– for some violent content/bloody images.
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, Min Tanaka
Running Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Theatrical Release Date: November 6, 2026
GodzillaMinusZero
GodzillaMinusZero
Set in 1949, the Shikishima family confronts a fresh catastrophe two years after surviving their previous ordeal with the legendary monster.
(from IMDB)
In 2023, Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One stunned audiences by delivering one of the most impactful Godzilla films of its then-almost-70-year-long franchise. The movie was basically a fantastic World War II drama about a disgraced kamakaze pilot, named Koichi Shikishima, that just happened to sometimes feature a big lizard in it. It’s truly an excellent movie. Three years later, Takashi brings us its first sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero — and the franchise’s first-ever rated R film.
Given my family’s history of diehard fandom of the beast, the rating came as a big surprise to us. I still personally do not watch (unedited) R-rated films, so it became a bit of a personal conundrum when it came to figuring out if I would see it at all. Sadly, my 16-year-old son is one of the biggest Godzilla fans around, so this became an issue in our household for sure. I did extensive research leading up to the film, and then some family members screened it first to serve as guides for the rest of us before deciding if we could see it.
With that said, I did end up seeing Godzilla Minus Zero on IMAX opening week, with my son in tow. I know PG-13 films have gotten edgier over the years, and I’m more desensitized to violence than I was in, say, my late teens, so I was curious how I’d handle what Minus Zero had to offer. In short, the R rating is mostly given for a couple scenes showing bloody hospital victims, a slow-motion view of what it would look like for humans to be affected by an atomic blast, a few repeated views of charred human remains, and some added blood to the big climactic kaiju fight. All of it is easy enough to avert your eyes for (or, in my case, squint through it and focus on the subtitles), but I’d say it all probably adds up to somewhere between the PG-13 and R rating. Most of the movie does not feel like an R-rated movie to me. And even some of the kaiju gore (like blood spurting and dismemberments) could probably make it into a PG-13-rated movie. Still, if anything, the R-rating (while I have a cynical suspicion could also exist to position the film for Oscar buzz) is probably there to keep younger viewers out of the theater, as the themes throughout the film are quite heavy, especially when it comes to showing the bloody victims of Godzilla’s attacks in Minus One. (Seriously, this is not a kids movie.)
The movie itself is a fantastic follow-up to its 2023 predecessor. It does lack the impactful character arc of Koichi Shikishima that the first movie offered, but it continues these characters’ stories in a way that makes sense and is still meaningul. Like Minus One, Minus Zero acts as a drama first, with the monster action second. I loved Ryunosuke Kamiki’s performance as Shikishima the first time around, and I loved seeing him back again. Surprisingly though, Hidetaka Yoshioka’s Dr. Noda gets the spotlight shone on him this time around, positioned more as the film’s lead in a way. It’s almost more so his story this time around, even if things do still stay focused on the Shikishima family. Minami Hamabe as Noriko was an absolute delight in the first movie, and I loved seeing her get increased screentime in this one, as well. I also loved what they did to her character to explain how she survived the Ginza attack. This movie does bump up the sci-fi aspects more so this time — I suppose as expected — but Yamazaki keeps it as grounded as possible (even if some things do happen that have you seriously questioning how some characters can survive what we just witnessed unfold).
The movie rockets out of the gate with some kaiju action, but then almost grinds to a halt for much of the rest of the film. In the same way that Batman movies can sometimes focus on the villains more than Batman himself, Minus Zero spends more time focused on a new threat. I did wish there was a bit more monster action, but when the movie delivers, it really delivers. It’s intense, exciting, and often surprising — and it leaves you wanting more.
