Godzilla Minus Zero has landed a near-perfect initial score on Rotten Tomatoes after the first wave of reviews from its New York Film Festival premiere.
The follow-up to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One had its world premiere over the weekend, with the film's current 'Tomatometer' rating settling at 95 per cent (albeit, that's subject to change in the days and weeks ahead).
Already, vigilant fans have seen the score climb up through the low 90s as more reviews were counted, with the upwards trajectory boosting already considerable hype for the monster sequel.
The consensus is that Yamazaki has delivered a bigger, bolder film, with several critics judging its visual effects a clear upgrade on the Oscar-winning work of its predecessor, even as a number argue it falls slightly short of Minus One's emotional clarity.
Writing for Polygon, critic Jake Kleinman praised the way the sequel "grapples directly with the literal fallout of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki", calling it "the right kind of doubling down".
However, not everyone was won over. The Daily Beast's Nick Schager felt the film "roars with thunderous majesty" only rarely, describing it as a "wannabe-epic monster mash", while several reviews noted the sequel leans heavily on the structure of the original.
Even with a small number of detractors, the broader picture remains positive, with RT's rival review aggregator Metacritic noting "generally favourable reviews". At the time of writing, Godzilla Minus Zero has an average score of 79/100 – just two points down from the previous entry.
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Godzilla Minus Zero picks up in 1949, two years after the events of Godzilla Minus One, and continues the story of the Shikishima family as they face a fresh calamity.
The film is the first Japanese production shot for IMAX, a point picked up by several NYFF critics who urged audiences to seek out the largest screen possible.
It also carries an R rating in the US, meaning it's 'restricted' to older audiences, which marks a first for the recent Toho Godzilla films. Yamazaki has publicly defended the move.
"There were certain scenes that, for me as a director, were so essential to the film. Censoring it or cutting it was just not an option for me," he explained (via International Business Times).
Godzilla Minus Zero is in UK cinemas on Friday 6 November 2026.
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