‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Rotten Tomatoes Score Takes a Notable Turn as Reviews Pile Up

When ‘Godzilla Minus One’ arrived in 2023, it rewrote the rulebook for what a monster movie could be. The sequel’s predecessor was highly acclaimed, internationally successful and Oscar-winning, and it still holds a 99% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes from over 200 critics. That is an almost impossible act to follow.

Expectations for the follow-up have been enormous ever since. Takashi Yamazaki’s sequel debuted on Rotten Tomatoes at 94% with 18 verdicts counted, and a later snapshot put it at 96% across 24 reviews. GamesRadar noted that if that score held, it would rank as the second most critically acclaimed Godzilla movie on the site, behind ‘Minus One’ and ahead of the 1954 original.

Now the numbers have shifted. On Nov. 5, Rotten Tomatoes announced that ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ is Certified Fresh at 89% on the Tomatometer, based on 84 reviews. It is still a strong result by any measure, but it sits several points below those early readings as more critics weigh in.

That drop makes sense once you read the actual reviews. Rotten Tomatoes’ own round-up of first reactions was headlined ‘Bigger, Bolder, and Somehow More Visually Impressive than Minus One’, so the spectacle is clearly landing. Not everyone is fully sold on the story, though.

Slant Magazine called the film full of excitement and grandeur but noticeably sillier than its predecessor. TheWrap’s critic argued that it lacks the clarity of purpose of ‘Minus One’ and that the human elements are less cohesive. Those mixed notes are the kind of thing that can pull a score down from the mid-90s.

The sequel is also swinging bigger on a technical and tonal level. It is the first Japanese production filmed entirely in Japan for IMAX, and it runs 135 minutes. It also earned an R rating from the MPA for some violent content and bloody images, making it the first Godzilla movie to receive that classification, while ‘Minus One’ was rated PG-13.

Yamazaki has been upfront about that choice. Speaking to Variety, he said it was encouraging to see other films that had “found a lot of success with the R-rating at the box office.” Elsewhere, he insisted he refused to cut key scenes to secure a lower classification.

The cast is a mix of the familiar and the new. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe return, joined by newcomers including Masami Nagasawa and Min Tanaka. The film picks up the Shikishima story in 1949, continuing directly from where the previous movie left off.

The film’s journey to audiences has been staggered. It made its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 26 before opening in Japan on Nov. 3, which is Godzilla Day. GKIDS releases it in North American theaters on Nov. 6, so this score will keep moving as ticket buyers and more critics weigh in.

For longtime fans, an 89% Certified Fresh badge is hardly a disappointment. Very few franchise installments ever reach that tier, and a sequel to a 99% film was always going to face brutal comparisons. The real test begins once general audiences, not just critics, get to decide whether the king’s return lives up to the hype.