Even though I’ve seen it now, it still blows my mind that they made a rated R Godzilla movie. Godzilla Minus Zero really is R for the violence. There is some minor profanity shown in the subtitles, but it’s mostly just “d*mn” and “h*ll.” There are no uses of blasphemy, though. Most of the action violence results in characters having bloody scrapes on their heads, faces, hands and clothes, but it’s never gruesome with open wounds or exposed bone. The aforementioned hospital scene is the most graphic, however, with far more bloody visuals (which I decided not to watch closely, and I only focused on the subtitles on the screen). After we see these bloodied victims, the camera does focus on a bloodied character who is central to the story. We also see images, and two visuals, of humans who experienced mutations because of being exposed to Godzilla’s radiation and cells. As such, we see pictures of scales and spikes sticking out of human bodies. It’s not gory, but some will definitely find it disturbing. A second hospital scene, which Koichi and Noriko happen upon, shows mostly bandaged-up victims inside, but the camera lingers on a man and wife cradling their dead young son. It’s meant to impact the characters, but can also be unsettling to some viewers. The plot also involves an older survivor, Kanji Murakami, who lost his family to Godzilla’s attack in Ginza. We first see a flashback of him stumbling through the wreckage, walking past bloodied victims, until he finds the crumpled, charred remains of his family in the debris. I also chose not to fully take that visual in, but from what I saw, it looked disturbing enough. Later, we see him recall that image briefly, and then yet again once more a little later than that. At one point, we see Murakami seemingly losing his mind as he fantasizes about Godzilla traveling to New York City to attack the U.S. (he imagines it as revenge for Hiroshima). We see Godzilla firing on the city with his atomic blast and see two sets of people on the streets of NYC as the blast hits them in slow motion and they melt in the process. Again, I squinted through it, but it’s slightly more on par with the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark (with less liquidy dripping of course). Still, again, it’s disturbing (and ultimately meant to be). Finally, the climactic battle involving Godzilla and another monster (I’m more descriptive about it in the content details below, which are more spoiler-y as to who the monster is) gets pretty bloody. As the creature bites Godzilla, it rips chunks of his flesh out, with blood spurting, including one of his spikes. At one point, Godzilla ends up ripping his own arm off, with pretty bloody results, and we see a new arm grow back in its place. The climax also shows the human characters sustaining a lot of bloody injuries, but they’re all surface ones.
And there we have it… the first R-rated Godzilla movie. I know everyone has their own limits and thresholds for enduring graphic content, and mine is significantly lower than most people my age, I realize that. When all is said and done, Godzilla Minus Zero is indeed a fantastic sequel, even if (at least, after one viewing) it doesn’t quite edge out the first one in greatness. If you liked Godzilla Minus One, and can handle hospital-style injury visuals, Minus Zero is likely to be just what you’d want for a continuation of this story. Will there be a third entry? I don’t know; promotional materials for this film are saying “it all ends here,” but I’d love to see where Yamazaki could take it next… hopefully taken down a notch in intensity, though.
Sex/Nudity:
None.
Vulgarity/Language:
At least 7 “d*mn,” 5 “h*ll,” 1 “a” word, 1 “cr*p” in English subtitles.
Alcohol/Drugs:
Some smoking; A character or two may have a drink.
