TheWrap's William Bibbiani calls it "noticeably sillier," Slant describes "a bewildering dance between morbid gravitas and childish abandon," and Discussing Film warns that "some viewers might be surprised by how far Yamazaki goes into science fiction here."

The politics divide them too. Polygon's Jake Kleinman praises how directly it deals with "the literal fallout of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," while Rife finds that "responsibility and accountability never really come into focus." RogerEbert.com's Clint Worthington lands where most of the middle does: it "doesn't quite reach the miraculous highs of its predecessor, but the old boy still has plenty of bite."

Toho has made this kind of sequel before

Bibbiani's sharpest point is historical. He argues the film "falls into the same trap that every sequel to a solemn Godzilla movie fell into before." The record mostly backs him up, with one big exception.

The 1954 original was followed in 1955 by Godzilla Raids Again, which gave Godzilla his first monster opponent, Anguirus. It sits 30th of 38 on our list. But when the serious 1984 reboot The Return of Godzilla got its sequel, Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) added a genetically engineered plant monster and turned out better than the film it followed. We rank it seventh, two places higher.

As for the new monster, the three-headed dragon first appeared in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964), the film where Godzilla stopped being the villain, and last fought him on screen in the MonsterVerse's Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). Our highest-ranked Ghidorah movie is 2001's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, at sixth. That is the bar.

When and how to see it

• Japan: Tuesday, November 3, from Toho, two days after a screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
• Early US IMAX shows: also November 3, which is Godzilla Day, the anniversary of the 1954 original's release. AMC, Marcus and Harkins have listed Godzilla Day IMAX early access screenings at select locations.
• US wide release: Friday, November 6, from GKIDS, including IMAX.

If you can, see it big. Next Best Picture's Dan Bayer calls it "a jaw-dropping spectacle that demands to be seen on the biggest, loudest screen possible," and Movie Recs by Lex's Lexi Amoriello says it is "the perfect film for the format." Several reviews single out the sound design, too.

The homework is light. Minus One is the only earlier Godzilla film this one connects to, and it is streaming on Netflix in the US. You can skip the other 37.

Then comes the real question: does it beat Minus One? That is a head-to-head call, which is exactly how Shortlist ranks movies. Put the two against each other on November 6, fit the rest of your favorites around them in a movie tier list, and share it with whoever sat next to you.

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