This Was The Best Monster Movie Of 2023

Godzilla Minus One is fantastic. You probably already know this, but more than a year after its initial release towards the end of 2023, it deserves to be repeated. It’s fantastic.

There have been good, even great, Godzilla movies before. Plenty of them. But few can match the pure emotion and deeply-layered meaning woven throughout the story of G-1.0.

Set in Japan just after World War II, Godzilla Minus One follows a kamikaze pilot named Koichi Shikishima who chooses to defy orders and live. Wracked with survivor’s guilt as he attempts to reintegrate into a devastated post-war Japan, Koichi forms a new family unit with others whose lives were forever altered by war.

Meanwhile, the monster called Godzilla tears its way through Japan, further terrorizing the Japanese people. For Koichi, the fight against the irradiated creature will finally give him something worth dying for.

If you’ve never shed a tear during a Godzilla movie in the past, Godzilla Minus One is the movie that could finally do it for you.

That’s the kind of thing that makes Godzilla, as a character and as a franchise, so great. Looking back at the history of Godzilla, fans have such a wide variety of movies to love. From dramatic, to funny, to exciting, to ridiculous, it’s all there, and it all works.

A new Godzilla movie from the team behind Minus One is already in the works, but it would be great if the success of this modern incarnation of Godzilla could lead to a renaissance of giant monsters on the silver screen. The more the better, because Godzilla Minus One proves that any story can be told through the lens of a monster movie. It also proves that Godzilla will always be the king of the monsters.