Spoilers follow for Godzilla Minus Zero.
Godzilla Minus Zero is upon us, and going by the reviews, it looks like the venerable kaiju franchise has another winner on its hands. More than 70 years after his debut, Godzilla continues to be one of the most iconic characters in cinema history. But even though Minus Zero is another strong entry for the King of the Monsters, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed that the movie continues a frustrating trend that’s plagued the last couple decades of Godzilla movies by only featuring a handful of his monster co-stars.
Specifically, King Ghidorah is the antagonist of Minus Zero, once again assuming his role as the Big G’s archenemy. Now, I love King Ghidorah, but the alien dragon takes up a lot of oxygen in Toho’s filmography, and there is a deep bench of Godzilla friends and foes who haven’t shown up in years. Let’s look into how the Godzilla franchise isn’t using its roster of monsters to their full potential.
The Usual Suspects
Although most Western audiences probably haven’t seen many of them, Toho has produced more than 30 Godzilla films since the big guy’s debut back in 1954. Godzilla may have been the sole kaiju in his first film, but starting with the sequel, Godzilla Raids Again, the first of many monster co-stars was introduced. That would be Anguirus, an ankylosaur-like kaiju who was Godzilla’s earliest adversary. Luckily, the pair made up and Anguirus became Godzilla’s most steadfast ally across the Shōwa era, consisting of the first 15 films. Many kaiju have shared the screen with Godzilla over the years, but you wouldn’t know it if you’ve only been checking out new Godzilla movies released theatrically outside Japan.
Since Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004, the only Toho kaiju to have appeared in live-action are Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla. Kong doesn’t count in this context because he was created in America by Merian C. Cooper. Now those four may be among the most popular of Godzilla’s co-stars anyway, but there are many more that new films could revisit. However, since the MonsterVerse franchise apparently has to license each Toho monster individually, they often make up their own kaiju instead, like the MUTOs in the 2014 film or Skar King in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Yet none of the new MonsterVerse kaiju have quite hit the same as the ones from the classic Toho films.
King Ghidorah’s overexposure is particularly frustrating because most uses of him are good, even if he keeps hogging the spotlight. He makes a great antithesis to the big guy in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and his Minus Zero incarnation is terrifying and awe-inspiring in equal measure. In the new film, he’s an alien who’s crash-landed in postwar Japan and started claiming the land for his own purposes — an apt metaphor for the occupying American military that hovers over the story. So we wouldn’t want director Takashi Yamazaki to have foregone Ghidorah when his appearance in Minus Zero makes sense. King Ghidorah is basically the Joker to Godzilla’s Batman: It’s awesome when they square up, but sometimes you wish they’d go with a different bad guy. It’s not like there aren’t plenty to choose from.
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