Godzilla Minus Zero begins with a bang — or, more accurately, a rumble. Following a few thundering brass notes that sound like footsteps, Takashi Yamazaki’s followup to Godzilla Minus One opens with a scene of destruction, as the citizens of Matsumoto City — the director’s hometown, and a significant setting in Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster (1964) — run in terror from an unseen, but very large, threat.Soon, the source of all that flying rubble reveals itself: A dragon-like kaiju with lightning in its breath and a long tail that whips around like a flail. Two scientists, Professor Murakami (Min Tanaka) and his assistant, film the destruction, barely escaping with their lives. They bring the footage to Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a.k.a. “Doc,” now the head of a government task force his old colleagues jokingly refer to as “the monster-hunting business.” After viewing the film, Noda gives the creature a name: Ghidorah.Although he’s introduced here in a smaller, single-headed form, Godzilla’s greatest foe is an appropriate antagonist for Minus Zero, which aims to be bigger, better, and (especially) louder than its predecessor. The unprecedented success of Godzilla Minus One put a lot of pressure on Yamazaki — who, along with writing and directing, supervised the film’s VFX — and his team to outdo their own Oscar-winning VFX work. And they have succeeded, as Godzilla Minus Zero is a triumph of special effects.Ironically, Godzilla Minus Zero could have used more Godzilla. | GKIDSClear, extended looks at the film’s monsters begin early and continue throughout, with an emphasis on tactile texture and animalistic movement. Even when these scaly titans are tangled up in combat, the action is still legible, and the kaijus’ abilities are expanded up here in exciting and awe-inspiring ways. Godzilla also bleeds in Minus Zero in a way he hasn’t for decades, combining realistic gore with sci-fi regenerative abilities to earn the movie its “R” rating.It’s not just the kaiju action that’s bloodier here, though. Minus Zero delves into the connection between Godzilla and the atomic bomb more explicitly than its predecessor, including a full-color callback to a famous scene in the 1954 original set in a hospital ward overflowing with Godzilla attack victims. At one point, Yamazaki dispenses with metaphor altogether, depicting charred corpses lying in piles of rubble in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. Occupying American forces offering “help” to Noda and his associates and fighter pilots desperate to feed their families further underline the postwar chaos, demonstrating that while we’re no longer “Minus One,” we’re not quite back to zero yet, either.At least things are going well for Koichi Shikishima (Ryonosuke Kamiki) and Noriko (Minami Hanabe), who’s now taken Shikishima’s last name as his lawfully wedded wife. Together, they’ve managed to overcome their fears and build a life together as a family, raising young Akiko (Sae Nagatani, now six years old and reprising her role from Minus One) in the most stable environment possible. But Akiko remembers what happened two years ago when Godzilla came to Ginza: At one point, she overhears the adults discussing Ghidorah’s rampage and bursts into hysterical, terrified tears. Her parents remember, too, and the decisions that Noriko and Koichi make in this film are influenced by that trauma, although their character arcs aren’t as legible here as in Minus One. Some Heisei-era hocus-pocus comes into play, as does an emphasis on mutations through the character of Murakami, a biologist studying Godzilla cell regeneration. But it’s another new character, meteorologist Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa), who adds the film’s most exciting element, harnessing the power of thunder and lightning to combat Ghidorah’s bio-electric powers.Noda is now in charge of a department made for “monster-hunting.” | GKIDSAoyama is the driving force behind the film’s most electrifying (pun intended) sequence, a mission that sees Shikishima flying over the fields of Nagano Prefecture with Ghidorah in pursuit and Noda and Aoyama watching from the ground. Tense and well-executed, it’s a masterclass in creature action, almost outdoing the kaiju throw-down at the movie’s climax. Combined with Naoki Sato’s excellent, evocative score, as well as some creative camerawork that puts viewers in the middle of the action, Minus Zero lives up to its predecessor as a world-class blockbuster spectacle. Godzilla Minus Zero lacks the clarity of purpose of Minus One, however. (It’s also light on Godzilla, but to be fair, a lot of Godzilla movies have this problem.) Thematically, this movie is all over the place: Responsibility and accountability are recurring motifs, but neither of them really ever come into focus, despite Yamazaki telegraphing them every chance he gets. Instead, the director leans heavily on hanky-soaking sentiment, much of it involving Shikishima and his newfound family. But although these scenes drag in comparison to the monster action, the melodrama is just one element of this big, ambitious movie. And although the human elements aren’t as cohesive as they were in Minus One, Godzilla Minus Zero is a worthy followup. Godzilla Minus Zero premiered at this year’s New York Film Festival. It opens in Japan on November 3, and in North America on November 6.