Blood/Gore:
Attack victims have varying amount of blood on their face and clothes; The professor recalls the Ginza attack from the first film and we see him walk past very bloody victims till he finds his family burned and charred in the ruins. We see glimpses of the charred bodies two more times in the film; A man is punched in the face and has a bloody lip. We see it for the duration of a scene; We see photographs of human mutations where spikes and scales are growing out of their skin on their back, chest, and faces; We see a hospital filled wall-to-wall with victims from the Ginza attack. Victims are covered with blood, bloody bandages and bloody clothes. We then focus on a woman lying on the floor in very bloody clothing; A woman sees a dead body on a hospital bed with a blanket over its face. Spikey mutations stick out of the victim’s chest; A living woman has a discolored eye and a small amount of spikey mutations on her shoulder at the base of her neck; We see more injured victims in a hospital, with parents cradling and crying over their dead young son; The professor fantasizes about Godzilla attacking New York City. We see Godzilla fire on the city and two groups of people melting in slow motion as in the effects of an atomic bomb explosion. Their faces and skin and clothes slowly melt with their looks of surprise; We see two necks and heads grow out of the skin of a dragon (it’s a little gross); Godzilla and Ghidorah fight in a bloody exchange. Ghidorah bites at Godzilla, ripping out one of his spikes completely with blood spurting. It bites more chunks out of him with blood spurting in the process. Godzilla then uses his tail to slice off one of the dragon heads. As it falls, it grabs onto Godzilla’s arm, biting down. His arm is already bloody with pieces missing, so he just rips off his own arm – with lots of blood – and throws it to the ground; Ghidorah steps closer to his fallen head and we see stringy flesh grow out of the neck stump of Ghidorah’s body and fuse with the decapitated head, Godzilla’s dismembered arm still inside its mouth; With lots of destruction around the monsters fighting, all of the human characters sustain bloody injuries. All of the injuries are surface and not gory, but it’s lots of blood on faces, clothes, hands, etc; A blast vaporizes a creature and we see it briefly disintegrate.
Violence:
A large dragon attacks a city and demolishes buildings, killing people; We see some TV news footage of devastation; We see a train travel through a town that has been destroyed, with lots of devastation; The professor recalls the Ginza attack from the first film and we see him walk past very bloody victims till he finds his family burned and charred in the ruins. We see glimpses of the charred bodies two more times in the film; A man is punched in the face and grabbed by the collar; We see photographs of human mutations where spikes and scales are growing out of their skin on their back, chest, and faces; We see a hospital filled wall-to-wall with victims from the Ginza attack. Victims are covered with blood, bloody bandages and bloody clothes; A woman sees a dead body on a hospital bed with a blanket over its face. Spikey mutations stick out of the victim’s chest; We see more injured victims in a different hospital, with parents cradling and crying over their dead young son; A bomb detonates over a dragon and it causes it to chase some airplanes. It tears up one plane, of which a person ejects. It then cuts the person’s parachute with its wing and the person plummets to the ground (and dies off screen); Another plane is destroyed by the dragon; The dragon uses an anti-gravity beam to raise houses and buildings into the air. We see people hanging onto their homes and screaming to be saved and then watch as the buildings crash to the ground, presumably killing everyone in them; The professor fantasizes about Godzilla attacking New York City. We see Godzilla fire on the city and two groups of people melting in slow motion as in the effects of an atomic bomb explosion. Their faces and skin and clothes slowly melt with their looks of surprise; A machine causes flocks of crows to slam into windows repeatedly (it is a little unsettling). When it’s turned off, they fly away; We see two necks and heads grow out of the skin of a dragon (it’s a little gross); Godzilla and Ghidorah fight in a bloody exchange. Ghidorah bites at Godzilla, ripping out one of his spikes completely with blood spurting. It bites more chunks out of him with blood spurting in the process. Godzilla then uses his tail to slice off one of the dragon heads. As it falls, it grabs onto Godzilla’s arm, biting down. His arm is already bloody with pieces missing, so he just rips off his own arm – with lots of blood – and throws it to the ground; Ghidorah wraps himself around Godzilla and fires a blast into his chest and then his head, causing the monster to collapse on the ground; Ghidorah steps closer to his fallen head and we see stringy flesh grow out of the neck stump of Ghidorah’s body and fuse with the decapitated head, Godzilla’s dismembered arm still inside its mouth; With lots of destruction around the monsters fighting, all of the human characters sustain bloody injuries; A blast from Ghidorah causes a car to flip, trapping the driver underneath. An explosion goes off, killing the driver and causing further destruction around the area; A blast vaporizes a creature and we see it briefly disintegrate; Military vehicles fire on a monster; A fire breaks out in a lab and we see the building on fire; We see a large plane on fire.
Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer’s opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer’s overall rating.
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