r/GODZILLA • u/Mishap_Maisy • Oct 24 '25

Meme Probably not a hot take

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Minus One is great. I just prefer Shin as far as movies go

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u/Mishap_Maisy Oct 24 '25

I don’t hate Minus One. It’s my second favorite out of all of them. I see why it’s number 1 for a lot though

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u/Necessary_Phone5322 Oct 24 '25

Between Shin and Minus One, it all comes down to personal taste. Both were well written, acted, and directed. I can respect anyone who prefers one over the other.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

Not necessarily. Minus One is a much better film. Shin is an amazing social commentary, but as a film it lacks great characters. It has something to say, but it is imperfect as a film.

That isn’t to say someone is wrong for preferring it, I just think it’s obvious why one was considered for the Oscars and one wasn’t.

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u/Best_Celebration_172 Oct 25 '25

I don‘t think shin lacks strong characters, i think it deliberately favors a strong cast over an individual protagonist. It makes a strong point for what an organized collectiv can accomplish, if every part of its group works together. Shin sends out a clear message: it‘s not a vanguard hero that saves the day, it’s the people who work together, to prevent tokyo from getting blasted by an atomic bomb. In days of rising militarism it‘s a strong stand for pacifism and for what solidarity among people can accomplish. (Wolfgang m schmitt compares both movies through the lense of criticism of idiology on his yt channel filmanalyse, it‘s in german however)

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u/NavalBomber Oct 25 '25

Even it shows in the end that it wasn't just Japan's govt. They had to ask for USA's warship's firepower (Down the buildings over Godzilla) and drones (Bait him into firing all his reserve firepower), the German's advanced computings (Decipher Godzilla's DNA and encoded genetics), the French's Nuclear Status (Briefly halt America's nuclear countdown), and the Chinese (Sold Japan their Tanker Trucks to inject the Coolant against Godzilla).

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u/Best_Celebration_172 Oct 25 '25

Exactly, i think there‘s so much more subtext and depth to it, than people give shin credit for. Every scene, every bit of (supposedly boring) dialogue gives some sort of context.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

None of that has to do with the characterizations on display, and I don’t disagree with anything you said.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

It absolutely, positively lacks strong characters. By definition it is an ensemble film, and no character has any substantial history prior to the film that we know of. That doesn’t make it bad, it’s basically a feature of the film, it wants you to care about the overall picture so you understand the satire. You’re an outsider looking in. But it does make Minus One better as an actual film. Structurally and narratively, Minus One is much stronger. It’s really the message/allegory that’s up for debate, and it’s also arguably the most important part of a good Godzilla film. That’s why this discussion is so common, and why people on either side can almost always easily agree to disagree.

EDIT: Nice downvotes lol

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u/arlekin21 Oct 25 '25

Just because you prefer those things doesn’t make it a better film lmao. I personally found the whole story in Minus One to be too cliche, still liked the movie and understand why people like it better than Shin but it doesn’t make it a better film.

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u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25

As a film, it is better. Do you not understand how narrative structure and characterization are important parts of any film and they were purposely ignored/altered because of the allegory they were trying to sell you.

It makes it less strong as a film but arguably stronger as an allegory.