Godzilla Minus One [Media Notes 127 A] {opsis & vibe}

Godzilla Minus One is the 37th film in the Godzilla franchise, which is, I believe the longest running franchise in film. I’ve seen, perhaps, a half dozen of them, maybe one or three more. The worst were really bad. Most that I’ve seen were run-of-the-pond kaiju films, or better. This is the best one I’ve seen since the original Gojira, from 1954, which was quite good, haunting. The special effects in the original were terrible, but the film itself rose well above that. The effects in Godzilla Minus One are very good, though not quite state of the art. But who cares?

Actually, that’s a serious question, and a tricky one at that. Opsis, spectacle, is one of the six categories Aristotle set forth for thinking about tragedy in his Poetics. If the original Godzilla film was excellent, despite having cheesy special effects, and having excellent effects is not sufficient to elevate the most recent films to the level of the original, then how important can opsis be? One obvious response is that there is more to spectacle than special effects.

There’s vibe as well. That’s where the original is so effective, in Godzilla Minus One as well the original Gojira. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that this is the only Godzilla film I’ve seen that captures the vibe of the original, and that that’s an accomplishment of high artistry. Here I talk of vibe in the sense that Peli Grietzer develops, the total Gestalt, everything all included, plot, setting, action, acting, the whole shebang.

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Here's an interesting video about visual effects in Godzilla Minus One:

From the YouTube page:

It only took 70 years, but Godzilla has finally gone home with the gold. Godzilla Minus One made history at the 96th Academy Awards, securing the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, a first-time win for the Godzilla franchise. Given how important Godzilla has been to nearly a century of international film, it’s a long overdue accolade that couldn’t have gone to a more deserving entry. Minus One isn’t just a great movie, but a prime showcase of director Takashi Yamazaki’s strong artistic vision and proof that Godzilla’s ability to change with the times is unparalleled among film characters.

But there is another lesson that Hollywood should take away from Godzilla Minus One’s landmark achievement. How did a movie with a small VFX team of 35 artists and a frugal budget of $15 million show up the entire Hollywood blockbuster apparatus? Part of the answer lies in the film’s leaning into a distinctly 1990s way of depicting CG effects.

More so than resources or manpower, I would contend that the issue ultimately comes down to attitude, and how Hollywood has spent the past couple of decades denigrating the entire field of visual effects artistry. What was once a brand new field of exciting technology that was supposed to expand what was possible within the medium by a wide margin has instead spent much of the 21st century being treated like a laborious obligation that many filmmakers and audiences wish would go away.

Addendum: I discuss other aspects of the film in a new post: Godzilla Minus One [Media Notes 127 B] [has a heart ♥︎].