There’s something to be said about a gigantic nuclear-irradiated lizard that terrorizes Tokyo with his flaming breath and big building-stomping feet.
Yep. There’s a new Godzilla movie coming this November. And it’s in IMAX – which means we can see Godzilla in actual size. Wowie.
To the average person, Godzilla films might seem like “you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” – guy in a rubber lizard suit stomps through a paper-mache version of downtown Tokyo, explosions all around, lather, rinse, repeat. And yeah, there’s that.
But Godzilla movies are a metaphor for the post-World War II generation of nuclear survival and radiation poisoning that Japan endured. The destruction and eventual rebuilding of a once proud nation, now humbled and finding their identity. And Godzilla being a manifestation of that nuclear horror that nearly destroyed an entire nation.
Of course, by the time this movie made it to America, it was re-edited with Raymond Burr as a reporter who chronicles the monster’s attacks. But it’s still as powerful in English as it was in the original Japanese.
Eventually Godzilla became a series of Japanese monster movies, collectively known as the “Showa” Godzilla series. Godzilla would fight other monsters like Mothra and Rodan and King Ghidorah.
Heck, in 1963, Godzilla actually went one on one with King Kong.
Of course, there were some – shall we say – offshoots. The 1979 NBC Saturday morning cartoon was a bit of a stretch – it was a typical Hanna-Barbera action show with human characters and a super-deformed cutesy sidekick named Gadzooky. Ugh.
Besides, if I want my Godzilla animated, this will work just fine for me.
In recent years, however, Godzilla has returned to his more terror-based roots. A series of US-based Godzilla films have him battling (and working with) King Kong, which are okay at best.
But the real cream of the crop have been the new “Minus” Godzilla films. The first, in 2023, was called Godzilla Minus One, in that after World War II, Japan lost everything – they went from a culture of zero to a culture of minus. Hence the name.
And the special effects in this film are incredible. No more big man in a rubber suit in these films. Trust me. These special effects actually earned an Academy Award, the first one ever for a Godzilla film.
And just recently … the new trailer for the 2026 film Godzilla Minus Zero dropped.
Holy shit. Here’s another one.
Son of a …
And it’s in IMAX??
God freakin’ damn. I need to see this. For sure.
