Godzilla Minus One just hit another milestone by securing the top rating on review aggregator platform Rotten Tomatoes.
The 33rd entry in Toho Studios’ Godzilla canon, Minus One premiered in Japan on November 3. It made its international debut a few weeks later, on December 1.
Critics have overwhelmingly embraced the film, which is both a franchise reboot and quasi-remake of Toho’s original 1954 Godzilla movie.
As a result, Godzilla Minus One maintained a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score for the better part of a month, until a handful of negative reviews knocked it from its perfect pedestal.
Godzilla Minus One is finally Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes
The kaiju blockbuster didn’t fall far, though. As of this writing, Godzilla Minus One’s Rotten Tomatoes critic score is an impressive 96% from 85 reviews. What’s more, the creature feature has now banked enough positive feedback to qualify for the platform’s coveted “Certified Fresh” rating.
In our review, we called it a “lovingly crafted, thoughtful blockbuster that should appeal to purists and casual viewers alike.”
A recurring theme among the 85 reviews rounded up by Rotten Tomatoes is how effectively Godzilla Minus One balances its jaw-dropping set pieces with street-level emotion.
Variety‘s Richard Kuipers was among those impressed by this aspect of the movie, opining that “Takashi Yamazaki’s reboot gets back to basics in grand style, with engrossing human drama alongside spectacular mass destruction.”
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The San Francisco Chronicle‘s Bob Strauss felt the same. “It’s only taken 69 years, but there’s finally a Godzilla movie with compelling human interest,” he wrote.
Inverse‘s Eric Francisco was even more impressed than Kuipers and Strauss, proclaiming Toho’s latest Godzilla outing “one of the finest movies of the kaiju genre ever put to screen since Ishiro Honda’s Gojira kicked off the franchise in 1954.”
“It’s an artfully made throwback to kaiju classics and likely the first Godzilla movie that dares to make you cry,” echoed Rolling Stone‘s Christopher Cruz. “See it on the biggest screen possible.”
Godzilla Minus One sinks its teeth into the US box office
It’s not just professional pundits praising Godzilla Minus One, either. The flick boasts a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 98%, too.
This popularity is reflected by Godzilla Minus One’s opening weekend box office in the UK, which was the biggest debut for a foreign-language live-action title since 2002’s Hero.
Godzilla Minus One is in cinemas now. For all the latest Godzilla content, check out Dexerto’s full coverage here.